I don’t have time!                                    
    i don’t have the time not to
            …just another grievance
                …are their holes in our organizational culture?
            the neighborhood has always felt entitled            
    What are the underlying issues that lead to our poor relationship with this neighborhood?
finance and budget – it will always be a love/hate relationship                
    could I just start a conversation and listen to their concerns, rather than taking the lead
        did you really expect something different
                What did I expect? And what are the barriers to getting there?    
                            That developer will never be happy
how can I more fully understand the experience of our developers trying to receive site plan approval?

Shifting your paradigm through observation; this is more than just changing your mind, it’s about knowing the lens through which you view the world, and being able to interchange the lenses to see the shades of gray.

This month we are exploring the skill of observing as a means of injecting innovation into your organization.  Ambassadors have been taking a deeper look into each of the innovation skills described in a recent 6-year study of 3,000 creative private sector executives and an additional 500 individual interviews by Professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of Insead.  The study looked at how innovators in the private sector think, and concluded that there were 5 skills:  Associating, Questioning, Observing Details, Experimenting, and Networking with Smart People (5).

Observing is defined as the ability to “scrutinize common phenomena.”  Specifically, it’s searching for patterns in everyday behavior.  And it matters because whether you understand it consciously or subconsciously, your observations of the environment and world around you have created the lens through which you form judgments and determines your behaviors.  Simply, it’s your frame of reference (5).

When you see the world with the same lens, the ability to be “innovative” is made much more difficult.  You have to extend your search space, adopt additional lenses, and as the study found among the most creative executives “…try all sorts of techniques to see the world in different lights.”  (2)

Observation in Starbucks is implemented through GoSee.  In individual Starbuck stores, employees that participate in GoSee have a few simple rules:

1. Observe, do not help
2. Clear your mind of judgments on how things should be done
3. Scrutinize details

Scrutinizing details for employees means to look for patterns of redundancy and or count common behavior, such as how many steps the barista takes during peak service hours.  GoSee provides the time for each store to understand its current paradigm, and evaluate the assumptions upon which the paradigm was built (4).

Observation of children and how they learn led to Dr. Maria Montessori introducing a radically new paradigm on how to teach and educate children.  Montessori schools create learning experiences based on the simple idea that children teach themselves, and it’s through observation of the individual child that their learning – introduction of new information and experiences – occurs (1).

Observation in Rockville, MD happens with the support of the organizational development manager, who has a role in championing observation throughout the organization.   Becoming a keen observer is a leadership goal for each individual, and the organization must then take the next step by welcoming observations from all members and demonstrably acting on them.   Rockville conducts a biennial employee survey to solicit employee observations, and then communicates the feedback received and the organization’s plans to leverage the strengths and improve upon the weaknesses observed by our members.  Our best meeting managers quickly take two minutes at the end of meetings to ask what went well and what could have gone better here?  It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it does require the courage to honestly share your own observations and the commitment to listen with an open mind to the observations of others (3).

What is your role?
Take Time to Observe.  At the beginning of this article, the lack of time was the first assumption listed – and we encourage you to rethink that assumption.  It is through taking the time to observe that paradigm shifts occur and truly new ideas are discovered.    
1. Share observations within and among departments.  Consider using your intranet site to post those observations and solicit feedback.
2. Journaling.  Not all observations can occur in a specific window of time, and journaling can aid in the more complex issues to help you reflect and look for patterns of behavior over an extended period of time.
3. Enlist lead users.  Sometimes we need a completely new paradigm, way of seeing the world.  Consider taking your frequent users of service and with them, walk through their experience with your department.  What are their frustrations?  This shift in how you see the environment will lead to truly new insight.

References
1. Association Montessori International (AMI)/USA.  www.amiusa.org.
2. How Do Innovators Think? Harvard Business Review, HBR Editors’ Blog. Fryer, Bronwyn. September 28, 2009. http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org
3. Interview and email exchange with Michelle Poché-Flaherty, Organizational Development Manager, City of Rockville, Maryland.  May 18, 2010.
4. Interview with Starbucks Store Branch Manager, May 17, 2010.
5. The Innovator’s DNA.  Harvard Business Review, Gregersen, Jeffrey and Clayton Christensen.  December, 2009.