by Paddy Barr, Managing Partner, Barr Performance Coaching and IMI associate
A culture of innovation recognises that it is imperative to create an environment of continuous learning in the work place. People will be recognised and rewarded for taking a growth mindset approach to their daily tasks.
The culture of the group or organisation is heavily influenced by the actions of its leader. A leader cannot support the development of a culture of innovation with words alone – they must be seen to actively support initiatives with appropriate investment of resources and time. The key role of the leader is to create an environment within which innovation can flourish.
How Can You Encourage Innovation?
Firstly, as the leader it is important that you schedule an opportunity for your team to think creatively about the future. It is easy for focus to become centred on the immediacy of day-to-day challenges as there is invariably a need for action to be taken. As a result of this, it is important to take yourself and your team out of their usual routine to think imaginatively about how to shape the future and sow the seeds that will generate long-term benefits.
By allowing time for creative thought, you signal your intent to encourage innovation. But as the leader, you must also be public and vocal about your support by creating the right environment to facilitate innovation. This will include the following:
- Freeing up the time and space for people to be creative.
- Explaining the framework within which you want the innovation or creativity to operate – in other words, outline the most pressing business challenges that require innovative or creative solutions:
- Be clear on the criteria to evaluate success for each challenge identified;
- Be clear on how you will prioritise ideas for piloting;
- Creativity is am iterative process, not an event;
- Creativity needs imagination, action and application;
- Innovation is the process of putting an idea into action to deliver value or solve a human need.
- Rewarding and recognising those who attempt to innovate (including those initiatives that “fail”). Ensure people recognise that not all initiatives will be a success, and that in the spirit of “nothing ventured, nothing gained” they may take calculated risks. It is important that everyone learns from the initiatives that failed, specifically; what could have been done differently to make the initiative a success? What prevailing assumptions were proved to be inaccurate? If the learning can be captured, future initiatives will stand a greater chance of success.
- Create a lab or space for piloting ideas. Pilots or tests should not be hidden away; they are a great learning opportunity for everyone in the company, so unless there is something very confidential you should keep as many people as possible aware of any progress.
- Be clear on the time frame for pilot projects. People invest a lot of time, energy and emotion in nurturing ideas, so it is important that everyone understands pilots that do not reach certain milestones will be terminated. You have a finite capacity to test new ideas, so you must make tough decisions, particularly if continuing a pilot is preventing another more lucrative idea being pursued. People can become emotionally attached to ideas, so there is a risk that time and energy is spread too thinly across a multitude of mini pilots that never fully mature.
For creativity and innovation to prosper, it helps if there is a process to follow; otherwise the ideas never become anything more concrete than wishful thinking. A really innovative team will turn good ideas into an action plan swiftly.
The steps in the process are outlined below.
Prepare the Groundwork for Innovation
One way to create space and time for innovation is to set up dedicated sessions for brainstorming or creative problem solving. To set up your session for success, it is imperative to lay the foundation and ground rules for the day. Enable those attending the session to be successful by providing them as much information on the format and objective of the session in advance.
It is a good idea to appoint a facilitator. An external facilitator is often the best option, as it enables you and the team members to focus on the activity, rather than the coordination of the day.
Once you have the session arranged, clearly define the challenge that you are trying to solve. Ensure that everyone understands the problem, and what success looks like in terms of an outcome.
In advance of the session, and during if appropriate, it is important that everyone has access to all the relevant data and information. If there is sensitive data, or new information that you can’t circulate beforehand, then take time at the beginning of the meeting to brief everyone.
Explain the process to the team and agree the desired behaviours in advance. It is important that everyone understands what is expected of them in terms of behaviours and contributions both in the meeting, and at each subsequent stage of the process. Some people will be very good at seeing the pitfalls of an idea, which is a very useful skill; but the real value comes from those who can see the pitfalls and provide solutions. Focusing on why an idea might not work, too early in the process, can kill creativity and get in the way of finding an innovative solution.
