3 minutes
‘Igniting’ Innovation
Ideas to improve products and processes can and should come from all levels of an organization, but support from the executive team and board is essential for fostering a culture where the fruits of innovation can blossom, suggests the authors of a “field manual” on innovation.
There has to be buy-in from management—a commitment to fund ideas that show promise and to send the message that “it’s OK if some ideas don’t pan out as long as we learn from them,” says David J. Neff, who coauthored the book IGNITE: Setting Your Organization’s Culture on Fire with Innovation with Randal Moss.
A good starting point for creating an innovation culture is “hiring people and bosses who are naturally entrepreneurial, willing to dive in and test and solve problems,” Neff says. “They understand that solutions might not work on the first attempt. We failed, and that’s OK. We can apply what we learned.”
Entrepreneurial thinkers need a process in which to develop ideas, and that’s the role of a formal innovation program—to gather and assess ideas, implement those with the most promise, and celebrate successes in ways that encourage others to get involved by sharing new suggestions.
Innovation is not the end result—“another cup holder for a minivan,” as Neff puts it—but a repeatable process that leads to new directions that may be either incremental or disruptive in their impact on the organization, its customers, and the marketplace.
Successful innovation programs rely on having the right people, processes, technology, and culture in place. The second element is often what holds nonprofit organizations back, he suggests. Neff and Moss both previously worked with the American Cancer Society, and their first book, The Future of Nonprofits: Innovate and Thrive in the Digital Age, offered solutions to the challenges facing not-for-profit organizations like credit unions.
“Because of concerns over how they spend their money, nonprofits tend to be more risk-averse,” Neff says. “They have more concerns around the return on their investment in innovation. Big companies can look at it as a learning opportunity, but nonprofits worry about the costs of failure."
Sales Incentives Work But ...
Here are my thoughts on sales incentives: Incentives work. It’s just a shame that they do.
In my experience, and using the results of every employee survey we’ve conducted at MNA Consulting Inc., recognition is more powerful than financial incentives.
Now, that does not mean incentives don’t work—they do. If you pay people enough money, and put enough pressure on them, they will do lots of things.
Unfortunately, if you incent them to do something that is not right for the member, and you pay the employee enough money and put on them enough pressure, you’ll get some bad things happening. That is the story of Wells Fargo. Incentives did not cause this immoral behavior. An organizational environment caused these behaviors. Incentives have been offered for years and years without a “Wells Fargo-like” incident.
My clients that lead and coach well, and recognize employee achievement and improvement, outperform my clients that use sales incentives. Unfortunately, too many leadership teams find it easier to budget incentives than use effective leadership and coaching behaviors.
An organizational culture that mandates that the standard behavior is to attempt, with every member interaction, to find a way to save the member money and time will create employees who are engaged in the behavior. Engaged employees will outperform employees who are paid incentives.
Michael Neill, CSE, is the founder of MNA Consulting Inc., Franklin, Tenn., which leads the CUES’ ServiStar programs. Neill is also the lead faculty for the CUES School of Member Experience™.
