Are you hanging on to a familiar way of doing your work or leading your team because it’s comfortable? If it’s been a year or more since you experienced a significant change for yourself or your team, you might be missing out on great opportunities to build morale, build your career, and enjoy your work. Managing change is critical for your success—too much change, too quickly creates instability. But resisting natural, healthy change will prevent growth and stagnate your team.

Resisting Natural Change

Off the east coast of North Carolina and Virginia, a set of barrier islands known as the Outer Banks stretches over a couple hundred miles, guarding the inner sound from the worst of Atlantic storms. On a recent visit, our brother-in-law Steve, who’s visited these beaches and dunes for decades, took me on a driving tour and pointed out some changes he’s seen over the years.

He pointed across the road at a five-foot rise of sand you could walk across in a few steps. “To climb that dune, you used to have to work at it and scramble on all fours. It was huge.” We drove a little further and earth-moving equipment worked to keep blown sand from obliterating the narrow strip of asphalt road as the wind seemed to fight to reclaim and reshape the island.

Then he showed me the Oregon Inlet where private deep-sea fishing boats enter and leave the sound. “In the early 1800s the inlets all closed up and there weren’t’ any islands at all. It was a straight stretch of sand. Then, in 1846, a hurricane carved out the inlet. These days, sand keeps filling it in, and they have to dredge it out regularly so the fishing boats can get in and out.”

The Outer Banks are a land of change. And it takes an incredible amount of work to prevent that change. And some day, given a big enough storm, the change will probably happen anyway.

The visit reminded me of the mountain west where I grew up. In the mountains, lodgepole pine forests evolved to burn periodically. Quick burns opened the forest floor to new plants, refreshed the soil, helped cones to disperse seeds, and prevented disease or insect infestations. Decades of fire prevention along with climate change, created huge, intense burns and stands of diseased dead trees. Resisting that natural change came at an enormous cost.

Resisting Business Change

You’re certainly familiar with companies like Blockbuster and Kodak who resisted change and faced extinction. It’s easy to shake your head and wonder how those leaders could have let that happen.

But the CrowdStrike bug that crashed Windows PCs, snarled airlines, and interfered with hospitals’ ability to access patient records had a similar cause. Microsoft tried to shift its approach to security two decades ago, but regulators prevented them from doing so.

Why?

Because the software giant had always allowed open access to their computers’ kernel and some companies had built their entire business model on that access. (Access that Apple and Linux have never allowed.)

When Microsoft tried to do what Apple and Linux have done, the companies who relied on kernel access went to regulators who ruled in favor of the status quo, rather than allowing developing technology to address the situation. And that decision created the conditions that allowed the CrowdStrike crash to happen. (For a full analysis, check out Ben Thompson on Stratechery: Crashes and Competition.)

Again, it’s easy to point the finger at regulators who get stuck in time and cling to the way things are.

But intentional change isn’t easy.

Build Your Ability to Lead Change

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 67% of respondents reported that their manager was stuck in “that’s the way we’ve always done it” thinking.

And you don’t have to look very hard to find places you might be stuck. I’ve been guilty of these at times:

• Holding on to a team member that you should promote or give other opportunities outside your team—because you don’t know what you’d do without them.
• Hanging on to team member that you really should move off the team—because then you’d have to find someone new and train them.
• Continuing the stale team-building activity everyone loved five years ago—because it always worked before.
• Refusing to decide—because going one way or the other will take effort.
• Resisting new ideas from team members—because hearing them out might mean you don’t have the answers you thought you did or will require you to act.
• Hoping against all evidence that the recent changes you’ve experienced will “go back to normal” – because acknowledging the change will require energy and effort to explore a new path forward.

But ignoring or resisting these moments of natural change won’t work forever.

The status quo’s comfort and ease are illusions. If you don’t invest in managing change, the changes will happen to you.

That team member will leave. Or they’ll stay and everyone else will leave.

Your credibility suffers. Your career lags. And you’re stuck frantically trying to do what used to work, working harder, with more stress, and missing out on what’s possible.

Two Questions to Find the Flow and Know What’s Next

One of the easiest ways to lean into natural change is to ask yourself this question:

What are you up to?

As a team leader, manager, or executive—what are you getting up to?

• Is there a problem you’re trying to solve?
• Are you helping your team to grow?
• An opportunity to explore?
• Some improvement or process you’re implementing?
• What are you learning?

