Preserving our Forest

Cross Functional Teams (CFT)

These teams help break down turf protection. However, they need to be carefully managed. Just including people from many departments does not automatically make a CFT more effective. Too much information can just confuse everybody. Clarity of goals and top management support as well as recognition and rewards are critical to the process. Managing cross-functional teams is one of the challenges of new product development. Yet, how members from different functional areas come together, interact, and arrive at consensus, is a poorly understood process.

Flexibility and adaptability is key to Innovation

Adapting to change and proactively responding to opportunities are daunting tasks. Top management needs to handhold teams through these risky processes. Failures need to be dealt with in a way that protects and encourages risk taking. Only CEOs can provide the time and resources required for companies to be outwardly focused, scanning the environment of competitors, customers, academicians, suppliers and even different industries. Such companies have a better chance of becoming innovation stars. CEOs can provide courage, zest, enthusiasm and speed to the whole organization. It is this energy that will drive an Innovation Initiative. Large, traditional companies have a tendency to become more bureaucratic. Bureaucracy produces politics, red tape and power struggles. People find a hundred rules to protect themselves from acting. This can repress the natural energy and enthusiasm of the organization. CEOs can prevent this deadening disease.

The Power of CEO

CEOs can ensure a culture of innovation that highlights the importance of harnessing the talent of the entire organization. Only CEOs can lead such quantum shifts in strategy. They alone can create an organizational climate, where fundamental assumptions are open to question. A real gap in Indian companies seems to be CEOs who nurture companywide innovation. While many CEOs are ‘visionary leaders,’ most are not enthusiastic champions of company-wide innovation. Both financial and psychological support from top management is critical for the culture of innovation. One of the main inhibitors of innovation is the attitude of the ‘Do it my way.’ Leaders need an effective communication system to share their business vision with the grassroots. This helps to empower all levels of the organization.

Consistent Innovation

Once the returns from an innovation start to pour in, the organization may begin to focus on maximizing the returns through routine implementation. Harvesting is a mechanical and essential process. Perhaps every organization requires a section of its people to focus on creativity and innovation. An Innovation Center could provide the foundation for a long-term initiative. Large, tradition bound, successful organizations, tend to prefer the stability that formalized procedures provide. Older organizations tend to become more bureaucratic. Large companies may have more resources, while smaller companies may find it easier to change course. Even though most companies accept the idea of innovation being important for success, most are not committed enough to practice it on a long-term basis. Most are not aware of the underlying process required to make it work on a consistent basis. In the Innovation Movement itself, there are not enough clearly defined structures and processes that a company could follow. There are few consultant organizations, which can handhold and support long-term innovation initiatives. There is a feeling that innovation and creativity is for intellectuals or geniuses. Innovation as a concept needs to be demystified for use across the organization. Management is bottom-line driven. They are extremely result oriented in the short term and lose faith in concepts very fast. Innovation is a concept that requires a long-term buy-in and takes time to be fully ingrained in the organizational culture.

Innovation in the various stages of organizational development

The metamorphosis model of organizational development, passing through the cycles of growth and decline, describes the organizational life cycle of companies: Emergence-Growth-Decay-Death Focus on innovation, may rescue an organization in the declining phase of the organizational life cycle. Re-innovation or renovation becomes important when an old, traditional company goes into decline. The first phase is often entrepreneurial and innovative with a sudden burst of energy capturing a new space in the market. This creative phase is terminated in a leadership crisis. It was Schumpeter who said, “It is rare for anyone always to remain an entrepreneur throughout the decades of his active life.” This cycle progresses from entrepreneurship to an organization that becomes slow and complacent.

Innovation mind bytes

 Be willing to test ideas in the market and correct them in the market place. Don’t wait for perfection on the drawing board. An idea is like a kite. Fly it, to test it in the wind.  Keep a low key. As the Zen thinkers say, be like an underground stream, not like a rocky mountain face. Competitors are alerted and more likely to attack a mountain.  Co-operate instead of confronting.  Keep initial budgets small.  Reach out for low hanging fruits. Be hungry for results.  Be impatient for profits.  Learn in the ruthless university of the marketplace.  Reach for the untouched and the unreached. As first mover, make full use of your advantage.  Be patient with teething problems. De-bug as you go along.  Good is the enemy of Better.

FROM ZERO TO HERO

Handling and learning from failure is a skill that will ensure you achieve your goals. Like boxing, in life also there is no dishonour in falling down. You lose only when you fail to get up. “Learning to fail well is important”, said Rahul Dravid, renowned cricketer at a camp for teenage cricketers. World Mental health day is celebrated in October. The key element of mental health is the capacity to deal with the ups and downs of life. The capacity to deal with failure, enhances our capacity to have healthy relationships, make good life choices, maintain physical health and well being. So how do we recover from failure and even make it a stepping stone to success. Embrace the experience of failure. Feel the pain, grieve and learn from it. Then get up and go. If the failure shatters you and makes you feel there is nothing left to live for, get professional help from a therapist. Never failing, means you are not leaving your comfort zone. Failure, properly handled, is good for you and makes you a more compassionate person. Focus on the present. Be gentle with yourself. Take care of your health. Introduce a few happiness breaks into every day: activities that definitely make you happy. Meet positive friends. The past is over and no one knows the future. The present is yours to shape. It is a gift. Enjoy it. Get help to develop a plan for what to do next. Lay down the burdens of yesterday and develop choices for what to do tomorrow. This is a time of freedom, when you can recreate your life and leave behind what you don’t like. Choose to do something you love that you have never pursued seriously. Something that makes you feels blissful. Do something for others. It will give you jolt of bliss. Reach out to someone who cannot do anything for you. Failure can be God’s greatest gift to you. Enjoy it!

Consistent Innovation

Be sure that you have put in place a sustainable model for consistent Innovation. Once the returns from innovation start to pour in, the organization should focus on maximizing the returns through routine implementation. Harvesting is a mechanical and essential process. Use an Innovation Center to provide the foundation for a long-term initiative. Large, tradition bound, successful organizations, tend to prefer the stability that formalized procedures provide. Even though most companies accept the idea of innovation being important for success, most are not committed enough to practice it on a long-term basis. This book provides the underlying processes required to make it work on a sustainable consistent basis and demystifies the process for use across the organization. Management is bottom-line driven. Usually extremely result oriented in the short term and often losing faith in concepts very quickly. Innovation is a concept that requires a long-term buy-in and takes time to be fully ingrained in the organizational culture. Consistent, long-term commitment and long-term implementation is key to making the climate of innovation a way of life. The benefits of an innovation intervention in very early phases are intangible. Long term top management participation and commitment is key to success. A critical mass of participants in a company practicing Innovation Tools (IT) is essential to demonstrate financial and process quality impact. Innovation practices, besides leading to continuous improvement, also result in quantum shifts in the business, leading to unprecedented profits. But patience and the Bhagavad-Gita principle of ‘Do your work without expecting results,’ are required. Organizational variables like quality of work life, teamwork, tolerance for new and disruptive ideas and unimpeded communication are required to make innovation initiatives work.

Innovation Mela

Innovation Melas celebrate the spirit of innovation. The most innovative new ideas are studied and applauded. In short it is a day to enjoy, inspire and celebrate corporate innovation and honour the imagination. It is a great way to provide a holistic view of events, while celebrating innovation publicly. Inviting a customer to provide his point of view could create a special wave of excitement. It is a banquet for the imagination: well loved, proven ideas rub shoulders with exotic new imports. Half completed projects call for volunteers. Implemented ideas are paraded and honoured. Case studies in the market are presented, competitions and quizzes stimulate participation. Problem owners call for consultants to tame their problem projects. Everyone rolls up their sleeves to tame wild ideas. Top management provides recognition rewards and support. The most interesting wild new idea, which does not, at the moment, seem implementable, is chosen for taming. This is a mega event which involves the whole company. It is a chance to showcase the best ideas, while reviewing and revisiting all the thinking tools. The innovation Oscars and the Innovation Hall of Fame can flow out of this event. Let your people look at this note and reflect on the ideas presented.

Feedback Systems

Make sure that a log book is maintained by every innovation spiral. Weekly meeting minutes can ensure a smooth flow of information. Regular reports from each spiral ensure that the activities planned are moving smoothly. Monthly reviews can help in providing valuable feedback and opportunities for expanding participation. They also ensure top managements’ attention to projects. Formal feedback should be provided to problem owners, who bear the brunt of implementation in unfamiliar territory. Rewards should be an integral part of the system. Innovation should be part of the individual’s measurable job description, not just something he does if he feels like it. * Have a talk on innovation by a Company CEO who has practiced it.

Complete the Action Matrix

Study your Action Matrix and let every team state its goals clearly and understand that goal. The Innovation Champion can put together the whole matrix filled by different teams and circulate it. The innovation process is an enjoyable process. The teams have had a chance to design an implementation action plan. It is probably a course of action, which has the fingerprints of all participants. This naturally ensures the buy-in of the team. The most important part of this process is that it integrates the viewpoints of all stakeholders and turns spectators into participants. This is about win-win solutions. It is about collaboration compromise and co-operation. It takes into account how people think and feel and acknowledges their need for affirmation and nurturing. The action matrix is the map to be followed in implementation.

