What do you do if your team lacks the key qualities and skills to drive innovation?

Things you can do to ignite that spark within the team, however, we must first understand the organizational setup and culture before some of these changes can be brought about. If the organization fosters and promotes Innovation, you can work with the team to help identify improvements that they may not have been able to see. Leaders should assess individual strengths and identify individuals within the team which who can champion driving new ideas / initiatives. Having one/more people start on the journey usually has a domino affect on the team and everyone starts to identify improvements. One thing to always consider is that not everyone is going to be the same, so expecting the same level of thought process may be unrealistic.

Leaders are role models whether they are conscious of it or not. Assessment is good but it may not always paint the whole picture. Find an assessment that determines not just a skills gap but an overall gap in your team's makeup - behavioural, cognitive, etc.

First, assess yourself. Evaluate what you're currently asking of the team, the profile of the people you chose, and your expectations of innovation. Second, define the term innovation. We all know the word but likely have different definitions of it. For example, are you expecting your team to develop completely new products and services or thinking in ways they have never done before? Or are you asking them to do something else? Third, define what your innovation goal for the team is. Then and only then can you accurately assess your team's skillset, qualities, and capacity to achieve it.

Start by assessing the skill gaps within your team through open dialogue and honest self-assessment. Prioritize these gaps based on their impact on innovation and develop a tailored plan to address them effectively. Encourage continuous learning and growth to foster a culture of innovation within your team.

Assess the Current Situation: Start by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your team regarding innovation. Identify specific areas where improvements are needed and the skills that are lacking. Set Clear Goals: Define clear objectives and goals for innovation within your team. Make sure everyone understands the importance of innovation and its relevance to the organization's success. Provide Training and Development: Offer training programs, workshops, and resources to help team members develop the necessary skills for innovation. This could include creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills.

If you want your team to rise to the challenge of an innovation goal, make the goal matter and shared. MAKE IT MATTER: Expand the definition of the "M" in SMART goals to include "meaningful" (as well as measurable.) Why is the innovation goal important to the company, team, and the individuals on your team? Because purpose is a driver of human motivation. The famous story of John F. Kennedy visiting NASA in 1962 reminds us of this. He asked a janitor what he was doing, and the janitor replied, "I'm putting a man on the moon, Mr. President." MAKE IT SHARED: Encourage individual contribution while measuring collective effort. One way to do this is to add the shared goal to your team's performance scorecard so they rise or fall together.

Set clear, SMART goals for your team's skill development, emphasizing both individual and collective growth to drive innovation. Encourage a growth mindset that values learning from failures and celebrating successes. These goals should provide direction and motivation while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Pair junior team members with experienced mentors who can provide guidance, support, and valuable insights to accelerate their professional growth. Mentorship relationships facilitate knowledge transfer

Innovation is an overused term that can mean very different things. So first, be sure you know what innovation is. Start by defining what success looks like. What is the result in two years? Five? Then work backwards -- what needs to happen to get to these results. Set "BHAGS" -- Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Teams and people tend to get caught up in the day to day. My sales quota is a 10% increase YoY, so I need to figure out how to achieve that. But that doesn't require innovation, it requires finding a few new customers, or upselling existing customers. If the goal was to increase sales by 50%, THAT requires new thinking! Set the bar high, and people might do the unthinkable (even if they don't hit the 50%).

O que é uma boa meta? Essa costuma ser a pergunta do milhão pós a retroalimentação do ano anterior e início do ritual de gestão da evolução de uma empresa. Não existe meta individual ou de área sem o perfeito domínio de quais metas a empresa definiu como objetivos de negócio. É preciso que haja correlação entre elas naquilo que faz sentido dentro de cada função. Dito isso, é necessário que a meta seja relevante, mensurável, alcançável (com avanços sobre anos anteriores) e dentro do prazo o qual será avaliado.

Turn daily work into an innovation lab. Identify key innovation behaviors your team needs to develop, e.g., lateral thinking and experimentation. Encourage your team to share what they are learning and applying - even if they fail! Encourage them to look for ideas and lessons outside your industry, including "picking the brains of people" who have nothing to do with your business. Though counterintuitive, research shows that this yields the most novel ideas. Finally, encouraging them to relax and have fun. It's not accidental that our "best ideas" come when we're in the shower or doing something we enjoy.

Provide targeted training opportunities focused on creative thinking, problem-solving, and other innovative skills to bridge skill gaps. Ensure workshops and courses are engaging and applicable, encouraging practical application in real-world scenarios to reinforce learning and boost confidence in innovation capabilities.

The training I would consider is the realm of unconcious bias. People often have experienced a past event that had them decide they were not innovative or that their contribution would not be valued. Training could include 1. Information on what unconcious cogitive bias isand its impact of limiting innovation. 2. Brainstorming structures designed to keep the participants aware of the biases at play. 3. Opportunities for participants to practice new unbiased behaviours and for management to build a culture that rewards those behaviours.

Look for ways to provide training that is appealing to a range of nerodiversity. People learning in different ways so it's best to ensure that your training is diverse.

Identifying skills gaps within the team. Investing in training & development programs & workshops that focus on creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and design thinking. Creating an organizational culture that values and encourages innovation, new ideas & strategies. Provide opportunities for employees to share ideas, experiment with new approaches, and take calculated risks. To enhance morale and performance within the team, encourage the reward & recognition of employees who exhibit dedicated involvement in innovative thinking, effective problem-solving skills, and ongoing improvement in their work.

