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An insight into why companies are urging staff to do the things they love to do
THESE DAYS PASSION IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS PROFESSIONALISM IN THE WORKPLACE
Words: Chris Baréz-Brown
ALL BUSINESSES ARE facing a battle on two major fronts. The first: how to be innovative. Competition levels are high in all sectors and everyone talks about being innovative. But what does that actually mean? Few businesses can relax in the knowledge that they are faster or better than their competitors. Instead, they have to be different from them. So they have little choice but to innovate, not just in their products or services but in everything from recruitment and rewards to social responsibility.
The second war is in the arena of talent. There just aren’t enough superstars to go around. To stay ahead you have to attract, retain and get the very best from your talent. Companies are even facing competition from awards, blogs and books.
And so, businesses that want to become more innovative and retain their talent have started to encourage people to be themselves. For decades companies have encouraged employees to be something they were not born to be: “professional”. Most believe “professional” means serious, hard working, measured and often dull. So that is what many people have now become. This isn’t a deliberate move; it just happens slowly and insidiously until one day the beautifully individual employee becomes like everyone else.
Over the past 14 years our company has been helping businesses release the creative talents of their staff, products and services. To do this successfully we use certain tools. But the real magic comes from the people themselves. The trick in bringing people’s individuality to the fore is to encourage them to bring their passions into their work lives. So, for example, we have an award in which employees compete to win £1,000 to set up their own idea.
Different companies have different approaches.
Some, such as Google and 3M, explicitly demand 15%-30% of an employee’s time to be devoted to projects that are unrelated to their core responsibilities but which they are highly enthused by. They are reviewed on them and the investment is taken seriously. Not only do they find that unexpected innovations come from such projects but, more importantly, their staff jump out of bed in the morning loving their jobs.
It also works better when they feel loved. Unilever has invested in Wellness Programmes for its staff. These develop ways of looking after employees’ physical, mental and emotional health. Adidas, too, has strategies to help reduce the stress of its management, thereby not only gaining a happier workforce but a more productive one.
Leaders are also showing more of themselves by taking risks and demonstrating their vulnerability. Perfect bosses don’t exist. By stepping out of their comfort zones they send a clear message to the troops: “We value people who do what they believe in. Sometimes it won’t work and that’s fine. Experiment and don’t be afraid to be you.”
Our logical thinking only uses our conscious brain – a tiny fraction of our overall processing power. Much of our processing is subconscious – in fact, intuitive. Businesses that want to release creative geniuses are now placing high value on people’s gut feeling and passion for ideas instead of more traditional business planning.
Our company has successfully worked with many major companies on developing innovation programmes. Kimberley Clark now has an established internal Innovation Champions programme, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer proactively sends its staff out of the office in order to bring more “humanness” to their insight and Nike heavily invests in story-telling as a way of making brands live and breathe within its culture. It’s viewed as an effective leadership tool. Nike believes that leaders will perpetuate the culture they want via storytelling. Companies such as these rate excitement and dissatisfaction as the new key performance indicators of innovation; inputs that can be as fertile as any field study.
It’s about being much more than simply open-minded; it’s about being positive-minded. And, as a leader, there is nothing better than being scared by the capability and passion of your people. Once you’ve released it, stand back and watch the fireworks.
Chris Baréz-Brown is Global Head of Innovation Capability at ?What If! and author of How To Have Kick-Ass Ideas. See www.whatifinnovation.com