Create Options
Suspend judgement and allow the team time to brainstorm options and ideas. At this stage, the team should only look to build upon an option or idea, and criticisms should be parked. It is ok for team members to question an option for the purposes of increasing their understanding, but not to scrutinize it.
To facilitate both introverts and extroverts, it is good to start the option generation process as individuals; for example, you could get people to write their ideas on Post-It notes. This will ensure that the introverts get the opportunity to get their ideas across before the extroverts fill the air with their ideas. Have everyone put their ideas up on a whiteboard or stick Post-Its to the wall, then categorise the ideas into common themes. Take time to ensure that everyone understands each idea.
Reflect on the Options
Having generated the options, now is the time to look and see if there are common themes between ideas – or if different ideas could be merged to form a “super idea”. It is important at this point to nurture ideas, so ensure the group focuses on “what would it take to make this idea a success?” Remaining positive is critical. The time will come later to identify risks.
Here is one easy method of evaluation: score each idea from 1-5 on two separate factors.
- Ease of implementation (1 = hard to implement; 5 = easy to implement)
- Scale of benefit/impact (1 = low benefit/impact; 5 = high benefit/impact)
The total score for each idea is derived by multiplying A x B.
in this system, an idea with a score of between 20-25 will be relatively easy to implement and deliver a major benefit, meaning these ideas should be prioritised for action first. Those that attract a score of 15-20 also deserve attention, but may be scheduled only after the other high scoring initiatives have been completed.
Identify the Risks
As mentioned above, identifying risks is an extremely important part of any business leader’s job. However, the really successful business people not only identify the risks but also put forward ideas to mitigate the risks.
It is at this stage of the process that the team members get to be critical or express reservations about ideas. The team need to realise that being risk averse or being a risk-taker is not inherently good or bad; it is simply a reflection of one’s appetite for risk. It is usually good to remind the group of possible feelings or tensions that may arise at this point; sometimes people can feel defensive of their ideas in the face of criticism, or others may feel bad about raising objections or doubts. You can help mitigate this by reminding your team that risk assessment such as this is an incredibly valuable part of the process, to make the ideas the best ideas they can possibly be.
You may find it helpful to remind people that the purpose of identifying risks is not to shoot any ideas down, but to commence the process of mitigating any risks. Really successful business people can see and swiftly mitigate risks, and thus take action before their competition. Remember, if you choose not to take an action because the risks are perceived to be too big, then you may leave the option open for your competition to the seize the opportunity.
Prioritise the Options
Having identified the benefit potential and associated risk, it is now time to prioritise and select the ideas to be taken forward for piloting or implementation. At this point it is useful to look back at the success criteria you outlined for the day and what the “to be” outcome looks like for each of the challenges addressed in the session. Those ideas that look best positioned to deliver the greatest benefit, in the shortest period of time, with the lowest risk, should be prioritised for immediate action.
Develop an Action Plan
Now is the time to decide whether or not to develop a pilot or small-scale trial, or whether to implement the idea straight away. Whatever option is chosen will probably require an implementation project of some description with an appropriately skilled project manager.
The key aspect of developing an action plan will revolve around the following:
- Setting a vision for what success looks like from the initiative;
- An understanding of how success will be measured;
- Assigning the adequate resources with the right skills and competencies;
- Ensuring those resources have the time to devote to deliver a successful outcome;
- A timeline for key deliverables and milestones.
The final step is to secure senior management support, and agree how progress will be communicated to the senior management and the wider organisation. There are tools and templates available to help create the environment for creative thinking such as De Bono Hats (6 Thinking Hats) or Mind Mapping (Tonu Buzan).
About the author
Patrick is the owner & Managing Partner of Barr Performance Coaching a boutique coaching and leadership development company focusing on enabling clients maximise their potential and achieve exceptional personal and professional results. Patrick’s commitment is to collaborate with clients to design, develop and implement high quality business, career & personal development strategies using challenging innovative processes and creative, insightful thought leadership.
