Released by: Manager@Work, The Edge
Date: 28 July 2008
Organisations including corporations, not-for-profit and government entities in the 21st century face unprecedented pressures and challenges for continuity and growth. Factors such as globalisation, trade liberalisation, technological advances, consumption trends, political volatility and stakeholder expectations all exacerbate the competitive landscape. Amid the rapid pace of change,
organisations as living entities have to learn and adapt just as fast, if not faster, or else fall behind, struggle and eventually die. Organisational strengths that were once relevant in the past might not longer hold true today. Organisations need to be constantly learning, innovative and looking out for value creation for both their internal and external customers including other stakeholders
in order to survive and thrive.
Therefore, organisations through their management leaders need to build and develop their organisational capability and human competency through organisational learning and constant evaluation of work practices to improve performance and foster workplace innovation.
Why Build a Learning Organisation?
Educating and training of employees in self mastery and technical skills needed for the job has been a key component of organisational to function effectively and efficiently. Individual learning and skills enhancement continues till today, both to meet the job requirement and to help employees themselves develop their career pathways. Hence, organisations need to discover how to tap people's
talent, commitment and capacity to learn at all levels across the organisation.
As Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation promotes systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning asserts, "Real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human." We become able to re-create ourselves. This applies to both organisations and individuals. Thus for learning organisation, its
capacity for `survival learning' or `adaptive learning' is important but not enough. It must be complemented by `generative learning' i.e. learning that enhances our capacity to create and re-create - a process of constructing links between new and old knowledge, or a personal understanding how new ideas fit into an individual's web of known concepts to discover new ways of doing things.
Workplace Innovation
Organisations do not innovate; it is the people inside them who innovate. The culture and workplace practices in organisations are the keys to inspiring higher levels of curiosity and imagination, which form the major foundation to workplace innovation and experimentation. From experience, "value innovation" is the compelling reason businesses find new and dominate their markets, and outperform
their competitors. Innovative organisations as a collective group of people possess an innate ability to understand their distinctive competency, competitive position and need to respond instinctively while being able to enhance their brand equity by developing their customer satisfaction, reputation, raising performance levels and adapting to change. By encouraging workplace innovation and
empowerment, management leaders in the organisation can engage employees and stakeholders, thereby fostering a better workplace environment and facilitating better performance, not only at individual levels but also for the
organisation and even the industry as a whole.
Some of the workplace innovation implemented by MIM include practices like creating a culture of learning, regular knowledge sharing and learning sessions, celebration of achievement and successes, annual business planning and team building outings, flexible work hours, providing knowledge management system for group communication and real time knowledge sharing, conducting organisational and
individual LNA (Learning Needs Analysis) / TNA (Training Needs Analysis) and engagement of retirees. All these workplace initiatives are fostered by the creation of a learning organisation environment and culture, and the understanding that everyone in the organisation has a personal responsibility for their own and organisational learning contribution to be an effective team member.
There are many other innovative companies that have introduced innovative workplace practices. For example, Boehringer Ingelheim, a global pharmaceutical and animal health group is known for its best practise in strategic workforce planning. It has helped Boehringer Ingelheim build and tap on their strength in attracting, developing and retaining their global talented workforce. Yeo Hiap Seng
Limited, a food manufacturer and distributor on the other hand practices flexible work hours arrangement which resulted in an increased ability to attract, retain and motivate high-performing and experienced employees. The customisation of flexible working hours and days not only meet the need of employees and but has specifically catered for the needs of the business and customers to the benefits
of both the employees, customers and the company.
In Australia and elsewhere with a aging population, many companies are re-engaging the senior citizens workforce who have retired to return to do part-time work and job sharing. These are experienced people who often can provide the stability, reliability and continuity of day-to-day operations. In today's world of talent mobility, the silver-haired workforce can provide the necessary stable
environment, values inculcation and mentoring which is often the moderating influence for a learning organisation.
Here are some management insights to encourage and enhance people creativity and workplace innovation or practices in your organisation:
Management insight #1: Inspire, Not Stifle, Creativity.
Recruiting creative employees and then subjecting them to a rigid policy-driven operation will crush their creativity and drain their innovative energy. Instead, enable an atmosphere conducive to harnessing creative criticism and hatching ideation. Let there be a culture of discovery and innovation which sponsors higher levels of trust and support and enables employees to explore new ways of
thinking. At the same time, be mindful that changing a mature seasoned culture especially among long-serving employees with a set mindset may prove a challenge but constant articulation of the need to learn and change will pay dividend.
Management insight #2: Nurture Ideas, Not Crush Them.
If employees have a great idea which is quickly squashed and mocked by their superiors, then they tend to stop sharing for fear of rejection and humiliation. Crushing ideas does not help an organisation keep up with a rapidly changing world. Larry Yukron, owner of Adventure Experts and former Qwest Communication executive, relates that several firms in Silicon Valley have installed a "five minute
rule". The rule permits anyone to suggest an idea. Then for the first five minutes after the idea is expressed, only positive comments are allowed. By then, the session usually goes into an impromptu brainstorming mode which generates really good ideas, some form of which often gets implemented.
Management insight #3: Use It or Lose It.
Don't stop at the idea generation stage. Use viable ideas; translate them into some form of action at the earliest opportunity. This sends a clear message to all employees that the company genuinely welcomes ideation and input. Allow experimentation with risk assessment. But if ideas are not implemented, appreciation for the effort and clear justification for the rejection should be given to the
idea-generator. This encourages the continued thinking and generation of ideas and innovative practices.
Management insight #4: Empower Employees!
To empower means to authorise, enable and to permit. Leaders must empower without the fear of being overshadowed or undermined by their down-line members. Assure the middle management that subordinate empowerment is for their personal development gain as well as the collective good of the company. Freshen and encourage up employee collaboration, teamwork and relationships through regular learning
and sharing sessions. These are essential mindshare and are the life skills for 21st century personal growth and business growth.
Management insight #5: Communicate the WIFM.
Respectful but candid communication is absolutely essential in building a creative workplace environment in a mature, seasoned culture. Humans naturally want to know "what's in it for me?" (WIFM). Changes often evoke resistance due to fear. Hence, creativity in communication is crucial to implementing a cultural renaissance to get a buy-in. There should not be a "who is right or who is wrong"
culture but "what is right by our organisation" culture.
Management insight #6: It's all About People.
Always remember that creativity involves harnessing people's passion and emotional energy. The intrinsic motivation within people is a powerful driving force if harnessed correctly. So accommodate your people's personalities and even idiosyncrasies. Don't set inflexible rules that trap their true potential. Don't box people into rigid roles; instead match them to the right roles or allow their
current roles to grow naturally even beyond the initial job scope. Talent always has a rightful place in the organisation. The art is to locate them where they should be. Grow them or lose them.
Management insight #7: Don't Overscrutinise; Learn and Adapt Quickly.
Speed and timing are crucial in today's world. Being extremely cautious about learning through trial-and-error can cause one to spend too much time, money and energy on doing research that the actual plan doesn't get executed. Worse still, it gets executed too late! For example, by the time that IBM and Compaq decided to create an online sales strategy, it was too late as Dell had beat them to it.
So remember - there is no successful organisation in the world that has not made any mistakes. Sometimes, mistakes are great investment for a learning culture and organisation.
Management insight #8: Believe and Develop Accountability.
Many times employees are looking for immediate boss or supervisor to be interested in them and to be accountable to. When they find this individual in the organisation, they will produce remarkable results. It is essential during a cultural transformation that each person in the firm has someone that believes in them and is counting on them to succeed. It enables the organisation and its people to
be personally responsible to achieve the expected results, and not pass the responsibility to someone else or to another department that will passionately drive any management decision, project or training to arrive at its destination of great results. This will inculcate stronger organisation culture and people to be accountable and responsible in their job. Be mindful to create a culture where
we set people up for success and not failures.
In order to guarantee sustainable business success, organisations need to give serious consideration to the nurturing of human creativity and to greater investment in human resource development, and the involvement of employees in strategic business development and implementation. This can foster meaningful employer-employee relationships for learning and collaboration. Such learning and
collaboration will in turn stimulate even more innovation which perpetuates the virtuous circle of innovation for superior organisational performance in areas such as human capital development and talent and performance management.
Dr Wilson Tay, MMIM, MIM-CPT is CEO of the Malaysian Institute of Management, the national management organisation of Malaysia. MIM invites companies and professional managers to be members. Contact MIM Membership Support and Outreach at (603) 2164 5255; fax (603) 2165 4681; e-mail: enquiries@mim.org.my or visit www.mim.org.my.
