December 3, 2024
A Sense of Urgency is Good For Innovation Teams

They say necessity is the mother of invention, so how do you bring necessity to your company to increase innovation? You need a sense of urgency. Perhaps, you have noted that in war-time, there is more innovations and inventions created; have you ever wondered why this is? It’s really simple, you see on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs; self-preservation is most important need.

So, it becomes a necessity, and thus, if you fail to innovate and beat your enemy, you’ll lose the war and perhaps your life as well. Now many people, especially psychologists believe that if you put too much pressure on people, they will ‘choke at bat’ or develop the innovation equivalent of ‘writer’s block’ but that simply is not so. Coddling creative folks in an R & D department too much, just adds costs and time between innovations.

This does not mean you should over regulate or put too many rules onto your creative workforce, that is the kiss of death, as nothing kills creativity and innovation more than bureaucracy; still, you need to strike a balance. Let the creative and innovative teams know that you expect results and then, set challenges to make them think. Create a sense of urgency and then provide bonuses for successful innovations, inventions, products, services or marketing campaigns.

Next, simply watch your teams create more for less and do it faster than you could ever imagine. Is it really that easy? Yes, providing that you believe in what you are doing, do it for a good cause and that the sense of urgency that you create is real. Please consider all this.