People innovation is combining novelty, value, and execution to optimize performance, culture, climate, engagement, leadership, and organizational development. People innovation requires a dramatic, conscious commitment to purposefully designing and cultivating the proper conditions for business success. It’s applying scientific insights and fostering experimentation. It’s creating an inspired, focused, self-aware community where both internal and external stakeholders can rally around your purpose and create value in their own way and in their own voice. It’s demonstrating that people are your most valuable asset.

Importantly, it’s about becoming the organization that competitors envy because you’re always stealing their talent and market share: everyone wants to work both with you and for you.

To enable you to quickly and easily benchmark your team or organization, we created a simple people innovation scorecard.

How the scorecard works Complete online here

Higher scores are better. Select the highest number you can say genuinely describes your organization. Add up your score for the 9 trends (between 1 and 5 points for each).

What’s your score? Rate your organization on a 1 to 5 scale for each trend.

Meta-trend 1: Start with your stakeholders and all else will follow.

1.1. Meet your users and clients where they are.

1.2 Make it even simpler.

1.3 Value accomplishment over activity.

Meta-trend 2: No more lords of business.

2.1. Share your expertise as broadly as possible, internally and externally.

2.2. Architect engagement.

2.3. No one can hide…or should want to.

Meta-trend 3: Disrupt thyself.

3.1. Know thyself.

3.2. Know thy aspirations.

3.3. Know thy red team or know thy future substitute.

WHAT THE SCORECARD MEANS

40 - 45 World-class. Talented people everywhere admire you and want to work with you and for you.

35 - 39 Great. Internal and external stakeholders recognize you as a leader in people innovation.

30 - 34 Good. Your organization and culture could be much more productive and engaged.

20 - 29 Mediocre. Your competitors are stealing talent and/or market share from you regularly.

<19 Lackluster. You’re at a significant risk of disruption from a non-traditional competitor and many people, especially your best leaders and high potentials, are actively looking to leave your organization.

Meta-Trend 1: Start with your stakeholders and all else will follow.

Stakeholders are external and INTERNAL people who are essential to your business model. Google famously stated, “Start with the user and all else will follow”. Now this philosophy needs to extend to other stakeholders, including employees. Understanding what your users, buyers, clients, and employees want to accomplish is absolutely critical in today’s fast-moving free agent workplace.

1.1 MEET YOUR USERS AND CLIENTS WHERE THEY ARE. EMPATHY MULTIPLIED PARTICIPATION = PERCEIVED VALUE

To create breakthrough products, services, and experiences, you must understand what your users and clients want to accomplish. Knowing and relating to their most important goals, the most important problems they are solving, their most valued wants and needs, etc., is essential. Even successful companies that have traditionally spurned market research (famously, Apple) create desire by delighting people; delight comes from a profound understanding of aspirations and a solution that exceeds them. Feedback, as well as user and client insights from qualitative and quantitative research, helps your organization throughout the value chain, from mission, marketing and sales to development, delivery, and support.

Ask “What do you want to accomplish?” not “What do you want?”. Users and clients are often unable to articulate or envision the best solution to their problems or the experience that will change their lives. (That’s your job!)

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

We know what our users and clients need because we are brilliant and/or a market leader…plus, Steve Jobs didn’t do market research.
Our website has a link where our users and customers can provide feedback.
We hear what clients want from our salespeople and/or marketing team.
We have a design research program with designers and researchers (obviously!) that systematically report findings throughout the organization after spending time directly with clients.
Anyone in our organization can spend time with clients and/or users to learn what clients want to accomplish to create empathy and understanding. No one rises up in our organization without user- and/or client-facing assignments.

1.2 MAKE IT EVEN SIMPLER. ESPECIALLY WITH PEOPLE INNOVATION, LESS IS MORE AND FEWER ARE BETTER. THE “NEW HR” IS FOCUSED ON CREATING ENGAGEMENT AND SOLVING REAL, IMPORTANT BUSINESS PROBLEMS.

Today’s top people and HR leaders are recognizing that personalized development is necessary from top-to-bottom in organizations. However, employees are busier than ever. This means that HR and People teams need to measure the effectiveness of different programs and curate accordingly. This means applying frameworks like Lean Startup’s “Build Measure Learn” to continuously improve programs through metrics and stakeholder feedback.

