We are facing unprecedented challenges in our working lives.
Our high streets are seeing well-established names disappear. Nationally and internationally governments are looking for new solutions to stabilise their economies.The pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns contributed their own issues for businesses both large and small, and in amongst this are employees wondering what to do next.
There are both social and economic challenges for businesses and individuals.
Pre-pandemic there was a growth of entrepreneurs, from all ages and sectors making a decision to take more control of their working lives.
The pandemic saw a growth in this, many new businesses started, driven by discovering new interests and attracted by a flexibility in working hours.There is also something else that underpins these embryonic businesses, there is a passion that drives them forward, an energy to control their own destiny, to do something worthwhile, to have more flexibility, to break away from the constraints of corporate life.
As a result many larger businesses found themselves struggling to recruit, some refusing to consider hybrid working, and potentially risking losing more employees.
However, now we have a different environment, with the risk of inflation and rising energy costs, some smaller businesses feel more vulnerable.
And this is perhaps a creative opportunity for organisations both large and small to work together. There may be the potential to collaborate with, support, or sponsor these entrepreneurs, or perhaps attract back previous employees, or retain existing ones and importantly provide new employment opportunities for young people at the start of their careers.
But, to attract these employees organisations will need be more enterprising, to consider new ways of collaborating and adopt more flexibility in working practices. Achieving real innovation will only happen if there is top management support with creative and innovative thinking actively encouraged.
The really innovative organisations are those where creativity and innovation are recognised and encouraged, where everyone is involved in the ‘good idea’ philosophy. When organisations are resistant to change it is much harder to generate the energy necessary for change.
One way to generate this energy is to encourage the behaviours found in smaller organisations. The reason why ‘small’ is so important is the ability to create dynamic working groups. Within this context the line of communication can be shorter and decisions made more quickly and more effectively.
Despite all the risks and insecurity faced by many entrepreneurs, particularly in a start-up position, being self-employed, or working in a small organisation, does have real advantages for creative and innovative individuals. The freedom to work how and when you want and the ability to make things happen can be very attractive. But if organisations can collaborate with, or attract this talent the opportunities are potentially very exciting.
How to engage with creative people within an organisation.
One of the biggest challenges for organisations is how to engage with those employees who are creative and innovative. To be able to harness their talent and to encourage them to work with others in channelling their creativity into workable ideas.
If you want to engage with your employees, particularly those who more creative and innovative, you need to create a climate that welcomes them, stimulates them and most importantly understands them. One of the biggest challenges is about control.
Creative people have a free spirit, and a natural generosity with their ideas; what they often enjoy less is implementation. Understanding this can allow a more successful way of working which engages the creative minds and helps to breathe life into existing products and processes, and develop new concepts.
One of the key issues for these individuals can be the desire not to be responsible for managing others. When interviewing creative people in one of my earlier books one response was, ‘When you are being creative you have to spend time on your own generating an idea, or working out a solution. To then also have responsibility for managing others can dull your capacity to be spontaneous.’
Another frustration is caused by a perceived lack of time, as less people are required to do more, creating more time may seem an impossible challenge, but a re-evaluation of the way we use time may reveal different ways of being creative. This can also include embracing hybrid working, when creative people are actively involved in idea generation we know this is rarely governed by a clock, they don’t just switch off that creative process, they normally continue thinking about the idea until they have exhausted all possibilities.
Implementing a creative work environment is critical to success. In order to achieve synergistic benefits for the organisation and the employee it is critical for both the recognition of individual innovation to be high and also organisational support for innovation to be high.As mentioned above, it is also important to embrace the potential of hybrid ways of working, considered by many to be one of the most positive results of the pandemic.This may mean reconsidering the use of city centre buildings in more creative ways.
If you would like to find out more about this visit our Where is Home? feature in our sister website Escape Learn Create
There are a number of questions to consider in terms of your organisation’s ability to look creatively at its pattern of employment and to foster innovation: –
· Is there top management support?
· Do we champion idea generation?
· Do we accept ideas that break organisational precedent?
· Do we encourage cross fertilisation of ideas and perspectives?
· Do we give people personal space to be creative?
· Can we incorporate hybrid working?
· Have we reviewed our recruitment practices, are we open and inclusive?
· Do we tolerate failure in the pursuit of a good idea?
· Are changes in direction accepted as necessary?
· Do we reward ideas that develop business success?
To foster enterprise there is a need to understand what being ‘entrepreneurial’ means and to adopt measures that replace lugubrious actions with a fleetness of foot. From the top to the bottom of the organisation there is a need to focus on key actions, which make things happen.
