Over the weekend I read an article in the newspaper, about how the police in Spain intercepted a stash of cocaine worth around £240 million, concealed in a consignment of charcoal. My immediate thought was that the criminals had hidden it amongst the charcoal, but I was wrong.
They had mixed the cocaine with glue and formed it into a resin. From the resin, they had made slats that looked like wood and made freight pallets from the slats. The charcoal sat in bags on the pallets. To process the pallets back into cocaine, they had set up a chemical company in Spain.
Other drug smugglers have hidden the drug in hollowed out pineapples, woven 45 kilos of heroin into a rug and filled vanilla wafers with cocaine instead of cream.
These examples of innovation in packaging and product demonstrate that the drug trafficking business has a positive side; it is innovative and I wondered what innovative leaders could learn from this case? Here are two examples:
1. Factors that Drive Innovators
A first lesson from the drug traffickers is an idea of some of the factors that drive people to innovate. They:
· Fear financial loss (if goods are intercepted)
· Want to avoid regulatory restrictions (it’s against the law)
· Do it for the fun of it
· Like the intellectual challenge
· Want to avoid “me too” competition (from other drug smugglers using the same ploys)
· Have had their options reduced (because law enforcers know many options for smuggling).
From this lesson, two questions for you as an innovative leader are:
· What other drivers do you sense in this story?
· How might you artificially induce these drivers in your organisation to drive people to innovate?
The second question may appear a little ridiculous in a business setting (it is not against the law to sell bottles of water for example), yet it is ridiculously easy to use. Challenge people rhetorically and have them generate ideas, “What if selling water in plastic bottles became illegal?” “What if supermarkets stopped selling bottled water?”
2. The Power of Challenging Questions
These questions lead you to the second lesson on innovating; the power of challenging questions like “what if?” and “how might we?” If you take the pallet idea back to its source, you might ask, for example:
· “What if we make the product the transport mechanism?” or
· “How might we make the packaging part of the product?
There is no perfect challenge question. The best way to create challenge questions is to have a number of individuals generate them and select those that appeal.
What other products could you do this with? Here’s an example. Recently, I received a telephone screen protector, made of plastic and beautifully packed. Inside was a cardboard envelope with a screen wipe and a pack of sticky hinges for fixing the screen. “What if we made the envelope out of the screen wipe material, so that the inside of the envelope could be used to clean the screen?” I mused. That would save the cost and weight of the cardboard envelope and be a small contribution to the environment. There is no guarantee it would work, but it might, and it costs nothing to ask a question.
Try this challenge exercise on a product, service or process in a team meeting and limit idea generation and choice to 15 minutes. Innovating does not have to involve huge resources and time. It does require a willingness to question what you do and it helps if you make it fun. Try it.
Bonus Driver – Desperation
Sitting on the Eurostar after developing the idea for this article, I took out my delicious looking Marks and Spencer salad with noodles and prawns, pulled off the lid, poured on the dressing and… realised I hadn’t picked up a fork in the store.
I could have used my fingers, but noodles and dressing plus other passengers walking by made that idea unappealing. In desperation, I glanced around and noticed that the pears I had bought had “Styrofoam like” packaging to protect them. I broke off a corner and used the rounded packaging as a spoon (photograph alongside). It wasn’t perfect, yet it worked. However, what if the manufacturer had pressed into the meal packaging, the shape of a spoon or fork that you could break off? This would avoid the need for a plastic fork in a plastic envelope; a small step for the environment.
Packaging as part of the product anyone?
John Brooker I Yes! And. Think Innovatively.
To receive regular articles, register at our website: www.yesand.eu and receive Section 1 of John’s book, “Innovate to Learn, Don’t Learn to Innovate”, with our compliments. We guarantee not to share your details. Or you might buy John’s book at Amazon now: “Innovate to Learn, Don’t Learn to Innovate.”
Learn: www.yesand.eu and Facebook
Talk: +44 20 8869 9990
Write: [email protected]
About the Author
John Brooker is a former Senior Vice President and innovator in Visa. He is now the MD of Yes! And where he has worked internationally with multicultural teams since 2001. John has developed the Team Impetus Model, based on Solution Focus, to help teams develop strategies to achieve targets and resolve complex challenges. He has also developed his Inn8 Approach to help teams maximise opportunities innovatively. You can listen to clients discuss these approaches at our website, www.yesand.eu
John is an Open University MBA and tutored on the Creativity, Innovation and Change course for 14 years. He is a Board Member of the international Association for Solution Focused Consulting and Training.