In the relentless pursuit of innovation, businesses often chase the “big shiny object”—ambitious projects and grand new initiatives. But in my experience, overlooked roadblocks and day-to-day inefficiencies often hold the most untapped potential for transformation.
Take the story of our tax content team member who, in just one hour, resolved a tedious process that required users to tab through a form 120 times. This issue had lingered for five years, never prioritized because it wasn’t flashy enough to make it onto the backlog. Yet, fixing it saved hundreds of hours across the organization—a profound impact for a seemingly minor adjustment.
This example underscores a critical point: instead of defaulting to large-scale, shiny initiatives, teams should first ask, “What’s really getting in our way?” Identifying and addressing those sometimes “invisible” roadblocks can yield enormous gains.
From Maintenance to Value Creation
A striking example of this approach was our “25 to 75 in 3” initiative. When we went in search of what were the roadblocks hindering our innovation, we discovered that 75 percent of our work was spent on maintenance and only 25 percent on customers. Our goal was to flip those percentages in three years.
It wasn’t easy. Our compliance-heavy environment required significant resources for tax law updates. But by reframing the challenge and breaking it into actionable steps, the team achieved what skeptics initially thought impossible.
The initiative succeeded through a mix of top-down and grassroots strategies:
- Big Roadblocks: I committed to funding the critical, large-scale improvements.
- Monthly Innovations: Every team was required to implement one impactful change per month.
- Innovation Days: As a company, we established dedicated time for teams to tackle creative projects, often with cross-functional collaboration.
Empowering Teams to Innovate
Innovation flourished as employees tackled obstacles that had long been ignored. Engineers collaborated with content teams, combining expertise to solve persistent challenges. These partnerships not only improved workflows but also inspired confidence and camaraderie.
To amplify impact, the process was deliberate:
- Teams were required to document current inefficiencies and set measurable improvement goals.
- Results were showcased in presentations, highlighting tangible outcomes and fostering organizational buy-in.
- Senior leadership attended the showcases, and impressed by the extraordinary results, they shifted from skeptics to active champions of our innovation days.
It is easy to underestimate the power of small, targeted changes, but organizations can unlock immense value by addressing existing roadblocks and fostering a culture of creative experiences.
So, before pursuing the next big shiny innovation, pause and ask:
- What’s currently hindering our progress?
- How can we empower teams to tackle these roadblocks?
- What processes can we streamline to free up resources for strategic growth?
Sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come not from new ideas but from solving the small, nagging problems holding you back.