Balancing Innovation and Stability [Back to Basics Part 4]

Ready to unlock the secret to leading teams that both innovate and stay grounded? Today we decode this intricate balance that many leaders struggle to maintain. We dive into how successful leaders continually reiterate their visions, create a safe space for daring endeavors, and provide a safety net that imbues a sense of stability within their teams. Discover how you can inspire creativity, foster adaptability, and, at the same time, uphold a steady foundation within your organization.

Our second segment delves into the importance of fostering a flexible risk appetite - one that encourages innovation while simultaneously safeguarding the more stable aspects of a business. We believe finding the perfect equilibrium between innovation and stability can engender high-performing teams and successful business ventures. If you are an executive yearning for specialized advice tailored just for you, we promise that this episode will be a game-changer!

In this episode, we talk about the following:
1. Setting an adaptive foundation and allowing for creativeness in your team.
2. Fostering a culture where taking risks is encouraged, communicated, and supported
3. Reassessing priorities and maintaining open communication to facilitate effective resource allocation.

This episode is sponsored by LucidPoint
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CONNECT WITH SUSIE:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susietomenchok/

CONNECT WITH JAMES:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/capps/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tominczuk.

Speaker 2: 0:24

And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Welcome. This is Quick Take. I am your host, suzy, and I'm here with my friend, james, and I was singing a song before I came on and I'm not going to sing it again, but how are you, james?

Speaker 2: 0:49

I am speechless.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Fair, it's always fun. We try to get our energy up by just being a little goofy. But we'll just continue it here.

Speaker 2: 1:00

It was great, yes, fantastic Fantastic.

Speaker 1: 1:04

So we're back to basics and we have this series where we're really talking about important things for executives that we just they become invisible almost because they just become just a part of the job.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Right, yep, so yeah, I think today we wanted to talk about, you know, when we do our day-to-day operation, when we're running the business, there's this unique balance between our ability to manage, being adaptive and being innovative and having a stable organization, and you know that a good leader has to discuss or deal with the fact that sometimes there needs to be this you know, cutting edge, breakneck speed and then, at the same time, there needs to be this foundational stability around that. And I think that it's worth discussing how leaders can balance the art of both innovation and stability in a real world environment. This is a topic, I think, that applies to most companies and most leaders. Certainly, there are those leaders that are all about breaking everything and, you know, break as much class as possible. I don't know that that's really, you know, typical, but I do think there is some value in discussing how you do both.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Well, I concur completely and, from an executive coach perspective, some of the research around what followers need in leaders. One of the attributes is stability. People need to understand that they are stable. So it's interesting to think about it from this lens too is you need to help people through change and you need to help people through getting thinking outside the box. But how do you give them that sense of stability when they need it? So it would be interesting if that has any kind of thread in what you're going to bring to the table today.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Yeah, I think that, when we look at the reality is that you know, while we do, even if you are a company who is an R&D shop or you're running an R&D shop or something that really focuses on that kind of innovation there is an element of stability that's important because we are ultimately managing people, and I think that one of the most important things, my first recommendation, is you know, you need to be very adaptive and allow your teams to change between and embrace the pivot, because I think without that ability to, and creating a framework which allows that for them to be adaptive, they're not going to be able to be as creative, and so you have to give them a way that they can be both consistent in what they're doing, but also creative in the way that they're thinking about things.

Speaker 1: 3:51

And how do you do that? What are techniques that you ensure that you're doing that?

Speaker 2: 3:56

No, I think the most simple way I think about it is you need to consistently remind folks of the vision, create that stable foundation for them to be creative. I think that you know people who are the most successful in thinking and doing things in different ways do have a foundation for which they can stand on and they feel comfortable in taking risks because there is a safety net, and I think that type of messaging and that creation of that ecosystem is so important.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Yeah, no-transcript that there is a net. Let's just go crazy and really generate some amazing thoughts.

Speaker 2: 4:43

Right Right, all right, yeah. And I think the second one that I really like to talk about is having creating a risk appetite that is flexible, because there are look, I think if you think of the banking industry or maybe the healthcare industry, there is like a risk appetite which is very consistent. We are concerned with human life, we are concerned with money, and there's going to be a consistency there. But even within those ecosystems, there are times in which risk can be tolerated and higher risk, and so you want to create a world in which there are times where you can take risk, and people know it, and there are times when they shouldn't take risk, and they know it. So a one size fits all to a risk appetite I think it does not allow you to balance that innovation and stability balance beam, if you will, and so creating a risk and contingency system that allows for flexibility based on certain circumstances and certain times, I think is really important to ensure your people feel like they can execute and be successful.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Oh, that's a good one. I think that's a really good one. I think the other piece of it is how do you make sure it's one thing to say it, but then how do you really show them that risk is okay, so that you catch yourself, so that you don't react sometimes in a way that that will send a separate message or a different message than that?