When you’re up to something, you’re managing change. You can’t help it. You’re moving, flowing, and growing. Once you’re up to something, you can start managing change:

• Challenge yourself and your team to answer strategic or these UGLY questions to uncover possibilities:
• Ask your team for their I.D.E.A.s.
• Consider competing values and priorities.
• Make decisions about what matters most.

When you get up to something, you collaborate with natural change and create the future, rather than have it happen to you.

A second question you can ask yourself to find the flow of natural change is:

What’s happening in my industry?

No matter what kind of work you do, there’s something new to learn. Technology changes. Trends shift. Someone somewhere is innovating. And it’s easier than ever to learn what’s happening.

You might not apply what you learn immediately. Changes in the business environment, shifting tastes, or new AI applications may not affect your work tomorrow (though they could).

But knowing what’s happening and being informed will give you the perspective to be better at your work and be a better leader for your team.

What if My Boss Isn’t Managing Change and Doesn’t Want To?

If you want to get up to something or start learning more about what’s happening in your industry, but you worry that your boss just wants you to “focus on doing what needs to be done,” there are two possibilities:

You need better results.

We’ve worked with many leaders who were eager to get up to something new, but weren’t succeeding at their current work. You’ll be much more influential in selling a new idea or approach if your current work is solid. Master that, then build on your success.

You’re doing well and your manager fears change.

If you can objectively show your success, but your manager still wants you to limit your focus to doing what you’re asked, they might be the one hanging on to what they know.

In this case, keep doing your work well—and get up to something anyhow. You’ll have opportunities—the world needs more thoughtful, innovative problem solvers than ever. “Just shut up and do your work” isn’t a path to the future. What you learn will serve you and your team.

And you don’t need permission to learn.

Your Turn

Managing change is a critical leadership skill. Sticking with what’s familiar feels safe and comfortable, but change is inevitable. You can lean into change and become a more innovative, creative, and adaptable leader by taking initiative to move and actively learning.

How about you? We’d love to know one of your favorite ways for managing change and leaning into the future.

And if you want to help your team or organization drive innovation and improve results:

The post Managing Change: How to Cultivate Forward Thinking Leadership appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Hi Karin, “I attended your Courageous Cultures, how to Read Courageous Cultures with your team book club, and we loved it. We are using the book and we’re reading it. The good news is we’re getting SO MANY IDEAS.  I continue to respond with regard (with gratitude, information, and an invitation) to the ideas I receive. The team knows I want their ideas, so they keep bringing me more. Now I have too many ideas. I don’t want to crush team innovation, but I can’t possibly use them all.

How do I respond and SAVE THE IDEAS for later? #AskingForaFriend

The Challenge of Abundance: Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time

First let me say, GREAT JOB! You’re doing a lot of things right when it comes to fostering psychological safety and encouraging team innovation.

I would start by ensuring that everyone understands your vision and your MIT priorities. The more clear people are about where you need a great idea, the more remarkable, usable ideas you’ll receive.

This is the essence of my TEDx Talk: How to Help Your Team Bring You Remarkable, Usable Ideas

The best innovation comes from a combination of strategic clarity and psychological safety.  See our article in Smartbrief on Leadership: Safety First, Clarity Next: The Secret Formula For Better Workplace Innovation.

The Idea Garden: A Solution for Sustainable Team Innovation

Even with strategic clarity, you’re still going to get some great ideas you don’t want to lose, or that might be useful to consider as your strategy evolves.

Enter the “Idea Garden,” an innovative approach to team collaboration that acts as a repository for creativity. Here’s how it works:

• A Place for Every Idea: In this garden, no idea is too small or too wild. It’s a space where every seed of thought is valued and preserved, ensuring that nothing is lost in the hustle of immediate priorities.
• Accessible and Organized: Using project management software, this garden is not a wild thicket but an organized oasis. Ideas are cataloged, making it easy to revisit and nurture them when the time is ripe.
• Inspired Team Innovation: It’s a space where members not only pitch their ideas but also appreciate the creativity of their peers.

Why Team Innovation Matters More Than Ever

Here are five reasons why team innovation is so important.

1. Ensures No Idea Is Left Behind: In the rush of deadlines and deliverables, brilliant ideas can slip through the cracks. The idea garden ensures that doesn’t happen.
2. Encourages Continuous Engagement: Knowing that their ideas are valued and preserved, team members are more likely to continue contributing enthusiastically.
3. Fosters a Culture of Innovation: By institutionalizing the practice of saving and revisiting ideas, you create an environment where innovation is not just encouraged but expected.
4. Improves Project Management: With ideas organized and accessible, integrating them into future projects becomes seamless.
5. Strengthens Team Bonding: Collaborating on nurturing ideas strengthens relationships and builds a sense of shared purpose.

