Communication – Speaking for Easy Listening

In a supportive climate no one has to defend themselves when they present a wild idea. You can present it with all the flaws, quite confident that everyone is out to help you built it. You feel no need to trick them in to accepting it or bulldozing them into ‘buying’ it. Both methods will result in:

• Your audience ‘turning out’.
• Your losing their potential to give valuable inputs.

A better alternative is to start by giving the headline as a newspaper would. Follow this by a brief description of the idea with no conclusions. Be truly open to inputs. Leave it loose and welcome suggestions. Participants then feel welcomed into problem solving. They respond to the regard and respect being shown for their ideas. The first method presents a heavily defended fait accomplishment. The second involves listeners in a mutually satisfying exchange of ideas. The first feels uncomfortable and controlling for participants. The second allows the bliss of participation and the joy of mutual regard, while resulting in the building of really new viable ideas.

Action

Practice speaking using the headline/background approach. Share the ideas flowing out of listening for value. Let each commando member practice and then discuss the resulting ideas.

Communication – Listening for Ideas

The person who listens has to listen to the words. He also has to listen for the meaning of silences. He has to understand motives and intentions. He not only tries to understand what is being said, he also has to be sensitive to what is not being said.

The speaker needs to be aware that less than twenty per cent of his meaning is expressed in words. The rest pours out of him through his tone and body language. He who speaks has to be willing to repeat what he says in subtle ways till it sinks deep into the heart of the listener.

Listening and speaking is like playing a game of ping pong. Building ideas involves both participants in an intimate interweaving of ideas, snow-balling them into bigger ideas, supporting speculatively risky ideas. The positive field and the supportive climate full of respect for each other leads to collaboratively building new ideas.

Meetings and Their Effectiveness

Meetings can waste a lot of time or they can provide an effective way to harvest ideas and ensure buy-in, thus empowering the group to achieve greater levels of productivity. The effectiveness of the meeting can be enhanced by:

• Having a clear goal for the meeting
• Circulating the agenda in advance to ensure preparation.
• Having a system to make sure everyone is seen and heard using thinking tools like 6M.
• Recording and implementing decisions and using good ideas.
• Being open to feedback and fresh insights.

Thinking tools can ensure that everyone is able to think differently and intensively on the subjet. The rules for idea generation and the creation of a positive climate are threefold: to suspend judgment, postpone reaction and extended effort.

Plan all meetings. Let all participants send their ideas using the 6M framework, so that all individuals are well informed about what others think, before the meeting starts.

Create Incubators for Innovation

Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico Industries, believes his corporate social responsibility is spreading the message of innovation, as the practice of innovation can build the nation. He believes that innovation flourishes in an open, empowering culture, a prototyping culture. 'We give a new business idea to a team and empower them to implement it. We then remove the escape button.'

'The idea is first incubated in an incubation cell. They report directly to me for two years. It is dismantled once their role is completed. Each of my product teams identifies their innovation agenda as part of strategic planning.'

'We are driven by our concern for the environment, preventive health care and natural good health. To us a customer is a person with constantly rising aspirations. Our suppliers are our partners in business.'

'We believe in orbit shifting innovation. To be acceptable, innovation should translate into cash flow. We have experienced that in our company.'

Seek Top Management Support

It is critical that the innovation initiative is completely supported at the top step by step. One of the reasons why innovation initiatives fail is because of the start-stop effect when there is no long-term commitment from the top. Innovation initiatives often become the target of budget cuts at the first sign of trouble. Focus on making the process smooth, consistent and credible.

• Scoreboards should measure progress and celebrate winners.
• Involve top management through regular presentations.
• They should be part of the steering committee and monthly reviews.
• The innovation melas should showcase innovation and innovators.
• The cost benefit resulting from innovations should be regularly highlighted.
• Thinking tools should be used at the highest levels.

It is important to initially choose actions that lead to fast, obvious results. Keep the investments low, use existing resources. Highlight and celebrate small successes. This creates excitement around the initiative. Encourage the workforce through motivating posters. Post results on the score boards so that the whole organization can track progress.

The Ice-breaker

It is important to bring all the teams together and unite them to achieve a single goal. The goal should be noble; it should be inspiring and should fill the teams with energy and commitment. The leader could kick start things off with an inspiring presentation and ask everyone to give their ideas on how to make this happen.

For Example:

Mr. Narasimhan, an innovative leader of Brakes India, Foundry Division, says, ‘I don’t think top management should have all the fun while others just have to do what they are told’. He holds monthly meetings in the lovely tree-shaded campus at Sholingur and speaks to all 700 people in the factory. They are allowed to ask questions and make suggestions. Over sixty innovation spirals are operating here, which include many of the machine operators in the factory.

At the end of the ice-breaker, all participants should know the goal, be inspired by it, and take responsibility for specific parts of the plan.

Innovation Blow Back

"I consider constraints a source of innovation. I believe in the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid", says Ravi Venkatesan, CEO of Microsoft India. Innovation Blow Back is happening as innovation developed for the poor is now being bought by rich nations, like Tata's Nano, which is also being introduced to European markets.

"Our products at Microsoft never wear out. They never need replacement, so innovation is essential for our survival. Our biggest competitors are our own products. We look for people with high energy and passion, curiosity and persistence, who love taking on a challenge. We try to spot tenacity and capacity for experimentation. We choose the right 1000 seeds to harvest ten flowers. We give budgets and freedom, empowering employees to pursue their dreams. Let's dream big dreams. Let's go out and change the world. We have a high tolerance for failure. Fear of failure discourages people from trying."