?5 ways to unlock innovation while maintaining standards

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As long as leaders have managed employees, they’ve asked: How do we encourage innovation while maintaining our standards?

Whether your company manufactures breakthrough products or delivers world-class service (or both), you’ve likely struggled with this paradox — how do we encourage innovation from our teams while ensuring they maintain structure?

Fortunately, you don’t have to have an MBA to unlock the creativity of your people while still maintaining the standards that made your product or service successful. You will, however, have to put yourself in a pair of combat boots.

Battlefield planning

In my work studying hundreds of combat missions from the front lines, I saw innovation occur every day. Whether a Marine was using a ladder to cross rooftop-to-rooftop in Fallujah or an engineer was rigging electricity for a village, service members do more with less and still achieve close to 100 percent of their missions.

How does the military accomplish their goals, encourage innovation in their people and still adhere to strict standards and processes? More importantly, how can you incorporate their methods into your organization?

1. Set clear objectives

Before stepping off on a mission, troops know exactly what they are supposed to accomplish and when. Instead of struggling to achieve a vague goal like “earn more revenue,” service members and innovative employees have a clear end-state to keep their focus on.

2. Involving all levels

Unlike many businesses, every unit involved in a military mission participates in planning. The military would never dream of using FA-18 jets for air support without involving the pilots. Pilots can answer important questions like, “How long can we keep the jets on station before refueling?” and “What’re our jets’ night-vision capabilities?”

Involve both your executive team and client-facing positions when planning. As a leader, you can ensure your standards are maintained and you’ll be surprised at the solutions executives couldn’t see.

3. Regular re-alignment

Before each mission, leaders brief their teams to re-align them on the goal and pass on updates. Take the time to have your teams re-align and re-assess each day before tackling their goals so they’re operating with the latest intel and innovating towards an up-to-date objective.

4. Hold people accountable

In the military, everyone is accountable for their part of the plan. If someone isn’t doing their job, the whole mission could fail. Similarly, ensure everyone on your team knows what they are responsible for achieving and when. That way, you know who to thank or who needs additional training and support next time.

5. After-action reports

No mission is complete without an after-action meeting. It’s in this meeting that everyone goes over what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve. In these meetings, teams share their innovative solutions so the entire organization can use them as well. It’s how the military stays a step ahead of their competition, and how you can out-innovate yours.

Using these five simple steps will ensure your organization maintains its standards and innovates the solutions that accomplishes your missions.