Cultivating creative team collaboration in an idea garden helps you manage an abundance of ideas. It’s a strategy that not only saves ideas for later but enriches the soil of creativity from which future innovations will sprout. So, next time your team’s creativity feels like a wild garden, remember: with the right approach, you can turn it into a well-tended haven of remarkable ideas.

The post How to Inspire Better Team Innovation: Cultivating an Idea Garden appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

One of the fastest ways to get to the root cause of a workplace conflict is to show up genuinely curious about the other person’s perspective. Your sincere curiosity helps people feel seen and gives you a better understanding of what it will take to solve a problem.

This is often the hardest part of constructive conflict because you have your point of view for a reason. It’s hard to be curious when you feel angry or disrespected. And yet… the cool thing about curiosity is that when you ask a good question, it automatically helps pull you out of that reactivity. It’s hard to be angry and genuinely curious at the same time.

Great teams stay curious and creative. They show up genuinely interested in other perspectives and what’s possible.

And, curiosity is one of those skills that can feel hard to teach. Do, we’ve curated this list of curiosity habits and resources to make it easier to infuse curiosity into your team’s culture.

Click here to hear more of our thoughts on curiosity and collaboration.

Note: This is part three of our four-part “Better Teamwork” series. You can check out the other dimensions and their powerful habits here.

Part 1: Better Teamwork: 12 Practical Habits to Build Deeper Connection.

Part 2: Great Teams: 12 Practical Collaboration Habits to Create Clarity

Part 4: Create Commitment: 12 Habits that Build Agreement and Accountability

12 Habits to Foster More Curiosity and Creativity on Your Team

1. Seek New Approaches

Habit: I explore possibilities and look for alternative paths to achieve goals.

In today’s fast-paced, uncertain world, it doesn’t make sense to keep doing what you’re doing without serious conversation about whether the status quo still makes sense. Creative teams learn from what’s working (and are honest about what’s not). They’ve got an eye out for new ways of working.

Related Article: 7 Ways to Help Your Team Be More Resourceful

You can download our FREE I.D.E.A. Incubator Guide Here.

2. Challenge Assumptions

Habit: I ask provocative questions to help us think at a deeper level.

This habit is about peeling back layers, not to be contrarian, but to understand deeply and maybe find a better, more effective path.

Here are a few questions to ask to inspire more creativity in your team:

• How would our competitors approach this problem?
• How would we handle this issue if our budget was cut in half?
• What would happen if we did the opposite of our plan?
  
  

Related Article: Assumption Busters: 12 Strategic Questions to Propel Your Team’s Strategic Thinking

3. Change My Mind

Habit: I’m open to new information, insights, and perspectives—and am willing to change course

The willingness to change your mind doesn’t signify weakness or indecisiveness; rather, it’s a strength, a testament to your intellectual flexibility and curiosity.

It means being open to new ideas, perspectives, and evidence, even if they challenge long-held beliefs or opinions. In a world brimming with diverse viewpoints and groundbreaking discoveries, the ability to adapt and reconsider is not just beneficial, it’s essential.

Related Article How to Work for an Indecisive Boss

4. Try New Things

Habit: I regularly step into the unfamiliar or uncomfortable to do what we haven’t done before.

Creative teams are willing to experiment. If you want to build this habit on your team, one way to do this is through a “mini personal experiment.”  We’re also big believers in trying new things with a carefully measured pilot.

Related Article: HBR How to Scale a Successful Pilot

5. Share Ideas

This habit is about sharing best practices and proactively speaking up to share your ideas, which if you’ve been hanging around us for a while you know we’re all about this.

Habit: I’m on the lookout for new approaches and confidently bring them up

Related Articles: Share Your Ideas: Practical Ways to Ensure Your Voice Is Heard

Psychological Safety: Why People Don’t Speak Up at Work 

6. Take Appropriate Risks

(P.S. These habits are all part of our SynergyStack System. Learn more here).

Habit: I make decisions doing the best we can with the information we have.

Related Article/Video: Taking Risks: How to Make it Easier for Your Team to Try New Things

7. Invite Input

Habit: I ask for ideas, information, and perspective.

This is more than saying ideas are welcome, or that you have an open door. What matters most is to make a habit of proactively asking in different ways.

For example, build a cadence of asking for input into your one-on-ones, and executive visits. This is a great place to start.

