INCREASING LEARNING & INNOVATION APAMSA Leadership Development Module

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Team members at all levels (i.e., new members, active team members, officers) should be oriented toward learning and continuous improvement  Facilitate acquisition and application of new knowledge and skills to improve team performance Leadership Application Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Leadership Application  Increasing Learning & Innovation Organize a Learning & Development committee to develop skill learning and development programs Describe your approach to Increasing Learning & Innovation and briefly explain how your methods encouraged learning and facilitated advancement of work activities Leadership Challenge (25)

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Flexibility and innovation  Individual and team learning  Mental models  Surprises and failures  Share ideas  Set goals  Reward innovation Guidelines For Increasing Learning & Innovation Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Celebrate and appreciate people’s ability to adapt and learn  Identify new changes as exciting challenges and opportunities to improve vs. unwanted burdens  To ease stress, view all challenging efforts as temporary Flexibility & Innovation Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  To resolve problems, solicit ideas from both spectrums:  What is the most rational solution?  What is the most unorthodox solution?  Think out of the box and encourage creative ideas and new perspectives  Encourage after-activity reviews and quality-improvement programs Flexibility & Innovation Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Performance improves when individuals and teams are learning  Promote self-development and continued life-long education  Organize periodic educational workshops that enable skill training and development Individual & Team Learning Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Mental models help people assess and interpret problems and situations  Avoid assumptions that people are powerless and change requires too much effort or impossible  Effective mental models explore reasons for success and failures resulting from our actions Mental Models Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Discuss the correlation of specific actions with performance to judge the outcome of people’s actions  Help people investigate causes for success and failures, and appropriate action steps needed for improvement Mental Models Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Surprises and failures are the best opportunities to learn new things  Expected outcomes simply reinforce what is already known  Important surprises can be overlooked if expected outcomes are not predicted Surprises & Failures Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Encourage and facilitate sharing of knowledge and ideas with team discussions  Communicate with multiple team members involved in diverse activities  Network people with other people who could help improve their performance Share Ideas Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Set innovation goals to develop new methods to improve or streamline work activities  Periodical schedule monthly meetings to assess progress with innovation goals  Progress may be slow and in small increments— although, progress nevertheless! Set Goals Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Increasing Learning & Innovation  Celebrate and reward persons or teams who suggest new ways to improve team performance  Seek opportunities to publically recognize sponsors, advocates, and champions for innovations Reward Innovation Source: G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p )

Leadership Application  Increasing Learning & Innovation Learning is an endless process Organize educational programs to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills to improve team performance Apply these guidelines to encourage learning and facilitate advancement of work activities Summary

Leadership Development  Networking Our next module discusses guidelines to establish key internal and external networks Next Topic…

Leadership Application  G. Yukl, Leadership In Organizations, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006, p  Free Management Library Sources