 Hi, Agile India 2020. My name is Karen Ferris, and I'm joining you via video from the Melbourne Australia. I'm an Organisational Change Management Consultant and a Service Management Consultant as well. What I wanted to share with you is why we need a culture of innovation. Every organisation, regardless of size of industry, has to have a culture for innovation if they're going to stay ahead of the game, be ahead of the competition and not only survive but actually thrive. So I want to explore what innovation is, so they're on the same page, why we need it and what a culture for innovation actually looks like. So let's start off with what it is and why we need it. So innovation means we create something different or we introduce something new that's going to achieve a tangible result. Without innovation there isn't anything new and without anything new there will be no progress. The organisation will not evolve. Innovation is needed for continual evolution and organisations that don't will not remain relevant. And when you think about it, it's difficult to identify industry where innovation wouldn't be important. We often think of the innovative organisations in the Amazons and the Apples of the world, but even government organisations, if they don't look to innovate and do things better, quicker, cheaper, someone else will do it for them. So they have to keep innovating. So organisations need to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. Innovative businesses keep their operations service and products relevant to the customer needs and changing marketing conditions. They're always looking to what is changing and what do we, how do we need to innovate, what does the customer, the consumer and the constituent demand that we need to do. Innovation really comes down to do or die. So innovation is everyone's business. It cannot be the responsibility of a few people behind a closed door that says Innovation Office or Innovation Lab. It has to be everybody's business. So the culture is one in which everyone knows that they can come up with new ideas, they can innovate, they can experiment. It is every employee's job, not the domain of a few PhDs or a few executives. And this belief has to permeate the organisation for innovation to become the way thing we do things around here. So as I've said, innovation will help companies stay agile, stay relevant and keep evolving. And there should be recognition that not innovating, not doing it is probably the biggest risk to the organisation. So we need to encourage everybody to be curious, challenge the status quo. There should be no, well, we've always done it like that. We need to be open and honest, have those conversations, have constructive conflict, share ideas and explore initiatives without fear of people, someone saying, well, that's a stupid idea. Because there is no such thing. Every idea should be heard and valued. So let's look at what a culture of innovation looks like. So what needs to change? If we want employees to really innovate and experiment and try new things, we need a culture, an environment that supports that. So there's a number of things I'm going to explore. Leadership. Now, when I talk about leadership, I'm not talking about somebody who has been bestowed a title. Everyone in the organisation can lead. So we're going to talk about leadership and employee autonomy. And I was going to talk about psychological safety. We hear that term a lot today. Well, what does that really mean? And why do we need it for innovation? I'm going to look at celebration and reinforcing the innovative behaviours and also having a growth mindset. There are the things that are the foundation to build that culture for innovation, without which we will be dead in the water. So leadership has to move away from command and control. Not just for a culture of innovation, but for a myriad of reasons, if organisations are going to truly evolve and move forward. And command and control is when managers, I won't call them leaders, managers micromanage. They say, I want you to do this and I want you to do it my way. It's my way or the highway. And micromanagement will kill innovation. No one will put their hand up to suggest a different way of doing things or a new idea. It will be killed. And when managers micromanage, the only thing they are saying to the employees is I don't trust you. And that will destroy any relationship of mutual respect and trust. Because they're saying, I don't trust you to do what I want you to do. So leaders have to move away from command and control to delegation and trust. For some leaders that is a huge leap of faith. So when I work with leaders and leadership teams or managers and management teams, we start in small steps. So, what do we need to do to move to delegation and trust? Well, we need to set clear objectives and expectations. What is the outcome we're looking for? When do we need it by? What's the available budget if that's appropriate? How often will we check in together to make sure we're progressing? And it's not management by abdication. It's managers saying, I'm not going to micromanage you do it your way. These are my expectations of you. And you have expectations of me as your manager. But I'm always here whenever you need me. If you need me to remove obstacles or step in and do help you, I am here. But if you don't, we'll just check in at the frequency that we've agreed. And then the manager, the leader has to get out of the way. So we provide employees with the autonomy to do something the way they feel best to do it, knowing