Innovation thrives in environments where new ideas are valued, employees feel safe taking risks, and failures are seen as learning opportunities. Organizations that overvalue results over effort may squash employees' most innovative ideas before they even have a chance to take flight. This attitude doesn't shift overnight, but leaders can take steps to encourage innovation right now by building a feedback culture.
What's a feedback culture- An environment where everyone — leaders, managers, and, most importantly, team members — believes that they can improve at what they do individually and collectively and commits to helping each other get better through honest feedback and accountability.
These organizations have a widespread "growth mindset." Coined by Dr. Carol Dweck, a growth mindset is the belief that we all have room to grow and get better. Success comes with effort, practice, embracing challenges, and taking risks. Without a growth mindset, there is no innovation, and a culture of regular feedback is one of the best ways to build those growth mindset muscles in your people.
Here are some steps to build a feedback culture within your organization.
- Start a dialogue about the concept of having a growth mindset. Share our favorite growth mindset video with your team. Have a conversation about the power of getting better. Ask employees to reflect on a time when they were operating with a fixed mindset and times when growth mindsets fueled them. The more people understand and aspire to develop a growth mindset; the easier it is for them to give and receive feedback.
- Get people to ask for feedback. We spend a lot of time coaching managers to give feedback, but getting everyone in the habit of asking for feedback is much easier. Research shows that it's painful and uncomfortable to provide feedback, but when someone is open to feedback by asking for it, the conversation can happen much more naturally. Plus, they can direct their requests to areas where feedback would be helpful.
- Celebrate mistakes. Focus less on the error and more on the lessons learned. The fear of failure will choke out any spark of innovation. After all, why try if you are not rewarded for going out on a limb? Let things get a little messy. Encourage experimentation. Then, reward effort. Reward the brave hearts who take a chance.
While taking these actions to create a feedback culture within your organization, take some time for introspection.
How can you model for your team adopting new ways of work or being open to new ideas?
How can you model asking for feedback — and accepting it graciously, with a growth mindset?
You might even want to think about taking some public chances so that you can show your team that no matter what the outcome, the success was in the willingness to take a risk and innovate.