Related Video: The Secret to Getting Remarkable Ideas You Can Actually Use (Karin Hurt TEDx)

And Article:  Empower Your Team to Make Better Decisions

8. Ask First

Closely related to the invite input habit above, this one can be tricky when you’re passionate and have lots of great ideas.

A few Powerful Phrases that come in handy here.

“I’m curious what this looks like from your perspective.” and “Tell me more.”

Habit: Before stating my perspective, I invite others into the conversation.

9. Ask Courageous Questions

Habit: I ask practical, specific questions that make us better.

We love Courageous Questions because they are easier to answer and get your team talking. Inviting your teammates to consider ONE way or ONE idea to do something specific is a great way to encourage your team to be more creative and solutions-focused.

Related Article: Courageous Questions: How to Make It Easier to Get Better Insights

10. Learn from Experience

Habit: I pay close attention to what we did before and help our team to do better next time.

One of our favorite ways to do this is with a “post-project celebration” where you ask strategic questions to celebrate success and learning.

Related Articles: Beyond Post Mortems: A Post-Project Celebration 

From Fiasco to Opportunity: How to Reframe a Team Setback With Better Words

11. Investigate How Things Work

Habit: I ask “why” repeatedly to understand how our organization does what it does.

It’s amazing to see the lightbulbs go off in our training programs when people get a chance to ask some of the “why” questions they are holding back. Take time to slow down and make it more than “okay.” Expecting people to ask the “whys” behind the “what’s” is a fast track to more creative teams.

12. Walk in Others’ Shoes

Habit: I want to understand your perspective and what my decisions and actions mean for you. 

We’re big fans of a good field trip (literal or figurative) where you work to understand the inputs and outputs of processes and decisions. This is particularly vital in a matrix organization.

Related Article: Matrix Organization: Powerful Questions to Reduce Angst and Build Trust

These twelve habits are a great place to start when working to build more creative teams, foster connections, and make work, work better. We’d love to hear from you about your best practices.

What habits are making the biggest difference as you work to take your team to the next level?

Want to de-stress your workday, build collaboration, and calm difficult customers?

Our new book, Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict: What to Say Next to Destress the Workday, Build Collaboration, and Calm Difficult Customers has 300+ practical techniques and useful words for better collaboration, You can take a quick peek at some of our new conflict and collaboration programs here.

The post Creative Teams: 12 Habits That Foster Curiosity and Collaboration appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

If you’re getting lots of ideas, you’re probably doing a lot of things right when it comes to encouraging workplace innovation —making it safe, asking for input, and responding well. That’s a great start. But how many of these ideas are you implementing? Imagine if you weren’t just getting lots of ideas, but remarkable, practical ones.

In Karin’s just released TEDx talk, she shares why psychological safety is vital, but not enough when it comes to workplace innovation— and a practical technique to help you get better ideas.

Why Psychological Safety x Clarity Leads to Better Workplace Innovation

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 50% of the respondents said they hold back ideas because nothing will happen. If you shoot down too many ideas, people will stop trying.

When you are clear about the kinds of ideas you need, and what would make them remarkable, you’ll get better ideas. The better the ideas, the more you’ll use them. The more ideas you use, the more people will share. Now you have a virtuous cycle of both confidence and innovation. Not to mention more remarkable ideas.

How We Learned the Secret to More Remarkable Ideas

When we first began experimenting with practical approaches to make it feel safer and easier to share ideas, we tried two approaches.

Sometimes, we say, just say bring us ANY practical ideas to improve the organization.

In this scenario, people learned some critical thinking and problem-solving skills, had fun, and got to know one another better. It wasn’t a complete loss. But most of those ideas weren’t implemented. Reinforcing the “nothing ever happens, so why bother” statistic.

With others, we got very specific about what a good idea would accomplish. Leaders identified three or four areas of the organization where they really wanted ideas and were very clear about any constraints the teams needed to consider, and then they applied the tools.

Similar process. Similar time investment. A significant difference in the number of ideas implemented.

A Closer Look at the Intersection of Clarity and Psychological Safety

The Two Dimensions of Innovation

1. Psychological Safety: Cultivating an environment where people feel secure in expressing their thoughts.
2. Strategic Clarity: Directing those thoughts towards meaningful areas for innovation.

The Role of Strategic Clarity in Decision-Making

• Clear Outcomes: Knowing where you want to go makes it easier to decide if an idea will help you get there.
• Focused Engagement: When people know what the objective is, they’ll contribute more effectively.

In the worst-case scenario, when psychological safety and strategic clarity are both low, most ideas will be negligible, and people are unlikely to have, or share them. Frustration is highest in this scene, and people are likely to give up, quiet quit, or leave.

When clarity is high, but psychological safety is low, people will have ideas, but they might be too nervous to share them. You’ll have invisible ideas, along with the frustration that first sparked our original research. This is the challenge that most people deeply committed to psychological safety are working to solve.

When psychological safety is high, but clarity is low, you’ll end up with lots of ideas.   There may be some good ones, but it’s tough to see them. You’ll spend significant time listening (and responding to) ideas, which eats up time from implementing the good ones. You’ve got a pile of unmanageable ideas. This is a challenge that many people deeply committed to psychological safety are faced with.

And, why some leaders shy away from encouraging workplace innovation, “we don’t need more ideas, we have too many already, we just need to execute.”

When strategic clarity and psychological safety are both high, you’re more likely to get remarkable Ideas. When you have more remarkable ideas, there’s less frustration and more usable innovation.

Your turn.

How have you seen better clarity lead to more remarkable ideas?

The post Workplace Innovation: The Secret to Getting Better, Remarkable, Usable Ideas appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

“Hey Karin, “I was hired for my ideas and my extensive experience. I was told “We welcome your different perspectives, experiences, and ideas at work. That’s exactly what we need here! And now, I’m here. And I’m constantly hearing, “ahhh, I don’t think we can do it that way.” “Eh…. we tried that before…” “THIS IS THE WAY WE DO THINGS AROUND HERE…”

I’m frustrated and I’m getting the sense that I’m frustrating other people too. What should I do?” #AskingforaFriend

Three Practical Ways to Help Your Idea Get the Best Chance of Traction

Of course, every situation is different. But I’d start by paying attention to context, collaboration, and focus.

Context

The best way to gain credibility for your ideas at work is to show that you understand the context. Will your ideas solve burning problems that solve strategic business challenges? Have you spent time really getting curious about the systems and processes in the business? Do you understand the mission, vision, and values? Do you have a solid understanding of how new ideas are considered and implemented?

Connect your ideas to the bigger picture – goals, values, long-term vision– and also consider the technical nuances and challenges for implementation.

Collaboration

Make sure your team knows that you have their (and the organization’s) best interest at heart. Worry more about the idea, than who gets the credit. Include others and get curious about their perspectives. Foster collaboration by taking time to learn from your colleagues and include them in your planning. Put people before projects and build trust.

Focus

When you come blazing into a new-to-you organization with tons of great ideas, focus is key. It can be overwhelming for your team and manager when you share too many innovative ideas at work all at once. Implementing new ideas takes work, time, and energy. So, what are the one or two changes that would make the biggest impact? Share your ideas at work strategically so that you are addressing those most impactful areas first. You will lose credibility if you start recommending changes to everything, everywhere, all at once.

I’m curious. What ideas do you have for this friend? How can you help them ensure their ideas at work are welcomed in their new role? Leave a comment below.

Are you a manager, senior leader, CEO, or team leader ready to cultivate a Courageous Culture at your organization? With higher engagement and a results-oriented approach to innovation? Where your employees speak up, share their ideas, and drive quality performance and productivity? Check out our Live Online and Hybrid Leadership Training. Let’s Grow Leaders programs are highly customized to your organization’s needs, practical, and interactive. Get ready for leadership development that sticks.

And check out these related articles:

How to Get Your Coworkers to Embrace Your Great Idea

How to Build Trust More Quickly With New Employees

The post As a New Employee, How to I Ensure My Ideas at Work are Taken Seriously? appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

The post How to Create a More Innovative Learning Culture #ATD23 appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Taking risks at work can feel remarkably lonely. Especially if you’re the only one trying new things, or experimenting with new approaches. This week on #AskingforaFriend I share practical approaches to making taking risks a team sport.

In this video, I share three leadership best practices to help your team work together to strategize, analyze and execute appropriate risks. If you build risk-taking into your organization’s culture, you can normalize risk, so everyone feels like they are on the same team even when they are trying something new.

These ideas and approaches came from teams in one of our long-term Courageous Cultures programs. They were focused on practical ways to operationalize their important value of risking taking.

3 Leadership Best Practices for Taking Risks

1. Mini Masterminds for Taking Risks

Carve out a few minutes at the beginning of a staff meeting for a mini mastermind. Anyone can get on the agenda and say, “I have a risk that I’d like to take, but before I do, I could use your help in vetting it.” The team can work together to dissect the risk and identify what’s really at stake. What effect does the risk have on the rest of the team? Weigh the costs and benefits. Is it really worth it?