that they have support and that the leader has their back. Now, often when I work with management teams, they go, oh my gosh, she's going to be anarchy. And I go, well, it's not because you provide guardrails. So guardrails are like the guardrails we have on the road that are there to keep us all going in the same direction and hopefully stop us going off the road. When we bump up against the guardrail, we know we have to take action. So guardrails are like principles or parameters by which people will operate. And when we start to bump up against those parameters of those guardrails, that's when we reach out to our leadership to our managers and discuss what it is that we want to do. So it's a bit like I've heard the saying, you know, if you're shooting above the waterline, you're okay, because we can probably fix that, that hole in the ship. If you're shooting below the waterline or you're about to perhaps no, don't do it, because that's probably damaged that we cannot fix quickly. So provide those principles by which people can operate. There has to be trust. Employees have to trust that their leader will let them get on with the job. They have to trust and the leader has to trust the employee to do the right thing. And trust can take a long time to build and a second to lose. And so trust is absolutely important. Transparency is key. And that's being everybody being open and honest. And someone saying, you know what, I tried this and it didn't work. And that's okay, because we've learned something. So everybody being transparent and someone saying, I don't know how to do this. And being open and honest. I mentioned start small, you know, say to Jack, Jack, I want you to do this task. And the manager is going to have to have an open and honest conversation with Jack to say, I am trying to move away from micromanaging or being hands on and find the words that they're comfortable with. Away from being hands on and step back and give you more autonomy to do things you want. So Jack has to understand that you are trying to change your approach and the way that you work. And then just pick a small low risk thing that Jack can go away and do. Set those, set clear objectives, set your expectations. This is when we need it by. And this is how often we'll check in. Off you go. And because it's low risk that manager should feel less concerned or less anxious about delegating to Jack. And they will see magic happens. I'm telling you, without exception, I've seen magic happen when leaders or managers make this shift. Start small, do it once, see Jack absolutely saw engagement increases, Jack is motivated, he's inspired and he's innovating. But be consistent. Don't give up the reins and allow some autonomy and then when a crisis hits, pull him back in the control. That's again is saying in good times, I trust you, but not when the going gets tough. So we need to be consistent in action. Psychological safety and absolutely imperative for a culture of innovation. Psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. And psychological safety, the term was coined by Harvard business professor, Amy Edmondson, and she did extensive research on teams and their effectiveness. And when her first round of data showed that better teams, better performing teams were making more mistakes and Amy Edmondson said that doesn't seem right. It's a bit odd. So they, her and her team, they dug a bit deeper. And the conclusion was that better teams were not actually making more mistakes. They were communicating them. They were the teams that were talking about them as opposed to being quiet about them. So they were communicating openly. They were open and honest and they said we made a mistake. Or I've got an idea a better way of doing this. And they had that environment where they felt safe. And she coined the term psychological safety. There was also a project you may have heard of called Project Aristotle that was carried out at Google, because Google wanted to know what made high performing teams. And again, they concluded that one of the top traits of high performing teams was psychological safety. So teams that make more mistakes are more successful because they're comfortable to talk about them. They're comfortable to share them. And they are comfortable to take risks, knowing there's not going to be any reprimand if things go wrong. That there is a culture that says, yes, speak up. Yes, challenge. And that's, that's good. You're safe to do so. No one will reprimand you or punish you for doing that. If we don't have this environment of psychological safety, no one is going to put the hand up and say, I want to try something different. No one is going to challenge a status quo. And I'm telling you now that that silence you get because of the absence of psychological safety is a killer. Because nothing will change. People closest to knowing what should change will not tell anyone they'll keep it quiet. There will be no innovation. So we need people who will lead by example. So this is where if you're in a position of responsibility and it doesn't mean you've got the title of a leader and a leader isn't a title. It's something you earn through demonstrated behavior. If you lead by example and say, yeah, I made mistakes. I actually made a mistake two weeks ago. Got it totally wrong. But that's okay. I learned by it and I moved on. And, you know, lead by example, ask for help. As a leader, you don't know, have to know everything. That's why you have a team. So reach out and say, I don't have the answer. What do you think? So show your