Howard Givner (@hgivner) is the founder and executive editor of the Event Leadership Institute.
When was the last time a leader said to his employees, “Keep doing exactly what you’re doing, in exactly the same way. If I ever see any change or innovation around here, heads are gonna roll!”? Not exactly the stuff that puts companies on the cover of Fast Company magazine.
Instead we often hear managers urging their teams to be more innovative, more entrepreneurial, as if a pep talk was all you needed to reinvent the way you did business. Unfortunately, without the proper conditions in place, innovation will never take root.
Creating Space for Innovative Thinking
What’s the biggest obstacle? The ongoing pressure to continue getting things done. Business as usual, the day-to-day workload, is like a strong and steady river pushing everyone along in its current. Innovation, however, happens when people step outside that current, on the shore, where they can take a fresh look at things. It’s very difficult to be innovative when all your energy is used simply trying to stay on top of your daily workload.
So companies and departments schedule off-site meetings, where they can leave the hustle and bustle of the work day and think creatively about their businesses. O.K., that’s a good start. But while they may be physically outside the office, teams and their brains are often too hard-wired around existing processes to take a clean look at how they do things.
Asking Provocative Questions
It takes some practice to get your mind thinking differently about something that’s so encrusted into your DNA through force of habit. Here are a few exercises I’ve used to help people take a fresh look at their own businesses and events. (I’ll be using these in a series of half-day workshops on leadership and innovation for event industry professionals in New York on June 8, Chicago on June 19, San Francisco on June 22, and Washington, D.C., on June 29.)
What would Steve Jobs do if he were in charge of your company/department/event/team?
It’s amazing to watch how creative people can be when they envision what Steve Jobs would do. People who just moments ago were stumped in coming up with creative ideas suddenly come alive with all sorts of innovative solutions. Obviously you can substitute any visionary business or creative leader for Steve Jobs: Oprah, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, the geniuses at Google, etc. And it works even better if the people at the table come up with their own person.
If we were to create this event/business practice from scratch today, what would it look like?
Or, put another way: If a new competitor arose tomorrow, what would it be doing differently, without being shackled to any legacy systems, job titles, etc.? Because the truth often is that someone else is out there trying to reinvent what you’re doing. To paraphrase Mark Cuban on Shark Tank, “Someone’s always out there trying to kick my ass in business, so I want to make sure that I kick my own ass first, and innovate my business before they do.”
What’s our weakest link?
This forces the group to identify the part of the event or process that is the least efficient, or most in need of improvement. Often it’s easier to get the innovation wheels turning by picking a single component rather than the whole operation, and putting a laser focus into improving that thing.
Follow Through
O.K., so now maybe you’ve got lots of innovative ideas on how to transform what you do and make it smarter, better, and more efficient. Everyone is juiced up and invigorated with the fresh air of innovation and is excited about the future.
The problem is that going back to work the next day entails getting back into your raft on that raging river of routine that demands all your focus to simply keep up with the existing workload. The very same routine you just worked so hard to reinvent is not going down easy. It’s taken on a life of its own.
It’s critical, therefore, that the group identify specific actions to be taken in pursuit of some or all of the ideas generated at the off-site. This could be doing some additional research on a certain concept or mapping out steps to actually implement a process change. Those actionable items must have two things attached to them: a due date and a person responsible for doing it.
Appoint an Innovation Czar
Another thing you can do is assign one person from your off-site to be the Innovation Czar, the person responsible for making sure that beacon of light from your creative brainstorming never goes out.
The Innovation Czar needs to follow up with people on the tasks they’ve been assigned and schedule the next innovation meeting, which doesn’t have to be a full off-site. It can be as simple as a working lunch, where the focus is on innovative thinking.
Keep the Momentum Going
Only when innovation becomes an ongoing focus of the company or department, and not just a whimsical exercise at the occasional off-site, will it truly take root. If you’re successful at it, innovation will become its own raging river, pulling everyone ever forward to continually reinvent what you do and take your business, event, or team to the next level.
Disclosure: BizBash is an investor in the Event Leadership Institute.