This also means using flexible frameworks that can effectively be deployed throughout an organization. Using fewer models and frameworks means that everyone in an organization is speaking the same language about leadership, values, development, decision-making, conflict, and more. Since many HR/People teams are understaffed, this also reduces their burden. That said, balance is important – people crave variety, so learning experiences around the “fewer frameworks” should vary to keep employees interested, especially top talent and high potentials.

Furthermore, the “new HR” focused on culture, engagement, leadership, teams, etc., is about not only simplicity and personalization, but also real-world business results. Senior teams are acknowledging the relationship between traditional HR metrics like retention and the success of various functional teams. This means that HR and People teams should not only think about the impact of HR programs throughout an organization, but also understand the relationship between HR/People initiatives and the organization’s most important business objectives.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

Leadership and organizational development happen naturally in our organization - we don’t have formal programs for either.
Someone in HR and/or a consultant can count the number of development tools and programs you use in your organization from memory.
Someone in HR and/or a consultant can count the number of development tools and programs you use in your organization on one hand.
Most people in our organization use the tools regularly.
Most people in our organization consider the tools essential and frequently ask if we can deploy them more broadly within the organization.

1.3 VALUE ACCOMPLISHMENT OVER ACTIVITY. KEEP YOUR TALENT FRESH BY ENFORCING WORK-LIFE BALANCE.

The days of “time in office” affecting performance evaluations should be gone; however, in many organizations, the importance of an employee is still measured by the number of meetings one “must” attend or how many late nights and weekends one works. This antiquated thinking may be limiting innovation and creativity through interruptions, unproductive meetings, and other engagement killers. Providing a clear mission and empowering people to work whenever and whenever they want may change your organization for the better (with a certain amount of overlap for communication purposes).

Whether it’s coding or marketing, creative work requires concentration. 24x7x365 availability can also increase interruptions if it’s not managed appropriately. Ensure that your employees don’t have to cram “real work” into nights and weekends due to the onslaught of interruptions at the office or during traditionally-defined work hours.

Perhaps most importantly, disconnection is critical for productivity, innovation, and focus. Leading employers are making vacation mandatory to ensure people take time to recharge.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

Some of our managers still measure employee performance based on who shows up at the office first and leaves last.
We aren’t the type of business where people can or should work remotely, which means that people need to work on nights and weekends to actually get work done.
We allow people to work wherever they want, but require that they are available through email, phone, and/or chat.
We are a results-oriented work environment and require synchronized availability only when necessary.
We minimize interruptions, report status naturally as part of our processes, and force people to take vacation until they feel comfortable taking it themselves.

Meta-trend 2: No more lords of business.

Leaders must be inspiring rather than motivating, conscious as well as quantitative, and open to collaboration and feedback. Controlling and restricting information at the top of an organization doesn’t work anymore.

2.1 SHARE YOUR EXPERTISE AS BROADLY AS POSSIBLE, INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY. DESIGN YOUR MISSION AND INFORMATION FOR SCALING AND SHARING, NOT FOR INTERNAL BUREAUCRACY.

Whether interacting with clients, prospects, or employees, the best companies are excellent communicators: mission, purpose, and values resonant internally and externally. Just as importantly, the best companies create advocates by selecting a meaningful purpose and delighting their customers again and again. Their brand message expands virally, increasing the number of advocates even more and attracting top talent.

Given the amount of online research buyer’s conduct during their journey, inbound marketing created the need to not only be found through great online content, but also provide valuable information and expertise at every single touch. CX (customer experience) and UX (user experience) are viewed (rightfully) as interconnected, facilitating a personalized, delightful journey from unknown visitor to passionate advocate.

The same thinking applies to internal communications as well: employees should feel valued at every touch from leadership, people/HR, their manager, whoever. In addition, employees should be equipped with valuable user, client, and market data so they can apply their best thinking to the most important business challenges.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

We create our business value and our mission ourselves and hoard our expertise.
Our sales and marketing team report what our users, customers, and clients want, which drives our strategy.
We systematically receive and distribute inspiration and insight directly from our clients, prospects, and partners to our entire organization, top-to-bottom.
We are a platform with an inspired community fueling our growth and business decisions. Our marketing team is responsible for supporting the end-to-end customer experience.
Our users and clients essentially sell for us…and our entire marketing, sales, and fulfillment process is become more automated every day.

