** I drafted this post soon after I completed the MOOC about innovation. In this post I expanded my info online conference report back preso on cultural change, I wasn’t sure if I should air this kind of opinion in public, I worried that I can’t control how others interpret what I wrote. Anyway, today I’m feeling brave and I’m going to hit publish!
“Reward failure and success equally, but punish inaction.”
– Robert Sutton
This is my favourite quote from the Leading Strategic Innovation in Organisation MOOC. In this course, I also learned about why every organisation wants innovation, but nobody wants to change, and how we can overcome that.
I believe the above quote is one of the many things leaders, as well as everyone in an organisation, can do to build an organisational culture that stimulates and encourages creativity, collaboration, and innovation. By innovation, I mean just doing things differently, it could be very small. Like a side project, a simple idea to improve a workflow. If everybody in an organisation is doing something small to continuously improve workflows and services, the impact could be huge.
Innovation doesn’t just happen. Imagine a workplace where people are told that they’re expected to follow the procedures to the smallest detail, you don’t even have to think, just follow the rules, do what you’re told, 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, just do that and be good. When someone made a mistake or they didn’t follow the procedures, give kudos to the person who spotted the mistake, while the person who made the mistake will be named and shamed. You think of a better way to do things? Hang on there, you’re only new, we’ve been doing this for 20 years. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, ok? And also, we’ve tried it before, we know it’s not going to work! Oh, if it’s really broken, tell the boss, it’s their responsibility to fix our problem! It’s not in my job description…
Does our organisation reward inaction and survival? But punish failure?
We work in a library, not a hospital, nobody is going to die. How does innovation happen in the above hypothetical scenario? And what will happen next? People with ideas (good or bad) will get sick of it, pack up and leave. The remaining good people will do what they’re told, get rewarded with their inaction, and continue to do what they’re told. Until one day libraries become obsolete, we’re all redundant. Then we can get on to Today Tonight and whinge about our clients not showing their love for their libraries, oh we deserve your love. Just like the retail industry.
Does our profession reward inaction? Why isn’t the ALIA PD scheme compulsory? At the moment it’s not, it means someone can occupy a professional position without attending any PDs ever. What message do they send to new professionals? Are we rewarding inaction and survival?
Does your organisation support innovators? Intrapreneurs? You know, the weirdos? How many weirdos are there in your library? What do we do to stop them? If you don’t stop them (good on you), what are we doing to support them?
Do we encourage staff to lead without authority? What are we doing to make it easier for them to lead without authority?
Do we celebrate failure? When somebody failed, do we simply say it’s ok, act as if it has never happened and wish they don’t do it again. Or do we celebrate failure (with cakes)?
One of Professor Owen’s slides says, “It’s ok that your idea doesn’t work, let’s get some cakes and brainstorm”. Do we do that?
I think organisational change needs to be initiated from the top. But it’s also up to us – everybody in an organisation, to change our attitudes, take the leap, or at least not to judge the weirdos, embrace the differences in individual team members. Celebrate with your colleagues who have failed, celebrate the fact that they’ve tried, celebrate that we have found a constraint that needs to be overcome in order for us to reach success (Owen, 2011). Have a laugh with some cakes or drinks, come together and turn that shit idea into something better. I know this sounds like something that would only happen in an ideal world, but if at least 20% of us are doing it, and then we influence 20% of the people around us, isn’t it enough to make a real difference? Or am I being too optimistic (unrealistic)?
//icecjan/ 