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If you asked almost any group of executives about innovation, they would likely say they value it.
In my experience, leaders behind some of the strongest companies in the country describe innovation as a force multiplier — the thing that separates leaders from followers. But inside most organizations, innovation often triggers something else entirely: fear.
For an idea to be implemented, it has to survive a journey through the organization. Most innovations don’t fail in the boardroom. They fail somewhere in the middle.
Don’t dismiss small problems — they signal bigger breakdowns
According to a survey conducted by 15Five, “81% of employees would rather join a company that values open communication than one that offers great perks such as top health plans, free food and gym memberships.” Think about that. More than what this means for retention or talent acquisition, what does this say about how little executives do to engage with people a level or two below them?
At my old company, we hosted a regular, massive town hall. If you have a sales idea, an expense issue or an operational problem, let’s hear it. After I opened the floor for questions, a maintenance employee called in. I can’t remember exactly where he was from, so let’s say he was Joe from Altoona.
Joe was having trouble cleaning the floors in his store. People tried to move the call along. It sounded like a small facilities issue. The instinct was to take it offline. I stopped them because I was intrigued by why this guy would think to call us with this problem. Besides that, if the floors aren’t clean, that’s not a small problem. Customers notice it. It affects the store.
He explained that his machine, one of those Zamboni-looking ones, wasn’t working, that it was out of fluid. We tried to assure him that we’d order him whatever he needed and get on to bigger matters. This time, he stopped us. He explained that the machine required a specific chemical solution to operate. At some point, someone in the system had removed that supply item. The stores could no longer order it, which meant the machine simply couldn’t run.
No one intended to create the problem. Somewhere in the organization, a supply item had been discontinued without realizing what depended on it. The maintenance employee had tried to raise the issue through normal channels and kept hitting a wall. So he called the town hall. We fixed the problem immediately, but that isn’t really the point.
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