Random Thoughts

My 3 year old son has just joined a new school and I was invited by the school management for the first observation day, where I got a chance to watch a typical day at school for my little one. I was very fascinated to see my son and other children doing things their own way and exploring it at their own pace and interest. Also the teacher was ensuring that a child completes any activity it picks up before starting the next one.

At work the next day, I realised that we have forgotten both these basic lessons as adults:

Attend any group meeting for brainstorming and you will understand what I am talking about. The ideas that are picked up are generally from the ones who are very loud and can get others in the group to support him/her. A different school of thought generally gets dropped since it not popular and others could not understand it (even if it is promising!!)

Multi-tasking is an activity we all pride ourselves on as adults. But sometimes we get so caught up with trying to juggle so many items that we just do it by extinguishing one fire after another without getting the time to pause and think if we can do it better. Employees are measured at work by their ability to multi-task.

And thus we find that innovation takes a back seat and running the business (even if it is done inefficiently) is the main aim which is rewarded.

Before you think I am being idealistic and we have no choice but to accept this reality, think of these alternative ideas:

1. All brainstorming or identifying new ideas occur online through a platform where identities are not disclosed and any kind of bias is not encouraged. This ensures that ideas are judged only on the basis of their relative merits in an unbiased manner.


2. Identity couple of senior people in the organisation (who knows the organisation processes inside out) and free them from all regular business as usual activities and only encourage them to think of new and better way of doing things. Specifically they should be asked to focus on ensuring that they touch processes, which make it simpler for the end customer. Also they should not be scared of suggesting major changes as long as it achieves its end goals.

Run with this for a quarter or two and you will be surprised at the results.

Innovation needs time and dedicated focus. All of us actually don’t realise how much of our regular time is taken up by “business as usual” activity leaving us with no time to innovate. So we end up just paying lip service to innovation.

Eliminating bias and creating a transparent way of judging innovation and new ideas will go a long way in building the innovative culture within an organisation and helping to promote the best ideas.

A small step, maybe, but definitely in the right direction!!!

Bringing in Innovation Culture - How do I start?

Location: Board Room

There was one week to go before the annual results are announced. People were poring over Excel sheets and some worry lines were beginning to show up in some of the faces. Suddenly there was a hushed silence.

Stephen was the CEO and the one who was going to face the music next week when the results are announced. He was calm, composed but everybody around the table knew that he was not overjoyed with the results. The main problem was that just recently their main competitor had released a slew of products which had so far significantly captured their existing market and was threatening to overtake their advantage unless they react. They had to react quickly and decisively. After a heated discussion on their next steps, they all decided that they will announce “Innovation” as the mantra to solve their current problems and overtake their competitor.

This scene could have played out in many large organisations time and again. The problem though is that half of these announcements are generally to pay lip service and nothing beyond. But this time, the situation is slightly different because of the existing market conditions and the immediate threat.

2 Weeks later

Stephen was relatively happy with the way he was able to explain the disappointing results. The share holders seem to trust his story on innovation and ideas. But he knew that he had to deliver and time was short.

Nadia was the recently appointed VP of Innovation. She knew that the results of creating an innovative environment was definitely the way forward but she also knew that it takes time and that was something which was not in her side. She had to show quick results and was wondering how she can do that.

Does this sound clichéd? Question is how do we tackle this issue? How can we show quick results through Innovation and how do we slowly but steadily change the corporate culture showing quick wins and progress. My feeling is that we need both short term and long term measures. Here are my thoughts on this topic and how I feel top leaders can address this issue:

Short term measures to bring in an innovation culture:

• Identify themes/areas where innovation can be applied and get ideas/suggestions from maximum employees as possible.


• Take people into confidence and give them maximum incentives for focussing on this.
  Appreciate that change can be difficult and so encourage and promote right behaviours as much as possible.


• Ensure transparency and be positive in all responses. For Eg: If any ideas are rejected, give detailed explanation why (not high level replies). Also make this visible for everybody so that they can understand your thinking process.


• Monitor the response of senior leaders and middle management staff. They have the highest influence and really drive the behaviour of the staff. People will be very quick to retreat into their shell if they are not encouraged or they feel that their ideas have not been considered enough. This is the easiest way to kill such initiatives.