When the person makes the decision, they’ll feel like they have a whole group of people at their back who have thought it through with them. They won’t feel alone when they’re taking risks.

2. Find Time to Share About Risky Business

Give people time to talk about a risk they took (or that’s in progress) and the outcome. Then celebrate the act of trying something new with one another! Also, acknowledge when someone considers taking a risk, and then decides not to. This will help people feel more confident sharing their ideas and vetting them with the team.

3. Hold Regular “Post-Project Celebrations”

Celebrate the work. Celebrate what worked and the contributions. AND celebrate the learning. You get more of what you encourage and celebrate and less of what you ignore. Naturally, when your team sees you as a leader celebrating those who are taking risks, they will be more likely to do the same. The result will be a courageous culture with more innovative thinking and more willingness to try something new.

What would you add? How do you help your team feel supported (and less alone) when taking risks at work?

See Also:

Post-Mortem Meeting: How to Make Yours Better

The post Taking Risks: How to Make it Feel Safer (and Less Lonely) For Your Team to Try New Things appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You have a great idea. You’re confident it’s game-changing. Maybe it will reduce a big frustration for your customers, or save you and your co-workers a ton of time. So what do you do when a co-worker won’t listen? How do you get them to take your idea seriously?

Why You Should Try

First, inertia is real. It’s quite possible your team is tired. And even if your idea will make life easier, it still takes energy to consider doing something different. It’s worth trying because you can make life better for everyone, even if you have to overcome inertia to do it. Get the confidence to persevere by connecting to WHY your idea matters and THE IMPACT that it will make.

Second, when your peers are on board, it’s more likely that your manager will take the idea seriously.

In our research for Courageous Cultures, 67% said their manager operates around the notion of “this is the way we’ve always done it.”  And, one of the best ways to get your manager’s attention is to get your co-workers behind it. So rallying your co-workers around your idea is a great place to start. Read more about how to engage others as you share your I.D.E.A.s here).

And, third, advocating for your idea, just might bring you some satisfaction and even joy. When we ask participants in our strategic leadership and team innovation programs about courageous moments where they spoke up and advocated for ideas, the words they use to describe their feelings after are remarkably consistent: “fantastic,” “proud,” “relieved,” “excited”, “accomplished.”

6 Steps to Communicate When a Co-worker Won’t Listen

So here are a few tips to capture attention and strengthen your pitch when a co-worker won’t listen to your idea.

1. Be a great listener yourself

If you want people to listen to your ideas, make it a habit to listen to theirs. If you have a reputation for caring about your peers and supporting them in their efforts, they’re more likely to take you and your idea seriously.

2. Know what matters most to them, and communicate your idea in that context

As you listen, you may find real barriers or needs that you can address as you develop your ideas. When your coworker won’t listen, start with what matters most to them at multiple levels. Sure you want to consider WIIFT (what’s in it for them), and appealing to the higher value goal can be just as compelling.

• I’ve found a workaround that could save us at least 10 hours a week of wasted effort, can I walk you through it?
• Would you be open to hearing my idea to dramatically reduce client frustration?
• I’ve figured out a way to stop our boss from micro-managing us on this project, would you like to hear more?

3. Talk them through the “how” of your idea

When a coworker won’t listen, it’s also because they’re afraid of taking on more work. Showing them that you’ve thought through the idea with tangible actions can help to reduce that feeling of being overwhelmed.

4. Anticipate their objections and concerns, and speak to them directly

Anticipating and speaking to your co-worker’s objections as early as possible in the conversation is a great way to get them to listen.

• If I were you I might be wondering…
• Of course, the trickiest part of implementing this would be ________. I’ve thought about that, and this is how we can overcome it.
• I imagine you have some concerns about how to pull this off. I’ve given a great deal of thought to that (list your concerns and how to overcome them).

5. Ask them to articulate the benefits

It’s human nature. People are more likely to buy into an idea when they feel like they’re involved. Show up curious about their hopes and frustrations for the problem you’re looking to solve.

• Have you experienced this challenge too?
• How much time do you think we waste each week on this problem?
• What do you think would be the benefits of this approach?

6. Articulate your “ask”

One of the biggest ways to get a coworker to listen and engage with your idea is to know your “ask.” What specifically are you asking for them to do? Are you looking for help engaging stakeholders? Do you need help on certain elements of the project, what specifically do you need done?