2.2 ARCHITECT ENGAGEMENT. INSPIRE YOUR PEOPLE AND DESIGN CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS AND OWNERSHIP FROM TOP TO BOTTOM IN YOUR ORGANIZATION.

Having a crisp, resonant mission and clear, simple organizational values are now the status quo for any competitive organization. The best organizations now provide a mission AND do everything possible to inspire, enable, and get out of the way of their talent at every level of the organization. This means that information and day-to-day decision-making are pushed down the organization, not held up at the top.

Of course, if mission, values, strategy, and goals are not simple and well-understood, chaos can result. This critical information should be communicated so frequently (and simply) that everyone understands. We’ve observed that when it starts to feel like over-communication, an organization might be communicating just enough.

Importantly, a clear strategy and organization-level understanding of a company’s business model, value proposition, business goals help people prioritize their work and know what they should NOT do.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

We have a mission statement on our website and/or a business plan with a strategy.
We have a mission statement that our organization embodies.
Our mission, which is massive and important to the world, inspires our clients, organization, and other stakeholders.
Our mission and strategy clearly tell internal and external stakeholders what we do and, especially, do not do.
Our mission, strategy, and plan purposefully create engagement. Our leaders and operations focus on inspiring, enabling, and getting out of the way.

2.3 NO ONE CAN HIDE...OR SHOULD WANT TO. FEEDBACK HAS ELEVATED CUSTOMER/CLIENT EXPECTATIONS AND ELIMINATED BUREAUCRATIC CAMOUFLAGE.

Fortunately, even large, traditional companies are abandoning the often-unproductive annual performance review. People need feedback more than once a year to improve. Fortunately, many solutions allow organizations to gather observations about character strengths, engagement, leadership, etc. Unfortunately, we’ve observed that overuse of these tools can replace authentic, in-the-moment conversations and places unproductive distance between stakeholders.

Research has strongly suggested that focusing on strengths (without overusing them) and character is critical for optimal performance. Understanding and appreciating other people’s character strengths can build relationships and empathy between key influencers in an organization. Great relationships between people facilitate compassionate candor, which accelerates and improves the feedback process.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

Everyone has performance reviews once a year on a forced curve; for example, there can only be so many top performers on a team.
Everyone knows what users, customers, and/or clients think of your company through client feedback and/or sites like yelp and glassdoor.
Everyone in the organization knows their character strengths, how they are showing up to others, and why strengths are critical for development.
Everyone in the organization appreciates the character strengths of other individuals in the organizations and can Tilt appropriately based on context and business needs.
Almost everyone in our organization would feel comfortable telling a colleague their authentic perspective, even confronting a manager or senior leader with negative feedback.

Meta-Trend 3: Disrupt thyself.

Organizational change must be inside-out, client-focused, and, most importantly, self-disruptive. More than ever, you must challenge and question assumptions and bureaucratic practices to increase agility.

Enabling self-knowledge and self-awareness throughout an organization is essential for optimal performance. In addition, research suggests that focusing on strengths and overused strengths is superior to attempting to address weaknesses. Self-understanding can inform job design, selection, performance reviews, training, development plans, and more.

Today’s best organizations are helping individuals develop from the inside-out, focusing on character, strengths, emotional intelligence, stress, energy, and well-being. Contrasting against merely focusing on competencies, this enables lasting, authentic change. Research has also suggested that feedback is necessary for self-awareness; according to Fred Kiel’s Return on Character, people rate themselves highly even if others don’t.

3.1 KNOW THYSELF. STRUCTURED PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IS MORE PERSONAL (AND NECESSARY) FOR EVERYONE.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

We don’t invest in self-assessment or 360 feedback software.
We invest in self-assessment or subjective 360 feedback software for leaders; we focus on competencies and fixing weaknesses.
We invest in self-assessment and 360 feedback software for leaders; we focus on strengths.
We invest in self-assessment and/or structured, continuous 360 feedback software for leaders, high potentials, and some functional groups; we focus on character strengths.
We invest in self-assessment and structured, continuous 360 feedback software for all individuals and teams throughout our organization; we focus on character strengths using an inside-out approach to development.

3.2 KNOW THY ASPIRATIONS. PERSONALIZE THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY. MILLENNIALS EXPECT TO HAVE THEIR DREAM JOBS WITHIN TEN YEARS.