fallibility and say, you know, I need I may miss something I need to hear from you. So create safety for people speaking up. Make sure they know that what they say is valued. There is no stupid idea. And that you're open to opinions that could be different from your own. And that's fine. Let's let's have the debate. Let's have the conversation. Be approachable and encourage people to ask questions. So we really need to encourage people to ask questions and lead by example, show your own fallibility and vulnerability. And others will then do the same. The other thing is we need to encourage active listening. And this is so important because active listening is when you, you're not just hearing the noise, you're actually listening to what someone is saying to you. And when someone knows that you're actively listening, they will feel valued and they will feel prepared to share more and more with you. So this is about really listening, looking someone in the eye, even if it's virtually avoiding any distraction and repeating back to that person what they've said. So I under from what you said, I am hearing this so that person can say, yeah, that's spot on. That's exactly what I'm saying. Or well, no, not quite. What I actually meant was this. So we make sure that we're all on the same page. So active listening is absolutely important. And as I've said, if individuals don't speak up in meetings, then we need to actively ask them for their ideas. We really encourage people to speak and make sure they know that you're listening to them. So leaders need to ask questions and question people. We need to create that safe environment so that everyone knows that all ideas are accepted. There is no judgment. It could be a wacky idea. That's all right, because some of those most crazy ideas. People go, well, that's a bit crazy. But if we did this and we added this and we did this, we've really got something that's innovative and could actually fly. So we need to never have any blame placed. So those wacky ideas are encouraged and will be listened to. And we have an environment that has curiosity. We asked lots of questions, and we keep asking why. And we need to have an open mindset. We all unfortunately have biases. We have filters. And they're based on our life experience. That's what we've learned along the way that we need to try and remove those filters and biases so we have an open mind to new ideas, innovative ideas. So we need to make sure or encourage people to share ideas with each other without judgments. People have those conversations about the ideas. There is no criticism. We encourage people to see feedback as a way to strengthen your ideas and come up with bigger and better innovative products or services. Celebrate. Celebrate is an easy word to say and often we forget to do it in our busy busy business lives. But we need to celebrate people that take risks. We need to celebrate successes. And we all need also need to celebrate the setbacks. I hate using word failure, but celebrate the setbacks because without celebration, innovation is going to be crushed. So we celebrate the setbacks because they are opportunities to have learned from the setback. With every setback, you're a step nearer to success. And setbacks is always what innovation and experimentation is all about. We're going, what if we did this? No, that doesn't work. What if we did this? Not quite. What if we did this? Yes. So we need to celebrate setbacks. And if we don't do that, we won't get innovation. And it's like, you know, Thomas Edison is often quoted as saying, he's the guy that invented the light bulb. I haven't failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don't work. So it is fitting to celebrate the failures or the setbacks that are related to innovation. So how do we do that? Well, firstly, don't forget to celebrate. And as I said, celebrate the setbacks as learning opportunities. Hey, guys, that didn't work. But you know, that's, we click that off the list. We're a step nearer being successful. And we need to change the language. As I've said, I don't particularly like the term failure. I'd rather say a setback because it sounds more failure sort of sounds like a permanent where setback is temporary. It's a setback. We can now move forward. And I often talk about in the work I do around resilience about when we have a setback, we don't just bounce back. We bounce forward having learned from it. So we need to change the language. There is no shame about setbacks, no shame about mistakes. It's okay to be vulnerable and let people talk about it. That means we encourage that sort of language because we can then all share and learn from something and find the germ of a great idea that could be there. One thing I've often done is create a fail wall. You know, a virtual on a collaboration platform or physical where people can put up, you know, post it notes or sticky notes or something on a virtual and wall that says I had a setback. This is what I learned so that it removes that stigma of setbacks being a bad thing. You celebrate. Yeah, I had a setback and it emphasizes that everybody can have setbacks and we're honoring these people that thought outside the box also had innovative ideas. As well as that you can create a kudos wall where when someone's had a real win. You, you know, you celebrate that. Again, sticky notes, virtual or physical, it says well done to so and so for whatever it was having an innovative idea and sharing that with the team. Kudos wall and fail wall and celebrate the heroes and the award reward and