How To Deploy Innovation And Have Everyone Participate
One of many myths about ideas that lead to innovation is that it comes from individuals or by a small group of creative human beings working together in an isolated room. But in fact, if we take a closer look in Thomas Edison, Ted Turner, Jeff Bezos, or even Steve Jobs, they are able to develop great ideas as results from interactions with many sources.
Anticipation on innovations, no matter how small, is a good basic for an invention, still, leaders has to nurture the right condition for innovation to grow. Here are 4 ways to connect as well as to grow and to make innovations possible:
1. Change The Organization Structure
For many years, organization structures has directly or indirectly isolated changes and innovations from the other departments, where these kind of conditions will not bring any effect on the company. To make changes in organization definitely need a structure which can actively help growth of cross function interactions.
If you are a leader, try to raise these questions:
- Do we have the infrastructure for innovations to be possible, which can delivers these innovations matching roles in every level of the company and involves everybody? Or whether the organization structure keeps on positioning innovations as an exclusive responsibilities for certain function or group?
- What steps has been taken by the company within the past year to promote functions and departments to share ideas and knowledge?
- What can we do to facilitate direct communication, person to person in all parts of the company instead of developing the traditional system that sticks on top-bottom approaches?
2. Create Open Market For New Ideas
In many companies, new ideas are scarce commodities, strangled by company cultures that disregard opportunities and need. Companies that are serious about changes must create a climate (culture) where every person within the company can contribute ideas, whereas the ideas are considered workable, they will be supported with financing and proper resources to make it happen.
Few questions that can be asked by leaders:
- Does the management really believe that mediocre worker can also innovate?
- Does companies develop a “change democracy” where anybody from any level within the company can raise their ideas?
- What have we done to communicate – verbally or by actions – that everyone in the company are encouraged to be a pioneer?
- If someone or some groups come up with new ideas, how difficult it is for them to gain supports, morally and financially from the top management?
- What have we done within these 12 months in using imaginations, know-hows or ideas from people outside of the company?
3. Use the Web In Developing Imaginations
Usually, information technologies utilized in companies end without any clear articulation of the benefit and functions only for simple and explicit knowledge management tools. Instead they have to learn to use this as a system for boosting innovation, which involves peoples in the company – and millions outside – in a global dialogue with innovation as it’s primary focus.
Questions to ask:
- Have we create discussion forum, where conversations about innovation is the main topic within the last 24 months?
- Have we use information technology infrastructures to distribute needed responsibilities to propel new ideas throughout divisions in and out of the company?
- Does the intranet has something to do with inspiring people to develop their thinking as to show them how an innovation project can be initiated?
- Can we use the infrastructure to create opportunities and rebuild projects that had no clear purpose?
4. Spend More Time For Interaction
Companies who want to promote innovations better create opportunities for their workers to interact with people working outside their business unit, people outside their geographic region and ideally outside their corresponding industries. Find ways to connect between different groups directly to share their point of views and create ideas together.
Another questions to ask:
- Within the last 12 months, has everyone in my division has the opportunity to participate in company held innovation projects?
- How often my company/division/business unit held events and forums for knowledge sharing and cooperation?
With those all 4 steps, companies can ultimately possess a field full of innovations, which in turn boost the organization to a new unprecedented level.
Image by scleroplex
Understanding Gray Areas
Using company’s resource for personal issues, especially during working hours, is a big fat NO for workers in many companies. However, supervisors often have to deal with what we always call the gray areas, while at the same time closing one eye on activities and behaviors that legitimately forbidden. They realize that to expel these activities is more harmful than to benefit from it, because many employees have interest, and mainly personal interest, to be within the gray areas.
In some factories, where tools and materials are available, we can find some workers making personal stuffs out of it. Kitchenware, toys for their children, or window frames – all within working hours. Managers often deliberately indifferent about this, because they need these people when jobs need to be completed as fast and as good as possible.
And let’s take a look within a publishing house where a competent junior editor and a productive one, completing his personal novels within working hours. His managers somehow tolerate him, hoping in return they can count on a hardworking, loyal, and motivated junior editor.
