Backchanneling Innovation
Engaging the organization’s employees from various Business Units (BU) in innovation efforts is a great challenge, but also a key to achieving cultural transformation. In my previous blogpost, I focused on systematic approaches to engaging Business Units in the innovation mission. This time, I would like to suggest informal methods to attract various employees to support the innovative mission of the company, even if it’s not their job description.
By “backchanneling” I refer to anything that is not systematic and formalized. Such activities may include peer-to-peer support of a specific agenda, collegial cooperation on joint initiatives and support of innovation culture through incremental changes to the organization’s workflow.
LET’S GO —
1. Make the BUs feel valuable to the mission
Consider all suggestions coming from the Business Units and — where appropriate — transform the suggestions into actions. Furthermore, encourage the Business Units to have the same internal process and allow employees to convey their suggestions to the Business Unit leaders and be heard.
Practically How:
- Follow up with colleagues’ suggestions and ideas for new solutions. Even if they are irrelevant, make them count by acknowledging them.
- Not all of the people know how to express their ideas, and you might miss some great insights because of that. Create a template for submitting ideas. It should be clear and short. It will help you filter good ideas and instruct your colleagues on how to present their ideas in a way that is easy for them to explain and for others to follow.
- “Talk to someone about themselves and they will listen for hours” (Dale Carnegie) — touch base consistently with the BU’s leaders, ask about their pain points and needs, share information about new technologies you are currently testing and listen for their professional insights.
- Encourage adoption and innovation initiatives by rewarding Business Units in ways that are most meaningful to them. Rewarding employees for their effort by making them an active part of innovation initiatives (if this is something they’d like). This could be as simple as giving praise in front of their teams or sending an email acknowledging their work to the senior management.
- Always emphasize what’s in it for THEM.
2. The company’s success is a mutual effort, it should be clear.
Give the BUs’ leaders and their employees a chance to become a part of the decision-making process regarding innovation. It might sound radical, but there is a great sense in it. This will benefit the business with more insights coming from different perspectives and increase the employees’ engagement and loyalty.
Practically How:
- Having a focused day on the company’s goals and objectives regarding innovation activities. This will expose the employees to steps that are being taken by the company to inject innovation and will encourage them to join this effort.
- Opening a company’s dilemma for open discussion that allows (or even requires) each participant to say their opinion regardless of seniority. It will not only make their voice heard but will encourage critical thinking throughout the organization.
3. Innovation can be very vague. Connect it to the company’s strategy and everyone’s KPIs.
You might realize that a certain number of the company’s leaders don’t really know what the Innovation Unit’s goals and intentions are. Make sure you always keep them updated and included by using practical examples.
Practically How:
- Every time you speak with a colleague who is not familiar with your work, make sure you introduce your mission and what you do with concrete details, try to avoid abstract words and use examples which demonstrate the connection to the company’s bigger picture. It can have a form of a handy PPT or a one-pager.
- Emphasize how your unit can help these colleagues succeed with their KPIs through joint initiatives.
- Make sure to connect innovation results and outcomes to short- and long-term performance of various Business Units whenever you create a joint project. Make sure everyone knows about their success.
- Learning and becoming a driving force behind cultural change should be rewarded. Think of activity KPIs that will show who is investing in learning about innovation and implementing these tools in practice.
4. Tasking the Employees
Employees should be tasked with innovation, even on a small scale. This can be achieved through simple activities, e.g. mapping their own needs and sharing ideas with others or participating in innovation-related industry events relevant for their work, taking part in innovation-related task force meetings, etc.
Practically How:
- Ask employees to document and report inefficient processes or systems to identify inefficiencies. This can include anything from redesigning a single process to building the business case of a larger system replacement. Make sure you create a consistent communication channel that allows them to address their issues.
- Encourage employees to go out of the office and become a part of the innovation ecosystem in your field. This is the easiest way to promote the culture of innovation.
I HOPE YOU FIND IT HELPFUL. Feel free to share with us your thoughts and comments.
