The Innovation Mandate by Nicholas Webb

Author:Nicholas Webb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harpercollins Leadership
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

4. Leaders and Employees Are Stubborn

Problem: People can be rigid and set in their ways! Both leaders and employees can have a fear of failure or simply an aversion to changing how they do their work. They get set in their ways, and view innovation as a painful intrusion into their comfortable routine.

Solution: Do you know what’s really painful? Going out of business because of a failure to keep pace with the inexorable changes that happen in every marketplace. That’s painful for everyone.

To create a strong Innovation Mandate, leaders need to be proactive about connecting with their stakeholders. Employees need to fully understand what innovation means and how it’s going to be managed in their organization. When there are gaps in that information, employees get nervous and rumors start to spread. Leaders need to clarify gray areas and make sure misinformation isn’t spreading.

Call a team meeting and explain what’s going on in a clear and concise manner. If your company is big, train your managers to do it. Imagine you’re pitching your idea to potential investors—after all, your employees are being asked to invest their time and even their hopes—and start at the beginning. Discuss why innovation is important, and why you’re so excited about it. Employees who are afraid to think innovatively won’t. Traditional employee training and development often do not include support for idea generation and encouragement to think differently. If you want your company to be truly innovative, then put in place the environment that allows your top managers to teach innovative thinking to their people. If you want to foster an environment of idea generation, then you need to encourage new and risky ideas to be voiced.

Make your innovation operating system no different from any other system in your organization. Fund it properly, educate your stakeholders, and make it simple. Set attainable goals and celebrate both successes and failures. Bring the spark of innovation to every part of your organization and see the powerful results.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.