• So here’s the support I would need from you…
• I’m thinking that if each of us spent (insert required time) this month, we could knock this out.
• My hope is that you will help advocate for this with your manager. I’ve prepared some talk points.
• I’m looking for a few customers to trial this with. Would you be open to that?

When you can connect at a human level, communicate your idea in the context of what matters most to them, talk through logistics, anticipate and address concerns, and know your “ask” you’re considerably more likely to have your co-worker take your idea seriously.

Your turn.

What advice do you have for when a co-worker won’t listen?

9 Mistakes That Sabotage Collaboration and Destroy Trust

The post Co-worker Won’t Listen? How to Get Them to Take Your Idea Seriously appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

New ideas have a life cycle. Many senior leaders jump in to help their teams refine, grow, or prune an idea before they’re ready – and as a result, their teams can’t innovate at all.

Idea Killer?

I have a confession to make.

I’ve been an idea-killer.

It’s not that I don’t want new ideas, solutions, and innovation. I didn’t callously shout “that’s not how we do it!” No, my problem was different.

It came from trying to help in the wrong way at the wrong time. Someone would bring me an idea and I’d jump in with all the possibilities. The three distinct problems we’d need to solve. How we had similar solutions already in place. Most of the time, that was the end of the idea.

And I know I’m not alone. Many leaders and managers, in their desire to be helpful, show off their vast knowledge, or shortcut to a faster solution, will give quick answers when team members ponder “what-ifs.” I’ve done this more times than I care to admit.

How Well-Meaning Leaders Extinguish Ideas When Teams Can’t Innovate

As we work with leadership teams to help them build a Courageous Culture filled with teams of innovators, problem-solvers, and customer advocates, we’ll often hear that their teams won’t solve problems on their own and lack creativity.

When you watch what happens in these organizations, people will often have ideas—and then senior leaders swarm that seedling of an idea and pick it apart, tell the team what they’d missed, and what’s already happening. The swarm of input crushes the idea and spirit behind it before the team can learn more or experience the joy of innovation.

And I get it—from an experienced leadership perspective, you want to help. There are five different perspectives you’ve learned through your experience that are relevant and that the team hasn’t considered. You can see the potential in version 3.0 of their idea, and you jump to that, asking if they’ve considered incorporating x, y, and z. You’re also sensitive to time—after all time is money and if you can shorten the learning curve and get to a better idea, faster, doesn’t it make sense to get there as quickly as possible?

Not necessarily.

Or at least, not now.

When Your Team Can’t Innovate—Pay Attention to Idea Life-Cycle

When your team’s new ideas meet with a flurry of input, criticism, or overwhelming additions, they can’t innovate. The new idea drowns before it can grow. And people give up—it’s just not worth it to try.

Think of ideas like an apple tree. When the seed first sprouts, that tiny seedling needs enough room to grow, put out a few leaves, and get some roots down to anchor it in the soil. It wouldn’t make sense for you to prune or shape a seedling or look for apples. It’s not ready yet.

Give that tiny seedling time to grow, however, and it will develop strength as it faces wind and rain. Eventually, it will be big enough and strong enough that you can shape it and prune it—and doing so will make it healthier and help it produce more apples.

Nurture the Birth of Ideas

Your team and their ideas have a similar life cycle.

When your team can’t innovate, pay attention to what happens in the early stages of ideation. Is there room to explore and grow an idea? Can they experiment and try ideas at a small scale to see what works, what they hadn’t considered, and how to get the information they need to contribute better solutions? To make mistakes that won’t cripple the business, but that help people learn and grow?

Real learning grasps the essential elements, understands “what happens if,” makes new connections, finds new solutions, and creates new visions. Be careful not to squelch creativity and risk-taking by trying to help too much or jumping ahead too soon.

Recently I interviewed Olankunle Soriyan, author of A Love Affair with Failure, and he captured this tendency to paralyze ourselves or our teams by focusing on perfection before we’re in motion. “If you wait to release an iPhone 14 and all the features it has today, you’ll never release the first edition.”

“If you wait to release an iPhone 14 and all the features it has today, you’ll never release the first edition.”

-Olankunle Soriyan, A Love Affair with Failure

How to Help When Your Team Can’t Innovate

Here are three strategies to help nurture new ideas and people who are learning how to innovate:

• Provide context and clear criteria

When someone on your team has an idea, they likely are thinking only of what the world looks like from their perspective. Help them grow and make it more likely their idea can have a meaningful impact by sharing context and clear criteria. What is happening in the organization, the environment, or the industry that they need to be aware of? What are the boundaries within which they can play as they implement their idea? Where do you or the organization most need a good idea?

