Aaron Shields’s Mind Terroir

Many businesses don’t know who their best performers and worst performers are. Almost nonexistent are businesses that know their employees skills—not what’s written on their resumes or in their job descriptions, but everything they are consummate at doing and have a passion for doing.

When constructing projects, organizations are pulled toward the natural tendency to select team members based on positions in the company and by matching skills listed in job descriptions to skills perceived as necessary for the current project. Using this method, it’s not surprising that the products of these teams are rarely significantly better than what’s already in place.

Not only is this depressing—it’s a waste of time and resources—but it’s awful for business: one of the few, true drivers of business growth is innovation, and with the costs of production diminishing (allowing startups to more easily gain entry into existing markets), innovation is likely to become even more important than ever in driving business growth and category dominance.

Part of the problem is that in constructing a team with similar backgrounds, the experiences of all the team members are also similar; and, they’re also similar to everyone else in that field who went through standard schooling. [amazon-product text="As Apple's Steve Jobs said" type="text"]0446404667[/amazon-product], “Innovation is usually the result of connections of past experience. But if you have the same experiences as everyone else, you’re unlikely to look in a different direction.”

Great innovation starts with constructing a team that is passionate about what’s being solved (passion does not equal position in the company) and has members with diverse skills that meet the needs of the problems in unique ways. Constructing a diverse team will probably mean looking beyond what is traditionally known about people in an organization, and getting to know each employee as a whole person rather than a business tool. I advocate keeping a database of employees’ skills that go beyond their job descriptions, which can be searched through when designing new products.

Remember, innovation often comes from unlikely places: the idea for the Apple iPhone’s click wheel came not from an engineer but someone in the marketing department.

For more on fostering an environment and process that promotes creativity, check out my free booklet Creativity in The Workplace.

Tags:   Add new tag · Apple · Creativity · Innovation · iphone · steve jobsNo Comments