How To Drive Innovation Within Your Company (From Your Team)

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Morning all,

I’ve got two more days left and then after that, I’m going to go radio silent with the team for 1-week with the exception of one client.

I’ll have to deal with those guys on the next go-around, unfortunately.

Nonetheless –

What I wanted to do this morning is walk you through some of the directions I’m putting into place amongst the team to ensure growth still continues in my absence.

Let’s go back a step however and outline one of my fears about not being as present to work on things:

I don’t want the spirit of innovation to leave the company.

I don’t want folks to simply ‘do their jobs’ and clock out.

I want them all to care as much as I care about the company’s success.

With this in mind – the way I’d like to see this ultimately manifest is underpinned by what would be a strong sign of a solid business –

Not ONLY is the business able to survive without its founder being around – but is it able to actually thrive!

That would be incredible if this were the case –

i.e that Pearl Lemon could continue to grow in my absence as a company and week upon week actually get stronger and stronger.

This to my mind would be an incredible achievement if that was possible.

Now that I’ve laid out the foundation for what I’m trying to achieve – I’ll walk through my practical plan of how I’m trying to instill this within the team…

To be honest – it’s deceptively simple –

I’ve put together a list of the heads of teams at Pearl Lemon in one email – as well as some important players – and I’ve driven this idea home –

Here’s what I wrote in the email I sent across:

“Morning all,

As (in general) I intend to be away more and more – one of the things I want still want to make sure you set aside time for is INNOVATION.

It’s something I enjoy and love that I think has accounted for how we’ve grown – so I require you all to at least 10-30 mins a week ‘brainstorm/google/ideate’ on how we can ’10x our results/processes/team productivity/links/technical SEO results/WHATEVER it might be

I enjoy our innovative approach and want you all to incorporate that into what you do – where it’s…

‘There’s a better alternative to loom’

‘I’m now getting reviews on video from all happy clients’

‘I’ve found a new way to implement schema on our sites’

‘I got page speed down to 1.3 seconds

‘There’s a new tool on GrabLTD that’ll be a gamechanger’

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‘There’s this function on CrazyCall that will save everyone 15 seconds each time they login’

‘I’ll review everyone’s machines to ensure they’ve got speedy machines’

‘I’ll watch X person’s pitches to see what obvious mistakes are being made

What ‘this process looks like for you – I leave it to you…

But I’d love (in my absence) for the innovation to keep coming from within!

Thanks, guys! (Spread this message to all!)”

This was the initial email I sent across to the team just 10 minutes ago – and then I followed up with this message:

“And upon my return – one of the questions I’ll ask you all is…

‘What ‘new thing’ did you discover + implement that will help Pearl Lemon get bigger results that sit outside of your direct + day-to-day activities? :)”

___________

Basically – I hope this demonstrates the approach I’m taking to ensure that the results keep coming even as I’m gone.

The email in terms of what I want/hope for makes things pretty clear.

So in summary then – in terms of ‘how to drive innovation in your company –

Here (for me) are some of the key directives:

1. Give people room to grow/develop and lead
2. Give people permission to focus on innovation
3. Give them a specific direction that requires them to focus on innovation
4. Give some examples of what you mean to get their creative juices flowing
5. Setup a follow procedure so that people know this actually IS integral to their role

You put all of these components together and you’re effectively crowdsourcing innovation!

I’ve asked 13 people to spend 10-30 minutes per week thinking about this. I expect there to be a less than 50% pickup rate and then I expect perhaps no one to come up with much….

But then equally – all we need is ONE person to come up with an idea that could lead to a worldwide improvement for a department, the business or otherwise that could change everything for us.

And it’s THIS that I’m searching for. 🙂