Recently, I got to live out a lifelong dream of mine. The experience taught me some unexpected and powerful lessons on innovation and quality.

The innovation that occurred in the life of the Spitfire was dramatic: over 24 variants produced in only 10 years! How did they do it? Innovative organizations work at it. They make innovation a priority. They make removing fear and barriers a priority. If you say you value innovation, employees will notice whether products and services are fresh and evolving. They’ll look at practices and processes. They’ll pick up on what gets recognized at town halls and team meetings. Are you focusing primarily on productivity targets or the numbers “the street” (investors) is looking for this quarter? Or is innovation getting attention?

Purpose

Everyone involved in the Spitfire knew what they were working for. This clear shared purpose united them and motivated them to be attentive and creative in their work, and to voice ideas for continuous improvement. How can you help your employees tap into their purpose? One way is to tie innovation contributions to the impact they have on customers. 

As you capture and tell stories, include the creation of ideas, details about the employees who developed them, and (as possible) examples of customers impacted by the idea. An insurance organization created life-size cut-outs of their quarterly innovation prize winners, along with a summary of the employee’s innovative idea or project. After being displayed in the lobby each quarter, they were moved to the main hallways, where they lined the walkways of the organization. This created a visual reminder of the company’s priorities.

Feedback—and Removing Fear

Another key ingredient in the Spitfire’s success in innovation was their feedback system that incorporated input from everyone involved in the process. In many organizations there is a lack of such clear feedback for a simple and often overlooked reason: fear. If fear is too strong of a word for you (it was the word the late quality guru Dr. W. Edwards Demin used often); then call it reluctance, hesitation, not wanting to be the one to “rock the boat.”

Often the organization’s top leadership is 100 percent behind innovation—but they are unaware of how it plays out with managers, supervisors and employees in the ranks. In some cases, innovations are shot down subtly. Mention a new idea, and your manager might respond with a question: “Isn’t billing due in three days?” Or an unconvincing, “Sounds good, we’ll have to take a look.” A colleague might chuckle, “We’ve never done it THAT way.” Recognize that many employees see innovation as risky. After all, at its heart is change—doing things differently. Ensure that there is clear communication not just among leadership, but all throughout the organization: everyone’s feedback is valuable and must be given a voice, even if resulting improvements may come at the cost of change—after all, it will be change for the better!

Removing Barriers

Helping create a sense of purpose within your organization and ensuring that communication channels are open is important for innovation, but innovators won’t get far if they run up against roadblocks. There are many ways to identify barriers that are getting in the way of innovation. You can, for example, include questions about innovation on surveys, work it into informal conversations, or conduct focus groups with employees. 

Common barriers include no time, not sure what to do with an idea, nothing happened with past ideas, and spending time and focus in this way could jeopardize other performance objectives. You may hear things that are appalling—but the bigger the barriers, the larger the opportunity. Encourage everyone in your organization to identify roadblocks and then work together to remove them. 

Choosing to Innovate

The Spitfire was a lesson in innovation—80 years ago now. Given the know-how on innovation and quality we’ve developed since then—along with powerful technologies emerging every day–innovation really is a matter of choosing to innovate. That opportunity is there for the taking. 

This blog post is from Issue #54 of The Edge of Service Newsletter®. Access this issue and past issues here.