According to a report by top European business school HEC Paris, the innovation function is evolving from a process managed by a few, to one that spans the enterprise. And that includes R&D, strategy, marketing and other departments. Across the board, companies surveyed agreed innovation is a long-term initiative to create ‘a sustainable culture of intellectual mobility within the company that integrates all employees to transform ideas into competitive advantages’. And it is a far cry from the burden of relentless cost-cutting and efficiency drives of recent years.

And this research isn’t alone in recognising the implications for L&D. Bersin & Associates’ Enterprise Learning and Talent Management 2011 found that 34 per cent of companies now cite innovation as a top three talent strategy. This is up from only 14 per cent on 2010.

The focus on innovation is driven by, among other things, the limitations caused by an overzealous focus on performance, efficiency and cost-cutting. So if too many employees have been taught to save money and stop taking risks, what do managers now need to do to enable their teams to develop new ideas and drive them through the organisation? And how can L&D help?

L&D needs to review its approach to learning. Traditional management development programmes have served many organisations well in the past. But when innovation, motivation and ideas are an organisation’s source of competitive advantage, processing factories churning out managers with a set of pre-determined behaviours will not produce the goods. So, what needs to be done? The answer lies in five key tasks.

Talk the language of business

L&D people have to talk to senior managers about business, not about theories. By operating and communicating in the same business world as the rest of the organisation L&D will be able to create stronger bonds and get to the heart of the challenges the business faces.

Solve real organisational problems

Senior managers want solutions to their business problems – fast. L&D needs to respond quickly and effectively with the right sort of training. This could mean any number of flexible and tailored approaches, including breaking training into short, targeted and high energy sessions. Or supporting training with coaching and intelligent facilitation to help managers develop and employ new skills.

Look forwards

New challenges need new solutions. If L&D is to deliver real and lasting improvements, it needs to become a ‘productivity partner’ offering practical solutions. To achieve this it needs a broad range of business and market knowledge and a good insight into where the business is going and the environment in which it will be operating in the future.

Use technology

L&D needs to understand the role of blended learning in all its guises to ensure the organisation has more appropriate training delivered in more relevant ways.

Fail fast and move on

Innovation means taking risks. Not all will pay off – and that includes L&D solutions. But with failure comes learning. L&D needs to recognise and understand failure – as well as success – and be open and honest about it. But then it needs to be prepared to change fast and move on to the next solution quickly without getting too absorbed by analysing what went wrong..

The current round of cost cutting by the new coalition government will require public sector bodies to make tough decisions (see Cuts and Commitment: What Public Sector HR Has to Deliver). In normal situations you would expect leaders to use the rational decision-making model (define problem, identify and weight criteria, generate and rate options, make decision).

However, these are not normal times and the increasing pressure on bosses is likely to push them into behaving irrationally. As Roy Mogg says in his blog Leadership in a Crisis, leaders and leadership qualities are coming under intense scrutiny around the world. We need leaders who can manage a crisis and make decisions in an emergency. But are our leaders up to the job?

Our recent experience provides some alarming evidence.

One huge organisation brought the leadership team together to address its big issues – including a full-scale restructure and redundancies running into thousands. However, those present became so embroiled in how to raise money for a nominated charity, managers spent more than a third of the time trying to out do each other in the philanthropic stakes.

The energy and clarity of thought were there, but totally misdirected. Meanwhile huge business challenges were sidelined. So why the inertia? Is it denial? Or did that senior team seek comfort in the familiar, delaying painful decisions in the process?

A second organisation we know got themselves totally distracted in a board-level argument over a director’s expense claim amounting to 64p. While this was going on they took their eye off the ball and lost a major contract. The drop in turnover has led to widespread cost cutting and redundancies.

So a leader’s inaction can and will lead to a deterioration in an already bad situation. Rather than allowing themselves to become distracted or freeze like rabbits in the headlights, bosses need to get to grips with the situation and act like effective crisis leaders.

The Leadership Trust has outlined three essential ‘grips’ to help in just this situation:

1. Grip oneself to make decisions and take action under stress.
2. Grip the task to clarify and communicate the objective and purpose of the decisions and create strategies to pursue them.
3. Grip the team to empower people to manage the crisis and do what needs to be done.

