Many professional service firms have innovation as a key strategic theme. At the front-end of most innovation processes, is the step of generating fresh, creative, out-of-the-box ideas. In marketing-speak, this is called the “ideation” stage.
Conventional ideation methods include brainstorming workshops, shark tank competitions, market studies and voice-of-the-client programs. While each of these have merit, I’d like to suggest the trusted sparring partner* as an alternative approach. Put simply, this method involves setting up pairs of people to work together to come up with some fresh innovative ideas. In the sparring process, ideas get suggested, expanded, challenged, expanded again, refined, explored, split, elaborated, and then captured.
Why does it work so well in professional services?
According to Dr Larry Richard‘s research, many professionals are [1] trained sceptics, and [2] insecure overachievers. Put a group of these types into a brainstorming workshop and you have a pretty low probability of generating anything fresh. The sceptics will dismiss unconventional ideas as unworkable, the insecures will stay quiet or back down to protect their ego, and the dominant (hiding-something) overachievers, well you’ve heard all their good ideas 20 times before.
In a group of two…
- there’s nowhere to hide,
- there’s greater safety to explore,
- it’s really uncomfortable to say nothing, and
- it’s easier for the discussion to go on and on, if it needs to.
By the by, there’s also a growing body of research that dismisses the idea of the lone genius driving all breakthrough thinking. This partially explains why client interviews are helpful for service feedback, but often not great for fresh insights and ideas.
Putting it in practice
Ideally, the pairs should be set up so that there’s some diversity of experience and background. Don’t put two people who hate each other together, but no BFF’s either. The idea is to create safe trusting dyads that can spar and spark off each other. Diversity can also come from pairing up one internal person with a key client or a referrer. Mixing up disciplines eg. a technologist with human behaviour expert, might also be fun.
Assuming you wish to have a short and sharp ideation process, I’d recommend giving the pair a limited time to work, say two to three weeks, and a semi-structured brief to orientate their discussions. This brief may, for example, focus on new products and services, alternative business models, ideas for cost-reduction, client experience enhancements, better staff engagement, and or smarter use of the firm’s balance sheet. You may elect a much wider brief such as “ideas to improve the firm’s competitiveness”, but beware, some people can drown if the ocean is too big.
At the beginning you may limit the duration of their discussions and narrow their task, however, if the pair flourish, there’s no reason to limit their energy and creativity by stopping it.
Call to action
The world has benefited hugely from trusted sparring partners: Lennon and McCartney, Jobs and Wozniak, Laurel and Hardy, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sturridge and Suarez, Batman and Robyn, Gates and Allen, Mork and Mindy, Simon and Garfunkel… Wouldn’t it be great if you could enable your very own Rolls and Royce to emerge in your firm? Really easy to try…
* This idea of sparring partners comes from a 2016 HBR article by Roberto Verganti, The Innovative Power of Criticism.
account planning, business development, client loyalty, client relationships, growth, innovation, internal collaboration, key account management, Leadership capacity, Measurement, professional service firms, Sales management, strategy management
7 key enablers of smart collaboration
In Articles, Commentary on 10 March 2017 at 7:27 amIn January 2017, Harvard professor and ex-McKinsey consultant, Heidi Gardner, published Smart Collaboration. The book describes the results of her 10-year study into the benefits of collaboration in professional service firms. Gardner concludes that firms that effectively integrate cross-team solutions to solve clients’ problems will significantly outperform those that just rely on cross-selling solo-specialists:
The book is great in making the case for collaboration, but is a little thin when it comes to the “how to” bit. This post is my take on execution, and describes seven key enablers of smart collaboration…
#1 The right clients
The business case for collaboration is much stronger when your firm is servicing [i] large client organisations, [ii] with complex and diverse needs, and [iii] relatively sophisticated approaches to purchasing professional services. For instance, a small monoline insurer with a cab-rank panel structure would not be a prime prospect.
#2 Capability breadth
Gardner states that the true benefits of smart collaboration come from combining the skills and experience of a range of different practitioners to solve the client’s most pressing problems. This multi-disciplinary approach is hard to copy, is less price sensitive and much more fun to deliver.
It follows, therefore, that firms need to have service depth AND breadth for collaboration to payoff. Larger full-service firms would have relatively more opportunity than others.
#3 A culture of “our” client, not “my”client
In many firms, the prevailing culture is one where client relationships are primarily owned by individual partners, rather than seen as assets of the firm. In these instances, distrust of colleagues to serve “their” clients is more common than not. Trying to facilitate smart collaboration in a deeply individualistic culture is a long and hard road.
#4 Great client leaders
Client Relationship Partners work across practice teams to bring the best of the firm to the client, and the whole of the client to the firm. These boundary-spanners are crucial in growing the network of relationships between the firm and the client. Success is more likely if the firm empowers this important leadership role, and invests in developing its client leader talent pool.
#5 Effective client knowledge sharing
Gardner states that a “collaborative technology platform” is essential in connecting partners with the right opportunities, as well as mitigating some of the obstacles to collaboration. While I broadly agree, many firms fail to get a positive return on their CRM investments, not because of technology issues, but because the cultural and strategic settings don’t facilitate communication and knowledge sharing.
Collaboration is enhanced by partners having a good understanding of [i] the firm’s full capability set, [ii] the client’s context and needs, and [iii] the details of the firm-client interaction.
#6 Consistency in energy and standards
The outcomes of a team are significantly enhanced when all team members have similar service standards. Problems arise if one team member thinks a “responsive” email reply is 24 hours, while another thinks its 24 minutes. It also helps if all team members have a similar drive to succeed and share common values around client focus.
There are two schools of thought around consistency of service style. Those who argue for a house-style cite benefits of a seamless client experience, resource fungibility and delivery efficiencies. The contrary view is that differences in style facilitate diversity and creativity. I’m more in the latter camp.
#7 The right measures and rewards
In the words of Peter Drucker, “what gets measured gets managed”. In the words of James Goldsmith, “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. If the firm incentivises solo-specialist behaviours and outcomes, the chances of meaningful collaboration are exceedingly low.
Call to action
Gardner’s research clearly illustrates the benefits of smart collaboration over cross-selling. If you sense the potential in your firm: [i] write down each of these seven enablers; [ii] give your firm a score out of 10 on each, and [iii] identify the key actions to shift the dial in the next six months, and closer to a 10 over the next 36 months.
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