How to Empower Your People to Innovate
Are you frustrated by the lack of big ideas from your people? I often hear from leaders who are and they want to encourage their people to have bigger ideas. They say things like, “Sure, I could create pathways like you say, Ed, but where would the projects come from? I have a funnel problem. So, I need to encourage the people to have better ideas.”
This is treating the symptoms, not the problem. So, what is the problem?
The problem is usually the lack of Pathways. 🤯 Hear me out while I take a brief detour down memory lane.
“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.”
– Jonathan Kozol, education activist
This quotation has been with me for a long time, in 1996 I wrote it in a journal that I carry with me to this day, and it’s one of the thoughts that has long shaped my world view.
Innovators Want to Have Impact
I’m not alone in thinking this way. I believe that this is the general mindset of innovators. They’re looking for battles that they can win and will make a difference. They want to make the biggest impact that they can.
People want the winnable threshold higher than the matters threshold. That area is the opportunity for impact.
This is great when there are a lot of winnable things that matter.
Disenfranchisement
Now, what if you don’t have any obvious ways to move projects forward?
Then you create a gap where the winnable ideas are ones that people can move forward with little to no support. You have created a culture where the only winnable things don’t matter.
This is disenfranchisement. When this happens, your people stop bringing their brilliant ideas, because there isn’t a way to move them forward.
The problem comes when the organization has–usually unintentionally–blocked all ways to hear and fund potentially brilliant ideas when they are not easily understood, when they fly against convention, or when they come from an unexpected corner of the organization.
If you don’t think this is you or your organization, ask yourself if you would have funded and supported Twitter, or Snapchat, or AirBnB… those ideas seem crazy and probably could not have succeeded within a large organization. It would certainly take the rare institution to overcome the challenges of corporate innovation.
Empowerment
So, this is what empowerment is, it’s moving up the winnable line.
Empowerment is not only about being an inspiring and encouraging leader, it’s about being a great manager who can create a known process to move ideas forward.
Just ensure that these pathways work.
Avoid Innovation Theatre
Presenting pathways that don’t actually work, and this often happens from with well-meaning leaders, makes the disenfranchisement worse. This is the root cause of the dreaded innovation theatre. If you are going to propose innovation, you need to ensure that projects can move forward.
Note, this may mean coaching your teams on how to win sponsors. That’s a huge part of the pathways, and enabling your teams to make a difference.
Make a Difference
Employees already want to make a difference. Leaders–maybe this means you–must empower their people by creating pathways to move their projects forward.
If you do this right, you will have huge boosts to morale, grow your people’s talent in innovation, improve your culture, and ultimately have greater impact and perhaps business value.
Call to Action
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Thank you! 🙏
