Ignite your Company's Innovation
A Hot Spot is a moment when people are working together in exceptionally creative and collaborative ways. Hot spots occur when the energy within and between people flares. Ideas become contagious and new possibilities appear.
Hot spots flare through the spontaneous combustion of three elements and the multiplier effect of a fourth:
(Co-operative mindset x boundary spanning x igniting purpose) x productive capacity.
Co-perative mindset Hot spots arise because people are excited, willing and able to co-operate with each other. Value is created in the space between people when they come together. The quality and extent of these relationships is crucial to the emergence of a hot spot, and it is a co-operative mindset that is the foundation of these high-quality relationships.Boundary spanning Relationships differ in their depth and extent. The extent and depth of relationships can have different effects on the business value created within hot spots. The extent of boundary spanning in the relationships differs within hot spots -- some are within the group, others with people outside the group, in other functions, or even in other companies.
Igniting purpose If hot spots emerge as a result of the relationship between relative strangers with different mindsets, why do they choose to co-operate? This is the alchemy of the hot spot, the igniting purpose -- something that people �nd exciting and interesting and worth engaging over. When this igniting purpose occurs, people flock to it -- they want to be part of it.
Productive capacity Many companies have unwittingly created an environment where competition and self-interest negate a mindset of co-operation, where turf wars destroy the possibilities of working across boundaries, and where a lackadaisical attitude smothers the energy and questioning that might trigger a hot spot.
Much of this can be changed.
- Craft a context that favours co-operation rather than competition.
- Actively build and support networks of relationships that crisscross the boundaries of the company.
- Create the will and the freedom to ask igniting questions.
In the early phases, the emphasis is on working on relationships -- appreciating the talents of others, learning to make and keep commitments, and resolving conflicts. As the hot spot progresses, the challenges subtly shift from the relationships between members to each members' relationship to time and rhythm.
If members fail to make this shift in timing and rhythm, they burn themselves out as the pace of work accelerates. They also become less creative as their time for reflection is overwhelmed by the growing pace of demands. Without these productive practices, the complexity of hot spots can be overwhelming, and the energy dissipates because it is not being focused productively.