One of the most powerful ways to equip your team with criteria to help them contribute meaningful ideas is with our I.D.E.A. model. What makes an idea interesting? Doable? Engaging to stakeholders? And what are the next specific actions they recommend?

Learn more about the I.D.E.A. model here.

• Respond with Regard

How you react to incomplete, unusable, or half-thought-through ideas has a huge effect on whether you’ll ever get useful ideas. When your team can’t innovate, pay attention to your response to the ideas you hear.

Start with gratitude for the act of contributing. For example: “Thank you for thinking about how we can improve in this area.” Note: You are NOT thanking them for their specific idea or even telling them it’s a good idea. Celebrate their effort.

Next, add information – this might be additional criteria, context, or even how their the idea is already in use. Give them enough information that they can continue exploring, growing, and making connections, but not enough to drown them. (Think of that apple tree seedling – it needs water to grow, but not too much.) If their idea can’t work right now, this is the time to let them know why.

Finally, invite them to continue thinking, contributing, and to refine this idea. This is critical to give people the same chance to learn and grow that made you the expert you are today. As they gain experience and think through their concepts, they’ll gain strength and be ready for the pruning and shaping stage of innovation.

Here’s more on how to: Respond with Regard

• Reward Failure

This may sound strange, but let’s think about the concept of rewarding failure for a moment.

If your people take a risk, but you only reward the risks that succeed, what will happen?

People will naturally stop taking risks.

By their very nature, risks mean uncertainty of success. By only rewarding the risks that work out as hoped, you communicate that you don’t actually want creativity and innovation; you communicate that you’re only interested in a “sure thing.”

Avoiding loss is human nature. Most people in your organization will therefore choose to do nothing, rather than risk your censure for a creative idea that doesn’t work.

The solution to this problem is to reward behaviors and attempts. Some organizations take this concept to a grand conclusion and annually give an award for “The best idea that didn’t work.” Others describe every new initiative as “an experiment” – a term that clearly communicates the desire to learn from the effort and acknowledges the reality that it may or may not work out as intended.

Your Turn

When your team can’t innovate, but you really want new ideas, make it safe to experiment and take risks. Avoid the temptation to swarm a new idea with too many corrections and criticisms. When you celebrate creative behaviors, attempts, and even failures, you make it OK for the effort to not work and for everyone to learn something along the way—and you’re that much closer to the game-changing ideas you do need!

I’d love to hear from you: what’s your most effective way to help new ideas thrive?

The post Why Your Team Can’t Innovate When You Want Ideas and Try to Help appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

“Hey Karin, I’ve got to tell you. Your book, Courageous Cultures, kind of scares me. We don’t actually need more ideas around here… we have too many ideas! We’ve been growing so fast, it’s like the wild, wild west. Everybody’s bringing their ideas and moving in a gazillion directions. Pivoting. This way and that. We just need FOCUSED execution. What do you think we should do?”   #AskingForAFriend

This conversation came up when we were looking at curriculum design for ongoing training for one of our long-term leadership development clients.

And they said, “yeah, maybe not so much on the innovation.” They were getting too many people speaking up and sharing their ideas. They needed more focused execution.

So if this is your challenge, consider this.

Yes, you might not need new game-changing approaches. But consider where you MIGHT need ideas. Including, ideas about how to create better clarity and focus for your team. 

How to Cope When Your Team Has Too Many Ideas

1. Ensure everyone understands the bigger picture. Where you need a great idea.
2. Communicate those important strategic priorities, five times, five different ways. AND check for understanding.
3. Identify where you really do need new thinking (how you can be more effective, and efficient, looking for micro-innovations…ways to improve processes and collaborate in a matrixed environment…all the things that are getting in the way that are making it feel like the wild, wild west.
4. Communicate your desire for innovation in the areas you really want them to focus on.
5. Ask “what is ONE THING we could do differently in this arena (the area where you really want them to focus.)

Your turn.

What would you add? How do you help your team focus on the most helpful innovation?

Does your company need a Courageous Culture – with higher engagement and a results-oriented approach to innovation? Where your employees speak up, share their ideas and drive quality performance and productivity? If that’s a wholehearted “YES!” be sure to check out our Strategic Leadership and Team Innovation Page and download sample chapters from our book, Courageous Cultures. 

Related Article: How to Convince Your Boss You Have a Great Solution

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