So why does even all these talented workers have the same urge to break the rule? Research showed that they have the need to play their “job identity”. An identity that describe self picture showing someone trained within a specific field and making them part of that profession. A profession, perhaps goes as far as “profession”; the most important thing is how colleagues assess someone in the job
Many senior executives fail to understand the needs of “job identity” (so they often think negatively about this gray areas), could be that they themselves haven’t got their own identities. Executives often see themselves pursuing their own personal challenge, and that’s why, when they enter a company, they don’t understand the importance of job identity for their people. For example, an executive in a fashion company might not be a designer, and because of that, he could probably ignore the needs of a designer within the company of recognition from colleagues.
Instead of considering that gray areas is a dangerous issues, leaders can always try to understand the cause of why the gray area appears. It doesn’t mean that they have to accept all the activities within the areas. They would probably spend their time monitoring misuse of working time and other resources – with proper understanding of course, that these gray areas show that there are higher aspirations within workers; one thing that soon will be considered by leaders as a character of employees they look for.
Finding the right person might not always possible, but workers will be more involved and productive when their capabilities is admitted by their boss.
Source: Michel Anteby, Harvard Business School Publishing
Take Monkeys Off Their Shoulders
One of the primary duty of leaders is to develop their people, that includes sharpen their competence in problem solving and decision making. So you have to realize that the danger from load of tasks that will occur if you take over their works. But what if you are being held on a deadline and somebody ask you to handle ‘one or more monkeys’ – problems that should be dealt by sub-ordinates, popular terminology that was introduced by William Oncken Jr. and Donald L. Wass in their article “Management Time: Who’s Got The Monkey?” from Harvard Business Review 1974.
Here are few tips that you can possibly do.
1. Let Them Work
To many people, the pathway to effective delegation starts with studying two basic assumption of their roles. First, a lot of managers believe that handling their people’s problems is a faster and more effective than teach them to handle it themselves. Second, they also believe that they know more from their people.
These assumptions, will only raise the need of managers to break the problem and make decisions, instead of delegating and empowering their men. To deal with this problem, you have to position yourself as a leader, not a manager. Managers deal with details, while leaders, on the contrary, raise sense of belonging and responsibilities in their people.
2. Ask, Don’t Tell
Professional delegator choose to ask their men, rather than dictate the solution to them.
The question “What is it that you think should be done?” stimulates people to come with solutions when they approach you. Another additional questions like “What is the effect of this action?” or “What is it that we need to pay attention to if we are to go your way?” could also reveal how far have they think about the solution to the problem.
3. Match Person With The Job
Avoid adding your current jobs with handling your people’s problem. This can only happen if managers delegate the right job to the right people, according to each competence and potential.
Steven R. Covey stressed about delegation based on interest. “Find out the best outcome and the most preferred job of your people” he said “Then combine their unique talents and interests with job needs. When people work with interest and desire, they don’t need guidance. They will eventually create creative solutions independently.”
4. Cultivate Independent Thinking
If someone manages to think independently and feel that he own his job, then he will definitely bring less problem to his boss.
Shane Pliska, Business Development Director of Planterra, a landscape interior company, uses “monkey rating”, a method extracted from Oncken and Wass’ article. “We ask the workers to self assess their problems with numbers,” she said. “One means your manager solved it for you. Two means your manager told you the solution and you follow the solution, three means you proposed a solution and seek approval from your manager, while four means you took action, solve the problem, and let you manager know afterwards.”
When people came to their boss’s chamber, managers will ask “what number is on your current problem?” To raise the sense of belonging, Planterra managers encourages their people to have number four on every problem as much as possible.
5. Connect Them With Resources
Connecting your people with resources will also help you reduce your load. Think about the term “resource” in wider perspective, like human, tools, information, and opportunities that can help your men to work independently. Being the matchmaker between your people to the resources is actually not hard at all, like “You can talk to Mr X in marketing division.”
So, take that monkey of their shoulders immediately, let them deal with their own monkeys, because you already have your own, right?
4 Attitudes That Lead To Success
Have you ever felt that life is plain and quiet? Claude T. Bissell gives practical solution to have the passion back and make everything sparks.
