In my previous articles, Cross Training Innovative Teams and Flexing Creativity and Innovation: A Practical Guide, I shared the story of how I helped my team transition from saying "That won't work" to becoming a group of innovative thought leaders. I also introduced the roles of creativity vs. innovation. You might remember reading:
Sometimes in our quest for innovation, we forget the foundation of creativity.
When that happens, we try to solve specific challenges (innovation) before we've cultivated the ability to think about things differently (creativity).
In this article, I'll look at three practices I embedded into my team's culture to cultivate creativity and innovation. Plus, you'll get an insider peek at my team's cultural environment from my team lead and my manager, who I interviewed about their experience working in the team culture.
Let’s jump in…
Whether they know it or not, team leaders always set team culture. In this series, I advocate that team leaders take a thoughtful look at their team's culture and set intentional goals--to cultivate innovation, in this case. To do this, team leaders need to assess where the team is currently (a practice I outlined in this article), set culture goals and challenge their team to grow (which I outlined in this article), and take up the mantle as lead culture setter.
In leading my own team, I've found the following three practices necessary to cultivate a culture of innovation:
1. Encourage. For creativity and innovation to succeed, the team culture must support it. Ideas flow most freely in an environment that is low on ego and high on collaboration. Encourage the team to reply to all ideas with the spirit of “Yes, and…” during creative brainstorming. Remember that conjunctions such as “but” and “although” can come across as negativity and hinder the flow of ideas without intention.
2. Celebrate failure. People innovate most freely when motivated by curiosity instead of fear. Remove the fear of failures by turning them into celebrated growth opportunities. Help the team establish a strong postmortem process to examine influencing factors when something does not go as planned. Then, whether it’s a round of applause, a congratulatory email, or fist-bumps, establish a ritual for celebrating failures – and the learning that results - and do this ritual every time.
3. Plan for sustainability. Once you’ve established regular innovative practices, consider how to maintain this culture. How will you address creativity and innovation in future job postings and interviews? How will you integrate new hires to these practices during onboarding? You might even consider posing an innovation sustainability challenge to your team to see what they suggest.
Thankfully, you don't have to take my word this. Ultimately, once I set a direction, my team did most of the work to live out a culture of innovation. This article would not be complete without their perspective. To get a multi-faceted view, I asked both a member of my team (who works in the culture) and my own manager (who heads our team's function) to share their experience with our culture of innovation.
Me: What is it like to work in / with our team's innovation culture?
Team Member: It is challenging in a good way. It feels liberating to look for other ways to do things. We do it in a way that feels safe and not scary -- that is important. Fear and excitement are so close together, but making it so we feel safe allows us to stay in the excitement side of our work. When innovation became commonplace--it isn't a one-off event--ordinary things became exciting.
My Manager: As a leader, it's important for me to see that my team is thinking of new ways to solve problems and doesn't think that innovation is linked to having money, or fancy new tools. Innovation is tied to inspiration and thrives when we pull ideas from many avenues. Ultimately, it also comes down to creating results and evolving along with the user needs. It is incredibly exciting to see how the team brings ideas to the table and everyone interacts with them through their unique lens--because of this, I've learned a lot from everyone on the team. Also, I've seen how important it is to have space to fail. As leaders, [Rebeqa and I] had to get better at asking clarifying questions and responding with empathy and patience when things weren't going as planned.
Me: What should leaders know about leading an innovative team?
Team Member: Innovation requires risk-taking and patience. Ultimately, it's easier and quicker to keep doing things the way they've always been done. Leaders need to be able to measure and calculate the risk. Operational factors like time, impact on workloads or outcomes must be maintained. It's important that it doesn't become 'innovation for innovation's sake' but remains grounded in service to the business. This means building an environment where risk-taking doesn't interrupt business--it's important to create the space to practice creativity first before trying to innovate.
My Manager: Leaders of innovative teams have to expect innovation from the team and be able to recognize and welcome different experience backgrounds to the table. To make better products--create an environment where every member of your team incorporates their experience and expertise into the work. Leaders must always ask 'how can we make it better?' It's an ongoing process.
A CHALLENGE: As you move forward in your team's creativity and innovation practice, challenge yourself to write down your answers to these questions:
What could happen to your team’s work process if barrier-focused and shutdown phrases were removed from the cultural vernacular?
What might happen if your team conducted their daily work with 10% more creativity?
What could happen if your team tackled obstacles with 10% more innovation?
How will you, a team leader, embody the role as your team's lead culture-setter to cultivate a culture of innovation? Think practical and brainstorm 3 ways you could do this week that would plant the seeds of innovation in your team.
AN INVITATION: I'd love to hear how you're cross training your innovative team. Drop me a LinkedIn message and tell me your story.
This article is the final installment of a three part series:
Cross Training Innovative Teams
Flexing Team Creativity and Innovation: A Practical Guide
Cultivating a Culture of Innovation