More and more of the literature that is out there (at least what I\u2019m reading) is about innovation.\u00a0 Business thinkers are clearly over the fact that R&D, engineering and production is moving offshore.\u00a0 They realize that those tasks can go away, so long as we keep our edge where it counts \u2013 thinking up new ideas and being creative and innovative.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the problem.\u00a0 Employees are most reticent not to talk about problems with work, but about creative ideas for improving performance.\u00a0 They have an untested belief that managers react negatively and feel \u201cshown up\u201d by their subordinates.\u00a0 ((Detert, James R. and Edmonson, Amy C.\u00a0 May 2007.\u00a0 \u201cWhy Employees Are Afraid To Speak.\u201d\u00a0 HBR May 2007, Pgs 23, 24.))<\/p>\n
What needs to happen is deep rooted cultural change.\u00a0 It appears that both managers and employees contribute equally to the perception.\u00a0 Urban myths around employees who said something \u201cwrong\u201d and then were suddenly gone are pervasive and cross all organizations.\u00a0\u00a0 The changes that are needed are really cultural in nature.\u00a0 Making employees feel like they can safely speak must be rooted in an understanding that leadership acknowledges the incredible benefits that are available when employees innovate openly.<\/p>\n
Another possible tactic is to counteract these untested employee assumptions with tangible rewards.\u00a0 Rewarding employees for successful innovations has long been a part of great R&D companies, and the same tactics can be used in any organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More and more of the literature that is out there (at least what I\u2019m reading) is about innovation.\u00a0 Business thinkers are clearly over the fact that R&D, engineering and production is moving offshore.\u00a0 They realize that those tasks can go…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,10,8,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-branding","category-engagement","category-strategies","category-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}