The processes and programs you hold dear today may not continue to accomplish the mission of your organization tomorrow.
While a consistent mission and vision are foundational to operational focus, wise leaders know that strategies to accomplish their mission will change over time. Creating a workplace that fosters innovation equips your organization to adapt to changing circumstances and continue to thrive into the future.
The need for change can come from different stimuli impacting an organization. Sometimes the pressure for change comes from the people your organization serves—as their needs change over time, the way your ministry comes alongside people also needs to change. Other organizations or businesses in your sector might be implementing change that provides pressure for you to also change. Technological changes impact the way you create and deliver your service or product. And constraints such as labor shortages or costs of inputs can lead to changes in your operations.
Also, change doesn’t just happen one factor at a time. You can experience many of the stimuli at the same time, challenging you to discern and respond to multiple changes in a creative way.
The need for change can push your organization toward innovative solutions. The focus of innovation is to create new ideas that bring value. Agile organizations foster an environment that allows for innovation.
There are three essential steps in the process of innovation:
Is your workplace culture a place where people feel the freedom to consider and share ideas that improve your processes or products?
In Best Christian Workplaces’ Employee Engagement Survey, there are several factors that indicate an environment of openness and idea-sharing. Seeking and acting on the suggestions of staff, allowing people to voice opinions openly, and encouraging staff to experiment and be innovative are all indications of a workplace where idea generation is encouraged, and innovation is possible.
In addition, healthy cross-team collaboration will create more possibilities for innovative solutions. New ways of accomplishing your mission may involve different ways of organizing your work, so a heavily siloed organization will be less effective at being open to new strategies.
You need a process for testing out whether an idea will work, and assessing the risks associated with change. Unless there is freedom to fail, learn, and adjust, innovation will falter. Successful innovation processes include a pilot or beta process to minimize the risk of large impacts while your organization figures out the unintended consequences of a change.
Innovation is messy and includes a degree of conflict. People who aren’t comfortable in an environment of uncertainty and competing ideas may shy away from the hard work of figuring out ways that new processes can be introduced. Organizations that practice healthy conflict know that there is room to energetically debate ideas without devaluing people and their contributions.
The testing process isn’t a single activity, but is usually a series of trials and assessments, rethinking, and trying again—until there is sufficient agreement that a larger-scale rollout is possible. In addition, testing should involve people from all levels of the organization. Your front-line employees are crucial to providing wisdom and feedback on practical implications that might not be obvious to senior leaders.
Moving an innovation from testing to implementation requires a thoughtful process of identifying all the impacts and involving multiple teams in clear communication and collaboration to maximize the opportunity for success. Organizations that practice healthy communication use a variety of methods to share information, and listen deeply to feedback. A successful change process includes feedback loops at all levels.
At each stage in the process of innovation, there are critical factors that can block progress. These blockages include tradition, time, lack of diversity, and an over-emphasis on excellence. Awareness of potential roadblocks and intentional actions to avoid blockages will enhance your innovative processes.
Innovation can be blocked when tradition reigns supreme in an organization. “We’ve always done it this way.” “People know us for _____.” When people confuse their mission statement with their strategy for achieving the mission, then innovation can be blocked.
A healthy environment for innovation includes a clear focus on the mission and values of the organization, and an acceptance of the fact that flexibility in how you accomplish your mission will keep your organization relevant for future generations.
For example, the Great Commission is an enduring call for Jesus’ disciples through the ages. However, the first disciples never could have imagined how reaching the ends of the earth might look with Bible apps and mobile devices. Even the idea of listening to a Christian radio program at a particular time of day on a particular station now seems quaint in our continuous streaming environment.
Innovation can sometimes feel like just one more thing on a to-do list when there just doesn’t seem to be enough time. In an organization with operational challenges, staff and leadership time and energy go to putting out fires. These fires might be an indicator that something needs to change, but no one has the energy to step back and assess how to create margin for new ideas.
An innovative organization provides a regular rhythm for assessing the need for change and working through the process of innovation. If you never carve out space for important priorities, then the urgent will always crowd out creative energy.
The essence of innovation is being able to look at a process or problem from many different perspectives. An organization where everyone is thinking alike will struggle to generate new ideas or creative ways to solve problems.
Having a team with different life experiences, cultural backgrounds, personality traits, ethnicities, and many other aspects of diversity will enhance your ability to innovate. In addition, making sure everyone feels free to express their ideas in a safe environment is essential for making the most of your diverse team.
There is a tension between a value of excellence and innovation. If your workplace culture does not allow room for mistakes, then you might be stifling innovation. Realistically, implementing change involves a series of tests and informed mistakes, as you refine ideas.
Listen for areas where your organization is facing the need for change. Perhaps you have many urgent issues to deal with in your organization. Pause and look at processes where these urgent issues are surfacing—this might be just the area that would benefit from process improvement. Empower your front-line people who are deeply familiar with these processes to contribute their assessment of what changes might improve their day-to-day rhythms.
Learn from a wide variety of sources to keep up with technological and process innovations that are benefiting other organizations. Look around at the landscape of your sector and the culture in which you operate. Cultivate relationships with peers in your sector and share information broadly.
Lead into the innovation process. As you listen and learn, decide to focus on one or two key areas which most need innovation in your organization. Then bring people from all levels of your organization together to generate ideas, test ideas, and implement change. It takes courage to lead into an uncertain future, but the alternative is irrelevance.
Maximize your opportunity for success by investing in workplace health, so that your organization will be one where employees feel free to share ideas, take risks, and bring their full selves to achieving the mission in innovative ways. Best Christian Workplaces’ Employee Engagement Survey gives you an honest assessment of your workplace environment today. Our experienced consultants come alongside you to help you understand your results and create an action plan with practical steps toward improved workplace health. Best Christian Workplaces is your partner in your journey toward a flourishing workplace with engaged employees who will accomplish your mission today, tomorrow, and into the future.
Resources
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