I’ve been working in the field of innovation most of my career. All of it, if you count technical research (working on a doctorate degree) as part of innovation. Innovation stretches from generating a new idea; testing it; scaling it for production, manufacturing, commercialization, and marketing. The ideas isn’t what makes an innovation successful and profitable for a business leader, it’s the team trust along the journey that makes it work. Trust is important because it allows for:
- Open experimentation,
- Speeds decision-making, and
- Improves collaboration (including psychological safety).
Open Experimentation
One of my favorite books of all time is “Mindset” by Dr. Carol Dweck. In this book, she discusses research that delineates between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. In executive leadership coaching, we might call a growth mindset one of seeking learning and gratitude. Because our brains are muscles, we can train ourselves to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
Fixed Mindset
A fixed mindset is one that says the outside world acts on me, and I have no control of the outcome. I’ve heard it over and over again from people who say “I’m not good at _________ (fill in the blank).” This attitude shuts off opportunities for learning and for exploring creative alternatives. Clearly, a fixed mindset is detrimental to innovation.
Growth Mindset
Open experimentation is fed by people with a growth mindset. Failure means to try the task again while tweaking one or more variables. Growth doesn’t stop at “I’m not good at ______.” Growth asks “What can I change to become better?” We know Thomas Edison embraced a growth mindset in his famous declaration that he had learned 10,000 ways NOT to make a light bulb and one way to do so.
Allowing your teams the flexibility to experiment leads to greater creativity. Improved creativity generates higher quality innovations. Leaders that show trust and reward learning (a growth mindset) will reap the very positive results of giving their teams freedom to research and experiment with new ideas.
Rapid Decision-Making
Trust is essential for effective decisions. Innovation is fraught with risks so making a good choice without all the available information can lead to grand success – or unmitigated disaster. A lack of trust undermines effective decisions. Leaders that are isolated from their team might make the worst decisions of all.
Business leaders must negotiate a balance of intellectual trust and emotional trust. Intellectual trust indicates the person has the right skills and experience to perform a task. They are viewed as credible. Emotional trust is built on shared values and purpose.
Faith-driven leaders are blessed with a common purpose to act with integrity and build for a greater good. Many business leaders share their values regularly with their teams. As a solo-preneur, I focus on one core value each day, hoping to drive trust and impact.
Radical innovation and stepping into new ventures are risky. A team with high emotional trust can take on the risk by making more rapid decisions. The common purpose and shared values of the team, leaders, and organization allow open debate and quick consensus. Improved decision-making is a direct outcome of trusting innovation teams.
Improved Collaboration
Emotional trust is at the root of enhanced decision-making as well as improved collaboration. Collaboration is defined Dictionary.com as “the act or process of working together or cooperating.”
Innovation requires successful cooperation and hand-offs from the research team to the development team and to the design teams. Production and manufacturing must be in tune with logistics, distribution, sales and marketing, etc. Even for a small, start-up business, there are suppliers to coordinate with customer needs. Collaboration implies a higher level of interaction than simplistic transactional coordination. Trust in these relationships goes beyond the transaction, pointing back to a shared purpose and vision.
The best – and most profitable – innovations start on Day One with the whole team working together. Collaboration among research, manufacturing, and marketing, for example, allows the design of a new idea to incorporate multiple perspectives throughout the innovation project.
Trust Over Newness
New ideas are a dime a dozen, as the old saying goes. Yet only one in a hundred ideas becomes a successful innovation. What matters the most is trust, not newness. Trust is imperative for open experimentation, can speed decision making, and enhances team collaboration. As a business leader, can you afford a lack of trust?
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