Sustaining Innovation: a deeper dive into #MCN2016 session

The following post is a follow-on to a session organized by my friend and colleague Emily Lytle-Painter at the MCN2016 Conference in New Orleans on November 3, 2016. The title of that session: Sustaining Innovation: Tips & Techniques to Keep Momentum in your Organization

This was the pre-conference session description:

At MCN2015 in Minneapolis, the Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) Kaywin Feldman remarked that staff should start “an insurrection when you are not the senior executive or you cannot convince the senior executive to embrace new directions”. That sounds great, but in practice there is often a fine line between disruption and subversion. We can all agree that innovation is vital to the health of any organization, but organizations can be unnecessarily resistant to change. For technologists, this can make even normal daily work seem like a constant uphill battle. This session will address how to combat “innovation fatigue”, including strategies for managing up, how to find or create allies in your organization, and when to fight for an idea versus when to let it go. It will be a combination of shared problem-solving + group therapy + networking with like-minded peers. Panelists from a range of roles from large and small institutions will begin by presenting real-world examples of success and failure from their own experiences. Attendees will be encouraged to share their own puzzles, and the panelists will address underlying issues to attempt to find ways to help. The session will operate under Chatham House Rule, so that everyone in the room is able to be brutally honest in a safe space. This session is for you if: -You’ve got hurdles to innovation and you’re not sure how to overcome them -You’re struggling in your job or even career and need immediate help - bring your problems to us before or during the session -You’re an effective rebel who’s ready to share how you keep going when the going gets tough Let’s work on this together. MCN provides us with a powerful network of peers who sincerely support each other, this session will prove it.

Panelists: Emily Lytle-Painter, Douglas Hegley, Jeffrey Inscho, Annelisa Stefan, Greg Albers

Quick session overview: Emily organized a really interesting session format. The panelists would be given just a brief window of time to hit upon the most-important ideas or techniques for dealing with each of three topics: Looking Up, Looking Across, and Looking In. Following the short presentation, all panelists headed into the audience to facilitate rapid-fire, smaller group discussions of approximately 10 minutes. After that, we'd jog back to the front table, summarize or highlight the small group discussions into the microphones, then repeat until the three topics had been explored and we moved into general Q & A. This made the session pass by incredibly quickly, and also made sure that everyone in attendance was given a voice in the discussion. From my perspective, it felt active, supportive and inclusive. Nice job, Emily.

I was assigned to Question 1: Looking Up

The basic question: How can we create and sustain innovation - particularly when leadership may seem resistant to change?

So in essence I needed to talk about the concept of managing up. As you can see from the session description above, I am currently in the lucky position of having a boss who actually advocates for such approaches, even to the point of near-rebellion! However, in my previous years of experience that was almost always not the case. I've been in many positions where managing up was not easy.

There is plenty written about this concept in the business lit. By its brevity, my five minute sprint was necessarily incomplete - I would only be able to hone in on a small set of approaches that have worked (sometimes) for me. As I made those remarks, I promised I would blog about this topic within a few days - so here we are! 

Please allow me to expand upon and drill down a bit into the three topics that I highlighted:

Three key elements of Driving and Sustaining Innovation while “Looking Up “

1. Empathy
2. The Pitch
3. Put me in coach! (aka: assertive volunteering)

Empathy

When you encounter resistance, the first emotional response is typically a combination of bewilderment and frustration. We can't help but think something like: Wait, my idea is fantastic, how on earth can you not see that? What the h*ll is wrong with you? 

Source: https://paulbarsch.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/lizard-brain.jpg

The problem with this immediate lizard-brain driven response is that is typically sets in motion an interpersonal conflict. When you confront another person, deeming them as "wrong" in contrast to your being "right", you set up a battle - and in the workplace, where power is generally hierarchical and documented on the org chart - you are unlikely to emerge victorious. Repeat those "losses" and you are more likely to fall into a state of grumbling resentment, whining and/or learned helplessness.



While we cannot "control" our lizard brain responses, we *can* control our behaviors. A nice mantra for you to practice: When furious, get curious (I came across this in the leadership writings of Ari Weinzweig). Specifically, try to understand the nature of the resistance - don’t wallow in frustration or resign to being stuck. Work your empathy muscle! 

http://bit.ly/2eXAdnN

Why is this person resisting you and your (obviously brilliant) innovation? Here are a few examples to try on for size - again, not a comprehensive list - reasons why management will reflexively resist your change efforts:

• “I don’t understand” - literally - your idea is simply not making sense to the manager
• "We can't do that here" - usually this arises out of fear - of risk, of blame - and out of a sense of comfort with traditional ways
• “You didn’t loop me in” - management feels left out of the process
• "We don't have capacity" - a sense that there isn't enough money, time, bandwidth, skills, energy, etc.
• Those are just a few examples, I know that there are many more forms of resistance to innovation/change

During the session, I advocated for two essential approaches to overcome these kind of resistance: The Pitch, and Put Me in Coach. Both of these approaches have worked for me - again, not always, but with enough frequency to be useful. Both approaches give us a strategy to rely on when resistance flares up - and both approaches maintain our sense of personal sense of agency. One last thought here: I do not mean to intend that we each can totally control things, nor that your or my failure to win the day somehow repudiates our sense of agency or sends us into a downward spiral of giving up. All I'm saying is that these two approaches *might* give you a chance to continue moving forward. You may still fail (your actual mileage may vary) - but at least you can do so with forward momentum and a bit of autonomy.

