Innovation and Standardisation Copy
Some reflections on the inevitability of innovation and scale in social organisations
When Mr. Smith utters I am inevitable in the Matrix, you might have felt that same feeling where you want the hero to triumph, and for the story to end, the good to win. However, the thing with inevitability is it trumps our expectations and has a way of weaving its way despite the many reluctances we have.
Social organisations and programs undergo a similar phase of inevitability, commonly known as structural or strategic shifts. These changes create tension in the organisation and the team on the way forward; a new unknown for all intents and purposes. The following brief provides a systems structure to illustrate the challenges and tradeoffs in innovation/experimentation, standardisation and scalability.
Social programs and organisations take root as an idea. The right idea(s) will draw a committed and talented set of people. Most times there is a combination of subject matter expertise with the energy to get their hands dirty. This means the team is yearning to get on the ground and start implementing. The intent is clear — to improve life outcomes for the disadvantaged. These can be in any thematic areas — education, healthcare, WASH, agriculture, livelihoods, gender, and many more. The team, especially in a new area of intervention (geographic or thematic) is full of untested ideas. The major challenge — the team cannot know what works and they can only know after experimenting.
The Innovation Engine: starts a beneficial cycle of experimentation as they solve parts of the problem, understand more about it, experiment, and improve. Some experiments yield great results, some don’t. The instances of failure are common and there’s room for the team to fail as the costs are not too high. All of this together produces a culture of innovation — freedom to experiment, autonomy in decision-making, and of course, the reward of success. The culture of innovation is in fact a reinforcing loop — the more innovation, the more the team’s intent to venture to new areas, and the more they venture into newer areas the more energy for innovation.
With an increase in innovation, there are more successful outcomes which lead to more standardization. The more standardization, the fewer the failures and hence more the success. This in turn becomes inevitable and balances the experimentation
The inevitable Standardisation: This innovation cycle, as we all might realise, doesn’t continue indefinitely. Sooner or later — there is a need to standardising the procedures and processes that created success. Success is sustainable only when the innovation outcomes are repeatable with no cost of failures. This demands standardisation of best practices. Teams will have to document the procedures and stick to what has worked, especially when they tackle scale. The same mistakes the team could afford in the past are now costlier. Standardising the operations and following the procedures will lead to another reinforcing cycle of increasing success. This then becomes the theory in use.
Going back to Mr. Smith and inevitability, in social systems and organisations, basic tenets for scale will have to proceed with standardisation. With a better understanding of the problem and context, SOPs are a boon and help reach expected outcomes with reduced room for error. At the same time, it might shift the focus from innovation to operational excellence. Job descriptions will start looking more operational and design documents will be revamped albeit not too much. Those who thrive on everyday problem solving and designing might find it difficult to navigate this. Organisations and teams will have to take a call on how to balance the newness of innovation and the reality of standardisation. One way is to venture into new areas which gives some room for experimenting, then again only in the short-term. How individuals and teams adapt to managing this tension between energy from innovation and the reality of standardisation will greatly define how the organisation succeeds in the long run.