Operation FireFly: Ignite Everyday Innovation!
Here's how to turn boring, report-out staff meetings into innovation hubs.
As a leader, how can you ignite innovation on your team? Here are three very doable ways to start a fire under your team today - and get better results and more engagement tomorrow!
Make meetings fun, exciting, and inviting. Get team members to bring a creativity toy — interesting enough to engage your hands but not so fascinating that it’s distracting. Use a whiteboard rather than the dreaded flip chart. Try techniques like mind-mapping (for left-brain thinkers) or brain-writing (for right-brain thinkers) to get creativity flowing. Make your team meetings the most engaging and productive time of the week! Don’t laugh – it can happen if you really want it and make it a team priority.
Shine the light of accountability on your team. Even the most energetic, productive meeting means nothing if people don't follow up the decisions they reach with action. As a team, create a common picture of what personal accountability looks like. Then, delegate very specific assignments to very specific people. Finally, set a date for a follow-up meeting in which everyone must report on whether they fulfilled their commitments, and if not, why not.
From time to time, escape the office for a creative excursion. In these stressful times, people need a break from their current reality to think about “what if”. And I’m not talking about the stereotypical ropes course or trust falls. I’ve led and participated in “adult field trips” to a plane manufacturing plant, a zoo, a firehouse, and a jazz jam session. We learned how these unique teams worked together and solved problems – and then applied these lessons to our own team. And they also help you see others on your team in a new light.
After reading this advice, you may be thinking, "Okay, all this talk of toys and trips to the zoo is fine for other companies or maybe other departments, but certainly not for my team. We're struggling to stay alive. We just don't have time for innovation.”
Guess what? You're absolutely wrong. You must make time for innovation. Your survival depends on it.
Start small – just devote one hour of team time to a truly innovative brainstorming session. Not only are you likely to generate one or more immediately usable ideas, you will also have reengaged your people in the excitement of their work. All it takes is for one person to have a bright idea and pass it on to others—like the spark of a firefly that magically illuminates a dark night.
