Monday 4 July 2016

Candour precedes creativity and innovation

There's a standout reason that at the time of writing this that the Federal Election results in Australia are unknown two days after votes were cast - a lack of candour. Instead we've had spin, deception, and a failure to name the elephants in the room.

Don't let your business fall into the same traps.

"How long will it take you to find out why we're not being as innovative as we need to be?" asked a prospective client.

"About an hour." I replied.

For 25 years I have been walking into organisations as an adviser and I am told, usually within an hour, of what could be better and yet no one has raised issues with insiders for fear of reprisal or fear for their jobs and other nasty reasons.

A common reason is a cultural issue of not talking about what can be perceived as unpleasant.

Sometimes I name the elephants myself. Once or twice I have been thrown out for doing so! Usually I mentor people to name the elephants themselves.

The outcome usually is relief and very quickly elephants are humanely removed. Soon creativity and innovation happen. Often the reaction is why was this not spoken about before?

Speaking up and speaking out are characteristics of being a 'connoisseur of candour', a role Appreciative Leaders play remarkably well, and the subject matter for today's Monday Morning Momentum video below and the update to handbook #4 that you can download from here.



Be remarkable.
Ian

I'd love your help

I've completed two thirds of the writing of the penultimate draft of 'The Appreciative Leader' handbook.

If you'd like to read the handbook and are willing to provide me with candid feedforward and feedback I'd be very grateful.

You can find out more and email me from here.

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