recognize the heroes those people who have had innovative ideas and who took ambition, ambitious risks, even if they, you know, went down in flames they had that setback. But when you reward that it encourages or it changes the idea that the shame or humiliation associated with something not going as as we thought it would. And so rather than letting the setbacks becoming part of people's identity, you know, they're branded as the risk takers, the heroes. And the final one around celebration is, you know, actively kill ideas. And, and I've seen this in a couple of organizations where when an idea is like not it's just not going to fly everyone agrees it's a consensus. This is not going to fly where flogging the dead horse whatever phrase you want to use. And we have they hold funerals and to bury the idea that did not work and say okay as a team, we're putting this one away. And so you do it that everyone is visual to everyone, and it's okay to have ideas that didn't get off the ground for whatever reason. And so yes celebrate that too. And then that's everybody focus on focus on priorities. The other thing we need to make sure we do is use positive reinforcement. This is how we motivate our teams and we motivate each other and get more and more innovation and positive reinforcement is about recognizing the behaviors you want to see more of. If someone does take a risk or experiments, or comes up with an innovative idea, we possibly reward and we recognize that, which is positive reinforcement. So you focus less on what people are doing wrong, and more on what they're doing right. Reward and praise people every time they experiment, challenge status quo. And if you do that reward and recognize and positively reinforce your conditioning people to do more of the same, more of the behaviors that you want to see. And there's a few things about positive reinforcement. That are very important. So it can be a simple path on the back, you know, positive reinforcement sounds like a grand grandiose statement or title, but it really could just be well done. And it could be a virtual pack of that on the back, you know, it could be a thank you notes. And I'll tell you now that handwritten notes are so powerful, because it shows people have really taken some consideration and time. So even if you hand write a note and scan it and send it as opposed to sending an email which can feel very sterile. And a thank you note is, it's very, very powerful. The other thing about positive reinforcement and there's a few things here that I'd like to mention. One is be specific. On the previous slide, we saw it's a good job. That is not how we positively reinforce. We need to be absolutely specific about what it is we're reinforcing. What was the behavior that we want to see more of. So, rather than say good job, or, you know, you're a hard worker. It's really saying, thank you for doing a great job on that assignment and getting it in on time to me yesterday. I'm very specific about the behavior you want to see more of. The other thing you need to do as well is do it in a timely manner, as close to the time that behavior was exhibited. Because if you say to me six months down the line. Oh, thanks for getting that assignment back in time. I'm going to say what assignment was that. I really don't know what behavior I was exhibiting that you'd like to see more of. So it has to be timely. So that means that, you know, we need to be in the fray and be able to say, that's the behavior I'm going to reward and I'm going to do it now. So it's very clear what you're rewarding. And it's timely. So we can have recognition programs that organizationally wide reinforce the behaviors encourage more innovation, more challenging the status quo, and encourage you know peer to peer recognition it doesn't have to be a manager to a team member. We can recognize each other as well. And again, following the same, you know, timely manner, and being specific. So get everybody trying this. I've mentioned the kudos wall where people can can reach out and and recognize people for what they've done. So make sure it is clear what you're thanking people for and also be authentic. Be sincere. Don't just go Oh, we've got to thank someone for doing something. And I'm going to go through the motions people will know if you're not sincere, and you're not authentic. So really mean it if you're going to do it. If you're not, don't do the thing we need to foster is a growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset. So over 30 years ago, Professor Lady called Carol Dweck. And if you haven't read her stuff or watched her TED talks, please, please do. Carol Dweck, and she and her colleagues became interested in student attitudes towards what they called failure setback. And they noticed that some students bounced forward from setbacks, while other students were devastated by even the smallest thing. And she studied behavior of thousands of children and coined as a result of that study, the terms fixed mindset and growth mindset. And it's about underlying beliefs people have about their learning and intelligence. So the students that you know believed that they could get smarter. They understood that their efforts made them stronger, putting extra time and effort, and they knew that that would lead to higher achievement. They had the growth mindset. The growth mindset gives us a hunger for learning and development. We're curious, and we're ready to innovate a fixed mindset is what we're saying now. This is who I am. I can't learn anymore. I can't develop anymore. I can't