1. Take Risk Beyond Safe Limit
Life will be less challenging because we never let ourselves in challenging situations. Of course, there will be risk also behind every challenge, but the risk is the only thing that can get us moving forward.
Bill Gates, richest man in the world is a very smart person who willing to take risk. When IBM need an operating system for their personal computers, their representative Jack Sams called Gates. Bill was unable to fulfill the demand, thus recommend Gary Kildall, owner of Digital Research to Sams. Kildall did not see the monstrous opportunities that laid before his nose and told his wife to do the negotiation. This has let IBM down and they wanted Gates to find another partner.
That time, Gates knew that this is a huge opportunity. He didn’t waste it this time, even knowing that he had nothing of what IBM wanted, he scrambled for solution. Later he was able to develop the MS-DOS (Microsoft – Disk Operating System).
2. Be Attentive More Than What Others Do In General
Whatever it is your profession and your job, must involve human interactions. By increasing care and attention to customers and people around us, success and happiness will follow.
Joe Girard, a salesman who understand well the concept of customer comes first, hold a world record of car sales which listed in Guiness Book of Record after registered 13.001 units of car in 15 years of service. His ability to understand his customers had caused his customers to refer him to their friends and families.
3. Dream Beyond Your Wildest
Big dreams can give us
bigger boost of unleashing inner potential. Steven Spielberg is a true dreamer. His box office movies have already generated USD 8 billion. Jaws, E.T., Jurrasic Park were among them.
4. Expect More, Be Passionate
By having positive expectation in this life, you will become passionate and stay positive no matter what lays ahead. Colonel Sanders is a perfect example of someone having such expectation. He was so passionate to convince chicken restaurant owners to buy his mom’s recipe – an expectation that led him to finally knock on the 1,009th door for his idea to be accepted.
These four solutions have been proven by them in their way to success. Now it’s your turn. Live your life with passion!
Image by thinkpanama
8 Very Simple Steps to Free Yourself From Stress
This post is a sequel to my previous posts about stress management.
Never let stress disrupt your performance. Get over with it with these simple 8 steps:
1. Breathe
A long and deep inhale can help your mind and body relax
2. Have an Eating Pattern
Diets with high calories and fat can cause your body weaker and dysfunctional in the long run.
3. Exercise
Coordinated body movement can make you feel calmer, more controllable mood, and easier to handle pressure
4. Get a Good Quality Sleep
A deep sleep of 6-8 hours every night can raise your energy level. Making you ready to face any challenge the following day
5. See Bigger Picture
Don’t take your job as daily routine, instead, it is your pathway that leads to overwhelming success.
6. Empower and Delegate
You are neither Superman nor demi-God; learn to trust others to help you do your job. Only by this, then you can aim for a far more strategic role in works.
7. Perfection Can be Very Evil
If you spend most of your time trying to fix a working machine, you will never gain from that machine effectively. In short, you are wasting your valuable time.
8. Celebrate
Small reward to indulge yourself that comes in every accomplishment is a good motivation factor.
Office Politics
According to a research from University of Minnesota, Psychology effect caused by office bullying is far scarier than sexual harassment. Office bullying might consists of:
- Attacking commentaries or looking down to others
- Specific yells (even work related issues) – especially in front of many people
- Disrespectful of job rank and our role
- Disrespectful of our working results
If any of you ever experienced one of the above, you have to immediately confront the abuse right on spot. For example, when someone mocks you, look the person on the eyes and tell him/her that you don’t find it amusing and that you want that person to stop doing that. Tell him/her that you are a professional and you deserve to be treated politely.
Bear in mind, that when you say that, maintain your tone and emotion, because your emotional weakness is what that person is trying to proof. So, whenever you don’t think that you can control your wrath, you’d better stay away and calm yourself down.
However, if you think that everything is out of line and has gone from bad to worse, please write a written report, stating every detailed aspects, including places, time, type of abuse, plus eye witness of the harassment,
And know when to stop, if the written report is proven ineffective, instead, making things worse, it is time that you find a better working place. Never mind with the thought that the abuser will be thrilled to see you walk away that door, because your pride and mental wellness are far more important than what others might think.
