Matthew E May (who wrote about Toyota’s production system in his book, In Pursuit Of Elegance) has some nice tips for innovation. My favorite is the first on his list of 10 tips for unleashing innovation:
“Let Learning Lead. Learning and innovation go hand in hand, but learning comes first. Learning is defined as the creation of new knowledge through experimentation.”
Things they do in Toyota’s IT Department that are a bit different:
Do What The Boss Says, Or Not: It’s not what you would expect to find at a Japanese company, but at Toyota employees are encouraged to “Pick a friendly fight”. Employees are encouraged to speak up and contradict what their bosses have told them to do. Don’t do what your boss told you to do just because he/she told you to do it!
[via The Business of IT]
Jim at the Business of IT writes The Secret To Toyota’s Success Lies In Its Corporate Culture:
Here’s the part that so many companies that study Toyota miss: at Toyota they don’t believe that efficiency by itself can guarantee that Toyota will be a success. Instead, Toyota believes that its long-term success lies in its workers. It believes that the wisdom of its workers is what will allow it to improve.
Since its workers are its knowledge repositories, Toyota takes the time to invest in its workers and in its organizational capabilities. This is not a one-way street. Instead, Toyota is also open to new ideas no matter where they come from: production, development, sales, etc.
Matthew E. May, author of Elegant Solutions: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation, writes in his paper “Mind of the Innovator: Taming the Traps of Traditional Thinking” [pdf] about the Sins of Solutions.
There are some good stories in there, I particularly liked those accompanied by sin #6 Complicating, and sin #7 Stifling. A good quick read when you have the time.
Matthew E. May, who wrote The Elegant Solution Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation, reports that:
“researchers found that workers who used instant messaging on the job reported less interruption than colleagues who did not.”
Which is absolutely amazing because it’s the exact opposite of conventional wisdom. I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve heard shoot down IM because it’s “more ways for people to interrupt me”.
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