Transformation is now the norm for any growing business, but delivering transformational success isn’t easy.
A major report by EY, released last year, found that giving specific focus to a series of complex human factors can boost your chances of securing that success by 70 percent. At Champions UK plc, we specialise in developing strategies which help our clients on that path. There are seven key drivers which give you the best chance of making it work:
1. Get rid of the fear of failure
Whenever you try something new, there’s a chance it won’t work. Mitigate that fear. How? First, you have to shift the culture. View failure as an opportunity to build resilience and improve your odds on the next attempt. If you respond to failures by analysing them and learning from them, rather than punishing them, the fear surrounding them will naturally dissipate.
Secondly, give yourself the best chance at success by taking smart risks. When an employee comes up with a new idea, have a team analyse it together to find the best way to implement it, and give them the resources they need to see it through. Team members will feel more empowered to innovate when they know they can count on the company’s support.
2. Incentivise fresh approaches
Celebrate employees when they take a risk, even if it doesn’t succeed in the way they’d intended.
A lot of business leaders become wary when they hear the word “incentive”, especially if they’re already under a budget crunch. Keep in mind that the best incentives usually don’t cost you anything. Public acknowledgement can also be a powerful reward in and of itself for achievement-oriented employees.
3. Encourage cross-team collaboration
Dividing your staff into teams based on their areas of expertise makes sense from an organisational and productivity perspective. Where problems arise is when those teams become isolated from each other. A collaborative culture breaks down these barriers between teams and departments so they can share insights and work together toward new ideas.
4. Give employees resources
You can’t expect your team members to innovate if you don’t give them the tools they need to make this happen, and that includes the time to come up with new ideas. Overworked employees will be too busy meeting quotas and keeping tight deadlines to innovate.
5. Allow everyone a voice
Anyone can innovate, regardless of their pay grade or level on the corporate ladder. Truly transformative businesses don’t discriminate between ideas based on who they came from. Instead, they create a culture of innovation that empowers everyone to think creatively. Leaders can encourage team members to be more vocal by soliciting ideas and feedback regularly. The above tip to incentivize innovation can be a big help here, as well. More people will speak up if they know they’ll be rewarded—or, at the very least, not punished — for doing so.
6. The transformation begins with the figurehead
The predominant leader, the figure of appeasement and solitude, is required to embody the practices in which he preaches. This is highly critical in order to minimise the risk of hypocrisy and simultaneously to maximise the rate at which employees invest themselves within the process.
7. Select the appropriate personnel
Understand what skills are required to provoke maximum efficiency. Select a diverse array of individuals based upon how the amalgamation of attributes benefits everyone. Furthermore, those that are failing to adopt an interest within the change and a desire to embrace change, should be let go by the business for the benefit of the vision and required progression.
Remember that as a leader, you will need to develop a culture that fosters connectivity and creativity. Provide a safe space where new ways of working — both digital and agile — can emerge to nurture innovation, engagement and fulfilling work. Leaders need to construct a platform in which workers can inherently feel an integral component of the process, not just a contributor but a vital part of the transformative process. By integrating workers in aspects of critical decision-making it is likely that a broad common perspective will emerge between management and workers, making the transformative process a more successful one where each individual is aware of their respective roles and responsibilities.
For support in helping creating strategies to deliver transformational success, get in touch today.