Support your Company Team
OK, so a team of innovators from your company is thinking about entering (re)innovate challenge, how do you go about supporting them?
Positive Management
People don’t fear failure; they fear the consequences of failure. This means that they are willing to take a risk but will tend to go “underground” for fear of being made to feel that their idea is unworthy. Overcoming this fear requires positive management, encouragement and support. If you believe there are risks or issues with the idea, raise your concerns with the team, but also offer solutions. How CAN you overcome the risk or issue? Engage them in a conversation about the potential solutions.
Being Proactive
Don’t wait for the team to engage you, go and engage them. They may have reservations about “airing” their idea to senior management before it is fully baked. Invite them to give you updates, offer to listen to their pitch and provide advice, engage with their vision – demonstrate you believe in the opportunity AND in them.
Open doors for them
Offer to connect them to key people within the organization and then pave the way for them. A phone call from you to the contact to provide context for the teams impending approach will be very helpful. We have found it is helpful to frame the conversation with the contact in the context of supporting and building an innovation culture. That is, the contact is almost duty bound to be constructive rather than only “black hat”. Further, you can also connect them with key people external to the organization – such as a potential customer, supplier or business partner, and again, pave the way for them to do this, both internally and with the external contact.
Show and Tell
Invite the team to a management team meeting to brief the wider managerial audience. As (re)innovate challenge is focused on large opportunities, it is likely that the team will need considerable join-in by a number of departments across the organization. Exposure at the management team level will give visibility across the organization to the opportunity. You may need to again set the context with your colleagues about developing the innovation culture, so the experience is a positive one for the team.
Provide an opportunity for the team to share their learning. We have found that holding an event such as a “lunch and learn” will enable the team to present their learnings from being involved in (re)innovate challenge. This will also help to demonstrate to the wider organization the management support for innovation, and inspire others to engage with the innovation agenda in your company. It also demonstrates to the team that you value their learning.
Recognise their Effort
Innovation is a discretionary behaviour. Our experience shows that staff will only exercise their innovation muscle if they believe the organization will support them and their idea. That is, if the culture and organizational environment is conducive to them expending discretionary effort, then they are more likely to engage. It is therefore important to recognize this discretionary effort – after all, its unlikely to be in their annual performance objectives. To this end, it’s the little things that make a difference. Thank them personally for their efforts. You don’t need to make a song and dance about it, so long as its authentic. Ensure their line manager is positive and supportive towards their project. In one organization we have worked with recently, a line manager gave a team member 4 hours a week to formally spend on their project and then covered her normal duties in the call centre with other staff. This action really generated excitement and energy within the team to know that the manager would show such commitment to their efforts. We would also encourage you to include the team members activities in their performance objectives so that they are formally recognized for their achievements and effort.
