Michael McCathren - Chick-fil-A’s Innovation Transformation | #73

Michael McCathren gave his MBA students what sounded like a straightforward assignment: explain their company's innovation process and how they used it. Some had to search internal files and ask numerous colleagues before finding anything. These were experienced professionals working for recognizable businesses. Their employers had invested in innovation, yet the people who could apply it struggled to find the process.

McCathren recognized a similar gap inside Chick-fil-A. When he took on his innovation role, he spent a year talking with colleagues about what innovation meant to them and how it appeared in their daily work. A small group used the process confidently. Many others did not. In this episode of Innovation Rockstars, he explains how those conversations led his team toward an internal consulting model built around helping people solve their actual problems.

Start with the work people already need to do

McCathren's career began in restaurants as a teenager in West Texas. He tried to leave the industry, returned during college and eventually worked across marketing, finance, planning and other functions. At Chick-fil-A, he helped establish digital marketing activities before moving into enterprise innovation.

His own experience had made him a believer in the innovation process. Instead of preparing a lengthy marketing brief, he had used an approach based on understanding, imagining and prototyping to produce a shorter proposal that was accepted. He wanted colleagues to experience that usefulness for themselves.

During his conversations across the business, he therefore moved beyond asking whether people knew the process. He asked about their challenges and goals. Would they welcome help reaching better solutions faster? The interest was there when the discussion concerned their work.

Initially, McCathren offered that support himself. As demand grew, a team developed around it. Project leaders became internal clients, with regular client meetings and an engagement process. The innovation team was becoming a service colleagues could choose to use.

Internal knowledge has to earn its place

McCathren does not assume an internal team automatically deserves the work. Project teams can seek external support, so innovation services needs to offer a convincing reason to stay inside.

Part of that advantage is practical. An internal consultant already understands the organization's language, hierarchy and culture. An appointment form on the intranet makes getting started easier. Early questions help clarify the challenge before an engagement grows.

The more interesting advantage is knowing what has already happened elsewhere. McCathren describes a lead consultant who can recognize when another team has recently worked on a similar problem. The two teams may never have spoken. Connecting them can change the starting point for the work.

For R&D organizations, that example is particularly relevant. Knowledge spread across projects only helps when someone can connect it to the next problem. Familiarity with the organization becomes valuable when it saves a team from beginning again in isolation.

Sometimes the right answer is less involvement

Not every request requires an innovation project. McCathren's team sometimes helps a colleague recognize that their challenge belongs elsewhere. Other engagements need deeper work to understand the audience, investigate causes or develop and test possible solutions.

The team can coach, facilitate sessions or help with prototyping. Its involvement changes with the need. Some colleagues want enough guidance to continue independently; others ask the consultants to design and run a session. As a project approaches launch, the established organizational functions increasingly take over.

That division of responsibility shapes measurement. The service team can influence how a project develops, but the project leader and team remain responsible for implementation. McCathren therefore places considerable weight on feedback from internal clients after engagements and sessions.

“But customer satisfaction, I would say is our biggest driver.”

The feedback includes comments that expose blind spots and areas to improve. At the time of the conversation, the team was also exploring an organizational innovation maturity assessment. That was a potential next step, rather than an established measure already delivering results.

A capability needs repeated opportunities to practice

Consulting is only part of the work. Learning activities, communities and events give people ways to keep developing their skills. McCathren describes showcases where colleagues can meet teams working on live innovation projects, and a celebration of projects that have launched.

An internal innovation summit brought speakers and breakout sessions to employees who might struggle to attend external conferences. An ambassador program gave enthusiastic colleagues a way to deepen their skills and potentially support work beyond the core team's capacity.

These activities connect to permanence, one of the six themes in McCathren's book, 6Ps of Essential Innovation. He had seen innovation efforts weaken when the executive who supported them departed. Regular opportunities to participate, leadership conversations and continued attention help make the capability less dependent on one person's enthusiasm.

He also acknowledges the same problem in his own working habits. While managing the team, teaching and writing, he became increasingly inward-looking. Networking and curiosity lost space in his schedule. Later, seeing the work of other innovators made him realize what he had missed.

“I felt like I wasn't bringing my best to my team or my best to my clients.”

It is a candid admission from someone whose job is to help other people explore. McCathren's response was to make more room for outside perspectives again. An innovation service needs that renewal as much as the people it supports. Colleagues return because the help is useful, and keeping it useful requires the team itself to keep learning.