My Takeaways:
‘A clearly articulated company mission ensures consistency across the business in driving impactful change, and motivates the talent. … Everything else follows from the mission.’
‘Hire great people, then get out of their way. Even the military has questioned the value of hierarchical decision-making in an era when the enemy may be decentralized. For many industries, empowering staff and setting clear expectations of their responsibilities can deliver strong results.’
‘As well as giving staff freedom to act autonomously, minimize any internal barriers- such as formal approval processes or non-vital meetings- that might slow them down. Bureacracy is the enemy of speed and creativity.’
‘Bring staff at all levels into the company’s conversation. This requires a high level of transparency.’
‘Eliminate the fear of failure. If staff feel they can’t take risks, they won’t do exceptional work. But it’s also important to stop and absorb the lessons from failures. Even if that means toasting those lessons with champagne.’
‘A healthy, creative working culture relies on trust. If executives think that people who don’t meet expectations should be let go, it means the team’s not trusted by the company and the team can’t trust the company,’ says Timur Hassila. ‘Without the trust, you can’t take risks.”
‘Design a foresight function for the company. It helps the leadership team and staff understand where they think their market is going, and how they see their product and processes fitting into this evolution.’
‘Hire the best people and give them autonomy. If a team is emotionally behind a problem, they are more likely to deliver results.’
‘Design experiences, services and systems that will enhance customers’ trust in you.’
‘Study how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence or blockchain, could enable new revenue models.’
‘Prototype new products and services, using agile and experimental working methods. Study agile developmental methods and measure customers’ responses to early iterations before investing more.’
‘It’s more important to refine the questions, rather than concentrates on the likely answers. A relentless focus on questions can allow unexpected answers to emerge.’
‘Psychological safety is vital. Make it safe for staff members to propose taking bold risks that may fail. This might mean giving bonuses if they fail in intellectually honest ways.’
‘Don’t be afraid to steal. Sometimes the core business can be improved simply by copying an idea being effectively used in an unrelated business.’
‘Start with the big vision, and then tell compelling stories around achieving it.’
‘Granular targets and key performance indicators allow progress to be monitored, challenges to be addressed early, and stakeholders to feel a need to compete with each other. Create a culture of measurement and target-setting.’
‘Don’t neglect the value of soft skills in nurturing change. Build informal networks, identify and promote champions of change, and focus on team-building to identify digital champions.’
‘Fight any signs of a ‘not invented here’ culture. To succeed in digitalizing a business, you will need to work with outside partners. Your future success lies in being part of a wider ecosystem.’
‘Understand what your customers want: ask them, test them, use ethnography, but always begin with their needs.’
‘An imperative for change must be driven authentically from the top. Paradoxically, the leadership explore their own ideas. The era of hierarchically driven decision-making is over.’
‘If you were to disrupt your business in the face of outside challenges, what kind of business could it become?
‘Move quickly and radically when you believe your current revenue models are doomed. A small management team enables faster decision-making. And pivot if you need to.’
Source
David Rowan (2019). Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radicals Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds
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