Execute, communicate and train

Implement like an Innovation Star. This is the day to make a final presentation to all the teams in the presence of top management. Get feedback from all stakeholders and respond to concerns. It is a good idea to leave the plan to be studied by all participants. Each can peacefully reflect on it, internalize it. This is the time to get the resource budget cleared. All participants and stakeholders must now receive a clear communication on what to expect. Here it is important to note the process-- communication has to be long term, continuous and consistent. Human resources professionals and problem owners must ensure that the necessary training modules are implemented and their efficacy measured. Management systems implementation should now kick in. The management information system to ensure clear measurement of action should be available to all players. The website and other internet support systems should be properly administered by a webmaster to ensure the seamless flow of information where possible. A regularly produced e-bulletin would help. Knowledge, information and wisdom are important. ‘Know How’ is essential, but ‘do how’ is just as important. Teams by now have dived into the messy business of how to implement what they have chosen as solutions. They have created plans and strategies and worked co-operatively and negotiated the best route to take. Action now becomes the priority.

Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture has the great Emphasis on Innovation. Without the oxygen of support and applause, ideas often die in infancy. The creativity improvement program can be the foundation that enables all other company programs to be effective. There are a number of steps to ensure that the program encourages innovation.

Action Teams

The problem owner should identify the team members. This could be done by choosing those keenly interested and involved in solving the problem. It may be a good idea for all members to go on a retreat to understand the problem in detail and to get know each other better. The best teams are small commando teams, where everyone is critically important. Set up ‘3S’ teams – Swift, Small and Strategic.. Here there are no ‘outsiders’, no passengers. Everyone becomes engaged in a small team and becomes completely involved. Each becomes a participant, there are no spectators. ‘How to create a small company mind, in a big company body?’ asked Jack Welch, on the eve of his revolutionary project to make GE, swift and profitable. The best teams are commando teams with 5 – 7 people.’ Within a positive field, genuine team work and collaboration is possible. In commando innovation teams, each one cares about the other, as in a close knit family. They give credit to others who contributed. If Devarajan receives a compliment, he says ‘Thank you. Shivakumar gave me this idea.’ Someone is not available, but when an outsider calls, the person answering says ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ Everyone has a helpful attitude, whether the problem is official or personal. There should be a constant flow of positive communications among team members. A great team shares many characteristics with the human circulatory system. All feelings of exhilaration, celebration and satisfaction are shared. When the mission is in trouble, ideas are shared and joint action mobilized. A genuine absence of rank in solving problems is required where every member of the team does not hesitate to cross over lines of responsibility and correct what is wrong. All are on the same journey.

MEETINGS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

Meetings can waste a lot of time or they can provide an effective way to harvest ideas and ensure buy-in thus empowering the group to achieve greater levels of productivity. Meetings can be an empowering experience if handled well. The effectiveness of a meeting can be enhanced by 1) Having a clear goal for the meeting 2) Circulating the agenda in advance to ensure preparation 3) Having a system to make sure everyone is heard using thinking tools like 6M 4) Recording and implementing decisions and using good ideas 5) Being open to feedback and fresh ideas

Identify Top Management Support

It is critical that the innovation initiative is completely supported at the top step by step. Successful innovation requires enormous patience, resources and faith. It is tough without top management support. One of the reasons why innovation initiatives fail, is because of the start-stop effect when there is no long term commitment from the top. Innovation initiatives often become the target of budget cuts at the first sign of trouble.  Score boards should measure progress and celebrate winners.  Involve top management through regular presentations.  They should be part of the steering committee and monthly reviews.  The innovation melas should showcase innovation and innovators.  The cost benefit resulting from innovations should be regularly highlighted.  Thinking tools should be used at the highest levels. It is important to initially choose actions that lead to fast, obvious results. Keep the investments low, use existing resources. Highlight and celebrate small successes. This creates excitement around the Initiative. Honour achievers. Encourage the workforce through motivating posters. Post results on scoreboards so that the whole organization can track progress.

The ICE Breaker

It is important to bring all the teams together and unite them towards a single goal. The goal should be noble; it should be inspiring and should fill the teams with energy and commitment. The leader could kick things off with an inspiring presentation and ask everyone to give their ideas on how to make this happen.  An open office atmosphere ensures greater productivity.  Start a Humor Club, share a joke on the internet.  Have a hobby or pastime which will keep you going in tough times  Use salt in moderation

Change Management

Change is as uncomfortable as the pain of unbroken new shoes. If you are serious about the initiative, involve the top management to mentor, to trouble shoot, to remove obstacles. Involve them in planning the Initiative. Ensure that they are part of the monthly rewards event. Their presence in monthly meetings either in person or on videos, will ensure greater engagement and involvement from the team. Preliminary Steps to ensure a successful innovation initiative  All problem owners make a final presentation of the problem statements and outcomes expected.  Encourage suggestions and debate.  Have clear systems for measurement of results and feedback.  Discuss the possible obstacles in the path of radical change.  Involve top management in the presentation.  Provide open channels of communication : a website, a hot line, a magazine (could be an e-magazine) and face-to-face meetings with top management.

Finalise the problem statement

It is critical to ensure that the problem statement is 1) Core, to the business goals of the organization. 2) It is clearly defined and is truly the problem and not just a symptom. 3) That top management is involved in the problem statement process and approves it formally in its final state. When many commando teams are planning to pursue a single problem the leaders have to support, nurture, mentor, and reward. Without this clarity and whole hearted support, the initiative will falter. It sometimes happen that junior commando teams choose the problem statement and arrive at solutions. When this is presented to the top management, they receive feedback that the management considers this a problem not worth solving. All the effort is wasted and people dismiss the process as something that does not work in our old fashioned organization.

Think before you leap

Identify and forecast the various consequences of an action. You could identify the impact of building a holiday resort in a forest. This could be Improving the bottom line of the company Damaging the environment Harming the health of the employees The impact could also be studied in various time periods: the next month, 6 months, 1 year and 5 years. Sometimes the immediate impact on the company, may be great, resulting in short term profits. However, the long term impact could be disastrous, creating many dissatisfied customers.

Change is the only thing that is Permanent

This is the first of the Laws of Innovation: Everything changes - people, products, companies; Men, Materials, Machines, Methods, Markets and Money (6M). The decision to change is in your hands but there are challenges to growth. Innovation is about transformation. Imagine a block of ice. It is cold, solid, and transparent. But it is not a block of ice forever. It melts and flows across boundaries. Water follows its own logic which is very different from the logic of ice. Water goes to many places, has many adventures, but always comes back to its own nature – cool, beautiful and still. If you heat it, it boils; keep heating, it gets airborne by becoming steam, steam that knows the freedom of the skies, steam that cannot be held captive. Add pressure and it can rotate turbines to generate power. Transformation is what happens to a drop of water when it is touched by the magic of sunlight. It becomes a rainbow. It is what happens to a seed when it starts the journey to become a mighty banyan tree. The banyan tree is not an improved seed, just as a butterfly is not an improved caterpillar or a rainbow an improved drop of water. By definition, innovation is taking interesting ideas and transforming them into usable solutions for solving business problems.

Celebrate the Beauty

Create opportunities for team mates to enjoy each other’s company in a great natural setting. Many companies have lovely campuses or parks nearby, which people hardly notice in their rush to meet deadlines - so schedule moonlight pot luck dinners. Families could be invited. This is a very useful, feel-good emotion. Welcome wonder into your life. Celebrate the beauty of the stars, and enjoy the wonder of the mountains along with team members. Greet the dawn and say goodbye to the sunset. The moonlight has been created to heal your wounds. Sleep on the lap of Mother Nature and become a child again. Go on excursions with your team.

Be a Warrior

Turning ordinary men into matchless warriors full of the enthusiasm to win, can definitely improve performance. Gandhiji did just that using his magic mantras to infuse courage into the freedom struggle : Do or Die, Quit India, Vande Matharam. Among the nava rasas, chivalry is key to the life of a warrior: a corporate warrior is no different and needs real courage. Wonder is developed from courage. The rapture of courage is produced by means of energy, perseverance, optimism, presence of mind and kindness. Courage and bravery are definitely feel-good emotions. Courage is represented on the stage by firmness, patience, heroism, pride, zeal, valor and wit. Bravery fills you with enthusiasm, energy and spontaneity. Bravery is not just bravery in war. It is the small, everyday acts of courage that each of us is called upon to manifest in the face of obstacles. The ability to sacrifice, which is the core of emotional intelligence, is a part of the Veera Rasa. The ability to persist in the face of difficulties is a part of this. To meet the jealousy and pettiness of the world with gentleness, humor and fearlessness, is part of it. Brilliance and elegance belong to the true warrior who aligns himself with the powerful forces of goodness. ‘Josh,’ wakefulness, energy and boundless enthusiasm are an expression of this energy.

