My wish for the new year: “that people everywhere are able to tap into their innovative potential”
Innovation is a central facet of agility. It’s incredibly rare to see successful, competitive organizations that are stuck in their routines, ‘ways of doing things’, and who can’t respond to industry changes.
As a leader, you’re in a great position to kick start the changes needed for sustained, adaptable competitive advantage. By encouraging innovation at all levels and growing a culture of innovative work behaviour for an agile and happy organization.
With the right mindset, you’ll have a better understanding of how different tools can help you reach the ultimate goal—healthy, happy, productive organizations. Three things to consider are how you can free, connect, and develop your staff.
As you see in the graph above these 3 elements are also linked to the 3 aspects David Pink considers to be core in tapping into the intrinsic motivation of people, namely: Autonomy (free people), purpose (connect people) and mastery (develop people). So next to creating agility you will boost the motivation and engagement of people at the same time.
Free People
Being a strategic leader involves understanding what goes on at different operational levels. However, it comes at the cost of acquiring that in-depth, comprehensive grasp of all the process details. Your staff are experts at what they do, well-versed with all the little changes that could potentially streamline your systems. Open up lines of communication with your front-line staff and encourage them to think of ways they can improve their current practices. Who knows where the next great idea could come from, and you’ll be sending a valuable message that they’re being heard. We’ve listed some approaches for getting started with bottom-up improvement of practices and processes at your business.
Connect People
Innovation can only truly flourish where people feel connected. Without unnecessary bureaucracy stifling the free flow of ideas and thoughts between people. We call it ‘climate’. Your organizational climate covers everything from how comfortable people feel expressing their ideas, whether they share the organization’s goals and values, and whether they’re really working together towards a common future. Look at our ideas on how you can shape the right climate and consider whether you’re providing the right balance of the six key elements throughout your company.
Develop People
Whether you consider yourself a transformational leader or not, giving your employees the support to develop themselves can help your firm immensely. Spend time with your employees, make opportunities to provide one-on-one coaching with GROW whenever you can. Fostering a proactive, entrepreneurial and assertive approach among your people is a surefire way to start building skills for your firm’s anticipated future needs. While making them feel heard and appreciated!