Every January, business owners across the world swear that they’ll devote more time and effort to innovating in the coming year. Most of those leaders have sighed and succumbed to business-as-usual by April. To make innovation truly sustainable, it must be a priority at every level of your organization. Leadership must publicly celebrate both innovation success and failure — like the Tata Group does through its annual Dare to Try award, which is bestowed on the team with the best idea…that fell short.
It also means that employees aren’t just expected to innovate — they’re given time for it, like Google does through its 20 Percent Time program. There, engineers and project managers are granted 20% of their day to work on projects unrelated to their job duties.
In workplaces that haven’t yet embraced innovation as a top priority, I lead people through a technique called Commit to Innovation. It’s designed to boost and maintain innovation activity at all levels of your organization—and it starts with directing three simple questions to leadership.
To encourage accountability across your org — and prevent stall-outs a few months from now — establish and monitor innovation metrics and milestones at the end of every quarter. Consider adding a data point in performance reviews that measures employees’ innovative behavior or output — or ask employees to submit quarterly updates on their innovation activities.
The Commit to Innovation technique helps influencers identify exactly how they can contribute to innovation on a daily basis. It also provides a forum for leadership to make a public commitment to innovation — and lead by example. Most importantly, it establishes innovation as a common goal and motivates employees to incorporate innovative activity into their workday beyond the month of January.
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