One last set of thoughts before I describe each of these two approaches. Make sure to tailor your approach to the person with whom you are interacting - use what you learned earlier by practicing empathy.

For example:

• An analytical boss needs numbers and facts, not excitement and emotion
• A power-hungry boss needs credit and info in advance (first to hear)
• A people-person boss needs regular contact with you
• A nervous boss needs reassurance and your calm confidence
• et cetera

And do your best to stay out of the politics - don’t assume you understand how those factors and factions truly operate, nor your manager's perspective. Your intention and ambition must be to deliver a great result for your organization, period. In other words, your goals must not be to become more important. Leave your ambitious ego at home. If you are needy for credit and validation, you are probably going to fail. The key is the great innovation, not how great you happen to be.

Approach Number 1: The Pitch

Your task: Craft a compelling argument as to why this initiative needs to go forward. This takes practice and diligence, but I highly recommend this exercise over using your energy on frustrated griping. Get it down on paper/screen, edit it, read it aloud, edit it again, memorize parts of it. Be clear, concise, make sure to show positive energy and passion (but not zealotry).  

http://bit.ly/2fShXy8

And - please - rehearse it (preferably with folks who can play the role of skeptics). Then edit it again. Work on this until it's just so convincing that people will be likely to be won over.

The Pitch will include:

• What is the need? What problem are we solving?
• Who is this for? Who is the audience?
• A bit of background (brief) to the problem - what is the context over time?
• What work is already done? (show you did your homework/set the groundwork)
• Vision: where does this go? What’s possible?
• Potential outcome: benefits and rewards, specific metrics if possible
• (optional) Longer-term impact

Think in iterations and achievable cycles - bite off the right-sized chunk in your pitch (while you might be hoping to land on Mars, you might start with something more like crossing the street safely!)

Why are you pitching? This is key: YOU ARE NOT LOOKING FOR APPROVAL. You are looking for a *partner*. The difference is much more than semantic. Ever watch the TV show Shark Tank? The people who pitch ideas on that show aren't looking for praise nor are they seeking permission to do something - they are looking for a partner willing to invest. Try to take the same approach with your "resistant" management. Seek advice and participation, not approval.

Approach Number 2: Put Me In Coach! (also known as assertive volunteering)

This is a way to actively support management by taking on specific risks and responsibilities yourself. In essence, you volunteer to take the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, yourself. By the way, this comes *after* a successful pitch - or at least some indication that the door is ajar for you to enter.

Here’s how:

• Demonstrate BOTH understanding and respect for the resistance. And *don't* call it "resistance", the “resistor” likely believes he/she is making good choices that are in the best interests of the organization (and their career). In other words, start with empathy and then show it.
• Next, show that you care first and foremost about the organization - “I consider it my responsibility to reduce risks and deliver success for this org”
• Show calm confidence - “I've given this a lot of thought and run it past my colleagues. I feel prepared to take this on and deliver a great result” (depending on the style of management, you might end that with " ... for you", just to demonstrate that you aren't seeking credit yourself)
• You can volunteer time, resources, you can even volunteer to help find resources such as an outside partner - keep a flexible mindset on this, see what makes sense
• Put your neck on the chopping block - “If I’m wrong, or I fail, I will accept full responsibility”
• “I am eager for your input and feedback”
• Acknowledge the partnership - “I deeply appreciate your perspective and support. I will keep you informed at every step along the way”
• Agree on how to do that, specifically (notes, face-to-face meetings, emails, Slack channel, smoke signals, etc.)
• Commit yourself, clearly and unequivocally: “I’m on it”, “I’ve got this” or some variation of that
• Practice patience - you may need to pitch and volunteer a few times before you get the opportunity to make it stick. My rule of thumb has been three strikes and ‘yer out - if you can't get the partnership done with three pitch sessions, it's just not going to happen.

Of course, this topic - which was only one of three main themes in our session - might require an entire workshop or a series of sessions or a year of business school research! I haven’t even delved into a number of other factors, such as mindset, disciplined collaboration, distributed authority models and shared decision-making processes, when to jump ship for a healthier organization, etc. Perhaps we can plan more panels on these topics in the future.

Until then, pitch well my friends and never relent!