Sanctuary 3

Sanctuary 3 is a tool to generate alternativeness. When a system is working well, as a matter of routine this can be used to encourage you to think of alternative ways of doing it better. This is an important and interesting tool to prevent stagnation. Imagine a Company caught by high cost during a downturn. Now develop five ways to reduce costs. For example: 1. Ask people to work for three days a week. 2. Encourage people to take an unpaid subbatical. 3. Encourage working from home or telecommunicating. 4. Get customers to sell to other customers for a small fee. 5. Get vendors to deliver materials and parts on the assembly line.

Sanctuary 3

Sanctuary 3 is a tool to generate alternativeness. When a system is working well, as a matter of routine this can be used to encourage you to think of alternative ways of doing it better. This is an important and interesting tool to prevent stagnation. Imagine a Company caught by high cost during a downturn. Now develop five ways to reduce costs. For example: 1. Ask people to work for three days a week. 2. Encourage people to take an unpaid subbatical. 3. Encourage working from home or telecommunicating. 4. Get customers to sell to other customers for a small fee. 5. Get vendors to deliver materials and parts on the assembly line.

Sanctuary 2

Sanctuary 2 is very similar to attribute matching by putting together dissimilar ideas and expert solutions from different fields. Example: Look at the attributes of say a motor car to get some fresh ideas on education. This allows for a whole group of new creative ideas. The attributes of a motor car and how it could apply to education are: • It moves – The Syllabus could move with changing times (say every 5 years) • It should be regularly filled with petrol – Teachers could receive regular training inputs every year at a retreat. • Different energy sources are now available i.e. petrol and electricity – Arrange for regular inputs from alternative sources, maybe ideas from people in government or agriculture, or nuclear physics. • It can carry people – Parents alumni and public could be involved in an advisory capacity. • Enclosed space -- Put different types of people together in close proximity and enable them to share ideas in a time bubble away from others. • It provides a good view of the country - Teachers and Parents must have a good view of the latest techniques in other countries. Eg. Tie-up with a school from UK. • It has four wheels – Inputs could be regularly collected and activities should be planned for the 4 stake holders : parents, teachers, old students and existing students.

Sanctuary 1

Sanctuary 1 is used to protect an impossible idea from immediate destruction. The plan is to protect the idea. For example: Problem: Parking on a busy road is a problem due to overcrowding and lack of adequate parking space. Wild Idea: Drivers with license plates ending with odd and even numbers should be encouraged to drive only on alternate days. This can lead to the idea that each car would receive special facilities only on certain days of the week. This would encourage pooling and a shift of leisure time activities to times when the congestion is less. By placing a fence around an idea and allowing it to develop without immediate attack, even though it might seem an impossible solution at first, it allows everyone to think around the subject and discover ways to make it work.

Create a Sanctuary for ideas

Once a new product idea germinates, it needs time and space for participants to grow and develop that idea. The immediate reaction is to remove all elements that make the product new and different. Most groups will rush to protect familiar aspects of the product. If it is wild idea, there will be a concerted rush to domesticate it and retain its age old and familiar attributes. Fiercely protect the wildness of the idea by enclosing it in a sanctuary. Allow it to roam free in the sanctuary for a few days. Don’t touch it. Remember if everyone loves an idea, it is probably an old one. The Sanctuary is a tool that can be used to protect all germinal ideas. It involves inventing or shaping the future together in a protected environment. It is a radical new approach.

Doing the right things

This concerns choosing the right way to do things by benchmarking with the best organizations in the world. The internet provides us with direct access to best practices from around the world. Once good and better ways of doing things right are discovered, they must be shared across the organization on a consistent and relevant basis. Unilever has Innovation Centers in every region that are dedicated to studying the best way of doing everything. These processes are then replicated across the globe

Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture has the great Emphasis on Innovation. Without the oxygen of support and applause, ideas often die in infancy. The creativity improvement program can be the foundation that enables all other company programs to be effective. There are a number of steps to ensure that the program encourages innovation.

Do away with unnecessary tasks

A great deal of organizational energy is wasted by duplication of activities that are being done by others and duplication of activities that can be done by suppliers or other stakeholders. This is a result of overlapping responsibilities. Once unnecessary tasks are eliminated, there will be a focus on relevant activities and with it will come relevant innovation.

Necessity is the mother of innovation

A small bank, which did not have the funds to pay for expensive real estate, came up with the idea of using other people’s premises: schools, petrol pumps and super-markets. Then they moved seamlessly into a growth path, starting thousands of ATMs and mobile banks. Today, they are one of the largest banks in India. More recently, many banks have introduced the concept of 24-hour direct banking with business being carried out by anonymous people at the end of a telephone. This is neutralizing the competitive advantage, which established banks enjoyed by virtue of functioning from prime sites in Mumbai.

Drivers of Innovation

Leadership and consumer relevance are the top drivers of innovation. There are two essential ingredients for successful innovation: Leadership and Consumer Relevance. Innovative processes do not begin in the R&D laboratory. They are initiated with a mandate from the highest level of the corporation. Identifying the consumer’s needs is an equally integral part of the innovation process. Ensuring employee participation in planning and a complete buy-in into innovative strategy is critical. At Unilever, top management strongly believes that innovation has to be closely linked to the business strategy.

Climate that welcomes creative work ideas

Most companies are so involved in meeting deadlines and fire fighting that there is rarely time to discuss and explore work related issues. Providing a structure, space and time to discuss ideas and toy with possibilities, can greatly increase the chances of creative ideas emerging. The tolerance required to generate a multitude of alternative solutions is the climate required when talking about work.

Work to Win

‘Work hard and you will succeed’ said our elders. But what happens when you work hard, but are facing in the wrong direction. Today, research shows that working long hours, does not mean better work. Time to think, creates better ideas. Time to be still and be inspired is the secret of great work. Productivity reduces sharply after concentrated and sustained effort. Many writers do their best work in short, concentrated bursts. Charles Dickens worked for 5 hours a day from 8.00am till 2.00pm, with a break for lunch. Many focus on 3 hours a day. Antony Trollope published 47 novels writing between 5am and 8am. Today many worship the 80 hour week. But does this really lead to true productivity? Research shows that the best work emerges in researchers, from working 20 hours a week. Over 60 hours researchers say, were the least productive. Many workers in Japan, work for 100 hours a week and some of them die due to over work. Some of them are driven to extreme measures like alcoholism, violent anti-social behaviour and even suicide. So the Government of Japan is trying to urge industry and business to restrict the number of hours. Someone can work up to 60 hours a week and also make the taking annual vacation compulsory, for everyone. No one is allowed to accumulate his leave and cash it. You cannot get reimbursed by cash for forgoing your leave. You have to compulsorily use your leave, go on holiday and not report for work. This is having a major statutory and sobering effect on Japanese society. Practice is important. Practicing 10,000 hours can make you an expert in any field. But practice in a way that enables you to recover on a daily basis. Top performers rest and sleep better than others. Maybe the 10,000 hours of work should be taken gradually, allowing for atleast 4 times the amount of rest and sleep. To be a real winner, practice silence and deep contentment, alternating with intense effort.

Live in Peace

‘Rest in Peace’ (RIP) they say in an obituary. It would serve a much better to purpose to say to everyone, ‘Live in Peace’. As we celebrate the international day of peace on September 21st , we need to devote ourselves to strengthening peace and togetherness among families, people and nations. The practice of peace starts within oneself. To be happy and satisfied within oneself, is to plant the first seed of peace. We all know that the greatest destroyer of resources and lives is war. The UN identifies several challenges standing in the way of peace: poverty, hunger, diminishing natural resources, water scarcity, social inequality, environmental degradation, diseases, corruption, racism and xenophobia, among others, pose challenges to peace. If these challenges are met, the causes for conflict can be eliminated and the global architecture of peace can be built. Each of us must strive to resolve these issues in our own lives. Then next step is to reduce their impact in the families we live in. We then need to reach out to our communities. The practice of peace starts with building an attitude of collaboration and cooperation in our own lives. Research has proved that the regular practice of meditation can positively affect at least 200 people in our environment. To be peaceful at home, on the roads and in the market place, releases and liberates resources that can be used for societies to develop and prosper. So let us declare, practice peace in our own lives this year and resolve: • To focus on avoiding conflict in our families and building togetherness • To practice friendliness and collaboration with our neighbours to build happy streets. • To reach out to all those who work for us and help them to overcome poverty and need. • To practice and spread the art of meditation and kindness. • To practice fairness, high ethical and quality standards at work. So this year, let us live and practice the art of peace and happiness.

The Poetry of Life!