What is important is the acceptance of failure, the recognition that in being innovative, you won’t always get it right, but that in an environment of active experimentation you keep trying. Sadly all too often the opportunity to use one’s initiative in responding to situations is all but removed. Many new and embryonic ideas have been squashed by the statement, “We tried that before and it didn’t work” or, “That’s not the way we do it here”
I have worked with many organisations, from large corporate organisations to SME’s and when questioned, most senior management teams recognise the importance of innovation in improving business performance. However, when questioned further and probed deeper, a much smaller percentage believed they were actually being innovative, or fostering innovation with a degree of rigour. Equally some senior teams believed that they were capable of generating the ideas, what they lacked was a credible process of implementation. Others felt that while they created the ideas and implemented them, they had no system of evaluating, or monitoring which ideas worked, or which had failed and why.
How to change?
Resisting change and trying to cling on to past successes is a risky strategy. Equally important is recognising that change cannot happen overnight and if it did, it would probably mean failure. This is what many new CEO’s have learnt to their cost, in trying to do too much too soon, without identifying the people who will sponsor the change. What is needed is a considered, but creative approach to change. Finding and nurturing internal advocates who are excited about the prospect of change and who will become anchor points throughout the organisation, acting as local champions, is an important part of any change process.
It is also about involving as many employees as possible in the innovation process.
Sponsoring innovation and creativity
Managing the process of innovation is absolutely critical for its success. Understanding how ideas are generated, sponsoring creative thinkers, allowing people freedom and time to think is an important part of the role of any manager. One of the key steps in the management of innovation and creativity is understanding both the process and the way creative people operate. What makes a small idea big in an organization and how to identify and process that idea into competitive advantage are important stages in innovation.
Organisations need a methodology to convert those small seeds of ideas into blossoming plants. Today’s environment, characterised by ambiguity and uncertainty requires organisations and leaders to use different sets of behaviours to deliver bottom line results. The environment has become increasingly complex and staying ahead requires more than just conventional thinking.
.If one examines the organisations that are leaders of innovation there are very sound business processes, which harness and encourage creativity and innovation from all employees. Good ideas do not just come from the inventive minds of the leaders, or their creative teams.
So where do you start? First it is important to create the right climate. This means from the CEO down to the most junior employee you need to recognise and champion idea generation. There needs to be a culture where people are encouraged to take action and use their initiative. Often it is the customer and the front line employee who can see where small improvements can make a real difference, giving people the freedom to make and act on suggestions is the start of creating the environment of idea generation.
One of the important competencies for any manager is the ability to coach others. A good coach naturally needs to know how the person that they are coaching operates. This includes understanding an individual’s preferences in innovating. If you are coaching someone who is naturally creative, who regularly generates highly original ideas it is important to recognise how to create an environment where they can really develop. Creative people can be perceived as being difficult to manage, they may not easily conform. They may arrive late for meetings, refuse to complete paperwork, have difficulty in timekeeping. The better the manager understands how people think and the creative process the better able they are to manage them. Recognising the different needs of individual employees is an important management competency. If often only takes a small adjustment in the process to allow the degree of flexibility that creative people crave.
To assess your ability to manage innovation you may wish to think about your responses to the following questions:
· Do I create an environment where ideas are encouraged?
· Do I provide people with the space to be innovative?
· Do I allow people to make mistakes?
· Do I provide helpful feedback to others when they generate new ideas?
· Do I set stretch goals around the implementation of innovative ideas?
Every creative person needs someone whose opinion they respect, someone to bounce ideas off, who will positively challenge them and who will help them move from the idea stage to the implementation process. One of their biggest fears however, is that once they let go of their inspiration others will not understand their concept and will change it so much that they lose sight of their original objective.
The really excellent managers are those who assemble teams where creative and innovative people are supported by others who can help them explore their ideas and those who can take the idea to the next stage of making it happen
In Summary-Putting it into practice
There are some important lessons to be learned from small businesses:
- The passion and energy to start something new
- The commitment to make it happen
- The desire to create new ways of working
- The care and compassion for other members of the team
- The belief in the product or service
- The willingness to work hard to make it a success.
Organisations can recognise and adopt the ethos of small businesses by:
- establishing clear decision making processes
- supporting short and effective communication channels
- creating enterprise cells
- benchmarking against others
- recognizing what the competition is doing
- sensing the value of being first
- recognizing the potential to learn from being second
- acknowledging failure, but value the lessons learned from mistakes
- celebrating success, but do not become complacent
- evaluating, reviewing and monitoring progress
- being proud of your achievements, but humble in glory
- being supportive of your employees
- having commitment to your local community.
If you want to engage with your creative and innovative employees support and nurture them. And if they do leave, stay in touch, explore collaboration, encourage them to act as mentors, one day they may bring a big idea back to your organisation. Never close the door on a good idea, or the person behind it.
If you would like to find out more about our approach to corporate innovation, please visit our contact us page.
This is an extract from:
Employee & Customer Engagement…..Naturally
What employees and customers know, but some organizations may never find out. – Kaye Thorne
Kindle version available here: