Even though most organizations use a top-down approach, it’s actually an enemy of successful innovation. In this series, Ron Price examines the 12 enemies of successful innovation.
Episode Transcript:
Enemy number seven of successful innovation is a top-down approach. Most organizations run from the top down today, but this is actually a mistake for management. In this kind of system, there’s no way for employee feedback to go back up the ladder after decisions are made. Leadership could be blindly executing the wrong strategy even if they do it well. And employees will simply execute because of the order of authority even when they know it’s wrong. This approach kills innovation. It kills creativity, it undermines the collective ingenuity of your teams, and it’s the reason most employees are disengaged. Instead, create a culture of innovative employees who have the opportunity to offer ideas for how the organization can do better—and then listen. Process. And thank them for the ideas that they give you. When you get away from a top-down approach and you create more of a community of innovation, a culture of ideas flowing in all directions where we diminish the title that a person has and instead we value their creativity and their contributions, we overcome the number seven enemy of successful innovation which is taking a top-down approach.
Discover the other enemies of innovation in this 90 Seconds of Innovation series here or by subscribing on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts so you don’t miss an episode. Tweet your innovation questions to @ebaiya. | Header Photo by Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels.