The Art Of Letting Go
What I’m about to share to you is a case that happens in Gucci, one of the most high-end apparel label in the world originated from Italy. This happens about a decade ago when Gucci was faced with financial problem, family feud, and counterfeiting issues. The company was in a downward spiral at that moment because of a poor management.
Then they hired Tom Ford, a top notch designer from America to handle everything from design to product launch. Suddenly, there were signs of life. Tom worked very hard to get the company going and has done a great job according to the original shareholder, the Gucci family.
Then the shareholder changed, which means that the Gucci family is no longer in control. And the current shareholder was not amused at the “already much better” performance of the company because they think that the company was too “Tom-centric” that decision was so centralized even a mid manager could not or dare not decide for small things. This is also worsen by the celebrity status that Tom possess.
Then they changed the company CEO. They summoned Robert Polet, a Frenchman from Unilever, a huge company in consumer goods industry. Polet was handling ice cream business before he was asked to lead Gucci.
The media and fashion world was somewhat shocked by the shareholder’s decision to sack Tom and have Polet at the helm. How come an “ice cream guy” which strategy was a mass marketing and mass production can run a very delicate business of ultra niche market like Gucci had? There were jeers and boos heard from everywhere, yet the show went on.
Surprisingly, Gucci now has managed to perform much much better even compared to the moment when Tom left the company. In an interview with Polet, he revealed the secret that made him succeed. He knew that he is not a fashion guy and he will never be, so instead of doing designs, he managed to hire people to do it for him and for your information, Gucci has many brands under it’s belt that it is just almost impossible to undertake the task centrally. Polet called it “the art of letting go” that he gave full authority and responsibilty for each business unit to perform their activities and decide everything that’s necessary to achieve the goals that they had agreed before.
Now, there are three positive insights in this business case:
1. Always get the right people to do the job.
Before you have the right people on your bus and before you let the wrong people off the bus, never set the bus direction. In every business, it is not the hardware, or the system, product, appearance, or even quality that’s the most important. You will never have those if you have the wrong people working with you.
2. Give Them Direction and Watch Them Grow.
Jack Welch of GE has illustrated that managing people is like planting seeds in the right soil, then all we have to do is water them then sit back and watch them grow. Of course, occasionally, we have to pull out some weeds, but basically, it is like planting.
3. Be adaptive to changes.
Don’t be trapped in complacency. It is every leader’s biggest pitfall and unfortunately happens only on successful ones. Current condition work only for now. Yesterday might not be relevant anymore. And things have to improve for tomorrow. Set new objectives, challenge yourself and the team for better target. If the water is too still, it’s not alright. If you get all the brains moving, your company will move forward also.
Charisma – The Invisible Power That Gives You The Edge
Most people think of charisma as something mystical, almost undefinable. They think it’s a quality that comes at birth or not at all. But that’s not true.
Charisma plainly stated, is the ability to draw people near you. And like any other traits, it can be developed.
To make yourself the kind of person who attracts others, you need to personify these pointers:
1. Love Life
People enjoy leaders who enjoy life. Think of people you want to spend time with. How would you describe them? Grumpy? Bitter? Depressed? Of course not. They’re celebrators, not complainers. They’re passionate about life. If you want to attract people, you need to be like the people you enjoy being with.
2. Put a “10″ on Every Person’s Head
One of the best things you can do for people which also attracts them to you is to expect the best of them. I call it putting a “10″ on everyone’s head. It helps others think more highly of themselves, and at the same time, it also helps you. If you appreciate others, encourage them, and help them reach their potential, they will love you for it.
3. Give People Hope
French General Napoleon Bonaparte characterized leaders as “dealers in hope.” Like all great leaders, he knew that hope is the greatest of all possessions. If you can be the person who bestows that gift on others, they will be attracted to you, and they will be forever grateful.
4. Share Yourself
People love leaders who share themselves and their life journeys. As you lead people, give of yourself. Share wisdom, resources, and even special occasions.