Speaker 2: 6:12

You know, I think you have to do it up front and you have to create an environment where that's a conversation you're having. Often I've worked in places where you know there was a willingness to fail and that was consistently communicated and that allowed that to happen. Now, if you as a leader are okay with your team failing but you never tell them that, then I doubt that they're going to take risks. So, upfront, it's really great to say hey, on this program, let's try to push the envelope. I'm okay with some risk here. This is an internal effort there is maybe, you know this is an effort that we're trying to explore different outcomes. You know that conversation about risk should happen upfront and I think it's something that just really gives people the agency to execute and be really effective.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Yeah, I think I completely agree. The agency. I love that term for that. So what's your third?

Speaker 2: 7:07

The third one is you have to create an adaptive staffing model and to have resources not only in staffing but in resources in general that can adapt and be responsive to either a time when you're trying to be innovative or a time to be stable.

Speaker 2: 7:26

Imagine you are in a phase where you're trying to explore and do something unique and you have a lot of focus on that. Maybe your budget is focusing on that, maybe you've got a lot of people working on that and they're over here. But if you suddenly find yourself in a position where you have to pivot and you have some stability issues you are having some change in the industry, maybe there's some sort of event that happens outside of the company you need to be able to move and pivot in a really agile way. Oftentimes we can get everybody to swarm on a particular issue, but that's not what I'm talking about. How do we effectively move resources to pivot to where you want to be without completely abandoning your plans and your strategy? So that is a little more challenging than it sounds, but certainly going in with the mindset that this plan may change midstream allows you to be maintained a more successful footprint.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Yeah, and then articulating that to the team too, so that they can really get their head around it and feel, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:34

And I think there's a lot of methods and systems around that that make sense, especially in the software space. Agile software development practices are really driven and focused on that, but I think a lot of those practices regular communications, consistent reassessing of the priorities, looking forward as well as looking back those are good rules and good steps that I think enable any organization and any group or any department or any project to be able to balance that innovation and that stability challenge.

Speaker 1: 9:11

Yeah, and I think too, just to add, from a coaching perspective, even asking the question where are you on the scale of feeling unstable about all the changes that are going on? And even asking the question and having people kind of give themselves a rate it could change every day and it gives that. It's a language around that.

Speaker 2: 9:30

If you are concerned at all around that stability for the team, yeah, yeah, I think it's key to do that, and as you assess the risk appetite that really that second one I think it's important that you make sure you have the right people on the team. There are people who want to break glass, and then there are people who are so proud they've never broke glass, and so you have to be thoughtful there.

Speaker 1: 9:53

Do you ever bring in people that are not from the team into a discussion to kind of change the balance of the dynamics of the people in the room?

Speaker 2: 10:02

Yeah, I think that's always important. I think, certainly if you have a team that has been working together for a long time and kind of feels like they've seen the writing on the wall, it's nice to have a different point of view. It's uncomfortable oftentimes and sometimes it's seen it's no different than people bristle at bringing in a facilitator for an event or something. We don't need somebody here. You know that story, we've heard it a million times, but I think it is great to get somebody to have that different point of view, to hear in a different way and speak in a different voice, and I think that those are always helpful.

Speaker 1: 10:38

Yeah, I think we prove that every time we're here together because we have very, very different perspectives.

Speaker 2: 10:44

That's exactly right, exactly right.

Speaker 1: 10:46

All right. So what are the three? Go back through them.

Speaker 2: 10:49

Yeah, I think the first and foremost is you have to have a adaptive point of view or a foundational system that allows you to have a strong foundation but also allow your people to be innovative. So first, I think, set a foundation that allows folks to be successful. Stability allows people to be innovative. Secondarily, communicate your risk appetite up front, Identify the times in which you feel comfortable taking more risk and identify the times in which you don't Be clear on that and allow people to understand where you are. And then, third, really create a framework in which your resources can move and adjust accordingly. If you know that you're going to be, as a project or as a firm, that you need to balance both the innovation and the stability elements of the ecosystem, you need to be able to adjust your resources as the situation warrants.

Speaker 1: 11:44

I think these are so great and it also makes me I can't not say this that this is a way to develop your team so that they become that leader. That is very intentional about these things, which we often forget that we're also being the person that's illustrating the right path. So remember that it's a good way of building your leaders into their future leaders.

Speaker 2: 12:09

Right, you want to team, you want to surround yourself with people who can handle different situations, and this is a great way to do that.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Awesome. I think this is a good one. I think these back to basics. I'm learning a lot myself, so thank you, James.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Yeah, they're great reminders and some really good things to discuss.

Speaker 1: 12:25

Yeah, if you think somebody should hear this episode, feel free to share it and just let them know you're thinking about them. We're so glad you were here. Please follow us on LinkedIn. Send us a DM on what's on your mind. We'd love to hear from our community. And it just makes us. It makes our day, so make our day. Thanks for being here, James.

Speaker 2: 12:46

So I appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 12:47

I appreciate you. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

Speaker 2: 13:00

You can find us on LinkedIn, youtube or whatever nerdy place on the internet. You find your podcasts. All the links you really did are in the show notes.