4 Traits to Look for and Foster
Here are some traits to look for and foster within your team’s culture to give your new initiatives their best chance of success:
User Focus
In some lexicons, this is known as design thinking. Whatever you call it, it is identifiable within a team’s culture as a creative, solution-oriented approach that emphasizes problem solving focused on how real humans/customers/users interact with your product or service.
Accountability and Efficiency
Anytime we interact with a team, we are constantly rating (in our own heads) its “Gross Domestic Product.”
- How quickly is the product getting to market?
- Do individuals act with a high level of personal accountability?
- How much time is being wasted not making decisions?
Because here’s the thing: Lethargic cultures don’t produce or welcome new ideas.
Innovation comes from teams made up of passionate, proactive and productive doers. It has been our experience that employees who operate with a high degree of engagement and accountability also tend to have greater empathy for others. This makes them more likely to recognize — and take the initiative to fix — poor customer experiences.
Openness to Feedback
Employees at design-forward organizations are accustomed to giving and receiving feedback across all levels of peers and management. Being open to input — from co-workers, staff who report to you and the customers you serve — is a must.
Truly confident leaders are comfortable with the idea that they don’t know what they don’t know. They consider evidence that casts doubt on a hypothesis or strategy, especially when it comes through research and data analysis.
Designers get a lot of practice accepting and incorporating changes. Failing fast is a rush!
We don’t take it as an affront to our brilliance, or as a slap in the face to our years of experience. Discovering that something was not as successful as we anticipated is fairly commonplace. When issues are identified through user testing early in the strategy phase, there’s plenty of time to course-correct.
Humble Confidence
In customer-centric cultures, self-confidence manifests as humility, not protectionism.
Those with genuine confidence in their abilities are accepting of new ideas. Challenges are not met with fear or defensiveness but rather with the desire to learn. This mindset creates an environment where people feel secure and supported, even when the winds of change blow their way.
Consider how you would rate your team on these four traits, but don’t stop there. Talk to your team to find out what they think. Figure out where the gaps and opportunities are and focus on those. The gaps are where the most effort is required of leaders.
If you want to use a design-forward approach to drive innovation, take a look under the hood and find out what you’re actually dealing with culture-wise. Then go to work creating the change necessary to build truly transformational products.