When it comes to charisma, the bottom line is otherminded-ness. Leader who think about others and their concerns before thinking of themselves exhibit charisma.
Now, to improve your charisma, do the following:
1. Change your Focus. Observe your interaction with people during the next few years. As you talk to others, determine how much of your conversation is concentrated on yourself. Determine to tip the balance in favor of focusing on others.
2. Play the first impression game. Try an experiment. The next time you meet someone for the first time, try your best to make good impression. Learn the person’s name. Focus on his interests. Be positive. And most important, treat him as a “10″. If you can do this for a day, you can do this everyday. And it will increase your charisma overnight.
3. Share yourself. Make it your long term goal to share your resources with others. Think about how you can add value to five people in your life this year. They can be family members, colleagues, employees, or friends. Provide resources to help them grow personally and professionally, and share your personal journey with them.
Character – The Single Factor That Delivers
How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you many things about his character. Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one from two paths: CHARACTER or COMPROMISE. Every time he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.
As Nobel prize winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn noted, “The meaning of earthly existing lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.” The development of character is at the heart of our development not just as leaders, but as human beings.
What must every person know about character?
1. Character Is More Than Talk
Anyone can say that he has integrity, but action is the real indicator of character. Your character determines who you are. Who you are – determines what you see. What you see – determines what you do. That’s why you can never separate a leader’s character from his actions. If a leader’s action and intentions are continually working against each other, then look to his character to find out why.
2. Talent Is a Gift, But Character Is a Choice
We have no control over a lot of things in life. We don’t get to choose our parents. We don’t select the location or circumstances of our birth and upbringing. We don’t get to pick our talents or IQ. But we do choose our character. In fact, we create it everytime we make choices, to cop out or dig out of a hard situation, to bend the truth or stand under the weight of it, to take the easy money or pay the price. As you live your life and make choices today, you are continuing to create your character.
3. Character Brings Lasting Success With People
True leadership always involves other people. As the leadership proverb says, if you think you’re leading and no one is following you, then you’re only taking a walk. Followers do not trust leaders whose character they know to be flawed, and they will not continue following them.
4. Leaders Cannot Rise Above the Limitations of Their Character
Have you ever seen highly talented people suddenly fall apart when they achieved a certain level of success? The key to that phenomenon is character. Steven Berglas, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of The Success Syndrome, says that people who achieve great heights but lack the bedrock character to sustain them through the stress are headed for disaster. He believes they are destined for one or more of the four A’s: arrogance, painfull feelings of aloneness, destructive adventure-seeking, or adultery. Each is a terrible price to pay for weak character.
To improve your character, do the following:
- Search for the cracks. Spend some time looking at major areas of your life (work, family, marriage, service, etc.), and identify anywhere you might have cut corners, compromised, or let people down. Write down every instance yo can recall from the past two months.
- Look for patterns. Examine the responses that you just wrote down. Is there a particular area where yo have a weakness, or do you have a type of problem that keeps surfacing? Detectable patterns will help you diagnose character issues.
- Face the music. The beginning of character repair comes when you face your flaws, apologize, and deal with the consequences of your actions. Create a list of people to whom you need to apologize for your actions, then follow through with sincere apologies.
- Rebuild. It’s one thing to face up to your past actions. It’s another thing to build a new future. Now that you’ve identified any areas of weakness, create a plan that will prevent you from making the same mistakes again.
“Never “for the sake of peace and quiet” deny your own experience or convictions” – Dag Hammarskjold
Source: The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader – John C. Maxwell
The Change Leader
One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it. In a period of upheavel, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm. To be sure, it is painful and risky, and above all it requires a great deal of very hard work. But unless it is seen as the task of the organization to lead change, the organization will not survive.
In a period of rapid structural change, the only ones who survive are the change leaders. A change leader sees change as an opportunity. A change leader looks for change, knows how to find the right changes, and knows how to make them effective both outside of the organization and inside it. To make the future is highly risky. It is less risky, however, then not to try to make it. A goodly proportion of those attempting to will surely not succeed. But predictably, no one else will.
And to change ourselves effectively, we first have to change our perceptions”
(Stephen R. Covey)
