llow your team to develop four core areas of intellectual stimulation to make them more inventive and better problem solvers.
Capture New Ideas.
Encourage everyone on your team to pay attention to and collect fresh ideas and inspiration of all kinds when they are out and about, or when reading newspapers and magazines online. Make it easy by giving them the tools to do so--which can range from the low-tech pad and pen to digital versions of the same, like Evernote, a capturing software available on iPhone, Mac, PC, mobile phones, and Firefox. It lets you capture ideas wherever you are and syncs them to your other devices. For instance, if you make a note on an iPhone, it syncs it online and on your desktop computer. It also reads and extracts text found in images. Likewise, Backpack is a type of to-do list application, with a lot of flexibility in terms of use, which makes capturing data and thoughts easy--for example a dashboard widget lets you see Backpack items on your desktop. Then give people a regular venue to swap what they’ve collected, such as a weekly powwow or digital sharing conference.
Engage in challenging tasks.
Give your team a chance to try things that stretch their perceived limits and that are completely new to them. I’m not talking about the hackneyed “trust fall”--a routine activity at management retreats. This is about seriously stimulating activities like learning a foreign language or mastering a musical instrument (or at least learning to keep time). Regularly provide people with an opportunity to ask for and complete difficult jobs--for example, have so-called “creative” work on a data analysis project and let your “analyst” help the art department come up with a new design package.
Broaden knowledge.
Innovation can come from anywhere--especially from parallel industries, and even history. Your continuing education programs should encompass as many different kinds of learning as possible. Don’t limit yourself to conventional industry-specific course work. A green energy startup might send its people to a course in aeronautical design or a class on the history of mechanization. Or do knowledge exchanges. Retailers might find it valuable to have their people learn about how nonprofit companies write grants and pitch projects, while a charity might find merchandising techniques insightful.
Interact with stimulating people and places.
Make sure you and your people get out from behind desks and experience the world. Allowing for staff members to set up shop in the local Internet café can become a laboratory of observation and fresh thinking. Sponsoring mixers with other firms in your area (whether they are related to your business or not) is a great way for people to exchange ideas and talk about what they do with those who come with different points of view. Insist that employees take their allotted vacation time--not only because we all need R&R, but because travel and time off allows us to come into contact with new environments that come back with us to the office, often in exciting ways.
Capture New Ideas.
Encourage everyone on your team to pay attention to and collect fresh ideas and inspiration of all kinds when they are out and about, or when reading newspapers and magazines online. Make it easy by giving them the tools to do so--which can range from the low-tech pad and pen to digital versions of the same, like Evernote, a capturing software available on iPhone, Mac, PC, mobile phones, and Firefox. It lets you capture ideas wherever you are and syncs them to your other devices. For instance, if you make a note on an iPhone, it syncs it online and on your desktop computer. It also reads and extracts text found in images. Likewise, Backpack is a type of to-do list application, with a lot of flexibility in terms of use, which makes capturing data and thoughts easy--for example a dashboard widget lets you see Backpack items on your desktop. Then give people a regular venue to swap what they’ve collected, such as a weekly powwow or digital sharing conference.
Engage in challenging tasks.
Give your team a chance to try things that stretch their perceived limits and that are completely new to them. I’m not talking about the hackneyed “trust fall”--a routine activity at management retreats. This is about seriously stimulating activities like learning a foreign language or mastering a musical instrument (or at least learning to keep time). Regularly provide people with an opportunity to ask for and complete difficult jobs--for example, have so-called “creative” work on a data analysis project and let your “analyst” help the art department come up with a new design package.
Broaden knowledge.
Innovation can come from anywhere--especially from parallel industries, and even history. Your continuing education programs should encompass as many different kinds of learning as possible. Don’t limit yourself to conventional industry-specific course work. A green energy startup might send its people to a course in aeronautical design or a class on the history of mechanization. Or do knowledge exchanges. Retailers might find it valuable to have their people learn about how nonprofit companies write grants and pitch projects, while a charity might find merchandising techniques insightful.
Interact with stimulating people and places.
Make sure you and your people get out from behind desks and experience the world. Allowing for staff members to set up shop in the local Internet café can become a laboratory of observation and fresh thinking. Sponsoring mixers with other firms in your area (whether they are related to your business or not) is a great way for people to exchange ideas and talk about what they do with those who come with different points of view. Insist that employees take their allotted vacation time--not only because we all need R&R, but because travel and time off allows us to come into contact with new environments that come back with us to the office, often in exciting ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment