Double-click this headline to edit the text.

by Norbert Majerus, Shingo Faculty Fellow

The electric lightbulb was not invented by continuously improving the candle, and Tesla’s success with electric vehicles does not come from continuously improving combustion engines. Many companies and organizations, including those with mature Lean cultures, find themselves in a rut or up against a brick wall and they realize that innovation (process, product, service, etc.) does not automatically come with a Lean culture. There are even companies who blame Lean for their own lack of innovation! The companies that solve this dilemma have learned that sometimes you need to think a little outside the box—including the Lean box—to ensure sustained success.

Companies with sustained success in innovation have developed a culture where innovation can thrive, and some of them have achieved a great synergy between Lean and innovation. At Goodyear, we had a great innovation culture long before we started to implement Lean in the innovation center. When we received the AME Excellence award for the Akron Innovation center in 2016, I credited the innovation culture for the quick and successful Lean transformation. The company was accustomed to change, it knew how to manage risk, the leaders loved experiments, and the people had a sincere desire to learn and improve. Innovation helped Goodyear avoid bankruptcy at least twice during my tenure; innovation worked after all cost-cutting measures had been exhausted.

I worked with Sam Landers for 30 years at Goodyear. Sam was involved in every innovation the company had made (the successful ones and the failures) and after we both retired, we spent time understanding and documenting the principles that helped us create this successful innovation culture. You may say, “Thirty years was a long time ago.” But principles are universal and timeless; they apply today, and they apply everywhere.

Highlights of how Goodyear created the innovation culture include the following:

• The corporate strategy spelled out an explicit goal to obsolete its own products and innovation goals.
• Although the company was extremely conservative, courage and prudent risk taking were promoted.
• The collaboration of all functions was critical, from new ideas to cash in the bank.
• The urgency and clear goals created the alignment.
• Crude prototypes and visuals were critical to demonstrating the advantages of an idea.
• The company understood that not every innovation attempt succeeds and that it often takes patience and trust in people to be successful.
• Engaging leaders in the development of a new idea was about as difficult as engaging them in a Lean initiative, and the same principles of change management and influence applied.
• The people skills that make a Lean initiative successful (e.g., respect and humility) were the same ones that made innovation thrive.

It would take a few more pages to summarize everything Sam and I learned about innovation. (Sam loves to tell stories, and so do I.) But stories help us to understand what was accomplished and how it was accomplished. And the stories then lead to the principles, which are often hidden in the narrative. It is those timeless and universal principles that everyone can take back to their own organizations and figure out how to implement there.

Please join me and Sam for the Shingo webinar on January 5, 2024, where we will illustrate some principles that will help everyone think a little outside the box and become more innovative.

Optional footer text. If none, Advanced > Layout > Display: None