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Construction Magazine: October 2004 Issue |
Innovation: The Path to Greater
Profits - Part 4
By Ted Garrison |
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Here, the author
discusses the need to provide employees with autonomy,
and the value of charging them with anticipated change.
5) Provide
your entrepreneurial people with a measure of autonomy:
If you want innovation to thrive
within your company then you need to realize that an
entrepreneurial spirit is one of the keys. In fact,
by giving your more entrepreneurial people greater autonomy
you will encourage their creativity.
Entrepreneurial
individuals enjoy doing different things and when these
people are positioned close to the customer –
remember train #1 – then they are in best position
to take advantage of opportunities. Often, the best
people to do this are those at ground zero like your
project managers. But to make this process the most
effective they need to be able to take advantages of
opportunities when they occur.
There
are many relatively inexpensive innovative actions that
can be taken to increase value and these employees must
be able to implement them immediately or the opportunity
may be lost. Of course, larger and more expensive options
should be coordinated at higher levels within the organization
– but even then let the “entrepreneurs”
work out the details. Senior management should only
approve the concept and not get involved in the micromanagement
of the process.
Further, when you create this kind of environment you
will attract the best people. A few years ago, the Beck
Group out of Dallas, Texas was listed in Fortune Magazine’s
top 100 companies to work for. They asked a project
manager why do you like working at Beck? He responded,
“Because they let us run our projects like we
are the CEO of the project.” This story illustrates
that entrepreneurial freedom not only adds value to
the external customer, but it also adds value to your
internal customers – your employees.
6) Charge
people with the responsibility for anticipating change:
This
trait is closely related to the previous item. The reason
is simple: innovation is how we respond to change. Therefore,
we must get people to anticipate change as part of their
responsibility. Obviously, in this area of performance
it can be difficult to measure. No one expects your
people to have a crystal ball and be able to predict
the future – however, your people must avoid sticking
their heads in the sand.
The
attitude, “We were following procedure, so it’s
not our fault”, must be killed. But many potential
problems can be identified before they actually occur.
When this occurs it gives your organization time to
develop contingency plans or take actions to offset
the impact.
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THE END *
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Ted
Garrison, the author ofStrategic Planning
for Contractors, works with businesses
in the construction industry. He can be reached
at
Growing@TedGarrison.com
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