Are you feeling pressured by the need to innovate? It seems that no matter where we turn today, we are being bombarded by the demand to innovate more. On one hand this may seem highly ironic, when the pace of change is such that many of us are silently screaming for things to slow down so we can catch up. Yet in a way it is hardly surprising because change has been happening so fast that our systems have become obsolete and so it is their very inadequacies and shortcomings that are powering a treadmill that demands more change.
This paradox is perhaps particularly pertinent today, election day here in the UK, when there is unprecedented uncertainty about the outcome. This uncertainty is because voters who are demanding change are being compelled to choose between political parties that don’t have a single new idea between them and who continue to spout the ideological rhetoric of the past; ideologies that have been proven to be misguided, ineffective and even downright dangerous.
So there is no doubt that there is a need – a desperate need – to innovate. And business, as the primary force that drives the economy, has to take a lead in this innovation. The problem is there is no magic formula for innovation.
Here is a McKinsey article on innovation that I encountered this week. This likely encapsulates some of the leading thinking on innovation of the day, yet how practical and useful do you really find it?
It is all very well to categorise elements of innovation, but where does innovation start? Innovation essentially means “the creation of new ideas.” Ideas come from people. That means you must have the means to unlock the imagination, the intelligence and the energy of your people. In the popular jargon this is having engaged employees. Yet you can never create employee engagement if you continue to regard your employees as a cost. If you see them as a resource that needs to be controlled, and continuously monitored, measured and regulated.
Rather you must create a common purpose or goal: that is the only way to release the full potential of your people and get anywhere near the full potential of your organisation. The McKinsey article itself provides the perfect example of this: President Kennedy’s stated goal of having a man on the moon by the end of the decade. When he set that goal it was little short of a dream. Yet the dream was fulfilled – not by micro-managing the project – but by the releasing the power of the people who could make it happen.
Well the same applies to your organisation. Just imagine how you could transform your results if you could:-
- Inspire you people towards a common goal;
- Enable them to stretch themselves to fulfil their own potential in the process; and
- Collaborate effectively to achieve that common purpose.
My model of employee ownership provides the framework to create this. Rather than perpetuating an environment of a select few striving to direct and co-ordinate the efforts of the many, it offers:-
- The strategic alignment of a common purpose; and
- The framework for effective collaboration to implement the strategy.
With each person understanding their own role and how it fits in with the overall objectives and accountable for their personal efforts, innovation becomes the inevitable by-product. You have the master-key.
Bay is the founder and director of Zealise, a company created to help larger small to large business organisations to properly value their people and thereby inspire them to optimise their self-worth and so engage them that they transform organisational performance and bottom-line results. Bay is also the author of several books, including “Lean Organisations Need FAT People” and “The 7 Deadly Toxins of Employee Engagement.”