Digital Innovation
Five ways to
inspire innovation
Innovation doesn’t mean you have to come up with a breakthrough
every week, but it certainly requires you to push yourself constantly
towards finding new ways of getting old things done.
yourself with
1 Surround
the right talent
An innovative leader is one who is able to surround
themselves with the “right” set of people, to listen
to them, and reconcile the different perspectives
they provide into something novel. By “right
set of people”, I mean individuals who are able
to bring to the table a wealth of diverse and
non-overlapping perspectives. Effective leaders
should leverage the richness of these views and
integrate knowledge.
2 Be open to diversity
To cultivate a workplace environment
of continuous improvement, innovation and
initiative, you have to have an openness to
diversity. This is the most important feature of
any innovative environment. That means looking
for challenges instead of corroboration, tolerance
of diverging views, fierce ex ante debate, but
strong unified action once agreement has
been reached.
3 Embrace change
Marco
Tortoriello
Professor,
IESE
Business
School
iese.edu
Fostering a culture of innovation is a
challenge against a backdrop of economic
uncertainty. The most common reaction of
organisations in the face of uncertainty is to
freeze and keep doing what they are doing. It
is understandable, but is it a viable solution?
To keep doing things the old way might lock
you up, impeding your ability to get ready to
change. Innovation requires you to embrace the
challenges of change, even when uncertainty
makes it hard(er) for you to do that.
4 Listen, listen, listen
This empowers collaborators, and helps to
create a culture of openness.
5 Walk your talk
All too often, leaders offer a certain narrative
to their people while their behaviours (observable
ones) point drastically in the opposite direction.
It is nonsense rambling about the importance of
long-term goals when you then grill your people if
they don’t meet the quarterly numbers.
“Fostering a
culture of
innovation is
a challenge”
Issue 2 - 2017
65