Embracing Chaos?
May 26th, 2006[ Office Gossip ]
An interesting story about innovating from the bottom up.
“In my experience, innovation can only come from the bottom. Those closest to the problem are in the best position to solve it. I believe any organization that depends on innovation must embrace chaos. Loyalty and obedience are not your tools; you must use measurement and objective debate to separate the good from the bad.”
I tend to fall on the choas and ad-hoc side of this debate, however, how do you balance that with accomplishing the business goals that keep you around tomorrow? I can’t imagine trying to run a business with any level of productivity while your entire team feels it’s their job to ignore you and do what they want.
The only answer I know of is to embrace them. Google’s tried this with their 20 percent projects. Most businesses spend energy working to stop these projects in an attempt to optimize productivity. It just doesn’t work that way outside of business textbooks. These pet projects exist in some form, possibly only ideas, and you aren’t going to eliminate them so stop wasting your valuable time. Find a way to get them out in the open, embrace them, talk about them and you’ll be startled what shows up.
The point here isn’t to find usable ideas, that’s gravy in my opinion. I’m sure some companies have tried a version of 20 percent projects and then measured it by how many features and products it’s produced. Do NOT measure that. The value here is in engaging your individuals because that’s how you achieve productivity. Work everyday to drag your people into your business problems. That’s how you engage them and allow them to be productive.
Bottom line, people are naturally productive, crave responsibility and ownership. Don’t think of the problem as how do I ‘make’ my people productive because you can’t make anyone do anything. Have some children if you’re unsure of that one. Instead, think of the problem as what’s broken in our environment that’s preventing my people from being productive and taking responsibility.
You can’t control people, you can control your environment. Assume your environment’s broken everyday. It doesn’t mean you were wrong yesterday and that doesn’t matter. You can control your environment so assuming it’s broken at least puts you in a position of control. It gives you something to actually work on.
It’s the same with personal relationships. The only reason I’m still married today is because I always assume I’m wrong. It isn’t about who’s right, it’s about what I can do. I can control my behaviour not my wife’s so that’s where I need to focus. After I’ve calmed myself down I get into the headspace of ‘ok you were wrong, what can you change to make this better?’
Do the opposite and focus your energy on controlling the people around you’ll frustrate yourself to no end while driving everyone away. Wow, I somehow ended up on my soapbox in the end, sorry about that….