Leadership, Failure, Innovation & Psychological Safety

L&D Spotlight

In this episode, we look at the relationship between leadership, failure, psychological safety, and the effect these have on a company's stability, growth, and ability to innovate.
Guest: Andrei Postolache, Founder at Xeriously, leadership and soft skills consultant focused on the IT industry, author of "Fun & Fearless Leadership".
Highlights:
* Failure is neither always bad nor always good. When understood and internalized adequately, failure is an excellent tool for progress.
* Failure is an essential component in an individual's leadership development journey.
* The larger a company is, the higher its organizational inertia to maintain its current working style. The more risk-averse this company is, the harder it is to encourage employees' day-to-day innovation initiatives.
* Society-changing innovation more frequently comes from outliers, people, and organizations outside of a particular industry, not from established companies within that industry.
* But it is possible, even for huge organizations, to implement frameworks for micro-innovations coming from any employees.
* Two exciting reads on innovation, leadership, and effective management are Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma and Frederic Laloux's Reinventing Organizations.
* The Great Resignation, though it did negatively affect many people worldwide, also has an upside. It's made employees realize the importance of finding a workplace where they are respected as individuals with fresh ideas a willingness to express themselves and take risks in a psychologically safe work environment. As a result, it's forcing employers who want to keep their workforce to revisit the opportunities and space they offer their employees to contribute.
* A workplace isn't, however, a platform for self-expression, but a place where people go to achieve professional, company-focused goals. Employees can and should expect to have the space to be themselves, but it all happens within the context of reaching their work-related objectives.
* Psychological safety and innovation go hand in hand; a toxic work environment, where the fear of failure, criticism, or ridicule stifles new ideas, will not be conducive to innovation.
* Google's early innovation-oriented model, the 80/20 Rule, is a good example of actively creating a specific framework to encourage innovation.
How to de-risk innovation and make space for people to contribute:
1. Psychological safety is the basis of an innovative workplace culture
2. Be specific about the innovation initiatives you want to implement
3. Allocate resources and make sure they don't get redistributed or lost
4. Failure is a natural potential outcome and shouldn't be punished
5. The ownership of failure falls on the shoulders of leadership
To join the conversation or get in touch, reach out to Liz Stefan on LinkedIn or email liz[at]niftylearning.io.