grow anymore. It's fixed. There is no innovation. So having a growth mindset can be learned. And if you can imagine an entire organization that embraces a growth mindset is a constantly learning organization. People will feel more empowered and committed. They'll have a shared sense of purpose, and there'll be organizational wide support for innovation. So this is an infographic or illustration, if you like, that is from Carol Dweck, that you can get Google and you'll find this image. And I think it's quite a powerful one. We have fixed mindset on the left hand side, which says intelligence is static, where on the right hand side the growth mindset is intelligence can be developed. So the fixed mindset will avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort is fruitless. What's the point? Ignore feedback and not see that as a growth opportunity and feel threatened by the success of other people. Where if we have a growth mindset, we embrace challenges, bring it on, bring it on. We persist through setbacks, we keep bouncing forward. And we see effort as necessary to master something. We know if we want to learn to play the piano, it's going to take effort and practice and we recognize that and we're up for it. And we learn from feedback and what people tell us we're open to listen to what people are saying to us. And we find lessons and inspiration in the success of others. We look at other people who are successful, we look up to them and say, what can I learn from that person? So it is a really powerful approach to innovation. So listen to your fixed mindset. The brain as you probably know is like a muscle. And if you exercise, it gets denser. Or you use it. So here, if you have a fixed mindset, once you know when you can hear it, then you can do something about it. You can anticipate it. So just listen for it. It's the, I can't do that. It won't work. Tried that before. And then recognize you have a choice mindset to just beliefs, and you can change your mind, you can change your beliefs. So you do have a choice. So just look back to it, you know, with a growth mindset. Challenge it. Why am I saying that to myself? And, you know, take the growth mindset action that's taking little steps. We don't go out. We don't have an objective to run a marathon and go out tomorrow and do it for the first time. We do it in small steps when we practice and then we practice a bit more and we go a bit further. Finally, embrace the power of not yet. This is so powerful. And this was based on, again, Carol Dweck found us a high school in Chicago with an unorthodox grading system. Students had to pass a certain number of classes to graduate. If they pass, they get a different kind of grade and the grade is, is not yet. So they can pass as a grade or they get the grade of not yet. And, you know, if you get a fail grade, you think I'm going nowhere, I can't do it. But if you get the grade of not yet, you understand you're on a learning curve. So I haven't got there yet. And not yet is so powerful. I absolutely love that. And not yet gives you that, what do you call it, pathway to the future. You know, it's a journey. It's a learning journey you're on. And you, you recognize that. So our culture for innovation. So, so, so important. If organizations will remain relevant and thrive in a world that's constantly changing if we don't keep up, or and even get ahead of the changes that are happening through innovation and evolution, we will just be dead in the water. So innovation has to be everyone's business. We need to create that culture where people know they can challenge the status quo, they can have a good idea, and it will be heard and valued and discussed and explored. We have to have management that moves from command and control where no one has any freedom and no autonomy to leaders that lead through delegation and trust, set expectations and then get out of the way. We need an environment and psychological safety where no one has any fear of challenging, speaking up, questioning, presenting new ideas. And without that, you will just have silence. People will be afraid to contribute. They need to feel safe. They need to feel that there is no such thing as a stupid idea. When we have celebrate, when we have setbacks, we celebrate them when we have successes, we celebrate, and there's lots of ways that we can do that and it doesn't have to cost anything, but the power of celebrating setbacks as well as failures is immense. Positive reinforcement. When we see the behaviors we want to see more of, whether this is a leader with the team or peer to peer, reinforce that. You just innovated and you came up with a new idea that led to blah, be specific and be timely, but reinforce the behaviors you want to see more on. Focus on the good things, not the bad. And then finally, we talked about growth mindset, moving from the fixed mindset where I can't learn developer is what it is to the growth mindset that says I can, I can and I'll practice and I'll move forward in small steps and we'll get there. I appreciate your time at Agile India 2020 to listen to how to create a culture of innovation. There's some contact details there if you'd like to reach out to me post the conference at any time. And Ferris.com is the website and there's lots of material and blogs and posts and videos about leadership resilience change. And that's one of my publications that came out last year 2019 game on changes constant how we need to keep winning when leading changes everyone's business just like innovation is. So thank you so much for listening.