[Review] Innovation You

I just finished Jeff DeGraff's book, "Innovation You: Four Steps to Becoming New and Improved," and I really enjoyed it.  I'd heard about DeGraff before  -- that he had good techniques to help people come up with creative solutions to life's challenges -- and I've learned a lot more about him through this well-written book.

In "Innovation You," DeGraff provides some very practical advice for how to approach problems and go beyond your "default" approach for innovation. The notion is that we all have preferred ways of handling various situations, but that we don't always do well at adapting our approach to better fit the situation.  The result? We stay in our comfort zone too long, while our situation fails to improve.

Why do we do this?  I think it's mostly habit and fear of trying the unfamiliar.  As DeGraff says so well, "To grow requires that we temporarily suspend our need for certainty and control."

Four zones - where's your comfort?

At the heart of this book is a model that DeGraff uses to articulate the most common approaches to innovation and problem-solving.  The model is known as the "Innovation You Model," which is what is represented by  the 4-color circle inside the letter 'o' on the cover (at right).  Each of the pie slices represents a different approach or bias for solving problems or pursuing innovation:

• Yellow is "Collaborate," which means you are most likely to team up with (or tap into) others as a default method for solving problems.
• Green is "Create", which means you are most likely to try to create your own new and innovative solutions to a problem.
• Blue is "Compete," which means you have a need to 'win' and are going to try to find a tangible goal within the problem space and doggedly pursue it.
• Red is "Control," which means you'll collect the facts, figure out the rules, and be very systematic in solving the problem.

if you're like me, you can easily figure out which one of these is your dominant approach, which ones you can use effectively, and which one you have the most trouble applying (green is my favorite, I'm good at yellow, I am handy with red in a crisis, and blue is my least natural position).

Throughout the book, DeGraff uses interesting and relevant stories to share how these approaches can be used to solve problems.  This includes some analysis techniques & tools you can use to try to figure out the best innovation approach to use, or diagnose why your current approach isn't working.

It, we, or I?

Another model used in the book is one that DeGraff describes as a sort of 3-layer Russian nesting doll.

• The outermost layer is the "universal" layer, or the "it" layer.  Things at this layer sort of happen to us and are not really within our direct control. Think natural phenomena, market forces, etc.
• The middle layer in is the "communal" layer, or the "we" layer.  Things at this layer involve our relationships with others, whether at work, in clubs, churches, and our family.
• The innermost layer is the "personal," or the "I" layer.  This is the layer that defines us as people - our values, health, intelligence, motivations, etc.

The interesting notion here isn't that we need to "pick a layer" when we solve problems or try to innovate - it's that we need to "consider other layers."  In other words, trying to find solutions that work on multiple layers - not just solve for a local optima at a single layer.

Again, DeGraff provides some great examples and stories (I think of them as mini case studies) to help you internalize what this really means.

Become new and improved, a step at a time

This book is an easy read - the concepts are straight-forward, the chapters are short, and the stories are engaging.  I think the thingI like most about "Innovation You" is that it is both prescriptive and practical.

This book would be a great gift if you know someone who feels stuck or overwhelmed by a difficult problem.  One line I liked from the book: "Where is the pain so high that trying something new would be an improvement?" - if that hits the mark, get them a copy of this book!

It is also the sort of book that would be great for a book study group, particularly if you wanted to go through the book with an intact team (at work, in an organization, etc.) that needs to work together to solve problems.

What can you change - yourself or others?

Just reading a thoughtful post on Management Craft, in which Lisa Haneberg raises two points:

1. You cannot expect people to be what you aren't.

2. You cannot expect your employees to think or act like you.

Interesting to think about, eh?  How does this match up with the notion that you should surround yourself with people who are weak in your areas of strength? It aligns very well, I think.

One of the temptations I fight is trying to get people to do what I would do in a given situation when, in fact, I may be asking them to fight their nature.  If I let them use their strengths instead of mimicking mine, maybe they'll come up with something awesome that I'd never have dreamed up on my own.

It seems to me that the finesse of managers is to stick to advising and steering our employees on the "how" instead of the "what."  In other words, letting people come up with their own solutions but providing guidance on the best ways to get the idea implemented in light of politics, personalities, and preconceived notions they may have to overcome to be sucessful.

What do you think?

"You - call 911!"

In times of great change, as in times of crisis, leaders sometimes need to jump into "directive" mode.

That's what I realized during some chatting today with fellow managers.  You see, we were talking about how managers and leaders can be more effective in times of change and uncertainty, as part of a discussion about 'situational leadership' and we reckoned that even experienced employees often welcome specific, unambiguous direction in times of crisis.  This is sometimes difficult for managers with experienced teams, as we often think the best thing is just to stay out of their way because they'll figure it out quickly enough.  In reality, even experienced employees can stall out and panic during these times of great change.

This rang true for me, and reminded me of my first aid / emergency medical training.  In that training, they tell you that when someone is having a medical emergency, one of the worst things you can do is trust / hope that 'someone' will do the right thing.  In medical emergencies, they tell you to take charge, look at a specific person and say to them, "You - call 911!" so you don't have to leave things to chance.  In other words, give a specific person a specific thing to do so they can focus on what's required of them.

In times of organizational upheaval or uncertainty, the same principle holds true.  Rather than hope that everyone gets back to work and figures out what to do next, many people look to company leaders to jump into "take charge" mode and start giving specific instructions.  "You - go work on x, and get it done by the end of the week."  This gets people working again, gets them focused, and takes their mind off the chaos.

