How do I train team members to innovate?

In the quest to foster innovation within organizations, a fundamental shift in culture and mindset is imperative. The process of training individuals to innovate transcends the mere acquisition of new skills or methodologies; it is about nurturing an environment that encourages creativity and forward-thinking.

Explore the full episode here.

Training for Innovation: Shaping Minds and Cultures

Understanding the Goal

At the core of innovation training is the establishment of a clear vision. It's essential for individuals and teams to comprehend the direction in which the organization aims to move. This vision serves as a beacon, guiding the collective efforts towards a common goal. It's not just about setting targets but about inspiring every member to see beyond the horizon, to imagine what could be.

Tailoring the Approach

Innovation cannot be templated; it requires a tailored approach that considers the unique needs of each department and individual within the organization. From marketing to sales, from product development to HR, every segment of the organization plays a crucial role in the innovation ecosystem. The question then becomes, "What does each department need to innovate?" This inquiry goes beyond surface-level needs like training in specific software or tools; it delves into the underlying capabilities and resources required to foster a culture of innovation.

Synergy and Collaboration

By addressing the specific needs of each organizational component, we begin to uncover synergies that can propel the entire organization forward. This holistic view enables a more coordinated effort, where the sum of all parts contributes to a greater capacity for innovation.

Focusing on Leadership

A recurrent theme in the journey towards innovation is the pivotal role of leadership. Innovation is not solely about mastering techniques such as design sprints or design thinking methodologies. While these tools are valuable, their effectiveness is contingent upon the support and empowerment provided by leaders. Leaders must be trained not just to manage but to inspire and empower their teams to apply innovative thinking in their daily tasks and projects.

Leadership in the context of innovation is about creating an environment where ideas can flourish, where failure is seen as a step towards success, and where every team member feels valued and empowered to contribute to the organization's innovative endeavors.

Conclusion

Training for innovation is more than just imparting knowledge; it's about transforming the very fabric of an organization's culture. It requires a clear vision, a tailored approach to meet the diverse needs of the organization, and most importantly, strong leadership that empowers individuals to think creatively and work collaboratively towards a common goal. By focusing on these key areas, organizations can unlock their full potential for innovation and set the stage for sustained growth and success.

Transcript:

 How do I train people to innovate? That's that's a larger 1. How do we take I mean, let's let's take a step back first. Training people to innovate is is basically changing a culture inside of an organization. So depending on on who do you want to train, let's say if you, if you want to work with people on a 1 on 1 base or a small department or the larger organization, for me, it's all about having a clear perspective of what you want people to do.

Giving them the vision of where you want to be. And that's, I know it's basic, but it's very, very important for training people to innovate if we talk about that. It's giving them a perspective that I want you to follow this path. I want you to get into that direction. And that's where we want to head with our company, with our topics.

And then you go more into individually look into what do you need to fulfill this? What are you missing to be able to do that? And that can be maybe if you take a step back again, looking into the organization, you have marketing, you have sales or commercial, you have products, you have different organizational pieces, let's say HR communication. We say, what do you as communication? What do you as product department need to innovate?

And then you go deeper cause it's not about, Hey, I need an Excel training or I need this or need that. It's more about doing it individually for the organizational piece. And then you will see a lot of synergies from a need perspective of the total organization. And then you go a level deeper, which is like the individuals inside of that departments where you look into what are the individual needs to enable people to innovate. And most of the time, in my experience, it's not about the skills you think about right now, which is how do I run an innovation project?

How do I do a design sprint? How do I do active listening? How do I do, um, design thinking methodologies? These are specific skills and tools that help you to get there. Most of the time in 90 percent of the organizations I have worked in and with, it's about leadership.

You need to get the leadership organized in a proper way and let and trained so that they're empowering the people inside of the organization so that the people who do the design sprint and learned how to do design thinking, that they have the possibility to apply that inside of their day to day jobs, projects, whatever they're doing. It's more about getting the leaders understand that these are certain tools that help us to be more innovative and then empowering the leaders to lead properly. Most of the time, that's the biggest challenge. That's why I'm highlighting it here as well.