Energize Everyday Entrepreneurs by Mandating Out-of-Bounds Thinking

‘Why Didn’t I Think of That?’ 

I consider entrepreneurs, or those walking around with an entrepreneurial spirit, as an organization’s most valuable assets. In my experience, I have seen how proactive and creative thinkers benefit organizations and their stakeholders. These are the everyday people who challenge or push against conventional or stale business ideologies, which can often stymie an organization. These proactive idea producers are no longer considered as those who only operate separately and apart from an organization. In fact, some employers require that their employees come up with creative and innovative ideas.

What Happens with Everyday Entrepreneurs?

This is important because stale or outdated ways of doing business can rob an organization’s potential to take care of its clients. People with a stake in the company—and the ones who got them there or who are there to take them to a higher level—significantly benefit when that entrepreneurial spirit is not confined.

This point leads us to the question: What happens with ‘everyday’ entrepreneurs?  Some people are naturally driven to come up with new ideas that challenge and improve upon 10-year-old ways (or sometimes even longer time periods) of doing things. When everyday entrepreneurs are allowed the latitude to think creatively and develop innovative ideas, we usually see positive and dynamic domino effects.

Moreover, we can realize nearly endless possibilities of these positive domino effects. Entrepreneurs are known to come up with ways and ideas for creating new potential outcomes, whether they are business or personal outcomes. These ideas are the ones that elicit responses such as “I hadn’t really thought about doing it that way before.”

This point leads us to a couple more questions: (1) How can an organization harness this creativity? (2) How can an organization avoid making mistakes when handling their entrepreneurial ideas? 

Progressive Organizations Succeed by Breaking Down Walls

Unfortunately ‘Corporate America’ tends to put everyone in a box. This box is really a part of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s management-style approaches.

Today’s rapidly changing business environment thrives on a more progressive thought-mapping approach. Normally business thoughts tend to heavily lean toward thinking, ‘We need to make more money.’ Of course that is true, but we need innovative thinking, too. For instance, ‘How do we really create something amazing for clients? Let’s break down the walls, collaborate and do something amazing.’

Imagine This: The 80-20 Approach

So I believe that businesses need to foster a passion for creativity. Employers should encourage everyone in an organization to concentrate on developing and building upon good ideas. Imagine, if we executed our business game plan 80 percent of the time without fail, then encouraged, challenged and compensated to innovate, innovate, and innovate the remaining 20 percent of the time for both our clients and organization.

Get Ahead of the Game, Make Everyday Entrepreneurial Thinking Mandatory

To breathe new life into your organization, you can strategically plan to mandate the power of this potential force. For one, employers can require that teams or individual employees come up with creative and innovative ideas.

In fact, Google, the organization responsible for the internationally known Internet search-engine service, is a prime example of making innovative thinking a company mandate. Everyone in that organization is required to come up with a certain number of new ideas. It is a part of employee performance reviews, and nothing is considered out of bounds. It makes for a very innovative and engaging culture.  

In my next HRTools Insight, we will review steps for harnessing the power of entrepreneurial ideas, so start planning to get ahead of the game.

Bryan Wempen is Manager of Strategic Alliances for PeopleClues. During the past 15 years, Bryan has become a nationally respected authority on strategic staffing operations.

Everyday entrepreneurs are the everyday people who challenge stale busines ideologies. Stale or outdated ways of doing business can rob an organization's potential to take care of its clients.