This are the notes from an Employee Led Innovation Lecture I gave recently to the MBA class at the National University of Ireland , Galway

1. Employee Led Innovation
ADiscussion

2. Many Sources of Innovation
• R&D Driven Innovation
• User Led Innovation
• Open Innovation
• Social Innovation
• Employee Led Innovation

3. Employee Led Innovation – What do I mean
Employee-Led Innovation
• Not just “R&D” employees or Management driven
• Bottom up
• Systematic, cultural not ad-hoc
• Driven by Engaged Employees
• Creating continuously, renewing organisations
Employee-Led Innovation
Doing something that goes beyond your job description.
Takes you away from your paid day-job (or from your free time), in order to try
something new that offers uncertain pay-offs, at some future time to your
employer.

4. Why renew?
Creativity

5. Employee Led Innovation
Knowledge/
Information
Research
Knowledge
User/Customer
Knowledge
Process
Knowledge
Absorbed/Filtered/Re-imagined by employees to
create new knowledge
Employee
creativity
New Process
New Product
Let employees have access to knowledge, encourage wide diverse knowledge
sets, joint problem solving
Employee led innovation is built on good Knowledge Management!

6. KnowledgeManagement – Make Knowledge
Productive
Data
C4H8O4
NaHCO3
NaCl
C12H22O11
C9H14O6
C12H22O11
C6H12O3N2
C8H8O3
C4H8O4
Wisdom
Which
ingredients
can be
substituted
to meet
Customer
tastes and
preferences
Information
Flour (100g)
Baking Soda (1tsp)
Salt (pinch)
Sugar (100g)
Butter (50g)
Brown Sugar(50g)
Eggs (2)
Vanilla(1tsp)
Chocolate Chips
Knowledge
Preheat oven to
375°F. Stir flour
with baking soda
set aside … …
tablespoon of
dough per
cookie … … Bake
at 375°F for 9 to
11 minutes or
until golden
brown.
Know How Know
Why
Knowledge Management is about making knowledge productive. Can you act on the
knowledge you possess?
!

7. Employee Led Innovation
1. Built on Good Knowledge Management
2. What other characteristics should
Organisations and Employees possess?


8. Organisation Characteristics
• Leadership – Leaders at all levels must open gates
and encourage learning, skill sharing and
knowledge creation. Create a passion for cutting
edge knowledge
• Encourage Iteration in Activities – activities are
never perfected, they need constant attention,
like garden. How can we do this better?
• Tight coupling between complimentary skills –
create interfaces between specialist groups to
allow information flow without eroding deep
reservoirs of knowledge that create capabilities.

9. Employee Characteristics
• Enthusiasm for Knowledge - curious
employees seek information and create
knowledge.
• Drive to stay ahead in Knowledge - want to
access latest and best technology wherever it
originates
• Higher Order Learning – Understand “Why”
not just how of activities
Enthusiastic and engaged employees work longer and tend to be more creative.
!

10. Employee Led Innovation
1. Build on Good Knowledge Management
2. Employee & Organisational Characteristics
3. How to cultivate/Enable Employee led
Innovation?



11. Key Enablers of Employee Led
Innovation
• Time Out — to give employees the space in their working day for creative
thought, reflection & the opportunity to create new Knowledge
• Expansive Roles — to help employees move beyond the confines of their
assigned job
• Competitions — to stimulate action and to get the creative juices flowing
• Open Forums — to give employees a sense of direction and to foster
collaboration.
Birkenshaw 2013
• Create a climate of Experimentation & Shared Problem Solving
• Support Intelligent Failure – recognise that failure builds knowledge
Leonard-Barton 2005

12. • Set parameters without stifling creativity
• Get employees to contribute - Motivations
• Idea Overload
• Idea Quality
• Evaluating Ideas – Published Criteria
• Selecting ideas – Fair & Transparent
Challenges to Overcome

13. How to Manage Employee Led
Innovation
• You need a process/a system
– Methodology to bring an idea through feasibility
to implementation
• Should be scientific (evidence based)
• Should quickly and cheaply validate ideas
• Adapted to your Innovation strategy
• Proposer answers focused questions
Try Lean Canvas/Business Canvas
Try the Lean Startup Methodology
You need to let the employee have ownership of the idea!
!
!

14. Examples - Competitions
• In July Sony launched First Flight, a
crowdfunding website selling ideas its staff
generated.
• Concepts range from e-paper watches to
adaptive remote controls https://first-
flight.sony.com/
00 Month 2014 Document title 14

15. Examples – Time Out
• Adobe Kickbox
– “If somebody is excited enough to do it, we want
to fund it”
– … more cost effective to let all workers pursue
their ideas and then see which ideas pan out.
set of instructions to "beat" the box,
a Bic pen,
two sets of Post-it notes,
a timer,
a Staples mini notebook for "Bad Ideas,"
a slightly larger spiral notebook,
a World Market caramel and sea salt chocolate bar,
a $10 Starbucks gift card.
$1000 pre-paid Citi Bank Card

16. Examples – Expansive Roles
• Chaparal Steel – employees experimentation
with a new rolling mill it’s vendor believed was
limited to 8-inch slabs is producing 14-inch
slabs
• Vendor wanted to buy back the design
• Culture of learning, shared problem solving.
• Decisions pushed down to lowest possible
supervisory level – “where the knowledge is”
• Constant formal & informal experimentation

17. Examples - Enablers
• Met Office
– Employee led, spare-time alliance to research innovation
in business
– Now embedded in HR
• Idea Street – On-line forum share/collaborate/comment
• Innovative Workspaces – relaxed, adaptive space for teams,
encouraging creativity
• Creative facilitation – Trained facilitators encourage creativity
and innovation on projects
• ThinkUP Academy – One day creativity training courses
• Outreach – University Partnerships
• Hack days – Shared problem solving

18. Resources
• Lean Startup – Eric Ries
• Lean Business Canvas – Ash Maurya
• Deep Smarts – Dorothy Leonard & Walter
Swap
• Wellsprings of Knowledge – Dorothy Leonard
• www.createtomorrow.co.uk