Question

You are at a job interview in a small start-up. You are interviewing for a manager position, one of only three in the organization. The organization has about 50 employees in total. The interviewer tells you that they are concerned that the organization is not as innovative as it once was. They then ask you to discuss what you might do to change the culture so that employees can think it is okay to take risks in order to be even more innovative than the years prior to 2018. What 3 suggestions would you provide and in detail explain the reasoning for each?

Answer 1

As a manger, I would implement the below mentioned 3 suggestions to change the culture, wherein employees are more open to the idea of innovation and risk-taking:

1.       Allocate time for break-out sessions wherein the manager leads by example – Employees should be allocated time to break from their routine, regular tasks and spend time come up with new thoughts and ideas to improve the things and systems around them. The manager should take a lead here and attend all such sessions and highlight some improvements and new ideas he/she would like to implement. It should be an open forum, wherein it could be similar to a brainstorming session to arrive at conceptually new idea which could be implemented at the earliest.

2.       Set-up a process and implement ideas quickly – It is very important that employees realize that there is a designated system in place to carry forward the idea laid down by them, this would give them the confidence that the idea is being considered appropriately. Additionally, the implementation should be pretty quick without any lags or delay, this would instill a belief in the employees that they’re indeed influencing the direction of business. This is one of the best forms of motivation.

3. Invest and hire employees who would be a better fit in the changed scheme of things, and allow regular job swaps to foster a new perspective in different teams – Innovation is indeed an investment for the future, hence all new people coming into the organization should fit into the new culture seamlessly. Specific evaluation criteria should be set in place for all new hires to ensure that the innovative culture set in is sustained in the days to come. Swapping of roles among employees, brings in new perspectives in different functional teams, often breaking the monotony.