Traditionally, personal development is offered only to leaders. Now, expectations for learning opportunities, promotions, stretch assignments, and more are common throughout an organization. To keep individuals – especially top talent – from jumping from company to company for promotions, new challenges, etc., organizations must encourage and enable people to become their best selves.

To facilitate whole person development, top organizations provide tuition reimbursement, gym memberships, onsite meditation rooms, mindfulness training, internal and external events, mentorship, mentoring, and more. Leading HR/People teams should recommend and curate personalized developmental experiences as often as possible.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

No one – or only our most senior leadership – has a personalized development plan.
We invest in personal development for leaders, managers, and high potentials.
We invest in personal development throughout our organization, including a tuition reimbursement plan for classes related to one’s job.
To facilitate our organization’s love of learning, we’re constantly encouraging our employees to learn new skills, holding internal and external events, connecting with thought leaders in adjacent fields, etc.
We enable personalized development journeys with education, events, networking, etc., and with assignments that have real-world, user- and client-facing stakes.

3.3 KNOW THY RED TEAM OR KNOW THY (FUTURE) SUBSTITUTE. RED TEAMS CHALLENGE THE WAY YOU DO BUSINESS BEFORE A COMPETITOR DOES.

New entrants and substitutes are a well-known threat to every business and organization. Today, substitutes can appear out of nowhere. Red teams combine client insights, business expertise, and start-up style without the constraints of your existing business, enabling you to find novel solutions to critical business challenges more quickly.

Red team experiences can be utilized to expose your top talent to client-facing, high-stakes challenges even faster, capitalizing on their beginner’s minds and fresh perspective.

What’s your score? Select the response below that best represents your organization.

We are an industry leader and disruption-proof.
We appreciate that the best ideas for the future of our business may come from anywhere within our organization - or from our users, customers, and clients.
We have an internal process to capture ideas and inventions, with a reward system.
We train people to accept failure as part of learning as part of formal training about innovation, disruption, etc., and reward appropriate risk taking.
We have a well-funded red team with business and technical experts internally that interacts directly with clients and creates transformational ideas, prototypes, and other examples of thought leadership. These insights inform product development and are shared internally and externally.

Time to add up your score… Complete online here

Meta-trend 1: Start with your stakeholders and all else will follow.

1.1. Meet your users and clients where they are. _____

1.2 Make it even simpler. _____

1.3 Value accomplishment over activity. _____

Meta-trend 2: No more lords of business.

2.1. Share your expertise as broadly as possible, internally and externally. _____

2.2. Architect engagement. _____

2.3. No one can hide…or should want to. _____

Meta-trend 3: Disrupt thyself.

3.1. Know thyself. _____

3.2. Know thy aspirations. _____

3.3. Know thy red team or know thy future substitute. _____

Total

WHAT THE PEOPLE INNOVATION SCORECARD MEANS

40 - 45 World-class. Talented people everywhere admire you and want to work with you and for you.

35 - 39 Great. Internal and external stakeholders recognize you as a leader in people innovation.

30 - 34 Good. Your organization and culture could be much more productive and engaged.

20 - 29 Mediocre. Your competitors are stealing talent and/or market share from you regularly.

Now what? We’re here to help you improve your score! Contact us at hello@tilt365.com or jeff@tilt365.com

About the Tilt 365 People Innovation Scorecard Complete online here

This simple framework was designed by Tilt 365 people innovation SMEs for individual contributors, leaders, coaches, consultants, and internal experts in HR, OD, people ops, etc. to use when evaluating a team and/or organization’s people innovation. The scorecard highlights 3 meta-trends in people innovation distilled from Tilt 365’s primary research with our clients, as well as a modified informal delphi analysis using dozens of expert sources with hundreds of insights (e.g., HBR, PWC, Forbes, McKinsey, DDI).

About Tilt 365

We measure and grow character strengths like creativity, inspiration, trust, and integrity for world-leading organizations like Red Hat and Facebook using proprietary, research-based self-assessment and feedback software. Fundamentally, we are people people who want to ensure that every stakeholder interaction you have, both internally and externally, reflects the character strengths that people value at the appropriate intensity. (We humans have a tendency to overuse our strengths.)

We’d love to hear from you.

hello@tilt365.com