Innovation, velcro and the university of life

Ideas + change = innovation

Innovation has been on my mind lately. Why? Because frankly, no business survives without it.  And my partners and I want a great deal more than mere survival for academy!

As a business owner, I obviously have a very personal stake in managing innovation. But whether you own the business you work in or not, everyone should  passionately care about it.

The benefits for the business are inarguable, but for the individual too… wouldn’t you rather work somewhere where your ideas are valued and you are encouraged (and given time) to think about what you are doing?  I know I would.

An innovative idea about, well… ideas

One of my favourite examples of innovation is a recent one. It speaks to the educator in me and it has at its core the DNA of innovation…  a simple idea arrived at by thinking about something in a different way.

Chris Anderson, entrepreneur and owner of TED, connected the dots; curious people looking for ideas and inspiration, people with inspiring ideas they were willing to share, and a technologically and socially linked planet. Thus TED (in its current form) was born.  Anderson has now loosened the brand’s apron strings, giving rise to a multitude of TEDx events and ideas translated into many languages.

If you haven’t yet seen a TED – or TEDx – video, I’ll post my two favourites at the end.  If you’re not a ‘TED person’ already, I bet you will be after having a look.

Indeed, this whole blog post was originally going to be about how TED is a virtual university of life and business; one that encourages life long learning and also delivers it to people in a form that they control… but then I saw this excellent Fast Company article. Please have a read.

TED is a big idea; a simple one that has changed how many people spread ideas. It’s an innovation itself, but it’s also a cultural phenomenon that can help others to innovate, stimulating new ways of looking at things.

But you don’t have to have one big idea to create a culture of innovation. Sometimes innovation is merely doing better with what you have, doing something in a slightly different way because you took the time to think through a process that made more sense.

Supporting an innovation culture

Just a few of the actions academy takes to support an innovation culture in this workplace are (not surprisingly!) internal and external education and development programs for all staff; cross-functional (and self-directed) teams to manage new initiatives and training projects; and regular  ‘Velcro’ Days for trainers (so things stick!). Even more importantly, I hope we communicate the value we place of innovation across the company.

What happens in your workplace to support innovation? Could where you work be more innovative? What would you suggest to senior management?

P.S. Here are the two TED and TEDx videos I was talking about… one is Nigel Marsh on work / life balance and was presented in May 2010 in Sydney. And the other is Sir Ken Robinson on education and creativity – inspiring stuff.

Green is the new black

Or why your environmental credentials will play a huge role in your status as an ‘employer of choice’…

Green can mean business success

Off the back of our recent launch of academy green, our new sustainable learning brand, I spoke with HR Daily journalist Emma Wilkins.  The green message is certainly not a new one, but I believe it is important to continually talk about it and improve our efforts (note to Australian political parties!).

Rather than rewrite our conversation, please click through to Emma’s article here.

I’d love to hear how your company is addressing environmental issues, what’s working and where more could be done.

Old-fashioned fun leads to team success

Old-fashioned fun = contact centre success

Collecting debt isn’t an easy job and is probably one of the toughest in the contact centre industry. You are exposed to people suffering extreme hardship through to those who just don’t like to pay their bills.

Through it all you need to keep your cool and focus on the objective – to provide a “win-win” for everyone! When you look at it that way, it’s also one of the most complex customer interactions in the industry.

Last Friday night, was the Australian Teleservices Association academy Awards for Contact Centre Excellence (yes, we proudly sponsored) and the collections team that won the Under 50 FTE category was inspiring.

Who are these people? They are the Collections team from FlexiGroup.  I was blown away by the sense of togetherness, teamwork and good old-fashioned fun that emanated from them as they celebrated their nomination – and then their win.

The business reasons they won (the numbers if you like) are truly impressive. Over the past year, the team has saved the company $4 million and increased productivity 25%.

It’s clear to see these results have been achieved through teamwork, support, training and people who care a great deal about each other. Indeed, the CEO was there on Friday night, celebrating the team’s success right alongside them. (The FlexiGroup New Business group also won their category of 50-120 FTE, no accident I am sure.)

While I don’t know the team members personally, I bet many of them are friends for life.  When you spend so much time at work, sometimes engaged in stressful activities, isn’t it fantastic to do it with people you like?

That’s what we aim for at academy.

FlexiGroup’s wins are a compelling argument for ‘people-first’ management and I, for one, would like to learn more about how they make this work so well.

Congratulations to FlexiGroup, iiNet (who won the 120+ FTE contact centre category), the nominees; and all the incredible individual nominees and winners. The contact centre industry is about people and service and it’s inspiring to see how you all ‘walk the talk’.

5 ideas for building employee loyalty

Loyalty

Type “loyalty” into your favourite search engine and see what comes up.  It won’t paraphrase a line from Winston Churchill or reference the family pooch, but will instead focus on marketing methods associated with customer engagement. Any references to employee loyalty ultimately end up discussing share schemes and health programs, hardly the stuff of inspiration!

In all the leadership and management study I have undertaken and reviewed over the years, there is a ‘school of thought’ that appears to have been overlooked by even the most erudite of behavioural theorists.

While business embraces employee engagement strategies – connectivity, work/life balance and authentic leadership – these notions are all aimed inextricably at driving increases in productivity and profitability and ignore a critical intangible factor in the relationship.

You can see this in the response to an economic downturn, when the same businesses use the opportunity to “jettison the deadwood”, “lighten the load” and to “right-size” so they may continue unimpeded by less productive staff (and unfortunate euphemisms).

While the research tells us that people are attracted to working for (as well as buying from) strong and iconic brands that resonate with their values, it confirms that “once bitten people are twice shy” and are therefore less likely to share their heart with another employer in the future once that trust has been abused.

Team loyalty: The missing link?

The logical outcome of this cycle is that people become less loyal to their employers over time, and this is the idea that I am surprised has escaped the notice of even the most passionate of corporate motivators and people researchers.

So why has the idea of building loyalty amongst teams slipped from the leadership lexicon?

Building employee loyalty is a slippery concept, especially as managers and business leaders are often at the mercy of capital markets and head office decisions that they have little influence over.

Often it is the local branch manager who is left to deal with the unpopular decision of how to cut costs by removing the coffee bar, cancelling the Christmas party and who to ‘downsize’ when the going gets tough.  The even harder job for that person is how to rebuild trust and support in the team that remains, and how to continue to achieve the productivity outcomes expected when everyone is feeling flat and unmotivated.

And yet loyalty for authority figures, especially under adversity, is one of the qualities that has driven human experience throughout history. Sherpa Tenzing climbed Everest, and may have arrived first, but it was his loyalty to Sir Edmund Hillary that kept his mouth closed on the matter for the rest of his life.  When Nelson sailed into Trafalgar he asked that “England expects that every man will do his duty”, and the English sailors fell over themselves to die under the French canons as a result!  The essential concept of Australian ‘mateship’ is rooted in loyalty to the people who we find most dear and would trust above all others.

So what do we need to do to build loyalty in the workplace?

Is it simply about giving people the right working hours and regular pay-rises?

The following five ideas spring from my experiences in business over the past fifteen years, and while I don’t claim to be a guru on these matters, I certainly believe that we ignore that matter of employee loyalty at our peril.

1) Tell it like it is and be honest

Don’t gild the lily and use ‘management speak’ when bad (or good!) news needs to be shared with your business. Don’t avoid the issue, but speak directly and calmly on the topic and be ready to answer difficult and personal questions.

Even the appearance of dishonesty will give the game away. If it looks like you are dissembling then you probably are and people won’t trust you in any situation.

2) Be yourself

It’s ok to appear uncomfortable or awkward as long as people know you are telling the truth. People are highly attuned to spin these days, which is why the idea of authentic leadership has taken off. In essence, relax and be comfortable in your own skin.

3) Stand for something

Find what you believe in, make it your hallmark and stand by it. History’s most popular leaders had a clear agenda that was well communicated to their constituents. People understood what they stood for and they followed them as a result.

4) Share and invest

The more you hoard the less you will receive. Give freely of your knowledge, your competence and capability. Passionately commit to replacing yourself and be selfless in that mission. People will notice and give their support in kind.

5) Be clear and unwavering in your expectations

If people don’t understand what you need from them, then they will fail. If people aren’t aware of the consequences of their inability to achieve, then they will fail. There is no such thing as a free ride. It is ok to expect that everyone will do their duty and enact punitive measures on those that don’t.

Now I can’t say whether these five points will build employee loyalty in every workplace, but they certainly can’t hurt. I would be fascinated to hear what others have to say or think on this very old (yet new!) topic.