“ There is no innovation and creativity without failure. ” ~ Brené Brown
The best role I ever had in my life was as a production supervisor on the night shift.
They were 12 hour shifts that I would stretch out to 15-16 hours a day most of the time where I loved every minute of it. I had a 45 minute commute to work, so when I had two days of work in a row I didn’t get much sleep.
I can already hear you saying:
The night shift, really?
Are you crazy?
This was my first big management position, going from two employees in my previous position to about 50 employees. I only did this for a year because the long hours and the reality of working nights took me away from my family and friends. I was at a dead end and had to choose between my family or my job. Easy decision…family always comes first.
To be honest, if I could have taken my team to the day shift, I might never have left that job until the day I decided to start my own business.
Why did I love this position so much?
One of the things I value most in life is freedom. That’s why I love my new life as an entrepreneur and the freedom that comes with it. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of challenges to face as an entrepreneur, but I love the fact that I am in charge of my destiny and can’t blame or congratulate anyone but myself for my successes and failures.
Being a production supervisor on the night shift gave me this sense of freedom. I was the only person responsible for production for 12 full hours. I didn’t have to justify my decisions to my boss until 7 a.m., which gave me several hours to develop my leadership style and try out my ideas.
I’ve held several management positions during the day shift, and there are so many bosses around you who want to be involved in the decision-making process that it’s very difficult to find your place as a supervisor (and also as a middle manager for that matter).
You always want to make sure everyone is on board with the actions you are about to take, which slows you down and reduces your flexibility and the ability to use your creativity and innovate with new ideas.
It is often said that people are set in their ways. Trust me, in most cases, the same is true for executives, who are people after all. Most of them like to play it safe and use the same method that has worked before, every day. At first glance, it may seem like the right thing to do, but if you have always done something the same way, chances are you are doing it wrong.
This may seem like a bold statement that takes you out of your comfort zone. Well…
That’s what it felt like to be in charge of 50 employees on the night shift. I was out of my comfort zone. I was used to being told what to do and being pushed around by other people’s priorities. I was a technical specialist who had to wait for everyone else to do their job so I could complete my tasks, most of the time in a shorter time frame than expected. In that role, I was never in control of my own work life.
As mentioned earlier, everything changed when I started as a production supervisor.
Yes, I received general guidelines on my roles and responsibilities.
Yes, I knew I was responsible for everything that happened in my team and that I was in charge of the most difficult team (in fact, I had asked for this team, which might support your hypothesis that I might be crazy :)).
The difference was that no one was there to tell me what to do for 12 hours every day. A real paradise…
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating with the term “paradise” because being the sole person in charge for 12 hours comes with its own set of challenges and difficulties. There was another supervisor on another floor, and we helped each other out daily, but she had her team and I had mine. I didn’t mind the difficulties because I’ve always loved challenges, so I saw this as a great opportunity to lead the underperforming team to the top.
You may be wondering what this has to do with innovation and creativity?
Innovation
First of all, not having your bosses around meant I had to make the decisions.
Being new in this role meant that I sometimes made the wrong decision.
Being alone forced me to face the consequences of my bad decisions.
As the sole person in charge, there is no place to hide and no one to save you. This may sound scary and unappealing for a career opportunity, but it has given me the freedom to experiment and try new things.
Creativity
Not having many resources led me to the conclusion that I had to do better with fewer resources than my daytime colleagues. I had to use my creativity and solicit ideas from my employees to add their ideas to mine and optimize processes.
How do you tap into their ideas when most workers are in the same situation I am as a technical specialist: executing someone else’s plan? This seems like a huge waste of potential, because they are the ones who perform all the value-added tasks that customers pay for, every day.
Imagine what you could accomplish with 50 connected brains, thinking together to find ways to improve our daily work lives.
But if they are not used to thinking about improvement, how do you create a culture of innovation and creativity?
- The first step is always to be transparent with employees and explain your plan to your direct reports and then to each team member.
- Mention that you need their help to improve the situation.
- They will benefit greatly from the changes.
- Start with quick wins to show the positive impact of improvements.
- Create a trusted zone for employees to share ideas and suggestions for improvement.
- Set up a suggestion box.
- If an idea is not possible for any reason, explain to the team why you cannot move forward.
- If possible, modify the idea so that it is feasible.
- Find another solution.
- Mention that they are the process experts and know what works and what doesn’t.
- They need to know that you trust them to make the best decisions for the team’s success.
- Be sure to clarify that trying new things will definitely result in failures and actions that did not yield the desired results.
- You will win as a team and you will lose as a team.
- You will take responsibility when mistakes are made.
- You will direct praise to the team when successes are accomplished.
- Work with your employees to identify bottlenecks and find solutions together.
- Provide tools and time for employees to do their jobs well.
- Initially, the employee will look to you for answers, so it may be helpful to identify your expectations and then let them work on it alone. This will give you more time to tackle other challenges and will force your employees to work together to solve the problem.
- As with you when you have to make decisions, the fact that you trust them to make decisions on the issue at hand is essential and will increase their confidence. Initially, I would suggest that they inform you of the path they have chosen before following it. Over time, once trust is established, your involvement may be reduced.
- Communicate to the entire team the initiative implemented and the employees responsible for these improvements. This praise can and should be passed on to other teams and management for the benefit of the entire organization. It could be used by other teams and generate a lot of savings.
- This will be a great motivational boost for the employee who worked on the project.
- Other employees will also want the opportunity to shine.
- This will make your team shine.
- If it doesn’t work, take responsibility for protecting your team and work with them to understand what went wrong and what should be done to correct the situation.
Soon you will have many more brains trying to improve the situation. There are limits to what you can accomplish alone, but there are no limits when you have several engaged, thinking minds working together to improve the situation.
The sky’s the limit…
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Need help improving your management skills or building a culture of creativity and innovation? Don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll be happy to listen to you and provide you with the tools you need for the future.
Never forget: how does your mood impact your performance and overall attitude? Imagine if all your employees or co-workers were happy…
Carl-Michael Tessier
Coach in high-performance team development and tailor-made support
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