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 #2 to Failure: Purpose without Power. Empowering, not Undermining
Tell us if you’ve heard or thought this before: “We want to build an innovation center.” We see this mistake frequently—from the organization side as well as the talent spectrum. Yes, it’s great if a company can house its creative minds together to cross-pollinate concepts and solutions, and share in challenges. It’s an attractive label with compelling associations, however, as noted in Step 1 to Failure, they must also work closely and cross-departmentally with management, marketing, design, finance, customer service, whatever your departments might be—or you may be setting your team up for failure right from the get go.
This aspect of innovation hinges on access. You must empower your agents to cut through red tape and bureaucracy and enact the change you’ve all agreed upon. This echoes back to Step 5 and how much time & materials a company is willing to invest in innovation. If your agents do not have the sufficient time, or team members, or financial support, they risk being all purpose, but no power.
To avoid this requires buy-in and pre-planning, plus a solid commitment from management. Start this conversation early and avoid undermining your own efforts. Just as effective laws require a method of enforcement, make sure your initiative can deliver on the grand ideas—make sure it has legs to bridge gaps and teeth to make decisions and take action.
Next on our blog series: Step #3 to Failure: Failure to Commit. Are You Willing to Go the Distance?
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