Attack on multiple fronts
As discussed in my earlier blog, strong silos don’t have to inhibit internal innovation. Innovation can be facilitated across them. Sometimes, a silo can play the role of a vendor (for free).
How can Innovation Leaders help innovators break through silos? How can they help innovators find collaborators in another silo? How can they help overcome barriers to collaboration across silos? Following are a few of my experiences in stimulating collaboration between the commercial and the manufacturing silos. I’m selecting manufacturing as many innovators in the “commercial silo” wanted to experiment with innovations that included packaging and supply chain elements.
- Networking. Asking several manufacturing colleagues if they were aware of existing centers of excellence, lead to the discovery of several “Manufacturing Innovation Leaders”. It was then a small step to connect innovators from both silos to experiment together. Examples included designing a new package to improve patient adherence to their medication and adding a serialization code to the package to avoid counterfeiting.
- Aligning. By regularly connecting with leaders in manufacturing, we shared the key commercial and manufacturing challenges that needed innovative solutions. We also discussed ongoing innovations in both areas. A result of this collaboration was also that often manufacturing leaders helped out when commercial innovators couldn’t secure sufficient commercial funding for experiments that included a packaging or supply chain element. This collaboration also lead to manufacturing joining the corporate innovation-coordination team and to manufacturing Innovation Leaders attending the commercial Innovation Leader Summits.
- Engaging. Regularly sharing ongoing commercial innovations, e.g. at manufacturing staff meetings, inspired our manufacturing colleagues. For example, several of the attendees volunteered their expertise to ongoing experiments. Others discussed with me their ideas to address the business challenges I had shared. I could then connect these manufacturing colleagues with the appropriate commercial team. These commercial teams are the primary link to the corporation’s customers and know how to engage with these customers in a compliant way.
- Celebrating. When a successful collaborative innovation succeeded, organizing a recognition for the innovators with leaders from both silos encouraged future collaborations. Also, colleagues in the manufacturing silo were invited to participate in commercial innovation Challenges and Awards and vice versa.
Similar approaches stimulated innovation-collaboration with other silos, like IT, Medical and Animal Health. There is an amazing potential of passionate and expert colleagues across a large corporation, eager to collaborate and innovate.
As Martha Heller said:
“But here’s the rub: looking across silos for opportunities to improve capabilities is one thing; creating a vision for how to seize those opportunities as another. Communicating that vision effectively is harder still. But the real work, the deepest work, is in the deciding to stick your neck out in the first place.”
So, as Innovation Leader, I kept reaching out across silos, building bridges and connecting passionate innovators across the silos.
More about this topic: The silo syndrome by McKinsey and How to Destroy Innovation Silos by Arlen Meyers
What is your opinion? Please share below!
More of my blogs on innovation: Wim Vandenhouweele