Poetry, music, dance, theatre and free speech capture the happiness capsule that Life has provided mankind. Even the most tragic of events hold forth in their arms a sheaf of poems, a collection of literature. This is the month we celebrate world poetry day. Poetry captures the deepest feelings of the human spirit – its joy, its wisdom, its failures, its deepest terrors. "By paying tribute to the men and women whose only instrument is free speech..... By giving form and words to that which has none – such as the unfathomable beauty that surrounds us, the immense suffering and misery of the world – poetry contributes to the expansion of our common humanity, helping to increase its strength, solidarity and self-awareness," says Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO. World poetry day is celebrated on March 21st as declared by UNESCO. The purpose of the day is to promote reading, writing publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world. The Romans celebrated poetry on the birthday of the great poet Virgil. Poetry preserves the authentic feelings of people by creating an oral tradition, which often mingles with theatre. Many languages which have no script, like Tulu, my own language, is preserved in the oral tradition. Endangered languages are thus saved for posterity. Poetry breaks down barriers created by conflict. It makes us realize that as human beings, our innermost desires and feelings are the same. More translations into commonly read languages like English can bring about better understanding and peace in the world. Each celebrates Poetry Day in his own way. An Austrian coffee company offers a deal for coffee drinkers to pay with a poem. Last year, 1,00,000 coffee drinkers in 27 countries paid for their coffee with a poem. As a creative art often set to music, poetry makes us capture the most beautiful and elevated thoughts of our time on earth. So get involved in poetry recitals. Publish poetry promote the synthesis of poetry with other arts – theatre, dance, music and painting. And why not start writing poetry? Dr. Rekha Shetty Author of “Everyday Happiness Mantras” and And “Happy Street”

Innovation Sutras

1. Innovation Sutra: Building anything great takes time. Invest in a great cause. 2. Innovation Sutra: Everything changes. Everything born or created dies or sinks into dissolution . Lead innovation and create proactive change. 3. Innovation Sutra: Focus on what is really important. Relax and enjoy the present moment. 4. Innovation Sutra: If the purpose is flawed, profit is the road to hell. 5. Innovation Sutra: If you live in the jungle, be prepared to live by its law. You can always choose to live elsewhere. 6. Innovation Sutra: Follow your dream, however hard the path. Inspire your team. Together, strive to reach your goal, whatever the obstacles. 7. Innovation Sutra: Let go of frozen habits and behaviours. 8. Innovation Sutra: Get rid of clutter. Abolish everything that does not add value. 9. Innovation Sutra: Anything, anyone can be transformed. Keep working on creating a statue from the block of marble. 10. Innovation Sutra: When you’re looking for a new idea or approach to your business or life, go for the unexpected. 11. Innovation Sutra: Awaken your imagination through poetry and natural beauty. If the left brain is a lawyer, the right is a playful Persian cat. Get your lawyer to listen to the cat! 12. Innovation Sutra: Still the mind, and let a thousand ideas bloom. Play, laugh, jump! Do nothing to contain crazy new ideas. Build castles in the air and then put foundations under them. 13. Innovation Sutra: Understand the process of innovation and learn the thinking tools. 14. Innovation Sutra: Network, connect, collaborate, and pool. Get support internally and externally. 15. Innovation Sutra: During idea generation, play, dance, let the mind run free. No criticism. Apply analysis only when the ideas are allowed to float around and grow for some time. 16. Innovation Sutra: Looking at the opposite of conventional wisdom is future vision. Analyse carefully before acting. 17. Innovation Sutra: Act, implement, pilot a project. Correct flaws in the marketplace, on the run. Celebrate, affirm, reward. 18. Innovation Sutra: Every person, every place, every product is capable of transformation. Lead your team with that vision. Reach out, help, affirm. 19. Innovation Sutra: All solutions should help you learn to live in harmony with nature, companions, and family. Get the support of all leaders and grassroots workers. Review regularly and course-correct. 20. Innovation Sutra: Look at other companies, other fields of endeavour, and import ideas into your company. 21. Innovation Sutra: Use every event, crisis, and explosion to think anew about your company. 22. Innovation Sutra: Look for the opportunity in every problem. Make life’s lemons into lemon juice. 23. Innovation Sutra: Look back, learn, and reinvent for the future. Communicate, understand, and act. 24. Innovation Sutra: Rebuild, recreate, and rescue beauty from the rubble of the past. 25. Innovation Sutra: A happy ending includes the payment of all debts to society.

Review the outcome

During implementation review the outcome. Be aware of the end before you take the first step. Unify your teams by hitching them to the ultimate goal. Top management should inspire and empower the teams to action. A team bonding exercise getting everyone to see a bird’s eye view of the exercise is critical. Review the Resource for every team. Consolidate the reviews if the resources being used are adequate. Study the impact on the expected outcome. Ensure that the process is moving towards the final outcome: reducing costs, increasing revenues, improving customer satisfaction and ensuring greater employee participation.

Dance

The body moves to the cadence of music. The rhythm of drums had been part of the earliest societies. The Bhimbetka rock shelter paintings are 33000 years old. The dancing figures in Egyptian tombs are dated 33000 B.C. Dance has been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment. Dance was a means of social communication since the earliest times. The eyes, the fingers, the feet and the body are used to communicate information and ideas. Harvest dances are part of almost every culture. The rain dances are common among Red Indians, some African communities and surprisingly in China! The Dandiya reverberates through the towns of Gujarat during the Navarathri celebrations for the Goddess. Vigorous dance movements often induce ecstatic and heightened feelings that are useful in healing. They often led to trance states of heightened suggestibility. Dance was also used to preserve and pass on stories and literature to flow, from generation to generation. Dance can be a very enjoyable form of exercise. In fact Jazzercise has become the new craze, making exercise more zestful and less monotonous. Dance even more than exercise affects your flexibility, energy levels, controls weight and affects mental and emotional health. It is said that a ballerina can burn up to 432 calories while doing ballet. All forms of dance improve posture, balance and co-ordination with others. Improving dance steps enhances creativity and problem solving skills. It helps in improving memory skills. The release of emotions liberates the happiness chemicals like endorphins and serotonins. Dance unblocks neural pathways in diseases like Parkinson, while improving mood and satisfaction. As spring enters with the colours of Holi, you are challenged to understand yourself better through movement rhythm and music. Explore some form of dance and discover new facets of yourself.

The Poetry of Life!

Poetry, music, dance, theatre and free speech capture the happiness capsule that Life has provided mankind. Even the most tragic of events hold forth in their arms a sheaf of poems, a collection of literature. This is the month we celebrate world poetry day. Poetry captures the deepest feelings of the human spirit – its joy, its wisdom, its failures, its deepest terrors. "By paying tribute to the men and women whose only instrument is free speech..... By giving form and words to that which has none – such as the unfathomable beauty that surrounds us, the immense suffering and misery of the world – poetry contributes to the expansion of our common humanity, helping to increase its strength, solidarity and self-awareness," says Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO. World poetry day is celebrated on March 21st as declared by UNESCO. The purpose of the day is to promote reading, writing publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world. The Romans celebrated poetry on the birthday of the great poet Virgil. Poetry preserves the authentic feelings of people by creating an oral tradition, which often mingles with theatre. Many languages which have no script, like Tulu, my own language, is preserved in the oral tradition. Endangered languages are thus saved for posterity. Poetry breaks down barriers created by conflict. It makes us realize that as human beings, our innermost desires and feelings are the same. More translations into commonly read languages like English can bring about better understanding and peace in the world. Each celebrates Poetry Day in his own way. An Austrian coffee company offers a deal for coffee drinkers to pay with a poem. Last year, 1,00,000 coffee drinkers in 27 countries paid for their coffee with a poem. As a creative art often set to music, poetry makes us capture the most beautiful and elevated thoughts of our time on earth. So get involved in poetry recitals. Publish poetry promote the synthesis of poetry with other arts – theatre, dance, music and painting. And why not start writing poetry?

The Poetry of Life!

Poetry, music, dance, theatre and free speech capture the happiness capsule that Life has provided mankind. Even the most tragic of events hold forth in their arms a sheaf of poems, a collection of literature. This is the month we celebrate world poetry day. Poetry captures the deepest feelings of the human spirit – its joy, its wisdom, its failures, its deepest terrors. "By paying tribute to the men and women whose only instrument is free speech..... By giving form and words to that which has none – such as the unfathomable beauty that surrounds us, the immense suffering and misery of the world – poetry contributes to the expansion of our common humanity, helping to increase its strength, solidarity and self-awareness," says Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO. World poetry day is celebrated on March 21st as declared by UNESCO. The purpose of the day is to promote reading, writing publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world. The Romans celebrated poetry on the birthday of the great poet Virgil. Poetry preserves the authentic feelings of people by creating an oral tradition, which often mingles with theatre. Many languages which have no script, like Tulu, my own language, is preserved in the oral tradition. Endangered languages are thus saved for posterity. Poetry breaks down barriers created by conflict. It makes us realize that as human beings, our innermost desires and feelings are the same. More translations into commonly read languages like English can bring about better understanding and peace in the world. Each celebrates Poetry Day in his own way. An Austrian coffee company offers a deal for coffee drinkers to pay with a poem. Last year, 1,00,000 coffee drinkers in 27 countries paid for their coffee with a poem. As a creative art often set to music, poetry makes us capture the most beautiful and elevated thoughts of our time on earth. So get involved in poetry recitals. Publish poetry promote the synthesis of poetry with other arts – theatre, dance, music and painting. And why not start writing poetry?