I've been in uncertain and rapidly changing situations quite a bit in my life, and there are a lot of changes going on in my world right now.  Maybe it's time for me to be more directive to get people focused and moving forward.  What about you?  Any of this sound familiar?  Share your thoughts, please.

Team up - business lessons learned from volleyball

I was watching one of my daughter's volleyball tournaments this weekend and I made a few observations that I think will apply to our work teams:

• Know (and play) your position:  In volleyball,  everyone expects that their teammates will play their position and know where they should be on the court.  When this doesn't happen, it results in a lot of dropped balls.  The same is true in our work teams - people expect you to know your position and not drop any of the balls you're responsible for.
• Talk to each other:  One of the key attributes of a successful volleyball team is that they are constantly talking to each other on the court.  If there is any doubt who should grab a ball, one of the players yells, "Mine!" and everyone else on the team backs off and lets them handle it.  At work, if there is any doubt about who owns what, someone needs to overtly take responsibility for the commitment in question and everyone else needs to back off and let them handle it.
• Celebrate the "aces":  When the server on the volleyball team serves the ball and the other team is unable to return it, the "ace" gets celebrated immediately.  And not just by the players on the field - the ones on the bench celebrate, too.  In our work teams, we should recognize wins as they happen and everyone on the team should have the chance to celebrate - even if they weren't directly involved in the win.
• Reassure and support each other:  When someone screws up, let them know it's OK and move on to the next point (if it's appropriate, tell them what they could've done differently in a constructive way).  In our work teams, the same concepts apply - remember, it shouldn't be personal - it should be about how to recover and learn from mistakes.
• Ask for help when you need it:  On a volleyball team, the setter works really hard - they have to move all over the court and their job is to set up the ball so the "hitters" can make a big play and get a point.  However, sometimes, they just can't get to the ball in time.  The moment they notice that this is the case, a good setter yells, "Help!" or something similar, signaling to their teammates that they need someone to cover their responsibility.  In a team, this kind of behavior is also necessary.  The moment you realize you can't meet your commitment, you need to ask for help - it's much better than a dropped ball with no warning.
• Don't let your attitude wreck the team's attitude:  I've seen huge performance variations between one game and the next in volleyball.  The pivotal difference is often the attitude or confidence of one or two girls on the team - if they are "on," they bring the team up; if they are "off," they bring the team down.  In work teams, never underestimate the impact your attitude and confidence have on the others on your team.  Don't let your negative outlook spoil the team's chances for success.

These are just some of the parallels I drew from watching volleyball.  Hopefully, they will get your juices flowing and help you be a better contributor to your team.

Bare Knuckle People Management

I got an early copy of "Bare Knuckle People Management," this week from one of the authors, Sean O'Neil. Sean, along with co-author John Kulisek, have created a fantastic resource for managers.  I started reading it on a cross-county flight this morning and couldn't put it down.

The subtitle of the book is "Creating success with the team you have - winners, losers, misfits, and all."  Their focus is to help you identify the traits, strengths, weaknesses, etc. of the folks on your team and then come up with individualized management / coaching approaches that map to each person's strengths and weaknesses.

The book is written in a very direct, "in your face" style that is clearly rooted in real-world experience.  What do I mean?

What's your Cast of Characters?

The authors discuss people in terms of 16 "Character Profiles" that I clearly recognize from people I've worked with.  For example, one of the "people types" they talk about is "Needy Ned," described as follows:

"Although he has the tools it takes to make the starting lineup, Needy Ned's anxiety and constant need for approval and assistance keep him on the bench.  He has an insatiable appetite for your attention, is afraid of everything, and requires kid glove treatment in order to avoid a display of tears.  If you can manage his anxiety and resist the urge to kill, perhaps you could boost his productivity."

I know that guy - I used to manage one back in the 90's, and I thought of them as "high maintenance" (or more politly, "high touch.")  The other 15 types conjured up specific people in my mind, as well.

This book not only helps you identify the types of folks you are dealing with, it also offers good, practical advice on how to better manage them, tap into their strengths, and manage around their weaknesses (which will help you and them in the long run).

It also deals candidly with the subject of whether you should really try to coach them, or just manage them out of the team.  And yes, there are some comments on whether you are really a good manager if you can't get more out of some of these folks - worth thinking about, for sure.

Get the Team right

Another thing this book does well is discuss team dynamics.  For each of the 16 Character Profiles, they discuss who you should (and shouldn't) pair people up with, with regard to helping both individual and team effectiveness.

The book gets you to think in terms of:

• Your "Starting Five," which are your go-to people for "wow" results.
• Your "Utility Players," which are predictable - the bedrock of the team.
• Your "Benchwarmers," who have potential but should be coached up or out.
• Your "Trading Block Candidates," that really ought to be off the team.

This model helped me frame my thinking very clearly and I like how it's discussed in the book.

The last section of the book is more about the chemistry of teams, and how to use your team of Characters most effectively.  There is a good discussion of 5 team types, ranging from awesome to has-been, and I picked up a lot of good tips along the way.

This book is a great tool box for managers.  Some of my team members are actually combinations of the 16 Character Types, but I have some practical, immediately applicable tools I can use in my next coaching sessions.

My Recommendation

I recommend "Bare Knuckle People Management" to anyone who's responsible for managing a team, but especially to those who are new managers or have just inherited a new team.