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Here is a great story of implementation about one of the greatest achievements of the 20th Century- The Starbuck's Frap, which now accounts for about 1 in 5 drinks sold and which was initally orphaned by Starbucks.

Here's the story from Starbucks Corp. board member and a former executive, Howard Behar in a recent article:

"Everyone working in Seattle said 'No,' but I told them to 'just go do it and don't tell anyone,' " said Behar, who at various times was president of the company's North American and international operations. "Howard (Schultz) said, 'We are not doing this,' and I said, 'OK, I think we will try it.' Sometimes you have to break the rules."

In 1995, the company rolled out the drink nationally, and Behar said it now accounts for 20 percent of the coffee giant's business.

Here's the Q&A from the Seattle P-I:

"Question: Why did it take so long for the company to embrace Frappuccinos?

Answer: There was an inertia inside the organization. It wasn't like we were suffering. We had grown the business, and things were going great. But there's always a time when you should change things in your life when things are going great."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/347640_sbuxbahar17.html

Posted by chris at January 18, 2008 11:31 AM

Slide 192 is one I believe in... Michael Schrage expressed what I felt very succinctly. And I always couple it with "Innovation is something that changes the life of the customer. It changes the life of the customer in some way, or the world in which the customer experiences things. That's innovation."
-Kevin Roberts in Lovemarks
But that applies to people who are in the process of creating that innovation... where "Nothing defines creativity better than the ability to defeat habit by originality. Creativity can also be defined as the capacity to put ideas and information together in unprecedented, unusual, unpredictable ways."
-Stephen Bayley, design critic
My "professional hobby" used to be collecting rapid prototyping capability in order to put the right things in the hands of the right people at the right time.... beats risk analysis! ( All you have to do is work out what Michael Schrage calls Iterative Capital amounting to say 30,000 prototypes a year... they change 30,000 conversations... which (rapidly) makes a difference!

Posted by Jim Rait at January 18, 2008 3:48 PM

Thanks, Chris. This is a great story, one that won't be readily forgotten. Good stories interject us into the plot; great ones draw us in AND urge us to look at ourselves, propelling us to action. I asked myself after reading the story above, "Where are you?" The next step: ACT NOW!

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 18, 2008 9:35 PM

Regarding Slides 100-108, based on information described in the excellent New Yorker article by Atul Gawande, "The Checklist", are ever so important.

The next chapter in this story is extremely important, as described in the NY Times Op-Ed piece by Dr. Gawande:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30gawande.html

I urge you to read the Op-Ed piece.

The gist: A simple checklist, similar to pre-flight checklists used by pilots, has been proven to reduce ICU deaths. People die less...much less...as a result of this. Plans to spread this nationally in the US were underway. Simple. Elegant. And primed for implementation on a broad scale, BUT...

The Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), upon learning of this, stopped the project immediately.

Why? The OHRP treats this as research (despite the fact that results are proven). Because they see it as research, they feel that it was unethical that patients were not informed that a checklist was being used, and that its use was being measured. In essence, they treated this in the same was that they would a study in which patients were being given a medication with unknown efficacy.

Can they really do this? Sure. And in fact, they can cut off all federal funding to groups (hospitals, researchers, etc.) that fail to obey.

Since that 12/30/07 decision, health care institutions and quality improvement specialists across the country have been running scared, fearing the wrath of the OHRP and the subsequent loss of funding. They've asked their quality improvement folks to stop doing what they're doing immediately, based on these legal and regulatory concerns.

A number of prominent healthcare bloggers share their concerns. Check out www.healthbeatblog.org to see Maggie Mahar's blog.

We all are left asking, "WHY?"

With such great results, who would want to stop this work? Maybe it's the folks that fear exposure of how truly bad our hospitals are currently. Imagine the loss in market share for those that don't use the checklist! Maybe it's about money.

Analogy: We've done process improvement work to look at and improve compliance with ideal handwashing guidelines (yes...not all doctors wash their hands as much as they should). But imagine if we had to get informed consent for patients to participate in this work! "You may be subject to an intervention...your doctor may actually wash his/her hands, and as such, you may be exposed to something that isn't consistently done".

Innovation isn't common when it comes to healthcare operations and processes. When it happens, (even if it's something simple like a checklist), do we really want to squelch it?

The lesson for implementation: Watch out for the barriers to implementation. And when barriers sometimes seem insurmountable, there are times when radical action is necessary. When our Denver-based healthcare think tank met last night, I suggested civil disobedience as one approach....Do it anyway, and worry about the consequences later. Be radical...be remarkable!

Manoj Pawar, MD, MMM

Posted by Manoj Pawar at January 19, 2008 12:13 AM

A couple of minutes ago I read one of Trevor's comments on a different post quoting Joe Walsh. It reminded me of a something I heard Joe say on a radio interview a year as he was preparing to for a tour. I forget the specific context of the question but his comment was priceless. "Damn, just because I wrote it, don't mean I can play it". The part of the George Kohlrieser quote on slide 9 about leaders believing their job is to create strategy, processes etc "remaining aloof from the people doing the work" addresses the very real problem that strategy is often written without knowing or understanding the CAPACITY of the organizations, departments, teams below that have to carry it out. You may have written the plan but can you execute it to produce the work....the "don't mean I can play it" piece. Again, no dis-respect intended and to be the Devil's Advocate but how many books, seminars, pre-packaged training programs, and other "secrets to success"could also be improved if the authors and producers truly understood the realities of the frontline....validate your approach on the frontline rather than selling it in the boardroom.....bring it your theories to the reality of the Call Center floor to see how well they play. The Solution....begin with the Have You 50 and if you're a Manager substitute internal customer for customer and ask the four most important words in any organization as many have written "What do you think?" You'll not only be educated on the capacity of frontline folks and teams, you will have a lengthy list of things that can be done to improve the performance, productivity, and results. Give it a shot......

Posted by Dave W at January 19, 2008 1:36 PM

Many thanks for an excellent presentation, Tom. One question: If "active mutators in placid times tend to die off. They are selected against." And if "reluctant mutators in quickly changing times are also selected against," what else is there to do? BE CREATORS NOT MUTATORS! INNOVATE! It seems to be in the doing that being evolves.

Posted by Judtih Ellis at January 19, 2008 2:14 PM