A LIFE OF WISDOM

Wisdom is highly prized in every society. Those who are wise, are respected, loved and cared for. In the past, especially in Asian societies, older people were thought to be wise, just by the process of living longer and experiencing life for a longer time. Suddenly things are different. The scorching pace of change and the variety of new skills required to live successfully in the modern world has called this hypothesis into question. Older people often end up looking like terrified deer caught in the bright focus of head lights, especially when faced with digital challenges. So what can each of us do to develop wisdom is changing circumstances? Keep pace with change. Learn digital skills professionally or from you grandchildren, if need be. Be part of a group which has younger people as well. A network of friends who are of different ages, keeps us up to date with changing mores and technologies. It has been found that people are wiser with friends. Make new friends and keep in touch with them. Psychologists say that those who are wiser, are more satisfied with life. They are able to avoid negative feelings or replace them with positive feelings. It is even believed that wiser people are healthier and live longer. The Buddhist practice of mindfulness is said to be the most effective method of wisely avoiding stress and depression. Wisdom goes beyond the information that the digital world offers on a platter. Learning itself, one of life’s most joyful activities now calls forth skills never needed BI –Before IT. Skills like memorizing and remembering, have become far less relevant. Modern skills include adaptability, critical thinking, risk taking and perhaps the ability to innovate. Balancing your needs with needs of others is wisdom. So is finding the right path between long term and short term interests. Is it better to grow paddy or coconut trees? In what proportion and during which years? Good relationships are keys to a good life. The questions: will it build better relationships? Is it beneficial to all? are key questions, testing the wisdom of a solution. So let us do what we can do to become wise. For it is the path to health and wealth.

DARE TO BE YOU....

"Your time is limited; so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary" said Steve Jobs The original is always better than a Xerox. But so many of us try to be what we think others want to see. This is often done by ‘impression management’, creating a public persona which has little to do with the real person. To be ‘yourself’ can be quite frightening, because one becomes very vulnerable to scrutiny by others. To be like everyone else is easy. To conform, to blend in, is so much easier and also so much more boring. How can you celebrate your unique and special qualities? What elementary ideas make you a brand? To enjoy being original, here are a few: • To your own self, be true says philosophers. Understand and accept and love yourself unconditionally. This is the only basis for loving anyone else. • Sometimes the public image can be so real, that no one gets to know the real person. Sometimes you yourself forget who you are! • Trust your gut feeling and intuition. Listen to others but decide by what your inner voice says. The expectations of parents and friends may prevent you from pursuing your own goals. The road less travelled is forgotten. How many potential artists end up being dissatisfied businessmen, denying themselves and the world the enjoyment of their unique creations. • Do not worry about what others think. Many lives have been stunted by living in fear of others’ rules. These rules are often restrictive and may be from a different century, altogether. So listen to yourself. Live a life of fulfilment and joy. Create landmarks, blaze new trails. Be a trendsetter and create magic.

Re-Engineer Your Life

This year take proactive steps to increase happiness in the here and now. Seek out new experiences and adventures. Studies show that even planning to go for a comedy show increases levels of happiness. Even if you make a booking for a new adventure, your mood shifts to a more positive level. Those who read are happier, as are those who play a game. Families who play together find themselves in an improved mood. Tai Chi, or swimming helps replace brain cells lost due to stress. Gardeners are happier than those who live in sterile surroundings and have nothing to do with the earth. Being in the midst of Nature for 20 minutes has a positive effect on well being. A pet, undoubtedly, contributes to wellness. Live near a cheerful friend. There are many easy steps you can take to welcome joy into your space. Get sun in the mornings or late afternoons for a shot of instant well being. Dress up and look your best every day. Smell flowers or spray your home with a floral scent for a shot of instant joy. Citrus scents banish depression. ‘The Lipstick effect’ is so called by women, who swear it raises their spirits. Painting rooms sky blue ushers in a sense of calm. Food has for centuries, been the way to heartfelt happiness. Walnuts, apricots, mushrooms, dark chocolate increases contentedness and caffeine increases dopamine transmission. Seafood, meat and nuts provide zinc and lift your mood. Crunchy foods trigger the release of dopamine and Norepinephrine.. Eating fish boosts the effect of anti-depressants. Iron tablets taken with orange juice is absorbed better. Four or five helping of fruit and vegetables make life more enjoyable. Beans and peas with high magnesium, boost energy. Being grateful for all that we have is key. Buying gifts for others gives more happiness than just craning your shopping bag. Watching your team win in a national game induces a great high. Shutting off social media, can boost your overall well being. So this year you get out of auto-pilot, get up and reach out to a happy 2017

Affirmations for Personal Wellbeing

Affirmations for Personal Wellbeing You are a powerhouse of potential. The great Michelangelo was once asked how he created great statues. Old and half blind, Michelangelo stood before a block of marble, scarred and muddy from the quarries of Carrara. He said quietly, ‘I have never created a statue. I just stand before a block of marble and study it with reverence. For I know that within every block of marble, there lies a statue, waiting to be liberated by the touch of the Master’s hand.’ Within each of us lies hidden a masterpiece waiting to be liberated by the magic touch of attention. Only you can do it. Be your own ‘expert’. Do not build negative ideas about yourself through the comments of others. Your self-talk should be calm, happy and elevating. Choose to see and hear what is beautiful and encouraging. When you are wounded, learn to soothe yourself by using these affirmations. (Sit with eyes closed and silently affirm) By nature I am kind, gentle and loving. Any mistake committed is unintentional and I forgive myself and others for it. God’s grace has created a magic circle of love, a safe haven for me and my loved ones. I am capable of achieving my goals with hard work and dedication. I look around me for help and knowledge to reach my goals. I seek companions who encourage and help me.

Happy Vacations

Just thinking and planning a vacation can create a higher level of happiness. Anticipating a holiday boosts happiness for 8 weeks. A holiday makes you feel like a child set free after gruelling examination schedules. Enjoy the 8 weeks prior to your holiday. Google everything on the destination, buy a good book on it. Invest in a Berlitz dictionary. Study each of the places you are going to visit. Learn important phrases in the new language and talk to friends who have been there. Pack light. Make sure all your travel papers and insurance is in order. About the vacation itself: make sure you eliminate all the stress you can avoid. Make sure you are carefully protected from financial uncertainty. Disagreements with a travel partner or illness are the main reasons for increased stress on a holiday. Try to find a helpful contact in that country. When you return, keep a couple of days free so that you can de-stress, get over your jet lag and ease into your normal schedule. Get extra help during this time, if you need it. Work should not pile up, waiting for you to clear it. Those, who felt very relaxed on their vacation, reported a post vacation level of happiness that lasted for two weeks. Vacations certainly make people happy and a break always helps. Choose a time when the weather is good. Pick dates when work is slow and alternate arrangements have been made to handle your work during your absence. Vacations are a good time to reflect and plan changes in the future. Keep the pace slow and easy. Make sure that you don’t need a rest cure once you return. Have clear contingency plans Several small trips may be better than one long trip. Talking about it and discussing it with others can enhance your happiness. So happy holidays! Take a break, bond with your family. Make the most of it, and return rejuvenated and full of energy. Dr. Rekha Shetty Author of “Everyday Happiness Mantras” and And “Happy Street”

Execute, communicate and train

Implement like an Innovation Star. This is the day to make a final presentation to all the teams in the presence of top management. Get feedback from all stakeholders and respond to concerns. It is a good idea to leave the plan to be studied by all participants. Each can peacefully reflect on it, internalize it. This is the time to get the resource budget cleared. All participants and stakeholders must now receive a clear communication on what to expect. Here it is important to note the process-- communication has to be long term, continuous and consistent. Human resources professionals and problem owners must ensure that the necessary training modules are implemented and their efficacy measured. Management systems implementation should now kick in. The management information system to ensure clear measurement of action should be available to all players. The website and other internet support systems should be properly administered by a webmaster to ensure the seamless flow of information where possible. A regularly produced e-bulletin would help. Knowledge, information and wisdom are important. ‘Know How’ is essential, but ‘do how’ is just as important. Teams by now have dived into the messy business of how to implement what they have chosen as solutions. They have created plans and strategies and worked co-operatively and negotiated the best route to take. Action now becomes the priority.

Complete the Action Matrix

Study your Action Matrix and let every team state its goals clearly and understand that goal. The Innovation Champion can put together the whole matrix filled by different teams and circulate it. The innovation process is an enjoyable process. The teams have had a chance to design an implementation action plan. It is probably a course of action, which has the fingerprints of all participants. This naturally ensures the buy-in of the team. The most important part of this process is that it integrates the viewpoints of all stakeholders and turns spectators into participants. This is about win-win solutions. It is about collaboration compromise and co-operation. It takes into account how people think and feel and acknowledges their need for affirmation and nurturing. The action matrix is the map to be followed in implementation.

