Chapter Six: Expect and Help Employees to Continually Grow
Challenge: While managers often say to employees, “We need to think outside of the box” they don’t really understand the necessary conditions that must be in place for employees to do so.
Solution: Innovation starts with the generation of ideas. The mind generates creative ideas by making connections between seemingly unrelated variables – by connecting dots in new ways. The creative impulse springs from seeing new possibilities and new combinations.
For the mind to engage in creative thinking it must have new dots – the result of an expanded knowledge base and a well developed natural capacity for imagination, or right brain thinking. For employees to think outside of the proverbial box, this translates into two conditions that must be present in the workplace. The first condition is having access to “dots” or a knowledge base outside of our normal frame of reference. For instance, if the “box” is a department within the company, the dots outside the box are knowledge of the total business processes within the company and outside the industry. If the “box” is the technical knowledge, then the dots outside of it are the latest technological advancements. The second condition is having an active imagination, or using the right side of the brain to connect these dots. The leadership practices discussed in this chapter along with application of organizational support systems that will be outlined will help to develop both of these conditions so that the mind can “think outside the box.”
Madan manages to capture the concepts from soft sciences and transform them into hard principles validated by real world examples from FedEx. A must read for managers looking for proven ideas to unleash employees’ creativity and commitment.
John Santi
Managing Director
Stanford Group Company
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Chapter One: Innovating and Outperforming the Competition
Chapter Two: Overview of FedEx's Innovation Journey
Chapter Three: Why Organizations Don’t Innovate
Chapter Four: The Five Dimensions of an Innovation and Performance Culture
Chapter Five: Engage Employees in the Enterprise
Chapter Six: Expect and Help Employees to Continually Grow
Chapter Seven: Create a Secure Environment
Chapter Eight: Encourage Collaborative Development
Chapter Nine: Tap Employees' Commitment
Conclusion: Continuing to Lead the Way
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