Long term measures to bring in an innovation culture

• Encourage failures and bring in a culture of experimentation and trial. No idea is bad and encourage employees to question all accepted norms and procedures.


• Reduce management layers and get the leaders and the top management staff communicate as much as possible with the field force and the customer facing staff. This will drive open communication and ensure that all are in sync.


• Be wary of political influences and tight hierarchical structures not adapting to changes.


• Brainstorm regularly and make it a habit for staff to meet regularly, discuss and improve. Document and communicate these thoughts with all the employees to trigger more thinking around this and to encourage everybody.


• Share best practices and encourage open innovation concepts as well so that the team is receptive to outside ideas and information.

I have tried to summarise some key points management teams can take up when they try to use innovation as a means of driving growth. Of course, this is like a journey and this is by no means complete. Do you have any more techniques which are worth sharing? Do share your experiences. We need all the help we can get to bring about change in our workplace.

I love to fail

“I love to fail. In fact we encourage all of you to enjoy failing and learn to fail fast and fail often.” - Dr Jones started his speech with these words. He was addressing a group of recent recruits who had just joined his research team. They were all bright, enthusiastic and had just recently joined his organisation.

Rohan was one of the young research scholars and was listening attentively to Dr Jones. He was enjoying listening to the talk but the last few sentences took him by surprise. This was quite contrary to what he has been taught till now. He decided to explore this topic in more detail and speak to Dr Jones separately on this at a later point in time.

Right from our childhood days, we have been taught to pursue success relentlessly and be ashamed of failure. So much so, that there is a stigma associated with failure which makes us feel depressed and even forget it like a bad nightmare. Isn’t this your experience as well?

Now before you think I am being philosophical and start wondering whether you are in the wrong place, let me assure you that a mindset of accepting failure and learning from it is a very important discipline of innovation temper. Raised eyebrows?? Not exactly sure what I am alluding to. Let me explain…..

One of the most important traits which, breeds an innovative culture of an organisation, is to encourage employees to experiment and try out new techniques. Obviously the bolder methods you try, the more the chances of failure. But this should be encouraged and even applauded so that the employees continue bravely on this path.

I was reading an article recently on whether children are more creative than adults and if so, why? I frankly believe that children are definitely more creative than adults and one of the reasons for this is that children (especially small children) are not afraid to try new things and do this without inhibitions. As we grow up, slowly we become more self-conscious and are worried about other’s opinions etc which slowly but steadily makes us avoid risks or makes us stop thinking without inhibitions. As a result, we become less creative and prefer to tread on a known path rather than embracing the unknown.

While this may be OK in other areas, it is definitely something we need to unlearn to innovate in the true sense of the word. The only way we can overcome this fear is when even our failures (not just our successes) are encouraged and even celebrated. When this is done consistently by the top management and over a period of time, slowly we learn to view failure as just another result as success and stop to fear or feel discouraged by it.

But surely, not all kinds of failure are good. Well – there are some failures which do not fall in this category for obvious reasons:

1. Any failure which is repeating over a period of time.


2. Any failure which is due to inefficient processes or poor workmanship


3. Any failure which comes from half baked efforts or due to similar reasons.

Apart from these, failures which are due to people experimenting with established or new processes, failures due to people deviating from the norm should not only be encouraged but also celebrated. These are all good as long as “there is method in the madness” and also the failures are recorded and part of a bigger picture.

While all this sounds very obvious, trust me, implementing this in practice in an organisation needs a lot of courage and patience. It also needs strong reinforcement. Mind you – we are not encouraging all failures (especially of the sort we identified earlier as not good) but advocating that a certain type of failures are good. There is a thin line and it could be confusing at first. But over a period of time, it becomes second nature to everybody and the results will prove that the struggle is definitely worth it. In very simple terms, we are only encouraging everybody to think without boundaries and question everything (very similar to a 5 year old who replies to all your answers only with one question – Why?)

The good part is that this kind of behaviour spreads pretty quickly and soon you will have an entire organisation which thinks in such a way. That is a sure recipe for success and that will only mean that new and innovative ideas are pouring in from all over the organisation.

Won’t it be great if we can achieve that? Well – the good news is that it can be achieved. Let me end on that pleasant note.