Build your Cultural Capital

Culture is to human beings what the purity of water is to a fish. It defines the quality of life, its beauty and ease. Culture is of course, undergoing change as tradition collides with fashion. It was Gandhiji who said “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” Cultural vitality ensures that you have strong roots that bind you to the living earth of tradition, while allowing the winds, birds, rain and storms of change to transform you. • Act. For instance wearing of the beautiful saree is becoming rare. There is a Chennai based movement urging women to wear sarees 100 times a year! This would support all the weavers and artisans connected with this unique 6 yards of beautiful material. Use things in the kitchen from your grandmother’s time. Jewellery: pass it down through the generations. • Document old customs, photographs and record digitally, old furniture, artifacts, pictures. Circulate family jokes, stories, recipes and interviews digitally and harvest worldwide inputs. • Learn and discuss religious and spiritual traditions. Look at the meaning of sacred texts and ceremonies, rather than just accept without understanding them. • The Maoris have created ‘language nests’ to help their young to learn their distinctive mother tongue. Indians in the US have ‘Sunday school’ to teach Hinduism to their kids. Some languages like mine, Tulu, have no script. They need to be spoken. Record it on tape; see if people can learn it digitally. • Preserve old customs. • Get together to record cook and eat old world food from your family’s past during Diwali or Pongal • Spend time with members of your community on a regular basis. Events can be in your city, nationwide or even worldwide. Being part of building cultural vitality can make you more participative and build your precious social capital.

Review the outcome

During implementation review the outcome. Be aware of the end before you take the first step. Unify your teams by hitching them to the ultimate goal. Top management should inspire and empower the teams to action. A team bonding exercise getting everyone to see a bird’s eye view of the exercise is critical. Review the Resource for every team. Consolidate the reviews if the resources being used are adequate. Study the impact on the expected outcome. Ensure that the process is moving towards the final outcome: reducing costs, increasing revenues, improving customer satisfaction and ensuring greater employee participation.

Cross Functional Teams (CFT)

These teams help break down turf protection. However, they need to be carefully managed. Just including people from many departments does not automatically make a CFT more effective. Too much information can just confuse everybody. Clarity of goals and top management support as well as recognition and rewards are critical to the process. Managing cross-functional teams is one of the challenges of new product development. Yet, how members from different functional areas come together, interact, and arrive at consensus, is a poorly understood process.

Cross Functional Teams (CFT)

These teams help break down turf protection. However, they need to be carefully managed. Just including people from many departments does not automatically make a CFT more effective. Too much information can just confuse everybody. Clarity of goals and top management support as well as recognition and rewards are critical to the process. Managing cross-functional teams is one of the challenges of new product development. Yet, how members from different functional areas come together, interact, and arrive at consensus, is a poorly understood process.

Save the Oceans

That Mount Kailash the home of the Gods and even Everest, is littered with plastic garbage, is common knowledge. But unseen, in the depths of the beautiful blue ocean, more than 8 million tonnes of plastic is dumped, every year. This is fuelled by our ‘disposable’ life style. Everything including throw away wedding gowns have ensured that most plastic items are thrown away after just one use. It is estimated that more than 1 million plastic bags are used every minute, many of them ending up in the ocean. ‘No water, no life. No blue, no green’, writes Dr. Sylvia Earle. A plastic bags average ‘work life’ is just 15 minutes. Plastics are not bio-degradable. In the ocean, plastic doe not dissolve or disintegrate. They remain to affect human health. The movement of waves tears them into tiny pieces which are eaten by fish and sea mammals who slowly choke and die a lingering painful death. They are then eaten by birds and human. The chemicals are also released into air and water. Plastics contain lead, cadmium, mercury and carcinogens like DEHP and BPA. An average person produces half a pound of plastic waste every day. How can we be more responsible about cleaning up after ourselves? Huge plastic islands have been created because of ocean flows. The great Pacific Garbage Patch is larger than the State of Texas. Five such patches have been discovered. What can we do to protect the oceans? • Buy a cloth or paper bag • Choose products packaged in bio-degradable materials. • A predominantly fish diet is a hazard • Be responsible for disposal of your garbage • Recycle plastic God gave us the infinite oceans. Let us save them before it is too late!

Flexibility and adaptability is key to Innovation

Adapting to change and proactively responding to opportunities are daunting tasks. Top management needs to handhold teams through these risky processes. Failures need to be dealt with in a way that protects and encourages risk taking. Only CEOs can provide the time and resources required for companies to be outwardly focused, scanning the environment of competitors, customers, academicians, suppliers and even different industries. Such companies have a better chance of becoming innovation stars. CEOs can provide courage, zest, enthusiasm and speed to the whole organization. It is this energy that will drive an Innovation Initiative. Large, traditional companies have a tendency to become more bureaucratic. Bureaucracy produces politics, red tape and power struggles. People find a hundred rules to protect themselves from acting. This can repress the natural energy and enthusiasm of the organization. CEOs can prevent this deadening disease.

Consistent Innovation

Once the returns from an innovation start to pour in, the organization may begin to focus on maximizing the returns through routine implementation. Harvesting is a mechanical and essential process. Perhaps every organization requires a section of its people to focus on creativity and innovation. An Innovation Center could provide the foundation for a long-term initiative. Large, tradition bound, successful organizations, tend to prefer the stability that formalized procedures provide. Older organizations tend to become more bureaucratic. Large companies may have more resources, while smaller companies may find it easier to change course. Even though most companies accept the idea of innovation being important for success, most are not committed enough to practice it on a long-term basis. Most are not aware of the underlying process required to make it work on a consistent basis. In the Innovation Movement itself, there are not enough clearly defined structures and processes that a company could follow. There are few consultant organizations, which can handhold and support long-term innovation initiatives. There is a feeling that innovation and creativity is for intellectuals or geniuses. Innovation as a concept needs to be demystified for use across the organization. Management is bottom-line driven. They are extremely result oriented in the short term and lose faith in concepts very fast. Innovation is a concept that requires a long-term buy-in and takes time to be fully ingrained in the organizational culture.

YOGIC HARMONY

Innovation champion

An innovation champion, accredited to be a Four Ace MindsPower trainer with the necessary training and attitude, is critical to the success of the Innovation Initiative. The champion should have Innovation facilitators in every department. In addition, leaders of innovation spirals hold together the structural network required for the process to work. Top management support and empowerment of the champion are needed to provide autonomy and delegation, which are key to innovation.

Hold back desertification

It is said that early civilizations around the Nile, Tigris, Europhrates, Indus and the Yellow river were all destroyed due to soil degradation and soil erosion, leading to food scarcity and starvation. In the first Sahara African drought, 2,00,000 people and millions of their animals died. China grew a Great Green Wall with 66,000,000,000 trees to prevent the desert from advancing. American farmers did the same in the 1930s to stop the advance of the Mid West Dust Bowl. Jojoba plantations, have played a role in combating the effects of desertification in the Thar Desert, India. Green belts are the best way to protect fertile land and prevent desertification My city Chennai should be called the ‘Blue City’ because it is on the sea coast and blessed with 134 lakes and three rivers. Unfortunately, all these water bodies are polluted or drying up. On June 17th the world celebrates World Day to Combat Desertification and drought. It is no surprise that this year, all 32 districts of my state, Tamil Nadu have been declared drought striken. In our case, this problem has arisen because of human activities. Desertification as a process has become a global ecological problem. Deserts appear as a result of natural processes. But many times desertification is man made. This leads to the loss of water bodies denuding of vegetation and the death of wildlife. It happens as a result of greed and misuse of natural resources... So plant at least 12 trees a year. Get involved in the protection and cleaning of a water body. Refuse to consider living in building being built on a reclaimed lake. Promote sustainable agricultural practices. Buy food from those who promote such practices. Invest in helping people continue to live in villages, instead of triggering large scale migration to cities, due to poverty. The success of Rajinder Singh India’s water man, also called ‘Water Gandhi’ in the deserts of Rajastan prove that these processes are reversible through proper practices of water management. Much of this happens due to human induced land degradation. He leads villagers in the footsteps of their ancestors to bring dormant rivers back to life. The key is participatory community action, empowerment of women and linking indigenous knowhow with scientific technologies.

Emergence-Growth-Decay-Death

Focus on innovation, may rescue an organization in the declining phase of the organizational life cycle. Re-innovation or renovation becomes important when an old, traditional company goes into decline. The first phase is often entrepreneurial and innovative with a sudden burst of energy capturing a new space in the market. This creative phase is terminated in a leadership crisis. It was Schumpeter who said, “It is rare for anyone always to remain an entrepreneur throughout the decades of his active life.” This cycle progresses from entrepreneurship to an organization that becomes slow and complacent.

Key Elements in an Innovation Initiative

1. Stimulating Identifying people to be included in innovation initiative Help in selecting projects for creative problem solving Making available teams to work on projects 2. Nurturing Officially recognize the teams and scope of activity. Schedule presentation to top management Provide a budget, Organize Innovation symposiums. Provide space and time for innovation spirals to meet 3. Sustaining Start a MINDSPOWER club to meet once a month. Give innovation awards Celebrate good ideas. Prepare reports and publish success stories Use the innovation club for self development 4. Reinstating Communicate results of Innovation Initiative Have annual awards for Best Teams

Organizational Culture and the Emphasis on Innovation

Without the oxygen of support and applause, ideas often die in infancy. The creativity improvement program can be the foundation that enables all other company programs to be effective. There are a number of steps to ensure that the program encourages innovation. IBM whose motto is ‘Think,’ believes in ‘More intellect, less materials.’

