Innovation is a powerful engagement factor. TEEG focuses on encouraging innovation and creativity in the workplace. Infact, Bob Kelleher’s book-in-progress is all about Creativeship. Creativeship is defined as, the necessity to create an organizational culture that can compete and thrive in this new era. Innovation is a key component of creativeship.
When I came across Paul Leonardi’s article on Innovation, it caught my attention. Leonardi spent time with a US automaker and shares his thoughts on the importance of innovation, ambiguity and what can happen when these factors actually stall progress. Leonardi concluded:
Early Prototypes are a Factor in Success, but Can Stall Success When:
- Teams concentrate on the details of an early prototypes
How Can Your Prevent This?
- Define goals, strategy and challenges first
- Step back from the project and don’t defend everything-look for other ways of completing the project
- Possibly involve another employee for a fresh set of eyes. In this article, the US Automaker brought in a new manager. Since the new manager was not concentrating on the details, he encouraged the team to work on the solutions.
Project Conclusion: The team abandoned their prototype, built a new one and the tool is now successful-allowing safer cars to be on the road.
To Read the Full Article, Click Here.
