TMI Vorlesung 4 Teil 2

surface failure early, before it has mushroomed into disaster

Although many methods of surfacing current and pending failures exist, they are grossly underutilized

teaching people in an organization when to declare defeat in an experimental course of action

“Failure parties”

go beyond the obvious reasons to understand the root causes

• examining failures is emotionally unpleasant and can chip away at our self-esteem

• analyzing failures requires inquiry and openness, patience, and a tolerance for causal ambiguity

• we tend to downplay our responsibility and place undue blame on external or situational factors

interdisciplinary teams

strategically produce failure through systematic experimentation

Every failure conveys valuable information•

Too often, pilots are conducted under optimal conditions rather than representative ones. Thus they can’t show what won’t work

-> Produce intelligent failures as quickly as possible

- “The fear of mistakes paralyses, and the claim to control everything not only costs an incredible amount of energy, but also makes operationally blind.”

- "I'd rather ask for forgiveness afterwards than always ask for permission before.”

- “Try to kill every project you have, then successful ones will emerge.”

• are persons, who actively and intensively support an innovation

• start an innovation process

• sustain a high activity level

• terminate the decision process

• has hierarchical power

• has access to material resources

• acts as an investor

• legitimizes projects

• influences personnel decisions

• blocks opposition

• protects expert promotors

• influences priorities and schedules

-> surmount barriers of willthrough their hierarchicalpotential

• knows critical details

• develops alternatives

• evaluates external solution

• proposals

• implements concepts

• tests prototypes

• solves problems

-> surmount barriers of capability through their expert knowledge

Promotors do not always meet, especially in large organizations.

• Power Promotor does not know the Expert Promotors

• Internal organizational and administrative barriers

Process promotors connect other promotors.

Knows the expert promotors and has access to them

Knows the power promotorsand has access to them

The Relationship Promotor connects internal promotors to the environment.

Ideally, there is a relationship promotor on both sides of a relationship.

• has some hierarchical influence

• knows processes, rules, values

• has social competence, and good internal networks

• searches and promotes people with ideas and initiative

• gives contacts to senior management

• plans, controls, moderates change processes, supports flow of information

• builds trust, solves conflicts, supports common goals within the firm

• has market-based influence

• knows players and rules of a market

• has social competence, and good external networks

• hinds adequate cooperation-partners and promotes them

• gives contact to internal promotors

• plans, controls, moderates exchange processes, supports flow of information

• builds trust, solves conflicts, supports common goals between firms

• Promotors are informal roles that are defined by

- the barrier they overcome,

- the power base they have, and

- the contributions they make

• Promotors are beneficial for innovation processes

• Promotor roles can change over the course of the process; several people can play the same role; individuals can play multiple roles

• Ideally, promotor roles are played by different people

• Promotors cannot be formally appointed, they act out of their own motivation

Find Promotors: Identify promotors in current and past innovation projects

Support Promotors: Give promotors more autonomy and provide them with sufficient resources

Retain Promotors: Do not sanction promotor behavior and reward successful promotors