HR Magazine sat down with author, former advisor to Tony Blair and leading authority on innovation and critical thinking, Charles Leadbeater, to discuss how HR in the APAC region can promote and inspire innovation.
Innovation is the key word in workplace development. Companies and HR departments across the globe are striving to promote new thinking and new means of coordinating business in an ever-changing world. HR Magazine asked Leadbeater—author of several books on innovation, including We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity, and former advisor to Tony Blair, ten-year British Prime Minister—for his insight on the best ways to seek and promote innovation.
When looking to innovate, Leadbeater believes that the biggest problem managers face is taking the steps to break out of what’s comfortable. He explained, “Just thinking about what you’re doing now, and doing it a bit better won’t get you there. What made you successful in the past won’t get you to a different success in the future.”
So what can companies and managers do to escape this reliance on the past?
Innovation through position: ‘don’t get trapped at your desk’
According to Leadbeater, vantage point and position have a huge impact on achieving innovation. He urged, “Think about where you have new ideas. You very rarely have new ideas at your desk. You can be creative at your desk, but desks are also places of immense boredom. Don’t get trapped there.”
He recommends breaking away from traditional desk work and finding new means of exploring and accomplishing work goals. Once away from the safety of the customary desk, it becomes easier to see and realise new means of achievement. For many, however, such breaks from tradition will provide a measure of discomfort. Leadbeater argues, however, that this lack of comfort is beneficial to innovation, explaining that moving away from past success and methods is only uncomfortable because it brings uncertainty. He added, “It exposes people to situations they can’t control, so they feel insecure because they feel they don’t have the answers.”
From Leadbeater’s experience it is exactly this uncertainty that breeds innovation.
Innovation through questioning: ‘get a new type of answer’
With this shift in position must also come a shift in perception. Leadbeater explained that the way in which an organisation asks a question often leads to the type of answer it will receive. Similar to breaking away from the desk, companies and managers also need to break away from their traditional methods of seeking solutions.
He stated, “If companies just ask the same question, they get a slightly different version of the same answer. A different company might find a completely different way to ask the same question, and get a new type of answer.”
By way of example, Leadbeater referred to Apple’s innovation of the cell phone. While competing companies had been focused on the traditional concepts involved in making better phones, Apple shifted perception by viewing the cell phone as an access point and improving the options for various ways of connecting. By adding apps and changing the way consumers interact with their cellular device, instead of simply improving phone capabilities, Apple found a new—and extremely successful—avenue of innovation.
Innovation through collaboration: ‘bring in different skills’
While collaboration may seem an obvious step in a productive and efficient workplace, many companies struggle with creating an atmosphere of effective teamwork. Establishing communication, says Leadbeater, is a crucial step in fostering innovation. He stated, “Innovation comes from collaboration and conversation. Unless you have a highly collaborative, very communicative culture inside a company, you won’t get the collaboration you need from different vantage points. You need to bring in different skills.”
It is critical, therefore, for HR and upper management to find ways to encourage collaboration not only within a specified team or department, but throughout the company as a whole. By sharing vantage points, perceptions and experiences gained from a variety of roles and positions, companies encourage creativity.
“The companies that succeed are going to have more creative collaboration,” declared Leadbeater.
Innovation through approach: ‘lead through influence rather than instruction’
All these recommendations naturally culminate in a drastic change of approach for HR and company managers. Being able to adapt to new ways of thinking and the changes brought about by globalisation is what will bring about successful innovation. To Leadbeater, this also involves appealing to a new generation of employees as well.
To this point, he said, “The leadership in the future depends on influence and the legitimacy rather than the position of authority. Gen Y doesn’t respond to the title of authority or traditions of authority; it responds to good argument, compelling purpose and having a sense of achievement. You have to lead through influence rather than instruction.”
Attracting the experience and innovation of the newer generation is paramount to success, he explained. With increased globalisation, more and more younger employees are gaining a wider breadth of experience through travel and study abroad. Harnessing the talent and skills of employees who can bridge cultures and think transnationally is critical to innovation which can appeal to a more globally-aware market.
Innovation through the future: ‘challenge the status quo’
The biggest step in encouraging innovation, according to Leadbeater, is to stop relying on past success, and be willing to move forward—often via a new, untried path—into the future. He warned, “People in positions of power tend to have built their power on the past, so they have a tendency to defend the past. They need to be open to people who can come in and challenge the status quo, challenge convention—and managers need to give them license to do these things. Otherwise, they just become these interesting irritants, but their ideas won’t grow or connect.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