Working with Wild Ideas

A germinal idea requires the sanctuary of a mindspace that is totally nurturing. It requires a space to grow so that its wildness is not nipped in the bud. Who knows what weed will become the coffee bush? Develop sanctuaries for wild ideas. Let the wilderness flourish in a totally non-threatening atmosphere. Let the ideas grow high and tall. Leave all pruning for later. New ideas need to play freely, like crawling, naked babies with no discipline. Suspend judgment, postpone reaction, extend effort. Hindustan Lever has its innovation centers. Cognizant has budgets for its mavericks and no stop signs within those budget allocations. Ask all participants to make an impossible wish – zero cost, zero rejections or doubling productivity. Then proceed to tame them bit by bit by using the innovation tools already learnt, like 6M. This process can be extended as you learn all the tools. So, go ahead and spend time setting impossible goals and developing wild ideas.

Idea generation

‘For every problem there is a solution that is simple, attractive... and wrong’. Beware of obvious solutions!’ Arthur Clarke It is worth remembering here, that the rules for thinking are totally different from the rules for doing. You can set up a 100 million dollar factory in your mind, study the mathematical implications and destroy it without losing a single dollar. However, as soon as the first brick is physically laid, or the first employee hired, you start losing money. Do not analyze your thoughts during idea generation. Remove all boundaries. Apply analysis only in the fourth stage of the creative thinking process. It is ideal to train trainers in the thinking tools and then encourage them to deliver training to the teams.

Product Development – in the marketplace

When you take the germinal product into a protected test market observe the way it is used by the customer. Try different versions of it, if possible. For example, Godrej are carrying out hands on experiments with customers in different retail formats whilst developing furniture that customers can accept as easily as the furniture made by the local carpenter. Use the following map to recreate your product. This map can help you identify key elements in product development. Use existing facilities to refine products in the market place. Once a new product idea germinates, it needs time and space to grow and develop that idea. Insist that unfamiliar, strange, unusual elements are developed. Support the Champion, tone down the attackers. Work on taking it to market fast on a small investment with the possibility of a profit. Don’t try to create the perfect product in the lab. The immediate reaction is often to remove all elements that make a product new and different. Most groups will rush to protect familiar aspects of the product and if it is wild idea there will be a concerted rush to domesticate it and retain its old and familiar attributes. Fiercely protect the wildness of the idea by enclosing it in a sanctuary. Allow it to roam free in the sanctuary for a few days. Don’t touch it. Remember if everyone loves an idea, it is probably 200 years old!

Test Product Specifications in the Competitive Marketplace

Let your teams use this map to help create an experiment in the market place. Carefully calibrate the product creating a careful balance between what the customer wants and what the competitive market will bear. On a new product, make small investments. Change and react to what happens in the market place. Like a potter uses his hands to shape wet clay, refine your product as it makes its way tentatively through the market place. Remember, a kite can only be tested when it flies. Don’t keep your product too long in the laboratory, launch it, test it and improve it as you go along. Be hungry for early profits. Let the product evolve to achieve customer delight.

Service is the differentiator

Whilst the product or service may be quite similar it is possible to differentiate your product by offering a unique service. Airlines may be the same, but Kingfisher Airlines differentiates itself with the way helpers take care of your luggage -- the way the passenger is treated as a ‘guest’. Hospitals may be the same, but ‘Our working is an offering to God’ motto at the Satya Sai Hospital in Whitefield Bangalore differentiates it from more commercial institutions. Use this diagram to revisit existing product service packages and explore how you can further differentiate your product or service. Action: Explore services that can make your product unique.

Relationships – Revisit, Review, Relate

Building relationships, with suppliers, customers, press and other stake holders, is key to the success of your innovation initiative. They cannot be built overnight, only when we need help. Relationships have to be a carefully nurtured 365 days a year exercise. The web of relationships creates the networking required for success in problem solving. Great relationships with your stake holders make the process of achieving ‘stretch’ goals interesting and exciting. So make this day for the 3 Rs - Revisit, Review, and Relate. Revisit the mission statement of your company and review the progress of the projects with special reference to building and enhancing relationships : • Within the commando teams • Between Innovation spirals • Between the steering committee and the spirals Make sure that there is no turf protection.

Know the customer: Face to Face

Knowing the customer is a long term process. Keeping your finger on the pulse of customer trends can ensure consistent profits. Here are some of the systems that could help build and understand lifetime relationships with the customer. Encourage the teams to go out and meet customers. Let them get a hands on experience of how customers really think. Let them organize in-house interviews and focus groups with customers. Interviews and focus groups can give a lot of information. They can help customer’s participate in reinventing processes and products. Management by walking about (MBWA) is the hands on way to find out what the customer feels day to day. Research and surveys give you information. But customer aspirations and fashions change. Those who are not in close touch with their customers may be too late to react to new trends. Barrack Obama became President of the United States by contacting 5 million people on the internet. He collected far more funding than powerful old timers like Senator Mc Cain and Hillary Clinton. Raw data needs to be interpreted in terms of customer needs. The way McDonald’s responded to change in the attitude to health and concerns about obesity by providing low fat and salad meals shows a proactive attitude to change in customer needs and tastes. This naturally leads to protecting profits. The concern for the environment is another issue where the auto industry has to take customer focused decisions. During an economic down turn does a big gas guzzling car become almost vulgar? Are people ready for electric cars? Is the Rs. 1 lakh Tata Nano poised to grab world markets? Study the needs hierarchy. Is it true that on the brink of the economic precipice, people are more concerned about surviving, than about impressing the neighbours? There is a whole new economics of recession. Study the emerging trends and get advice from experts. Reflect on your findings. Study broad demographic changes and question where a global major should invest? In India with its largest number of young people or China with its aging population? How should Indian companies change their strategies to deal with the explosive youth power? Will inexpensive luxuries become more popular?

Focus on markets ignored by others

‘Empowering people is the most effective way to create profitable companies’ says Mr. Thyagarajan, legendary founder of the Shriram Group of Companies in Chennai. He brought workers into management, spent a lot of face time with them. ‘They made it happen,’ he says. His methods are simple.  Cut out all non value added activities  Engage each one of the workers, including the contract labour, by uniting them for a common cause. ‘How can you solve the problem with the same tools that caused them?’ He brought in a good CEO and made him accountable. The strategy worked and profits began to flow in. ‘I always found people who could do things. Then I empowered them and left them alone!’ Shriram Chit Funds was started in 1974 with 4 chit fund companies focusing on truck operators. Now, its volume of business is Rs.27,000 crores. They have 1,000 offices dealing with all areas of finance. Mr Thyagarajan proudly states ‘We have an emotional bond with 20 lakh customers over the years.’ When asked why he started with 4 companies at a time when Small Business Units (SBUs) were not popular, he explains, ’Each area had a CEO who had total freedom. Growth was faster, because each CEO felt more energized. We, south Indians are suspicious of anyone who grows too fast. This strategy also kept the company out of envy’s radar. I was able to call forth a “Start-up” attitude. Once I was sure of the leadership, I maintained an attitude of tolerance towards mistakes’. The SBUs worked very well and grew quickly.

Keep in touch with Customers

Customer creativity enables the company to negotiate new products with customers. It is the kind of process that reinvents the future. For instance, customers were not even aware of the possibility of a Walkman. Only an intense negotiation between top management, manufacturing and customers could have created it. Customer interaction can be induced by the following: • Management by Walking About (MBWA) is the most appropriate way to ensure that the customer’s voice is built into products and processes. • Advisory committees of opinion leaders can be an effective method of keeping one’s finger on the pulse of public opinion. • Focus group interviews to enable customers to explore ideas with skilled facilitators, trained to go below the surface of suggestions and complaints.

Innovation mind bytes

 Be willing to test ideas in the market and correct them in the market place. Don’t wait for perfection on the drawing board. An idea is like a kite. Fly it, to test it in the wind.  Keep a low key. As the Zen thinkers say, be like an underground stream, not like a rocky mountain face. Competitors are alerted and more likely to attack a mountain.  Co-operate instead of confronting.  Keep initial budgets small.  Reach out for low hanging fruits. Be hungry for results.  Be impatient for profits.  Learn in the ruthless university of the marketplace.  Reach for the untouched and the unreached. As first mover, make full use of your advantage.  Be patient with teething problems. De-bug as you go along.  Good is the enemy of Better.

Understand the Environment of Creativity

The value system of a company can provide the environment for creativity. People can do their best if their work is: ‘Good for the country, employees, customers.’ Or as the Honda mission statement puts it ‘Joy to the employee, joy to the customer and joy to the country’. The typical corporate atmosphere is competitive and ruthless. People rush to satisfy their selfish desires for glory and the limelight. Anyone standing in the way is viewed with anger and hatred. In such an environment, the individual uses 50% of energy protecting his ego and his turf. So much energy is wasted on one-upmanship and putting others down. The ability of the group to function is therefore severely compromised. How much better to work in the nurturing environment? Here a person does not feel the separation between himself and others. He wants others to do as well as himself. He competes only with himself in the search for excellence. He acknowledges the champion in everybody. The person does not develop a single-minded infatuation with his own ideas but accepts the reality that others also can have great ideas. It is important to understand that we can have a win-win environment. In such an environment everyone will be willing to take risks and go through the process of failures. He knows that in an experiment, there are no failures - only feedback.

