MODERN BUSINESS
whole lot of assumptions or preconceived notions that are boxing in
your thinking.
breakthrough leap forward.
On the other hand, recognising
employees for their achievements
and contributions will go a lot
further than monetary rewards
in keeping staff satisfied and
increasing their ability and
motivation to think creatively at
work.
You can recognise staff in a
number of different ways. Many
organisations hold annual awards
ceremonies in which people who
have contributed great ideas to the
company are crowned Innovator of
the Year. Others award an idea of
the month and the winner receives
a voucher for his or her efforts and
is publicised through the internal
company newsletter or intranet. And
of course, informal recognition is
important too.
4
Find the “right” amount of
challenge
One of the strongest predictors
of innovation in the workplace is
whether employees feel adequately
challenged by their jobs. Those who
feel their jobs are challenging and
that the objectives and goals they
are set stretch their capabilities
are more likely to behave more
creatively.
This effect is enhanced when
employees are allowed to work
autonomously, rather than being
given step-by-step, day-by-day
instructions on how to reach these
goals. Creative behaviour occurs
when employees have the freedom
to work out for themselves how to
reach their challenging targets.
However, it is important that
employees do not feel too
42 ModernBusiness
November 2016
stretched, as this can lead to
frustration. Likewise, not feeling
stretched enough can lead to
boredom.
At many organisations, matching
projects to employees is not
something that tends to take
priority. Instead, it is simply a
matter of working out who is up to
their eyeballs in work and who has
time to take on extra work. However,
this traditional approach to task
allocation hinders innovation.
For example, if you run a consulting
business and you want to grow it,
one assumption that you may be
making is that to make money, you
actually have to be working - given
that’s how consulting services
work. You provide something and
your client pays you. But this oldfashioned business model means
that to increase profit, you need to
work harder or pay more people to
work harder on your behalf. A very
limiting assumption.
Take some time to identify
assumptions that are governing
your thinking around problems
you are trying to solve. Once you
have identified those assumptions,
deliberating crush them by asking –
what if the opposite was true? But
asking this question, you will unlock
significantly more creative solutions.
The assignment of tasks needs to
be based instead on skill level, and
whether the employee would feel
challenged by the task. A project
should be assigned to an employee
who can understand the task and
not be completely daunted by it.
Likewise, the task should challenge
them and not be too simple for
them to complete.
5
Crush some assumptions
Assumptions are one of the
biggest innovation killers in
organisations of all sizes. Those
nasty things that sit around in the
back of your head and stop your
thinking going anywhere interesting.
Chances are, if you have a problem
you are trying to crack, you hold a
Dr Amantha Imber is the Founder
of Inventium (www.inventium.com.
au), Australia’s leading innovation
consultancy. Her latest book, The
Innovation Formula, tackles the topic of
how organisations can create a culture
where innovation thrives. Amantha can
be contacted at amantha@inventium.
com.au