You may have noticed recently that many of the articles on innovation speak about it as if this were an event.
Truly successful businesses and professionals understand that in reality innovation is not an event, but rather an ongoing process. It is something that individuals, teams and organisations, if they wish to thrive, need to lean into and embed into their practice each and every day.
This is particularly relevant when we consider the dangers of long term planning in such a fast-paced volatile environment.
For those in management and leadership positions the following are essential.
1. Develop lean communication for your business so that operational and strategic decisions are based upon ‘real time’ information. Making judgements and pivoting on data that is no longer relevant or even worse, incorrect, is one of the most common mistakes that businesses make.
2. Trusting relationships should be nurtured. Recognise that whatever sector you are operating in, it is your people that will set you apart. Remember that good ideas are more likely to tumble from trusting conversations!
3. Create opportunities for yourself and those reporting to you to engage in deep work separate from their normal day to day operational duties and responsibilities. Employees need the time and support to work innovatively e.g. allow 10 – 20% of an employees working week for creative freedom.
4. Nurture an organisational culture where individuals and teams have the opportunity to experiment, receive feedback and adapt. Within such a culture, leaders need to consistently reinforce the fact that curiosity is more valued than certainty. Recognise the importance for individuals and teams to engage in deliberate practice both individually and collectively, working with curiosity on the edge of their current level of capability.
6. Finally, recognise that without failure there is no growth and very little innovation. Learn from mistakes and actively engage with those reporting to you in a non-judgemental way.
create10 can work with you in assessing how innovative your business is. One to one coaching, interactive impactful workshops and flexible online courses at www.create10.ie