In my course in Innovation Development at Kettering University, I tell students that what makes the difference in terms of organizational performance is seldom the idea or the technology; it’s the team. It’s how people work together that makes any innovation successful.
“People First.” No doubt you’ve heard this before. People are your greatest asset. But what does investing in people really mean?
Yes, choosing the best people for your team is important. But then it’s about taking action to truly create a team of people who know how to work together to create real value and solve problems. First and foremost, this means supporting your people by building their capabilities. Sometimes this happens through a training program, but most often it’s about giving people a series of challenging assignments. In Lean Product and Process Development (LPPD), this is the “kata” of developing one’s expertise through experience.
Innovators want real, meaningful work experiences like this. The best developers – the ones that you want on your team – seldom want to be told what to do; instead, they wish to be inspired to create novel solutions that delight customers. They want a visionary direction for an innovation, and then they want resources to go and do great work. This is why Command and Control leadership simply doesn’t work in development. Rather, Servant Leadership and Transformational Leadership tend to be most successful for leading high-performing teams. This is where LPPD can help.
LPPD creates successful outcomes because it does not define a specific outcome. Rather, LPPD explores sets of solutions to learn the knowledge needed to design near-optimal solutions. Instead of detailing one or two unproven concepts to final design, then discovering the problems and rework, LPPD emphasizes experimentation to solve problems early. This is not done at a complete systems level, but rather at small sub-systems where experimentation is inexpensive, then integrated into the system solution. The resulting system is more reliable, innovative, and has less rework at launch.
At Kettering, we do things differently to create these meaningful work experiences. Our 50/50 work-study model provides an unusual human development model. Great co-op employers like Toyota, Lear, General Dynamics, Atlas Copco, Disney, Autoliv, General Motors, Ford, Denso, and more don’t simply hire our students for labor. Instead, they provide exceptional rotational programs to build skills in their future engineers, managers, and leaders.
I see future leaders in my classrooms. For example, one student, Cameron, found a fantastic opportunity at his co-op employer, General Motors. After starting out in finance, he moved to production, then product launch, and now he’s a continuous improvement engineer. The on-the-job learning was invaluable for him and he’s enjoying his work while making an important contribution. Often I think, isn’t this approach to talent development something we should do for all of our team members? We can’t all go to schools like Kettering, but we can try to recreate this powerful learning experience in our organizations.
Human assets are uniquely valuable, but are we investing enough to get the greatest return? Think about how much you invest annually in software maintenance, vehicle maintenance, or building maintenance: three percent of its value, five percent, 10 percent? Now, how much do you invest in supporting and developing your people? In a 250-day work year, one percent is 2.5 workdays. Investing in human capital has unexpected returns, especially in innovation. Developing your innovators sparks an ember that will turn into a fire of creative energy. I know because I’ve been privileged to see it first in my time as a leader at Cincinnati Milacron and now at Kettering.
Many people my age and older moan about their concerns about “young people” (forgetting that the same thing was said about them). Yet, these same people too often sit on the sidelines when it comes to building the social and technical systems for high-performance in their organizations. Leaders today should be spending their energy developing their people. LPPD gives us principles to do so.
Worried about the future of your business? Make an investment that pays the greatest dividends. Build a real team; invest in your human assets, and mentor and grow your people.
Designing the Future Using Lean Product and Process Development
Learn how to reduce time to market, improve quality, and drive innovation in a hands-on, coach-led experience that applies Lean Product and Process Development across your value stream.
