My Top 20 ways organisations can get things done faster 2/4

It’s New Year Resolution season. With only a few weeks to choose, here are another five options

6/20 CLARITY ON DECISION MAKER

If Paul Merton ever asks me the question, the acronym I would send into Innovation Room 101 is “RACI”.

It’s the wrong way round! It should be ARCI!

It should go from directly accountable to simply informed.  

But the other reason I don’t like it is that it misses out the most important letter, which is D.

Who decides?

It should be DARCI.

Because being clear - once all the consulting and informing is done - who is actually going to make the decision is critical and often not stated upfront.

7/20 FAKE DOOR TESTS

In November 2019, there was a feature that I was convinced was going to be the making of Sn-ap, my startup. I can't remember what it was, though. I remember it was giving users the chance to pay extra for something. A seat reservation? A refund? A dedicated pick up? A porter?

The point is that my product manager, Dom, was sceptical.

So we did a fake door test.

Some customers, as part of the booking process, were shown this 'feature'.

They were given the opportunity to pay extra for it.

Then, when they came to pay, we revealed that it didn't yet exist and we were still gathering interest. And we didn't actually charge them.

But the fact they'd been willing to checkout told us how many people were willing to pay.

We could put a precise £££ figure on how much it would earn if we did it, and therefore if there was a business case.

Turned out, of course, that Dom was right...

And it cost me next to nothing to discover that.

8/20 CLARITY OF GOALS

Imagine I drop you in Trafalgar Square and tell you to get going. We'll meet you there. You'd be a bit stuck.

Now I imagine I drop you in Trafalgar Square and tell you to get going to Tower Bridge. We'll meet you there.

Makes a difference knowing the destination!

You might get a cab, you might get a bike, you might get a bus, you might get a tube: but you're highly likely to figure out how to get to Tower Bridge.

And if all your colleagues are figuring out the same mission, we'll all collectively get there.

It's amazing how often companies do the metaphorical equivalent of dropping people in the centre of a city and saying "Go!" without saying where to.

It's one of the things I like about TfL.

It's got really clear long-term strategic targets: 80% of journeys in London to be made by sustainable modes and zero transport deaths; both by 2041.

Now different teams may contribute in different ways, but if they all know that's the destination, they're much more likely to take the right path.

9/20 MINIMUM VIABLE BUSINESS CASES

I’ve written previously on this blog about the issues with Business Cases.

I’ve now decided on a name for what I’m talking about: Minimum Viable Business Cases.

The idea is that a Business Case should only be for the minimum necessary to learn what else you need to know to refine your business case.

Most corporate innovations are like a sandwich made with enormous doorstep bread.

The first great thick slice is all the time spent preparing the business case (which is going to be wrong, because predicting the future is impossible).

Then there’s a tiny thin slice of positive delivery.

Then there’s a huge thick chunk of crisis when the business case isn’t delivered.

The conventional solution to this problem is to make it an open sandwich, by never actually evaluating whether it was delivered.

Minimum Viable Business Cases are a rather less wasteful alternative.

10/20 RED DOOR

How do you know you’re hearing all the best ideas?

After all, there are billions of people out there. It’d be amazing if only you and your team could generate good ideas.

Innovators would love to work with your organisation but it’s impossible to figure out who to talk to.

So they spam random managers. Every so often one bites (either posiively or negatively!).

Most don’t. It’s chaotic and inefficient.

What Tesco do is recognise that innovators need a route in, so they provide one.

Their “Red Door” (like a supermarket door) is a dedicated portal for innovators to submit ideas to Tesco.

The Tesco innovation team have an SLA to review every single one, that week.

Almost all are discarded.

A handful are shared with the relevant manager.

A miniscule fraction are taken on by the innovation team.

But every innovation gets reviewed and in a way that’s efficient for both Tesco and innovator.

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