An unexpected crisis brings many moments of uncertainty and can easily change a company’s plans. During the Second World War, for instance, American soldiers had to reinvent themselves to not only fight the war at hand, but also to be able to fix their trucks using only what they already had available, without new parts for reposition.
A crisis can generate a lot of new ideas that could be constructively used as an amazing source of innovation. The new challenges brought on by COVID-19 could produce innovative and inspiring ideas, proving that necessity is indeed the mother of invention.
To see how your company can adapt your existing projects and ideas and use them to help you overcome challenges during a period of crisis, keep reading!
Invest in Knowledge
Investing in knowledge might be the key to overcoming moments of crisis. The more information and knowledge the company and its associates have, the bigger the chances are to find innovative and positive ways to face challenges. The more knowledge base you have to start with, the more know-how you have to draw from.
Companies with a conservative mindset might have their sight blurred by traditional operating methods, therefore investing in innovation and knowledge could be of great use to lead the company and their goals to a new standard and operating model.
Adapt Your Company’s Culture to the New Ideas
The company’s culture, in addition to its mission and vision, might need to be reinvented in times of crises and challenges. If that is the case, leadership is responsible for transmitting a more clear and promising vision of the company’s goals to employees and the reasoning as to what inspired such changes.
Feed the feeling of togetherness within your company so your employees seek to find new ways to adapt new ideas and to improve processes naturally. You should encourage critical thinking and the will for implementing ideas and improving processes, instead of asking for instant solutions. With the right incentive and leadership, ideas, and solutions start becoming reality, allowing the business to create a new vision for both management and general activities.
Unite Everyone Around the Same Goal
One of the main challenges of leadership is to inspire engagement, especially when your workforce is no longer physically together. During a crisis, it is normal if the working environment becomes a little tense, however, it is important to know how to manage it.
Leaders that are capable of properly focusing their working energy to reach a clear goal and face a crisis, will generally find a productive wave as their associates are more likely to share new ideas. A crisis could create the collective courage needed to make decisions and take action that wouldn’t have happened during normal times.
Create Collaborative Moments
The famous notion of brainstorming is already known and practiced within millions of companies from different verticals. Use the challenges faced to take creative advantage of them by tapping into your value chain in hopes of them proposing a plethora of strategic solutions.
Provide a space for everyone to adapt the ideas that will allow them to overcome the moment of crisis and improve already standardized tasks. Give freedom so that everyone can make suggestions without prejudice and allow the team to discuss ways to adapt or implement new ideas that are beneficial for the operation of the company.
Put Old Ideas into Practice
It is normal for a company to have ideas to be implemented that may have never left the paper. A moment of crisis could be a great time to put some into practice that have been on hold for too long. Ideas are made to be adapted, improved, and implemented, according to the needs of each business. Show those old ideas to others and to anyone that might contribute in a way to adapt them and to put them into use.
It is possible that you have untouched projects that could fit perfectly or partially with this moment of crisis. This is the time to dust it off and make it accessible and real. Do some research on how these projects work in real life and how they are being implemented now. This information could be of great use for your company to overcome a difficult period.
Invest in Professional Diversity
It is likely that you will find similar answers when the questions are proposed to a group of people with similar backgrounds and education. Invest in professional diversity because different points of view could help achieve a more clear sight of the problems you have and help you face the challenges more productively.
Several companies have been investing in professional diversity, with a bigger presence of minorities, for instance. Technical and professional opinions coming from people with different backgrounds could easily be a good strength to improve your market view. New perspectives generating new ideas could be of great influence to amplify your market share. Without the presence of coworkers with different backgrounds, the company’s views are likely to stay the same, leading to maintaining courses of action that don’t match the market’s new mindset.
Listen, Search, Innovate
The main point to overcome moments of crisis is to invest in innovation. The process begins by listening. Listen to your associates and suppliers. Be open to criticism and be ready to act whenever is necessary.
Search for new ways to act and for new market trends, always looking to be up to date with reality and needs. Last but not least — and probably the most important tip — innovate. Feed the feeling for innovation and always seek for new ideas to create and generate competitive differentiation.
Moments of crisis are known for creating urgent needs that end up demanding innovation. Think outside the box and always seek to serve in the best way possible and anticipate needs and market changes.
Create New Ways of Innovation Management
Innovation management is an increasing need so your business has a more impactful market presence. Adapting ideas and using old projects could be the right path to innovate and overcome challenges like the current one we are all facing. For every challenging moment and crisis, innovative people gain space and recognition for transforming pressure and lack of tools, into practical and fast solutions that fit the moment.
Set objective goals and open space so ideas appear naturally. Managing your innovation program well could become of great use to put into practice revolutionary ideas and to keep the company’s culture up to date.
During moments of crisis like the current one, it is important that companies invest in not only trying to survive but also in improving their techniques and strategies. Using your knowledge-base and reflecting on previous ideas might be the right path to achieve insights to face challenges, expand, and improve even more the operating methods within the company.
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