With local lockdowns re-imposed in parts of India, one thing is clear. This will not be a return to how things were. It will be an encounter with a new era.
Customers and employees will have reset their priorities and needs. Businesses will face unprecedented constraints and challenges. It will be a time of deep change that will demand re-invention. And critical to this will be your team’s capacity to re-invent. Which will be its own challenge.
Most teams have been fragmented, and feel isolated and overwhelmed. Most are anxious and uncertain – two of creativity’s greatest foes. So in a moment when you’ll need to be at your most inventive, it will be harder than ever for your team to invent.
Studies show that organisations capable of re-invention derive their strength from their leaders, their relationships and their culture. Now more than ever, it is essential to rally around a shared vision and what that means in action and in this moment.
Our methodology can help you create a team climate for innovation:
1. Compelling direction:
Is your team clear on the business strategy and new opportunity areas? Is each member clear on their role in achieving the vision? While people like to be informed via your press release or webinar, they are eager to understand what it means for them.
2. Expectations:
There needs to be strong signals and support from leadership that innovation matters. No one has all the answers. We need to test, learn and iterate quickly. As leader what are you celebrating and measuring? How are you communicating?
3. Inconvenient Truths:
Address what Rishad Tobaccowala, a strategist and author calls ‘the turd on the table’. These could be issues relating to major industry shifts, toxic cultures, financial improprieties or mismanagement. Use Covid as an opportunity to dismantle legacy structures and systems. To design for a world transformed, you need to create the conditions for people to share ideas without fear.
4. Skills:
Indian companies often complain that it’s tough to find people with the skills they need. Yet skills are learned not born. Invest in mentoring and training. Put your best people against tomorrow’s opportunities versus today’s biggest businesses. Reward the right behaviour not just outcomes.
5. Environment:
How do you avoid burnout in an always-on work culture? Effort must be made to create necessary spaces and boundaries to prevent teams from being overwhelmed. Agree on principles of how work gets done. Give people the tools and autonomy to fit work around their lives. Guide where needed without constantly micro managing.
Ultimately, the key to re-invention lies in people’s ability to embrace change--both at a personal and organisational level.
At Studio Jigsaw, we believe that the focus and energy leaders place on their teams right now will be essential to long-term success.
So to support leaders in supporting their teams, we just launched a new offering to help team leaders reduce team anxiety and amplify their teams capacity for re-invention.
Because aligned, energised and motivated employees are key to propelling your business forward.
