Many organisations are always on the lookout for fresh, innovative strategies to create meaningful change. However, it’s not always obvious that the key to enduring innovation doesn't lie in quick bursts of intense effort, but rather in the steady, consistent work that builds momentum over time. In this article, we will discuss how a persistent dedication to improvement, day in and day out, will ultimately drive long-lasting and impactful results.
Consistency Trumps Intensity
When it comes to achieving results or driving change, organisations often have two main approaches: pump everything into one particular project or chip away at something consistently over a longer period of time. While the former may seem more exciting and impactful in the short-term, it is indeed that consistency almost always wins out in the long run.
When we’re continuously turning up every day, building that learning, building that knowledge, making progress, we'll keep moving forward. Whereas sometimes when we do these really big exertions of energy into one particular project, it may make a change, but it doesn't necessarily stick at the end of the day.
Building Identity and Habits
This concept of consistency is not just about achieving results – it's also about shaping identity and cultivating habits. When you consistently engage in a particular behaviour, it becomes a part of who you are and changes your identity, rather than just a one-off activity.
This idea of building habits through consistency is particularly relevant when it comes to learning new skills or developing new behaviours. Consistency helps in building habits, which are more effective than occasional efforts. Whether it's learning a new language or playing a musical instrument, the research is clear: regular, consistent practice is the key to success.
Embedding Innovation into Operational Routines
One way to foster this culture of innovation is to embed it into the organisation's existing operational routines. As an example, regular meetings or processes that focus on innovation, or having an advisory board of your clients or people with lived experience, and regularly getting their input into your work.
There’s also a concept we use called insight to action routines. This process involves regularly collecting insights from various sources, making sense of them, prioritising ideas, and then working to implement them – all as part of a consistent, ongoing process.
You can imagine how if we were to do something like that in every organisation, you can understand that innovation would be happening because it's tracked. There's ways, there's processes, and it's consistently happening every single day.
Building a Culture of Innovation
To avoid having an organisation that is not adaptable to the changing world around it, a culture of innovation is required, and this requires a more holistic, consistent approach to capacity-building and support.
It's about building that capacity by providing opportunities for people to practise and for them to start small and build their confidence and expertise, but also having processes and tools that assist them.
Changing a culture is hard work and it can't happen overnight. It's a long game and to play that long game successfully, organisations need to take a multi-faceted, consistent approach. This might include ongoing training, the development of supporting tools and resources, and the establishment of processes that make it easy for everyone to contribute to innovation. Innovation at scale is about changing the way that people work, and that takes time.
Innovation is a Team Effort
Another key aspect of building a culture of innovation is ensuring that it's not just the responsibility of a select few, but rather a shared endeavour across the entire organisation.
When we're talking about innovation, is that whole idea of innovation being a part of everybody's job versus having one or two people that do innovation and everybody else doesn't do it.
Different perspectives are the "gold" of innovation. By empowering all team members to contribute their ideas and insights, organisations can tap into a wealth of untapped potential.
By embedding innovation into everyday operational routines, building a culture that values continuous improvement, and empowering all team members to contribute their ideas, organisations can create lasting, sustainable change. It may not be as flashy as a one-time, high-impact project, but the results will speak for themselves in the long term.
Consistency almost always will beat the intensity. With a steady, consistent approach, you will in the long run have a bigger impact.
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