Last November, Angela Yeh, Founder and CEO of Yeh IDeology, took part in DMI’s Web Conversations, geared towards organizations and business owners, management and hiring managers with the specific topic challenge: "How to Build Innovation into Your Organization” In this series, we’ll be revisiting Angela’s talk, “Integrating Innovation,” while highlighting excerpts, thoughts from the talk, and delving further as we go into each of Angela’s 7 best tips for innovation success and 3 major pitfalls to avoid.
Shall we continue?
INTEGRATING INNOVATION Step #3 to Failure: Failure to Commit. Are You Willing to Go the Distance?
At some point in the innovation process, you’re going to fail. The question is: What do you do after? Do you lay there and give up? Or do you do what you were hired to do and limp, leap, or whatever else it takes to get back up again and forge onward?
If you’re still reading this, then you already know that reaffirming your commitment (and that of your of your team) will be a constant battle in any innovative push. Your next task: learn from your mistakes. Why did you fail? Was it your own darn fault?
If you find yourself suggesting “Perhaps they didn’t see the value in it,” maybe YOU didn’t communicate that value effectively; Maybe you didn’t properly translate the work of one department to another, resulting in a breakdown in coordination and commitment, and, perish the thought, a dreaded silo.
Think back to Step 7, Innovation Continuity. As your initiative moves forward, a major responsibility is actually upkeep – continuing to maintain and nurture the delicate back and forth channels of communication, cooperation, consensus and collaboration. Yes the line-level, nitty gritty duties are what actually make the innovations, but a high-level perspective keeps the overall goals in mind and, ultimately, will help you see the initiative all the way to completion.
This also means your lead change agents are diligently watching your supply of resources, regularly gauging motivation, and constantly thinking, as you progress, how to incentivize the team to continue. Looking ahead, they’re spotting potential barriers and navigating away from potential road-blocks so the rest of the team can focus on the actual vehicles for innovation.
Our best advice here? Learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward. Better yet, read case studies, get advice, speak to colleagues and mentors, and learn from their mistakes (think cost- and time waste avoidance). Remember, innovation requires constant re-evaluation, renewal of buy-in, and team reinvigoration. Everyone must be committed; Everyone must be willing to go the distance.
Good luck. Call us, and let us know how it goes!
Next blog, we’ll recap Angela’s 7 Steps to Success | 3 Steps to Failure with a one-page “cheat-sheet” to refer back to along with helpful action items to get started.
Interested in this topic or others we've been speaking about? Click on the word bubble to leave us a comment, send a tweet, or connect via LinkedIn! Want to hear directly from Angela Yeh and her 15+ years of design recruiting experience? Drop us a line at info@yehideology.com