Innovation infrastructure (components)

 

INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURE

COMPONENTS

 

The following are the innovation infrastructure components identified by EPRI WP&QI research as having a large opportunity to improve in ways that would results in higher bottom-line performance.

One of the high priority needs identifying by utility leaders who are members of the EPRI WP&QI Advisory Board was for a template, which could be used to assess areas important to achieve high performance. The Innovation Infrastructure Model was developed in response to this request. Its development drew on a wide variety of sources, including experience gained at the San José State University Process and Quality Improvement Center.

 

Description of Innovation Infrastructure Components

 

1. Shared Purpose

This component involves the ability to achieve a shared vision throughout the organization of the strategic goals and objectives and to develop a shared vision among employees for specific projects or tasks. It also includes the ability to involve employees in the strategic planning process, and gaining an understanding and agreement, within a project team, of what is to be achieved, why it is important and how it will be achieved. An organization that is strong in this area is able to focus its resources on the key objectives that are most important to its long-term success.

 

2. Process Management

This component consists of the ability to manage and support the design and definition of the key processes the organization uses to get work done, such as strategic planning, new product development and project management. It includes an approach to assigning ownership of key processes. 

 

3. Process Improvement

This component involves the ability to analyze and improve the processes the organization uses to get work done. It includes the competencies needed to measure process performance, identify the root causes of problems and undertake cost/benefit analysis to support improvement recommendations. This component includes the following areas:

 

Improvement Planning

The improvement planning process enables organizational members to work together to gain agreement on what needs improving, why it is important, and how to make the change.

 

Process Improvement

Process improvement enables the organization to understand and analyze its work processes, and identify the sub-processes within the overall system upon which to focus the change efforts.  It also involves determining what changes need to be made to a process area and implementing the improvements.

 

Organizational Learning

The organizational learning process involves undertaking activities to encourage individual learning and team learning, particularly as they pertain to making improvements in the organization’s improvement skills, culture, and human skills.

 

Nurturing the Organizational Climate

This process enables the organization to develop the culture needed to support improvement and learning. It involves establishing the values and principles the organization needs to support long-term success. It also involves organizational leaders and members visibly supporting these values and principles.

 

Measurement and Assessment

This process provides the organization with the capability to measure how well customer needs are met (both internal and external), identify high-leverage improvement opportunities, make decisions on improvement objectives, and track changes in performance.  

4. Human Effectiveness Skills

This component involves human competencies important to achieving innovation. It includes the competencies in leadership and teamwork necessary to understand and solve problems, and competencies in customer focus, systems thinking and change readiness to support the achievement of innovations that benefit the organization as a whole. This component includes the following areas:

 

Change Readiness

This is the ability and openness of an organization and its members to change the existing practices and processes to be fully responsive to both the needs of internal and external customers and to changes in the business environment.

 

Leadership

This is the ability to influence and guide people by means of communication and example to establish and achieve a shared purpose.

 

Customer Focus

This is the ability to recognize the paramount position of the organization’s customers and the nature and importance of the chain of customers and suppliers who, by taking care of each other, provide high quality at low cost to these external customers.

 

Systems Thinking

This is the ability of the organization’s members and groups to understand the way their various work activities are interconnected with the activities of others to form the processes that provide value to customers. It also includes the ability to understand the impact of one’s actions on the rest of the organization.

 

Teamwork

This is the ability of a group of people to be committed to a shared purpose and to work together in a spirit of cooperation and mutual support.

 

5. Information and Communication

In a competitive and dynamic marketplace, the ability to communicate the right information to the right people at the right time is a key factor in achieving optimum performance levels. This component influences daily operations as well as innovation. It involves the communication of information to support daily work, and the interpersonal communications between employees that support problem-solving and decision-making. It includes a broad spectrum of information and communication processes that enable organizational members to understand the organization’s purpose and any changes, internal or external to the organization, that could influence day-to-day operations and long-term strategy and plans.   

6. Organizational Culture

  The organization’s culture consists of an interrelated pattern of attitudes and beliefs that have been established over time. These are reinforced by the symbols, processes, and structures sustained by all employees. The organization’s culture strongly influences the way in which organizational members behave. Culture can make a significant difference to the organization’s ability to adapt to take advantage of new opportunities in the marketplace, and therefore direct influences the organization’s

performance. The components of organizational culture included in the Innovation Infrastructure Model are trust, respect, enthusiasm, commitment, pride, cooperation, and security.