Stimulating the "Initiative" Gene
Consistent with the belief that it is our obligation to constantly reformulate how one looks at things via new perspectives and asking questions around the peripheries of what we do, I would like to propose a new way to visualize how we motivate people.
If I look back at the things that I have done to get new Innovations adopted during my career, I find some recurring themes.
One of them has to do with the evangelization process that one has to compel when a new Innovation is positioned inside an organization. In a somewhat circuitous route, I believe that the way to get people to want to support your ideas is by stimulating their “initiative” gene, if there is such a thing.
So, how does one design an organization to provoke individual initiative? Here are a few conditions that are a must: 1) the organization has to be flexible enough to allow employees to deploy their initiative without fear of retribution, of stepping on other department’s toes, or fearing that they can loose their existing functions. 2) The organization has to allow the combination and recombination of “tiger” teams and once a team has been proven, re use it. Getting things done is a lot more about people getting along and having similar visions than technological challenges. 3) Once a tiger team is implemented, the rest of the organization needs to encircle the tiger team with focused support, especially with administrative and non-essential issues. 4) Incentives must be tied to project objectives. 5) There has to be a path of acceptance for the members of the tiger team as they return to their traditional roles.
The key fundamental point is to adapt organizations to human nature and its vicissitudes and not the other way around.
If I look back at the things that I have done to get new Innovations adopted during my career, I find some recurring themes.
One of them has to do with the evangelization process that one has to compel when a new Innovation is positioned inside an organization. In a somewhat circuitous route, I believe that the way to get people to want to support your ideas is by stimulating their “initiative” gene, if there is such a thing.
So, how does one design an organization to provoke individual initiative? Here are a few conditions that are a must: 1) the organization has to be flexible enough to allow employees to deploy their initiative without fear of retribution, of stepping on other department’s toes, or fearing that they can loose their existing functions. 2) The organization has to allow the combination and recombination of “tiger” teams and once a team has been proven, re use it. Getting things done is a lot more about people getting along and having similar visions than technological challenges. 3) Once a tiger team is implemented, the rest of the organization needs to encircle the tiger team with focused support, especially with administrative and non-essential issues. 4) Incentives must be tied to project objectives. 5) There has to be a path of acceptance for the members of the tiger team as they return to their traditional roles.
The key fundamental point is to adapt organizations to human nature and its vicissitudes and not the other way around.
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