Practice Grounds & Failure Olympics
One often-overlooked way of improving the innovation muscle of an organization is to provide a low-stakes environment for employees to practice! A tennis player knows the importance of the practice court and a cricketer of net practice. That's where it is safe for them to try out something new and fail. What is the equivalent of the net practice for your employees? A place where they don't have to worry about the consequences. Where they can boldly try something new. E.g. A 'problem pitching tournament' can be a practice ground for getting better at defining and picking better ideas to work on, in a hackathon.
People heading innovation efforts in Indian tech. companies often talk about changing employees' mindsets. They say you need to fail with 99 bad ideas before becoming that 'overnight success' with your 100th blockbuster idea! One way to change attitudes towards failure is to celebrate it! Leaders want to do it in the right context, though! In order to stay relevant, tech. companies organize hackathons on themes that will be relevant only a couple of years down the line and with completely new technologies. The objective is for employees to get out of their comfort zones, experiment, and think bold! If you must fail, fail spectacularly. And learn.
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