Preserving Forests and Water

The recent cyclone in Chennai, Vardha last December, uprooted 100 year old trees and turned green Chennai to a sad brown town. Unless each of us makes an effort to replace these portable oxygen factories, Chennai and its environment will suffer a shortage of rain and shade. Forests cover 1/3 of the earth’s surface. They sustain 1.6 billion people as a source of livelihood. More than 80% of all creatures, animals, plants and insects live in these forests. Yet 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed every year and account for 20% of the global green house gas emissions. The World Bank’s starting point now is to ask how can practices that have often led to significant forest degradation, tax evasion and corruption, be reformed, so that forests contribute more revenue to the State, produce more and better jobs, and result in more sustainable development? Forests are critical for the planet’s supply of water through rain. Their roots protect ground water supply while preventing soil erosion. Forest watersheds and wetlands supply 75% of the world’s fresh water supplying, one third of our cities drinking water. Forests act as natural water filters. Manoel Sobral Filho, Director of the UN Forum for Forests, speaks of massive growth of populations in Africa and Asia reaching 8.4billion people in 15 years. Some of the world’s largest cities depend on our forest water resources: Durban, Jakarta, Rio De Janeiro, Bogota, New York and Madrid. 75% of all fresh water is provided through forest catchments. Over 42% of the world’s workforces are heavily water dependent. Forests are a natural safety net during famine providing fruits, leaves, grains, nuts, timber and wood. After the devastating floods on the Yangtze river in China, reforestation using economically productive trees like chestnut, ginko and bamboo, helped boost average annual income by 150% between 1998 and 2014. In Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley, forest co-operatives were used to encourage natural regeneration by limiting wood, charcoal and fodder extraction. This improved water availability for 65000 people. Physical and financial security of communities can be greatly enhanced by growing more trees and regenerating forests. In Liberia, timber was once used to buy weapons and fuel. Today forest co-operatives have changed everything. So every year, plan to plant one tree a month in a protected area in your house, in a school or a community centre. Take your own steps to preserve water and planet earth. Dr. Rekha Shetty Water Warrior

Set and Share Your Goals

Work life is so pervasive that often all other aspects of the individual whither away. A key challenge, when companies are tracking stretch goals is maintaining work life balance. Top management would also benefit from attending this presentation. Let each person set their personal goals for the year and share it with a buddy who will work with them for the next 90 days. Let them become familiar with the 4 quadrants of their lives. Here are some key suggestions. 1. Can Saturday be a day when child friendly facilities are provided? A facilitator creates a Kid power day at ICICI. 2. How can families be involved to support organizational goals? 3. Can social life be improved by corporate social responsibility activities? Try getting everyone to participate in a tree planting day. 4. Can the team be taught Yoga and Meditation? 5. Is a corporate gym or membership to one, like yearlong matches (cricket or Kho Kho) be a possibility. 6. Can a counsellor be on call or can volunteer staff members be trained as counsellors? 7. How can the company enable individual talents to flower. How about a monthly ‘Talent Evening’?

Building Co-operation within the company

Encourage top management to observe signs of conflict and co-operation. You can understand whether a company is doing well by :  The look in the people’s eyes.  The way they walk  The quality of the interaction.  You can see the effect of the positive field by how people help each other and share information. Constraint, Control and Compliance, reduces the positive field. Top down – constraints – cuts out the joy Bosses should exist to help people win. Explore co-operation within the organization. Identify conflicts and ask for suggestions to defuse them. Walk around the departments to identify potential problem areas. Encourage small group discussion and bonding.

Avoiding Negativity

The change management module provides an opportunity to share information of ways to avoid the negative field. Some of our careless phrases destroy ideas, unconsciously. Remove the negative emotions like anger, fear and revulsion from the team, like thorns from your foot.  Rewarding team creativity enhances teamwork  Share interesting articles.  Appreciate and award good performance even in bad times – this will keep employee morale high  Make every meal an enjoyable experience: improve the place, make it clear colourful and musical. Set dishes out attractively and chew slowly to appreciate the full flavour of the foods you eat.

Design communications

Ensure that all stake holders start with the same assumptions about what is required. Often each member of the team has limited knowledge about the product, thus reducing his chances of achieving success. They are like the six blind men and the elephant. Each touched a different part of the elephant and mentally imagined the elephant like a fan, a pillar and a large pipe. Some thinking tools like 6M help all stake holders to have a unified vision of the product. Communication needs to be clear and consistent. The mode of communication should be relevant to the participants. There is no point using e-mail, if when most have no access to the internet. The communication should create excitement. The Innovation Initiative for young executives in Ashok Leyland was kicked off with a contest. The prize an I-Pod. The communication should encourage response. Communication about problems can be through Ideation Corners, where participants are encouraged to write their solutions. Usable solutions should be shared and rolled out across the organization.

TAPPING STAKEHOLDER CREATIVITY (TSC)

Tapping stakeholder creativity (TSC) involves facilitating intense discussion and problem solving between stake holders to reinvent future products and processes. It is a radical new approach which enables companies to include the customers’ or vendors’ voice in developing a product, activity or service and encourages the TSC a tool that involves inventing or shaping the future together with customers. and is a radical new approach. As this is an unique innovation tool that helps synthesize the ideas of two or more groups with different viewpoints. It enables different teams of the company to participate with internal or external customers in creatively developing the future. TCC enables us to include the customer's voice in developing a product activity or service. This would be ensured by training all participants in creative problem solving , a process which will help achieve continuous improvement as well as quantum change on occasions. Vendors can rewrite the profit picture of a company by practicing Just In Time Management, quality improvement programmes and innovation initiatives.

Communication – listening for ideas

While listening to someone who speak, the mind is constantly being stimulated or triggered into thoughts of its own. These thoughts are sometimes directly related to what is being said and often apparently unrelated. Once the mind has been stimulated we tend to give attention to what is going on in the ‘“meeting in the your mind’” (often more interesting than the public one) and ‘“drop out’” of listening to the speaker. Often we will actually be “rehearsing” a response to something the speaker has said, only half listening to the speaker whilst, waiting for an opportunity to make our comment. The mind is a vast library of information, past experiences and connections, most of which are outside our conscious memory. Thoughts which are stimulated or triggered in the mind when we are listening to someone speak are actually trying to tell us something. We are taught from an early age that we must always concentrate and not allow our minds to wander. This is the correct way to listen in certain situations. For example if I am listening to directions to get somewhere, I need to listen intently to understand and capture what is being said.

MEETINGS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

Meetings can waste a lot of time or they can provide an effective way to harvest ideas and ensure buy-in thus empowering the group to achieve greater levels of productivity. Meetings can be an empowering experience if handled well. The effectiveness of a meeting can be enhanced by 1) Having a clear goal for the meeting 2) Circulating the agenda in advance to ensure preparation 3) Having a system to make sure everyone is heard using thinking tools like 6M 4) Recording and implementing decisions and using good ideas 5) Being open to feedback and fresh ideas

Identify Top Management SupportIt is critical that the innovation initiative is completely supported at the top step by step. Successful innovation requires enormous patience, resources and faith. It is tough without top management support. One of the reasons why innovation initiatives fail, is because of the start-stop effect when there is no long term commitment from the top. Innovation initiatives often become the target of budget cuts at the first sign of trouble.  Score boards should measure progress and celebrate winners.  Involve top management through regular presentations.  They should be part of the steering committee and monthly reviews.  The innovation melas should showcase innovation and innovators.  The cost benefit resulting from innovations should be regularly highlighted.  Thinking tools should be used at the highest levels. It is important to initially choose actions that lead to fast, obvious results. Keep the investments low, use existing resources. Highlight and celebrate small successes. This creates excitement around the Initiative. Honour achievers. Encourage the workforce through motivating posters. Post results on scoreboards so that the whole organization can track progress.

It is critical that the innovation initiative is completely supported at the top step by step. Successful innovation requires enormous patience, resources and faith. It is tough without top management support. One of the reasons why innovation initiatives fail, is because of the start-stop effect when there is no long term commitment from the top. Innovation initiatives often become the target of budget cuts at the first sign of trouble.  Score boards should measure progress and celebrate winners.  Involve top management through regular presentations.  They should be part of the steering committee and monthly reviews.  The innovation melas should showcase innovation and innovators.  The cost benefit resulting from innovations should be regularly highlighted.  Thinking tools should be used at the highest levels. It is important to initially choose actions that lead to fast, obvious results. Keep the investments low, use existing resources. Highlight and celebrate small successes. This creates excitement around the Initiative. Honour achievers. Encourage the workforce through motivating posters. Post results on scoreboards so that the whole organization can track progress.