One of the key determinants of whether an organization can move to new digital structures is the development level of the people, and build an innovative workforce.
We are experiencing rapid change and exponential knowledge growth and we are at the intersection of knowledge and innovative economy. The digital workforce is an informative, technology savvy new breed; it’s the hyper-connected generation with a multitude of varieties.
The part of the digital paradigm shift is to prepare people to get digital ready professionally; inspire innovation, autonomy, and mastery, discover a sense of purpose and translate senior management vision and goals into workforce “language” and competency.
Amplify the voice of the creative workforce via the diverse thought-sharing and perceiving diversity in unity: There are all kinds of differences that exist between individuals, teams, companies, or industries. There are conflicts between different groups that have their own senses of belief, reality, strength and weakness. People are human assets and capital, they intend to solve problems, but sometimes also part of problems. If people challenge each other to have to translate/transform their viewpoint into new expressions, they are able to share a natural affinity for new perspectives, fresh ideas, and collective insight. They can amplify innovative voices and unify the best of the best, harness creative communication, and stimulate creativity.
To continuously innovate within organizations, individuals and groups need to connect and communicate more openly and effectively. However, many organizations are not fertile ground for ideation, there is the negative vibe surrounding their workplace. It is important to flatten the organizational hierarchy and walk across the business boundary to have people who can complement each other’s viewpoint, walk in others’ shoes and see the problem or situation from the others’ point of view, and appreciate diversity in unity.
Don’t judge anything until you can engage with the information flow, then look more closely at the mechanisms that are creating the flow: Information is growing exponentially; to be most effective, information has to flow more freely in digital organization, synchronize business functions and create organizational synergy. The issue with command and control management is that it stifles fluidity and agility due to its hierarchical structure or overly rigid processes. More attention needs to be placed on the conditions that allow information to flow and generate value rather than try to overly manipulate or control information. The poor information management is mostly caused by a lack of in-depth understanding of information integrity; not knowing how to apply the worthwhile evaluation to reveal the inherent value of information.
From a problem solving perspective, information applies to the context and environment in which decisions are made. Although information can’t always be knowledge; and knowledge doesn’t always inform you. The intrinsic value of information is about turning the most invaluable information and knowledge assets into precious insight to improve problem-solving competency.
The constant negotiation between our essence and our projection is what leads to idea flow, growth, innovativeness, and human evolution: With frictionless information flow, people are able to generate enriched ideas, from there, they need to work together efficiently on implementing ideas to deliver value. It’s important to encourage the freedom of thinking and action; accelerate idea validation and streamline innovation processes to expedite idea management cycle. It’s also important to connect key assets and resources in their context across the hyperconnected business ecosystem to enable idea flow and create synergy for idea management.
Idea flow can be streamlined via enforcing cross-functional communication, using common business language for harnessing understanding and innovation, taking incentives to encourage sharing, paying more attention to ideas from others, and setting prioritization, selecting the ideas which can have a better opportunity to implement and maximize multifaceted value.
One of the key determinants of whether an organization can move to new digital structures is the development level of the people, and build an innovative workforce. In an ideal digital working environment, self-motivated leaders, teams, and employees have the passion for challenging themselves, advancing their thinking ability, making things happen, catalyzing changes, and discovering innovative ways to solve problems constantly.