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." This well-known quote shows it's futile to pursue innovation without prioritizing a culture that nurtures it. Decide to build an innovative culture. Then, clarify the behaviors you must create, e.g., risk tasking, learning, and experimentation. Model those behaviors, create rituals and rewards, and ensure your work structure supports them. Microsoft holds hackathons. 3M earmarks 15% of employees’ time to pursue new initiatives to come up with products like the amazing Post-It. Pixar has its Brainturst, a group of executives who regularly meet to share feedback on one another's projects. Take your cue from them: to cultivate an innovative culture, you need to create an environment that supports it.

If the key qualities and skills to drive innovation are lacking in your team, then it is your job to provide an ecosystem that will allow this to flourish. Accept and promote the "fail fast, fail forward" ethos. Accept that just as you learned to ride a bike by falling off and getting back on again, this is how innovation is driven. If your team does not feel safe to be vulnerable then that will stifle creativity and innovation.

Empower team members to take ownership of their work and pursue innovative ideas autonomously. Foster intrapreneurship through the provision of resources, support, and acknowledgment for employees' innovative projects and initiatives. Promote transparent communication, and collaboration, share best practices, and inspire the exploration of innovative solutions within the team. Encourage a growth mindset by emphasizing the conviction that skills and capabilities can be cultivated through commitment, persistence, and diligent effort.

Foster an inclusive culture that values diverse perspectives and encourages risk-taking and idea sharing. Celebrate creative efforts, provide constructive feedback, and create an environment where everyone feels their input is valued. This inclusive approach unlocks the creative potential of your team and stimulates innovative thinking.

Innovation requires new thinking, which often takes the form of questions or ideas that seem stupid. Yet most companies have a culture that reinforces the way things are done and discourages new thinking. One simple way this happens is industry lingo. Working with Microsoft, they have acronyms for everything -- we helped them market to VARS, SVARS, and other audiences. But defining these audiences into their various buckets narrowed thinking from the start. We created a video for Microsoft with the various types of partners and suppliers talking about these acronyms in their own words. And it turned out, they didn't define themselves as narrowly as Microsoft did. Helping Microsoft to broaden its thinking on its audience enabled innovation.

Encourage collaborative efforts among your team members to spark innovation. Facilitate cross-functional teamwork and provide opportunities for brainstorming sessions. Collaboration not only leads to comprehensive solutions but also fosters a deeper understanding of each other's strengths.

Collaboration influences Innovation. We need to be open to various views and different perspectives. Allowing for the flow of diverse ideas and thinking can create new ways of tackling a challenge or bosltering a new idea or framework. People working cooperatively together creates more bonding, acceptance and unity that we can build on.

Cultural Intelligence encourages collaboration by breaking down cultural barriers and facilitating effective communication. Teams with high Cultural Intelligence leverage their cultural diversity as a strength, pooling together unique insights and ideas to tackle complex challenges. This collaborative approach fosters synergy and creativity, driving innovation forward. Real-world Example: A global marketing agency leverages Cultural Intelligence to encourage collaboration among its dispersed teams. Through Cultural Intelligence training, team members learn to bridge cultural differences and work together seamlessly. Thus, they deliver innovative marketing campaigns that resonate with diverse audiences worldwide.

Regularly monitor your team's progress in developing innovation skills. Use check-ins and feedback sessions to maintain momentum and adjust strategies as needed. Continuous monitoring and adaptation are crucial for sustained growth and innovation.

Monitorar o progresso é vital para entender se as ações tomadas estão surtindo efeito. Imagine que você implementou um treinamento para melhorar a inovação. Acompanhar o desenvolvimento da equipe através de avaliações regulares e feedback pode mostrar onde ainda há deficiências e onde houve avanços. Isso permite ajustes ágeis nas estratégias de capacitação e reforça as habilidades que mais impactam a inovação. É um jeito de garantir que o time não só alcance as habilidades necessárias, mas continue crescendo e se adaptando às necessidades do mercado.

There are certain things that it is illogical to try and assign a metric to. Innovation, authenticity, creativity and focus are some that would apply in this situation. Don't be the leader who says things like "you need to be more innovative in the next quarter, I want to see your focus improve by 20%, etc". Instead of having unreasonable or unreasonable results, provide the environment in which these things can improve organically. Start by asking your team what helps them in each of the missing Disciplines, then work out what is missing in your culture that can provide those pieces. Ask, listen, act

Consider the why. Are they managed in traditional ways, standard performance management; targets etc? Are they given the opportunities to broaden their horizons and contexts? Do they get the chance to work across teams/departments and really collaborate? If your team is risk averse or reticent to develop and innovate it could be because they are lacking the confidence to step out of their comfort zones, or that they are limited by their experiences and opportunities. Shifting their mindsets will take time but work on changing the above and allow them to slowly lift their heads above the parapet.

In addition to the core strategies of assessing gaps, setting goals, providing training, fostering culture, encouraging collaboration, and monitoring progress, there are several other key considerations for improving time management and productivity. Implementing time tracking tools or methods can help team members understand and optimize their use of time. Promoting flexibility in work arrangements can accommodate different working styles and improve overall satisfaction. Recognizing and rewarding productivity can motivate team members to effectively manage their time. It's also important to regularly review and adjust strategies based on feedback and results to ensure they remain effective and aligned with organizational goals.

Lo primero a tener en cuenta es la consciencia sobre la importancia de la innovación. A partir de hacer un ejercicio toma de consciencia, podemos pasar al siguiente nivel.

I have led different projects that were new and innovative - we were essentially given a blank canvas and allowed to "go for it". What I've learned is that MANY people tend to be afraid to venture outside of what they have grown accustomed to, which greatly hampers innovation. The most significant thing you can do when leading a team towards becoming more innovative is to change the mindset. Encourage them to dream of the most ideal product/process/project (fill in the specific task) and describe it. As a team, determine what would be needed to achieve that "ideal state". Using the ideal state as a motivator, instill in them the possibility to achieve it, then empower them to make movement towards accomplishing the feat.