Want to Strengthen Innovation? First, Break Down the Organizational Siloes

BACKGROUND This paper focuses on a problem that virtually all organizations experience when attempting to innovate: high rates of failure. While there are many reasons why failure occurs, this paper addresses one cause in particular that is inherent within highly siloed organizations: low levels of participation. In a study among 1,222 global leaders, findings revealed how most ideas to solving problems come from employees (PwC 2017). This finding should not be a surprise given that many employees, when encouraged, are eager to share ideas. In contrast, for organizations that do not fully leverage their workforce on how best to solve problems, the outcome can be disappointing. A second study among 1,500 senior executives across multiple industries found that selecting the wrong idea was the second leading contributor to innovation failure (Boston Consulting Group 2015). Nor should this finding be a surprise given the importance of selecting the right idea among a diverse and knowledgeable set of employees with good ideas. WATER UTILITY INDUSTRY The water utility sector is no different. Innovation is often challenging. Entrenched work cultures resulting in 'we've always done things this way' can constrain new ways of thinking and doing. It can deny the opportunity to benefit from diverse types of participants across the organization, thus limiting fresh, creative, and novel ways from being considered. The structure of many water utility organizations is siloed-e.g., water, sewer, and wastewater treatment-which tends to limit the degree of idea sharing and collaboration across functions. Assumption is made that within these functional silos are inwardly focused groups that rely on resources from within to solve a problem. Thus, the ideas that get considered will likely differ from what a more diverse group of individuals might offer on the best way to solve it. RESEARCH The primary research draws from the author's direct experience at IBM in using gaming software to connect with a worldwide community of employees. It reflects on many of the design considerations that go into driving employee engagement levels upward. Now at DC Water, the author is applying best practices and investing in tools intended to engage and cross-pollinate ideas across the organization from which to innovate. Further detail on progress, lessons learned, and planned actions will be presented at the upcoming UMC conference. SCOPE OF STUDY This paper focuses on human behavior across multiple industries. It attempts to understand the thought process used to decide whether to participate in organized events, such as: (1) the factors behind low participation levels, (2) methods to generate interest among employees, and (3) what leadership can do to create an environment in which innovation can be achieved through a healthy work culture that embraces change and new ways of solving problems. The use of gaming software is presented as a platform from which to stimulate participation levels across the organization and beyond. Referred to as gamification, this is a relatively new development that emerged from Internet technology. As a virtual environment, gamification has gained widespread usage as individuals from multiple backgrounds engage in a playful manner bound by social/reward aspects to motivate. It can pull employees from a siloed mindset to an expanded, big-picture view of idea sharing among a diverse population of skilled, creative people. Being able to connect to individuals across the organization, who in the past may not have participated in organized activities, is distinctly different from traditional methods of problem solving. Gaming software is one way to make this connection and create a positive experience. It can entice a wider scope of people to share ideas and advance solutions. FINDINGS Studies referenced herein reveal that, for many individuals, certain conditions need to be met before deciding whether to engage in innovation activities. They needed to be convinced that the effort is worth their time and effort. That enough value existed from the expected outcome to justify their involvement. The 'what's in it for me' question should be addressed with convincing rationale. And how critical it is to make others aware of the experience so that they too participate in innovation activities. Table 1 summarizes what was found to motivate individual to participate in innovation challenges. For some individuals, the right people, content, and process were important factors. Others were motivated by getting exposed to cross-boundary teams on interesting challenges, while gaining value and having fun in the process. As listed, a broad range of meaningful incentives were shown to stimulate participation among a targeted population of people. Research findings highlighted the importance of making others aware of the game's purpose, intended audience, and way ideas get shared through gamification. Case studies described how participant feedback was used to understand what was working and not working, and how leadership made the necessary adjustments to strengthen the underlying motives for participants to stay engaged. Whereas the preceding table was on individual engagement factors, Table 2 provides an organizational focus on how innovation goals can be met through gamification. These finding are intended to create a healthy climate from which to crowdsource, especially when trust (of management) and psychological comfort (of others) are present. Knowing what motivates people to participate will help leaders design and execute innovation challenges in ways that lead to higher participation levels. To effect change, people need to have a positive attitude toward the organization, leader, colleagues, and customers. Culture is vital to an engaged workforce. So too is ensuring that the pre-conditions covered in this paper are in place to foster innovation. What is called for is a healthy organizational culture that can influence the workforce to willingly participate. CONCLUSION Closing remarks are directed at what leadership can do to remove barriers in creating an open environment that extends across the organization. The rewards for creating such an environment were found to stimulate thinking from diverse sources of idea givers, and how this can lead to novel and creative ways to solve problems. This approach can also sustain the ability to serve customers through continuous innovation. The hope is for more leaders to make it easier for individuals and groups to collaborate cross-functionally on innovation challenges. Also, that leaders can design and use gaming methods in ways that make for a fun and rewarding experience, while attracting higher levels of employee engagement than in the past. Opportunity exists for the water utility sector to break down the siloes, more freely share ideas, and adopt new practices from this paper to strengthen the ability to innovate. The aim is to fully leverage an extended workforce as part of a diverse and motivated community of idea givers. And from this community, how critical problems facing the water utility sector can best be solved in new and improved ways that serve the public. Keywords: Gamification; Innovation; Crowdsourcing; Problem Solving; Utility Management Conference References Boston Consulting Group 2015. BCG's 10th annual survey on innovation. Retrieved August 15, 2021, from https://media-publications.bcg.com/MIC/BCG-Most-Innovative-Companies-2015-Nov-2015.pdf PwC 2017. Reinventing innovation: Five findings to guide strategy through execution. PwC Insights. Retrieved August 10, 2021, from https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/business-innovation/assets/2017-innovation-benchmark-findings.pdf Schein, E. 1983. Organization Culture and Leadership, San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Zhao, Z. 2019. Idea Crowdsourcing for Innovation: Fundamentals and Recommendations. Management & Data Science, 3 (2)