HOW LEADERS CAN MOBILIZE THEIR PEOPLE

By Sana Bagersh

The biggest obstacle to innovation in an organization is mobilizing people to change. There will always be staff who don’t support innovation because they already have too much work and don’t want more responsibility, especially when there is no incentive to change. Or they just don’t want to rock the boat.

Another reason they may be reluctant to get involved is because of fear of repercussions should they be part of a failing project. This is especially true in most institutional cultures that don’t recognize that failure is integral to innovating. The fear of failure is amplified when incompetent staff or their managers dread that their lack of skill may become “exposed” to all.

Some people are especially threatened by tech changes that they think could bring unexpected and unfavorable outcomes.  An example of this is the growing concern over AI and machine learning technology, and the fear that may make humans redundant and fully displace them down the line.

Yet another reason for resistance that is quite typical in organizations with dedicated “innovation teams,” is the fear that this team gets involved with a certain department, makes changes, and then takes the credit for the improvements.

This problem becomes acute when a leader of a department or organization being ‘innovated’ is overlooked and his or her contribution marginalized. A conflict arises when the departmental head’s staff’s work is unrecognized, or even worse, the ‘innovation team’ or consultant identifies issues that make the department, and its leadership, look bad.

A disgruntled manager or a staffer can do great damage to an organization’s innovation efforts and reputation, by spreading rumors internally or even externally, that the initiative doesn’t work.