The new corporate innovation animal you are becoming sees the power potential in new concepts. Same as a jungle animal, your prowess uses all of your senses to evaluate every possibility. There is an innovation waiting on the horizon with such advanced potential, that many of the other jungle animals in your industry pass it by, thinking “It’s just too soon to pounce.” You, however can smell the blood, you foresee in your minds-eye, that the first corporations to leap upon the prize will reap the benefits. You will have everything you need to nourish your staff, develop their leadership potential, and built a cohesive working team.
In the Thick of the Jungle
Most business owners who went to business school learned the traditional organizational charts and management concepts of workflow using a vertical system. What happens is every department is responsible for their own flow charts proffering where money is coming from, how it is spent, and setting priorities of the budget. During the day-to-day operations, several financial disruptions may occur, request forms filled out, project managers submit requests for more finances, a purchase, an extended overtime labor cost allowance, and it could be anything. The paperwork flows up the channel, and the decision-making process pauses at each tier. By the time the request gets to the level with decision-making authority, for that particular request, valuable time is spent in the upward chain, and now it has to return down the chain. Notations and exceptions, outside concerns and regulations are noted.
The front line workers are constantly in the difficult place of explaining to their customers why this is taking so long. To get an approval on their job amendments, or simple reorganizations, because of an increase in man-hours to get the jobs done is a lengthy undertaking. The team is fired up, ready to go on the job – but they have to wait, wait, and wait some more to get their required approvals.
That is the way it is done. That is the way it has always been done. Right?
Except, there is an internal method that happens every day, in every IT department, that is effective, timely, and can adapt to their constant client revisions. This method was developed organically within the system, because IT employees are sensitive to how important it is for clients to be able to make changes, and small revisions in their projects continually, as their software is being developed. The communication between IT staff and clients is almost a daily event. The strategies they have developed to work effectively in an IT environment is a superior model to what traditional workers must put up with while trying to accommodate excellent customer service.
Find the Clearing
Company IT departments of most organizations were always handled differently, even before the term “startups” became a thing. It was not because they are “nerds” or oddballs, the fact is, the way they are required to communicate with clients while working on daily software solutions changes things. They need supplies, man-hours for revisions and new solutions codes, and they need to change directions many times per day. There is no way the traditional model of working can accommodate this constantly changing environment. Just stop and think for a minute – what would this style of management allow in a corporate wide environment? What if you gave your employees creative freedom for solutions, approaching problem resolution, and client work requests, with a “can do” policy? How would corporate teams outside of IT be motivated with diversity of scheduling, allowing the use of their own handheld devices to get work in on time even when they are not on site?
Consider the workspace opening up in contrast to the closing up of an overgrown jungle environment. Giving innovators room to breathe, room to process, room to work together without feeling inhibited or guarded. What if your employees saw your company as a clearing in the jungle?