Bringing innovation to a large and bureaucratic organization
Thanks to Stanford alum Ben Rudolph for inviting me to be part of a panel discussion (Feb 3 2014) on how to bring more innovation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And thanks to everyone at UNHCR for your important work to make the lives of refugees better. These are some of the questions discussed:
After seeing the IDEO shopping cart video, IDEO makes going through the Innovation process easy and simple. In some ways though, innovating on a shopping cart is the ideal situation. In the beginning, IDEO goes through a phase of understanding their target user, ie the shopper. I’m interesting in hearing your experiences in understanding the user in situations where it might be more difficult than going to the nearest shopping mart. What challenges have you run into? How have you solved them?
- It is important to spend as much time as possible with your user. If you cannot spend time with them in their environment, find a local contact you can interact with on a more regular basis.
- Culture plays a big part in the design process. Be ever conscious of cultural differences and seek to learn and understand more – this will help in the interview process as well as in prototyping. You may find the amazing color you just added to your prototype has a negative connotation in another culture.
Understanding the user is only half the battle. How do you iterate on your idea once you have it? Sometimes testing it on the community isn’t an option, how do you adapt for this?
- Having a close connection (partner) in-country can help with prototyping and iterating. Find a time to talk regularly and share the latest ideas.
- A local connection can be a big help as well and is often easier to connect with than somebody across the world.
Rapid prototyping can be difficult if the idea isn’t easily prototypable (such as ideas or systems, rather than products). What if any suggestions do you have for prototyping these harder, less tangible ideas?
- Sometimes you can break your system into testable segments. Testing segments separately allows you to identify problem areas and refine adjustments.
- Use sketches, physical mock-ups or analogous situations to prototype and observe. Is there another business or situation that in similar in function to the situation or problem you are examining?
Failure is a big part of succeeding. How do you tell when an innovation has failed? When do you scratch it and go back to the drawing board?
- Innovation is creating value by finding a new solution to a problem…I would not say innovation has failed, maybe your prototype needs iteration until you find the innovative solution.
- Do not get personally attached to your prototypes. You should be able to break them down, rearrange them, throw them out if need be. Listen to your users – if they think it won’t work, iterate, pivot…be flexible.
- Sometimes a project runs out of resources. If you don’t have money, time or expertise to find a solution, maybe it is time to scrap the project.
- If you are constantly running into walls, maybe you need to redefine the need of your user, or redefine your user.
The man in the video speaks about hierarchy being inheritantly opposed to innovation. However, it’s not always an option for us to ditch bureaucracy. What are some tips to help mitigate bureaucracy or work with bureaucracy to foster innovation?
- Bring in fresh ideas from the outside – an expert in the field.
- Take small steps toward innovation. Do you see small problems in your daily work that could use a new solution?
- Set up a post-it board where employees can post small problems they run into each day. Over time you can categorize the post-its and look for general trends. Use the trends to identify areas of greatest need.
- Make your work environment more interesting, hold meetings outside, post pictures of your users.
- Use simple language to describe the design process. Often times cultural plays a big part in whether an employee can grasp the creative design process. Working across cultures and locations is a challenge – be mindful of personal preferences and learning/working styles. If somebody has grown up in a very rote learning environment, it will take more time for them to understand and be able to participate in a more creative environment.
Lots of us have don’t always have the ability to fully implement the innovation process within our unit. How can we bring the innovation process to our work in little ways?
- Listen, listen, listen…to your user, to your teammates, to your coworkers.
- Be open to new ideas, don’t automatically judge every new idea.
- Find ways to stay connected to the people you serve, put up photos of your users.
What are some caveats to innovation process that we aren’t always aware of?
- Fostering an enabling environment is not easy or cheap.
- Not all teams work well together, be mindful of communication and work styles. Form voluntary teams.
- Multifunctional teams are necessary to get many different perspectives.
- Knowing how and when to help your employees is a key to being a good manager. Make resources available when/where needed to move the process along.
- Find connections to experts and seek their feedback.
- Getting an outside opinion can enhance your solution and quicken your pace.
- Cultural barriers within teams as well as between teams and users can hinder creativity as well as solutions that users will actually use.
- It takes time to innovate. Make time available to think, brainstorm, prototype and iterate.
- Setting a deadline with regular milestones help move the project along.
karihanson 