Leading Innovation: What's Your Berlin Wall?
You're a leader and you work hard to create an environment that allows your team to innovate and deliver outstanding results. But have you ever stopped to think about the barriers that you may be putting in the way?
Whether purposefully or inadvertently, your leadership may be conditioning your team to think and act in ways that are counter productive in delivering new, BIG ideas.
Your leadership "rules" might be creating a Berlin Wall for your team
What does this mean? Well, for 28 years, East Germans knew that if they tried to go over the wall they would be shot on sight. Naturally enough with risks that high, self preservation tends to prevail. And it's no different in the corporate environment. Have you asked yourself whether you have any (spoken or unspoken) rules that are impeding innovation by making the team feel like they could be "shot"?
What kind of rules am I talking about? Well, ask yourself the following questions:
- How much time am I spend working on new ideas?
- Do I encourage my team to fail quickly and cheaply?
- When did I last demonstrate the benefits of working with other internal teams?
- How often am I interacting with customers to hear about their ideas for new products and/or improvements?
- When was the last time I introduced new people into my team?
- When did I last ask myself why something is done a certain way?
If your answer is "not often" or "never" - then you've probably got some walls in place that could be inhibiting your innovation.
If you do find that a "wall" exists, what should you do about it? Wake up one morning and tell people "the rules have changed - what was once verboten is now OK"?
While this might be a good start, you can't expect them to believe you AND begin to behave differently. It's likely that they've been conditioned over a long time and, just like Pavlov's dog, it will take a coordinated plan to make them believe the "new rules"
The plan will need to make sure that:
- The perceived "need" to jump the wall is greater than the personal risk associated with doing so
- People have sufficient time to get comfortable with the new, open borders
- You lead by example and show that it is OK to cross over to the other side
- While the leader is important, the first follower is fast and influential to begin to develop systemic trust in the new status quo
- Positive reinforcement of the new behaviour is consistent and frequent
- The payoff or value of a successful "border crossing" is significant and well understood
If you'd like some help assessing your Berlin Wall and how to address it, please contact me at
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