Managers talk a lot about creativity, but often they’re the ones who unwittingly crush it. They can be dismissive of unorthodox ideas, especially if they come from outside the department or challenge conventional marketing policies.
When I ask people what is hampering creativity and innovation in their organisations I often encounter a paradox. Senior managers feel frustrated that people are not showing initiative or enterprise. People lower down the organisation feel upset at being micromanaged and not empowered by managers to try out their own ideas or challenge the established way of doing things. Both groups blame the other. Who is really at fault here?
It’s often middle managers who block new proposals, but the real problem lies with the leaders. It is easy for them to make visionary statements that include all the right words about how important innovation, change, enterprise and risk are. But unless they back these words with actions they will be seen as paying lip service to innovation and not having the will to make it happen.
The Idea Receptiveness Survey carried out by the Leader Values consultancy is salutary. People consider themselves to be open to new ideas but consider their bosses to be rather closed. Whereas only 4 per cent of respondents thought they would not consider outside ideas, 31 per cent thought their boss would not. According to the survey, bosses are much more likely to claim the credit for others’ ideas and more likely to reject challenging questions or suggestions than other staff.
What does this mean? One possibility is that only reactionary diehards are promoted. A more likely hypothesis is that we are critical of our boss’s behaviour, but that we have a blind spot for the same failings in ourselves. What the survey says about us is more telling than what it says about our leaders. We think of ourselves as open minded and receptive, but what if we’re just as bad as the boss, yet can’t see it?
How can leaders become more receptive, more open to challenging ideas? How can we create a climate that empowers people, allows risk taking and encourages innovation? Here are some pointers:
- Listen more and tell less. If we swiftly dismiss the complaints, suggestions and ideas of our people and tell them to focus on the task in hand we send many negative signals and discourage initiative. If we spend time carefully listening to people’s objections and proposals we are likely to uncover the real issues and find useful ideas.
- Recognise risk takers. If someone comes up with a good idea that you then implement you need to make a fuss of them. Praise and recognise them in front of the crowd. Send a message that challenging the way things are done is welcomed.
- Reward failure. If someone makes an honest attempt to try something new and different and fails then do not chastise or blame them. Recognise their endeavour and see what lessons can be learnt. Nothing crushes enterprise like a fear of failure. If you are going to succeed with innovation you are going to have quite a few failures along the way – so welcome and manage them.
- Ask for suggestions. Throw down a challenge. Explain the goal you are trying to achieve and then ask people for their input. Encourage a free flow of ideas. Suspend judgement during the idea generation phase. Evaluate the best proposals and then implement them.
- Set goals for innovation. Define metrics and include them in your balanced scorecard. These might include the number of ideas generated, number of prototypes in trial, proportion of revenue from new products or mean time between idea evaluation and implementation. People do what gets measured, so measure innovation.
- Invest in training. Train your people in how to generate, how to evaluate and how to implement ideas.
- Borrow with pride. Observe other organisations and copy their best practice. Have a deliberate policy for sourcing innovations from outside your business. Establish links with universities and business networks.
Leaders in all fields need to make greater efforts to encourage people to be creative, challenging and adventurous. Innovative leaders communicate with inspiring words and quietly reinforce them with actions. They challenge, ask, listen and empower. In innovative organisations leaders build the self-belief of their people. This self‑belief unlocks the door to successful innovation.
