- Albert Einstein
·
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost
300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and
missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I
succeed.
·
- Michael Jordan
Famous words
from two well known figures from entirely different field. I have seen many
organizations where the top-management wants to infuse innovative and creative
culture within the organization.
Being part of
some of these meetings I couldn’t stop thinking how to achieve this, or as a
Manager at least how to be a platform which encourages such culture to emerge.
I asked myself “What did the team do to come up with an innovative idea?”, as
it turned out there were few instances when the team had come out with some
innovative ideas or solutions. In almost all the cases when we did, it required
a lot of investment (time and effort), it also required trying new approaches
(most of them unsuccessfully) and to finally come up with a best fit solution.
Think over it,
these are the two most important ingredients for innovation
Failures
Investment
Innovation is
doing something new, and in the process of doing something new people make
mistakes. Can these mistakes be avoided? I think the answer is “NO”, because in
the process of avoiding mistakes the team (or individual) tries to follow an
already tried and tested path and ensure success (Which is not innovation).
It also
requires investment in terms of time and effort.
To be honest
none of would like to fail, because failure is akin to bad-performance, and I
am sure none of us would like to be called as bad-performers. To be able to
perform well the first thing most of us would try is to “Stop making mistakes,
or at least reduce them” there by reducing the chances of failure.
I am sure all
of us know these ideas, its not that the Managers don’t know about this. The
tough part is to implement it. How would you differentiate a failure because of
trying something new, or a failure because of inaction? It is critical to
understand and identify the reasons of failure for on the basis
of that you would either encourage the effort or discourage inaction.
Ask yourself
“What were the necessary ingredients in the process of doing something
innovative and creative?” I myself pondered over these questions and felt that
some of the most important are:-
Idea to get in
early Chess and Poker (R&D not being predictable) Slack is important (No
slack in process kills creativity)
And the most
important of all
An
environment that stimulates and encourages doing new and exciting things
without the fear of failure.
How do you
ensure that your organization or team is breathing this culture?
Hire people
better than your self. (As Guy Kavasaki puts it in his “The Art of the Start
Video”) ( http://blog.guykawasaki.com). Enhance
variance. (As Roberi I Sutton puts it, What might
called tangents, wasted effort, dead ends, and errors in routine work are the
life blood of innovation) ( http://bobsutton.typepad.com
). Do not try to monitor your employees all the time i.e. don’t try and manage
all the activities that they do. Let them have some free time to do things that
they like to do, learn, and experiment. Some of the best ideas have emerged
when they were not planned for. Reward Success And Failure, Punish
Inaction. Surround yourself by believers in the cause (Not the critics). Don’t
be complacent.
In no way this
list is complete, these are just a few things that I believe, would make for a
successful creative and innovative team and organization.
Bibliography
Weird
Ideas That Work - Robert I. Sutton. The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki