How do you blend innovation and change into your strategic decisions?

It's imperative to ensure that any innovation and change initiatives are aligned with the organization's overarching vision and core values. This alignment provides clarity and purpose, guiding innovation efforts towards goals that resonate with the organization's mission.

A lot of people think innovation is just about creating or buying something new. Innovation doesn't work if it's not aligned with mission, vision and values. When I make big decisions, I make sure they fit with the organization's and team's main goals and what we stand for. And it's not just me deciding – I ask for ideas from everyone. Their thoughts help us know we're going the right way. Doing things this way means everyone feels they're part of the changes and new things we try. You want everyone all moving forward together, sticking to what makes you unique. By keeping vision and values at the heart of change you can build a future that stays true to your organization.

Beyond stakeholders, ensure alignment across all organizational functions—from operations to customer service. This holistic approach fosters a unified understanding and implementation of innovation and change initiatives.

Blending innovation and change into strategic decisions requires a dynamic approach. First, embrace a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging creative thinking and risk-taking. Use data analytics to identify trends and opportunities. Engage diverse teams to bring fresh perspectives and foster collaboration. Implement agile methodologies to adapt quickly to changes. Regularly review and adjust strategies based on feedback and market shifts. Lastly, invest in upskilling and technology to stay ahead of the curve. Remember, as Steve Jobs said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Keep evolving to lead effectively.

Consider doing the following to blend innovation and change into strategic decisions: Foster a curious, experimental culture celebrating ideation and learning. Embed innovation goals, resources, and metrics into strategic planning processes. Use the right methodologies for prototyping, testing, and experimentation. Leverage strategic partnerships and open innovation for diverse knowledge access. Invest in talent development, diversity, and empowering risk-taking mindsets. As a leader, champion innovation, communicate the vision, and recognize efforts. Embed innovation into decision-making by nurturing curiosity, agility, collaboration, and continuous learning to drive sustainable growth.

Before embarking on any innovation or change endeavor, a thorough assessment of the organization's current situation and internal capabilities is essential. This involves scrutinizing strengths and weaknesses, identifying external opportunities and threats, and understanding the organizational culture.

You're vision will only become a reality if you can execute. Assessing your situation and the what your team is capable of is critical to long-term success. Before we start any engagement with a client, we run an assessment to see what gaps are going to get in the way of them achieving their goals. Those gaps can be resources, strategy, and even people. Not knowing why you're not meeting your milestones is the worst mistake you can make as a leader.

Develop a robust risk mitigation strategy alongside your assessment. Anticipate potential challenges and disruptions that could arise during the implementation of innovation and change initiatives.

Conduct a thorough assessment of your current situation, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Evaluate your existing capabilities, resources, and technology to identify areas ripe for innovation. Understanding your current state helps pinpoint where changes can have the most significant impact. This assessment provides a realistic foundation for strategic planning, ensuring that innovation efforts are grounded in achievable goals. It also highlights gaps that need to be addressed, enabling targeted investments in skills, processes, or technologies. A clear understanding of your starting point ensures that innovation drives tangible improvements and sustainable growth.

Embracing a culture of experimentation and learning from failures is crucial for fostering innovation. Organizations should encourage risk-taking and be willing to explore new approaches, knowing that not all attempts will succeed. Failure should be viewed as a stepping stone to eventual success.

Building a culture that gives people "room to fail" is crucial to being a leader in innovation. But it is essential to also ensure it is a controlled fail. What I mean by this is give leaders the tools and skills to test/pilot ideas and collaborate with key stakeholders. Understanding the people impact (change management) will help drive the right output. Testing these theories in pilot environments keeps the impact smaller while testing these ideas/innovations. During all this, building and testing the project with understanding of scalability and measuring KPIs will support a quick and successful execution. If the KPIs and impact is not worthy of a change, it is not seen as a fail anymore, it is learning.

Lead by example in embracing experimentation and learning from failures. Demonstrate resilience in the face of setbacks, openly discuss your own experiences with experimentation, and emphasize the importance of agility and adaptation.

Com o dinamismo dos dias atuais é fundamental incentivar as pessoas da equipe a trazer novas formas para desenvolver suas atividades, buscando cada vez mais melhorar a experiência dos clientes internos e externos. Para grandes inovações/mudanças, minha recomendação é sempre que possível testar e treinar todos os envolvidos e, uma excelente maneira de fazer isso é através de pilotos, que possam ter recursos dedicados e um ambiente controlado para capturar todas as oportunidades de melhorias em relação à proposta inicial. Dessa forma, o roll out das mudanças é realizado com mais confiabilidade do time e de todos os envolvidos.

Experimentation is a great way to foster innovation but it requires a work environment that both encourages and funds experimenting. I've found success in designing a feedback loop that allows us to share the wins and losses of each activity with the team. This normalizes sharing feedback so that it doesn't feel as intense when we only do it after things go wrong. It also creates a way for the entire time to share learnings and build upon each other's experiments.

The best leaders raise up other leaders. Thinking your ideas are the only way you'll accomplish your vision is an easy way to fail. Well-led leaders are eager to contribute towards a shared goal. Don't be afraid to seek out the advice and plans of your leaders above and below you.

Leveraging diverse perspectives and fostering collaboration can significantly enhance innovation efforts. By assembling teams with varied backgrounds, skills, and viewpoints, organizations can stimulate creativity and generate novel ideas. Moreover, promoting collaboration across different departments and units can broaden the scope and impact of innovation and change initiatives.

Diverse teams bring varied perspectives, experiences, and ideas, which are crucial for innovative thinking. Foster an inclusive environment where all voices are heard and valued. Encourage cross-functional collaboration, breaking down silos to combine expertise from different areas. This diversity of thought leads to more creative solutions and innovative approaches to problem-solving. Collaboration also builds stronger teams and enhances employee engagement, driving collective ownership of innovation initiatives. By leveraging diversity and collaboration, you can unlock new opportunities and drive strategic decisions that are both innovative and inclusive, ensuring a competitive edge in the market.

Diversity of thought, experience and world view is critical when collaborating in complex environments. Building in activities which help the team strengthen their ability to ask good questions, be curious and create a non-judgemental, continuous learning culture is important. Asking questions like "what have we taken for granted this week?" "what are the thoughts and opinions you haven't shared on this project yet" can be powerful ways to open discussion in the team.

Let the future leaders help design the future of your organization. Imagine the buy-in on innovation and change if it's partially molded by the future leaders No future leaders saying "they want us to do .... " instead "We want to do ..." In more direct terms - be intentional about cross-generational collaboration. Listen to those who are more inclined and gifted in giving input on what's next AND who have experienced significant disruption and change in their lives. This looks like - setting aside specific time, creating a safe and collaborative space and shutting up and listening. Model it with your less open senior leaders to encourage it as a regular practice.

Resistance to change is common in any organizational setting. Proactively identifying and addressing sources of resistance, while clearly communicating the benefits of innovation and change, is crucial. Providing adequate support and resources can facilitate successful adoption of proposed changes.

Some quick tips on how to manage resistance and support adoption of an innovation culture: Communicate clearly: Explain the reasons for change and the benefits of innovation. Involve employees: Seek input and ideas from staff at all levels to foster buy-in. Provide training: Equip employees with the skills needed to embrace new approaches. Lead by example: Demonstrate innovation-focused behaviour. Reward innovation: Recognise and reward creativity and risk-taking. Start small: Begin with pilot projects to showcase success and build momentum. Create safe spaces: Establish environments where failure is seen as a learning opportunity. Celebrate successes: Highlight and share positive outcomes to reinforce the value of innovation.

Resistance to change is natural, but managing it effectively is crucial for successful innovation. Communicate the benefits and necessity of change clearly and consistently to all stakeholders. Involve employees in the innovation process early, seeking their input and addressing concerns to build buy-in. Provide training and support to ease the transition and ensure everyone is equipped to adapt. Recognize and reward those who embrace and champion innovation. By proactively managing resistance and supporting adoption, you create a positive atmosphere that fosters acceptance and enthusiasm for new initiatives, ensuring that innovation becomes an integral part of your strategic decisions.

Combinar inovação e mudança nas decisões estratégicas, é fundamental para o negócio. É importante manter uma mentalidade aberta à experimentação e ao aprendizado contínuo. Liderar equipes com foco na autonomia e no desenvolvimento de soluções criativas garante que a inovação esteja no centro das decisões. Ao mesmo tempo, monitorar tendências e ajustar a estratégia de forma ágil permite que a organização acompanhe mudanças sem perder o foco nos objetivos de longo prazo.

Innovation is by nature a change mindset. How can you make things better? Create a culture of continuous improvement. And show employees how to live that culture.

Here are some more things to consider when looking to build innovation capability and culture. The main thing to understand is that an innovation-focused culture follows the right innovation process i.e. building a culture of innovation requires processes that: Reinforce values like curiosity and risk-taking Reward innovative behaviors Ensure consistency across the organization Allocate resources effectively Create psychological safety Enable measurement of innovation efforts Promote cross-functional collaboration Treat failures as learning opportunities Manage ideas from conception to implementation Demonstrate leadership commitment These processes shape behaviour, turning innovation into a repeatable organisation-wide capability.

As leaders, it's easy to get caught up in pursuing our goals, sometimes forgetting that we're dealing with people – species who are driven by emotions. Through my experiences, I've realized the importance of creating transparent, diverse, and psychologically safe spaces that treat people with humility and respect. Establishing a culture that values these aspects lays the foundation for blending change and innovation into strategic decisions. This ensures decisions are informed by emerging trends, market shifts, and technological advancements.