Creativity, innovation, and continuous improvement are all intertwined concepts that aim at moving an organization forward on the road to perfection. Although the ultimate destination is elusive, the process of getting there nevertheless continues. It is particularly important that leaders focus on incremental improvements and create the climate and processes for this to occur.
Innovation and creativity are similar but different. Innovation leads to improving an existing product or service, adding to it, making it perform better, more quickly, and/or at less cost. Creativity, on the other hand, causes something unique to come into being—an original idea.
- As a leader you have a special responsibility to provide the climate for new ideas to percolate up, be examined, and be implemented, if justified. Consider the following issues as clues to whether you have done so.
- Do you challenge (stretch) people when setting goals rather simply
being satisfied with past achievements?
- Do people have a measurable degree of freedom to pursue new
ideas?
- Are employees given time to try new ideas during work hours?
- Would you describe your environment as trusting and open, allowing
people with different perspectives equal opportunities to access resources
and influence decision makers?
- How do you deal with conflict? Do you prefer to sweep it under the
carpet? Do employees personalize the issues and beat up on people
whose ideas are different from their own? Or do you respect all
ideas, listen to them, and consider their merits, trying to find them
from a variety of sources? And do you welcome conflict, knowing
that it is permissible—and important—to have a variety of opinions,
because they produce a better outcome?
- Take active steps to promote new initiatives.
- Involve employees at every level. They all bring a variety of ideas to
work, some of which could have big payoffs. Leave idea boards and
flip charts around the workplace to encourage people to record new
ideas as they come to them. Then examine these ideas at ongoing
meetings.
- Set aside time at each meeting specifically for new ideas. Let the
more outlandish ideas percolate before dismissing them, since someone
else may be able to add to the idea, turning it into a winning
proposition.
- Seek out ideas from outside the organization. The NIH (not invented
here) syndrome has little merit. Copy ideas from different industries
when the product or service may provide added value to your clients.
- Bring in experts when needed, especially from the outside. These
people are likely to have a different perspective and will tend to see
more opportunities than obstacles. And many obstacles are more
about perception than reality.
- Establish and communicate criteria for new ideas. Cost ceilings,
payback periods, and discretionary spending for innovation should
be known to all. In this way a host of new ideas can be fairly quickly
whittled down to the best prospects.
- Set targets for new products and services. Establish goals for each
area of your organization to make people aware that innovation is
important. Challenge and reward individuals and teams that bring
new ideas to fruition.
- Measure your efforts and successes. In your matrix of measures
include indicators that track the organization’s abilities in this area.
Possible indicators include:
- number of new ideas generated per period
- percentage of new ideas implemented
- average evaluation time for new ideas
- number of new ideas per employee per period
- revenue growth from new services and products
- number of patent submissions per period
- climate for innovation, as measured by a survey comprising questions
about whether the atmosphere encourages or discourages
innovation
Post these measures so that people are aware of them and can observe trends indicating improvement or deterioration.
- Institutionalize the creation of new ideas. Without creating a bureaucracy or sole ownership for innovation, ensure that dedicated resource people are working on new projects that will keep you one (or more) steps ahead of the competition.
- Set up programs to encourage new ideas. Especially if your organization is spread around the world, provide opportunities—such as
knowledge-sharing fairs—for people to get together and share best practices.
- Celebrate failures. Acknowledge the effort and initiative even if an idea does not pan out the way everyone would have liked.