Create Innovation
Innovation only happens in the right environment, one where
everyone is not only allowed to innovate, but they are actively encouraged to
speak up and bring new ideas to the table. This may sound like common sense,
but it is far from common practice.
How do you create an innovative environment? These
tips can help you breed a culture that contains innovation in its DNA:
Innovation
only comes by invitation. Invite people to bring forth their new ideas. True
innovation takes place when people are free to raise ideas, take ownership of
them, and then implement them. If people are required to ask permission for
every step they take, they will stop asking permission.
Innovation is
not a solo sport, it requires a group of players with skills specific to the
effort. Many companies appoint an innovation department or hire a chief
innovation officer, which can make innovation just another stovepipe in the
organization. While an idea may come from one individual, it’s the
cross-functional creativity, trust, and collaboration that bring innovation to
life.
Encourage
everyone to put their ideas to test fast, fail fast, and then reiterate. If people
wait for perfection before they put the idea to work, the effort will lose
steam before it ever gets off the ground.
Value the
lessons taken from failure as much as your successes, and apply those lessons toward
each new attempt. This makes it safe for everyone to innovate. The idea is not
to encourage failure but to foster innovation that leads to winning success as
rapidly as possible.
Ensure this
behavior gets modeled at every level, from the very top to individual
contributor. That means the senior leaders must be actively involved, not just
mandating the change.
Resist the
desire to project manage your way to innovation. It cannot be generated by
focusing solely on budgets, resources, and timelines. If you try, you can
guarantee your innovation investment will be wasted.
You can even get a little, ahem, innovative with your strategy for
encouraging innovation. Consider offering awards for innovative attempts – both
ones that may have failed, like the Heroic Failure
Award, and even silly, risky ones that led to a breakthrough like
the Golden Goose Award.
Or, set an example by taking the Marshmallow Challenge with
your teams, which teaches that success comes only by trying often, failing
often, revising, and trying again. Once the focus changes from coming up
with the perfect solution to rapidly and boldly trying new things, your
company will go from incremental gains to game-changing winning
innovations.
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