Create an engineering cultureto support sustained innovation

In the first part of this blog series (The fragile idea called technology), we created some common ground, to tie the fuzzy essence of cloud into the digital transformation that really needs to happen. Let’s now focus on the cloud native way of working as an enabler and accelerator for digital transformation. Your biggest challenge is the creation and protection of ideas. Because, with all the new technology and the adoption of new architectures, you will be needing lots of them. Technology will be extremely visible and will not yet work from the start. To accomplish sustained innovation, an engineering culture is essential.

The operational excellence vs. innovation paradox

When you’re making or doing something for the n-th time, cutting out all waste makes total sense. Most organizations will have some operational excellence processes in place. However there is a paradox when striving for sustained innovation. Operational excellence is all about the efficient use of current capabilities, quality and stability… Whereas innovation requires experimentation and development of new capabilities, which are by definition wasteful.

The paradox is no biggie in itself, as long as everybody is aware of this paradox. The real hidden threat to ideas comes in the form of operational excellence being implemented with some kind of command-and-control structure as a bureaucratic system.

Love it or hate it, the Tesla Cybertruck is an idea that would have been killed in many organizations

Fear of ideas and failure

When “innovation” has been put on the agenda as a strategic goal and ambition, a bureaucratic system will easily and unwillingly kill it. Not because of malicious intent, but because a bureaucratic system is amoral and doesn’t respond well to the creation of ideas that may threaten the natural order, introduce risk and complicate processes or even the absolute worst thing that can happen: failure. We at Incentro help organizations to get rid of fear of change and failure, by creating an engineering culture that delivers new ideas. We make operational excellence and innovation live happily together by implementing new cloud native approaches.

I really care for ideas, because they are the starting point for progress. And I love progress. Maybe even as much as I love engineers. Why? Because they are quirky and very interesting people to work with, but also because of the realization that everything we love in life besides “the natural” is created by engineers. The great ideas of engineers made it possible to connect with loved ones, even when they are on another continent. And that is only one of the examples of the amazing things that they brought to the world we live in. Think about it…

Do not focus on {Process}

In a lot of cloud transition program “cookbooks” you will see some kind of triangle of People, Process and Technology. Often stating that you should evenly divide your attention over all three . This all sounds totally reasonable. Explicitly writing down that process needs “dedicated” attention, however, opens the door for the empowerment of your bureaucratic systems killing your strategic innovation. So instead foster engagement and momentum organically. So you should create an engineering culture where operational processes are automated by default. Processes will evolve naturally from the interaction between people and technology.

People should be empowered by technology to get {process} done

To start up your engineering culture for sustained innovation, you should begin by taking the following three important steps.

1. Focus on one metric and one process:
   - your rate-of-innovation is your metric
   - your feedback loop is your process.
2. Determine an actionable strategy
   Strategy and execution are inextricably linked, especially in tech. Furthermore, a strategy that doesn’t imply action is harmless because engineers won’t take ownership. An actionable strategy will help engineers to find purpose, by setting goals, taking ownership and responsibility.
3. Create guiding principles to induce and protect ideas.
   Build inspiring and lived guiding principles that your engineers can really get behind. How? By creating them together. The implications of these principles should really provide the opportunity or occasion as a concrete starting point for the development of new ideas.
   These principles should be directly connected to your business strategic goals in their rationale. So your engineers don’t have to take the difficult route in explaining why they are heavily dedicated to all this technology, that…(you know what’s coming) doesn’t really work yet.

In the next blogs, I will dive deeper into innovation and how these steps can help change your culture — in a good way. Stay in the loop and please give me your critical feedback or ideas. Don’t be afraid. I like a good discussion…
Need some help with innovation and empowering technology? Get in contact with Incentro.