Brainstorming new ideas is easy. Changing the culture to launch successful new projects is difficult. Here are some way to bring a startup culture into your organization.
- Divide and conquer: Pick two or three small teams and give them decision-making authority. Allow them to launch anything the whole team agrees is worth trying. One caution: Certain types of people prefer planning to progress. Make sure you pick the right people for the team.
- We report, you decide: Use weekly or monthly meetings that normally serve to seek clearance on new projects as a progress update. Instead of “We’d like your blessing to try this new approach,” the message would be “We decided to try this new approach and this is what we’ve seen so far.”
- Don’t let money stop you: If it’s a service that costs money, don’t waste time traveling up the chain of command to get approval. Either ask the vendor for a free trial (good service providers will be flexible, especially in this climate) or, if it’s an online technology, look for an open source solution or find another organization that will share some code.
Taken from Innovation at Work: Helping New Ideas Succeed, a self-directed course by Mark Briggs at Poynter NewsU.
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Vicki Krueger has worked with The Poynter Institute for more than 20 years in roles from editor to director of interactive learning and her current position as marketing communications manager. She is the author of Cleaning Your Copy: Grammar, Style and More – a self-directed e-learning course that consistently is ranked as one of the most popular courses at Poynter News University. Other work includes producing “Best Newspaper Writing,” the annual collection of the ASNE Distinguished Writing Award winners and finalists, and editing “Aim for the Heart,” a book by Poynter’s Al Tompkins for TV reporters and producers. You can follow her on Twitter at @vkrueger and @newsu.
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