In these difficult times leaders need robust decision-making skills to handle complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. They also need to be able to evaluate information, and display clarity of thought, judgement and decisiveness under severe pressure. Today’s leaders need perseverance, endurance and tenacity to follow a course and pursue organisational goals – however tempting it may be to do something else instead. Coaching and mentoring can help leaders stay the course and do the right things at the right time – rather than get distracted and retreat into their comfort zone.

Some years ago I moved into public sector employment – since back again. Having come from a large blue-chip who had the corporate finger firmly on the pulse of conspicuous expenditure, I was at first reassured to hear the words: “We must be careful, this is public money we are spending.”

But it soon became clear this was a mantra trotted out with very little thought as to what it really meant.  For example, first class travel was still standard at some levels – even first class season tickets for those with regular London meetings.  The list of exceptions to the cost-cutting rule was seemingly endless.

I am sure – at least I hope I can be sure – such things do not still go on.  But, as Jaluch points out in Cutting Costs and Coffee, too many people in positions of responsibility are just way off the mark when it comes to cutting costs the right way. This shouldn’t be about plundering the public sector, but neither should it be about feckless soundbites.

As well as a much better appreciation of where to spend and where to economise, we need leaders able to create rapport, show genuine empathy, elicit ideas and demonstrate credible leadership to pull it off – without ripping the heart and soul out of the organisation in the process.

And public sector HR has a huge role to play in getting it right. As Courageous HR points out in its blog HR Business Partner – fact, fiction and the new role of HR, HR needs to focus on delivering the effectiveness mandate as well as purely efficiency. Cut costs and make change, of course, but don’t cut out or incapacitate critical life-giving organs in the process.

Cost cutting must not be a fashion statement. It must be for real and for the benefit of the whole organisation. Staff must understand the reasons for economies and must be committed to making a difference. Similarly, the spend it or lose it concept of the annual budget must be ended.

It will take time and a certain amount of education to change the habits of a lifetime for many.  But this is not all about public sector, bad; private sector, good. It is about learning from one another and taking the best and modifying it to suit the environment.

For ideas on cost cutting – without slashing the headcount – see our Alternatives to Redundancy Factsheet. For tips on inspiring staff to deliver in a downturn see our Motivating Staff Factsheet.

Posing the question Is Your Company Brainwashing You?, Trish went on to ask why so many firms tell new recruits “this is the best place to work in our industry”?

As she points out, we can’t all be “the best” place to work.

She goes on to say what she wishes employers would tell their staff and asks what other statements employers use that are not true?  And also what companies should be telling employees and candidates – but don’t?

Well, my thinking is that while it might be disingenuous, we can’t blame organisations for wanting to motivate their staff by telling them they’re the best. Because it’s far better than employers doing nothing.

We’re always being told by the staff of clients we work with (pay as you go HR, HR consultancy and management training) that they’re not given enough praise or recognition when they do something well. Compared to that feedback void, being told you’re the best when hired sounds like a good thing to me.

As an HR and training company, we work with a range of businesses. From SMEs with no internal professional HR resource, to employers with limited HR support (perhaps a part-time HR manager), right up to large organisations with fully functioning HR and training teams. This issue is relevant to them all.

So how can you stop teams wasting time and energy by pulling in different directions when what you need is agreement over what to do next?

Facilitation is the key. A facilitator – anyone with the right approach and skills – steps into a situation when those involved have reached a stage when they cannot by themselves overcome the problems they face. They have reached a stalemate.

For the manger or team leader in a small business, facilitation skills can help get teams working co-operatively on key decision-making issues. Using a few basic techniques (see our Facilitation Factsheet), managers can engage the whole team, collect all viewpoints, and get the team to consider its options and identify what actions need to be taken.

For the HR professional, helping teams and individuals work through challenges they may not have faced before and developing solutions is perhaps the biggest contribution they can make right now. Every organisation wants to see maximum value added by HR and this is perhaps the greatest opportunity to demonstrate that.

In turbulent times, teams and departments are often called upon to make difficult decisions. This factsheet aims to give managers and teamleaders some basic facilitation skills to prevent groups stumbling at obstacles in the decision-making process.

The factsheet covers:

• What is facilitation
• Facilitation skills for beginners
• Facilitation ground rules
• Steps for facilitating a meeting

Download our free Facilitation Factsheet

Download our free Motivating Staff Factsheet