Can Operational Efficiency and Innovation Coexist? Yep! (And It’s Your Job As a Leader)

Welcome to Leading Disruption, a weekly letter about disruptive leadership in a transforming world. Every week we’ll discover how the best leaders set strategy, build culture, and manage uncertainty all in service of driving disruptive, transformative growth. For more insights like these, join my private email list .

Why fix something that isn’t broken, right?

Business is booming. You’re cruising at high speed. Your operation is a well-oiled machine. But is that enough?

Sure, operational excellence and efficiency is one way to measure success in your business, but it’s not the only thing you must be thinking about as a leader. You need to think about the future, too!

During Tuesday’s livestream , I talked about the importance of innovating into new areas. Growth can be scary, but staying the same? That’s even scarier!?

And while finding the balance between smooth operations and exploring new territories may seem impossible, great leaders can pave the path and find a balance that works.?

It starts with:

The innovation focus

I’ve been working with a manufacturing company as they introduce new products and focus on their changing market’s needs.?

The company’s managers have been doing a fantastic job – keeping the factories going, maintaining an outstanding safety record, fine-tuning their expertise and talent. But when it comes to driving innovation while sustaining operations, they’re lost.

Or are they?!

Here’s the thing: When you already ship products and services in a fairly predictable manner, it only requires a small mental shift to get into an innovation mindset. You already know how to look for little tweaks to make things a little faster, a little smoother. And you excel at finding and removing fault points that could jeopardize operation and safety. This is the everyday reality of achieving operational excellence!?

Now it’s all about focusing those same capabilities toward innovation. Instead of asking yourself, “How can I keep things running the exact same way?” you ask yourself, “How can I transition the existing business into new areas?”?

It sounds simple, but how do you actually create mental space to do that??

Define your role as a leader

If you want to focus on innovation, you have to remove yourself from the day-to-day operations. Terrifying, I know!

But data shows that many leaders are spending 60% (!) of their time in business reviews. Only 30% of their time is dedicated to talent and culture and 10% is allocated to strategy, growth, and development.

That’s a huge problem because your job as a leader is to focus on the vision, prioritize tasks, simplify the complex, give your team clear direction, and hire the right people for the job.?

As a leader, you must empower your team . Let them know they’re more than capable. This will do two things: Create a happier team and free up mental space for you to disrupt and innovate!

When leaders do that, they spend far less time on operations and business reviews, shifting that time mostly to strategy, growth, and development.?

Now that you know being more laissez-faire is the first step, let’s talk about:?

Making more time for innovation

One objection I hear from leaders all the time is: “I don’t have time to innovate! I can’t just pull away from operations!”

You can! You absolutely can. Here’s how:

• Cull your calendar. Every time I work with someone who claims they’re too busy, I ask them to get out their calendar. Then, we identify the activities and decisions only they can do. When you get honest about what you really need to be doing, you’ll find you suddenly have a lot more time to focus on innovation – not just optimizing processes and putting out fires
• Connect your team to the why. If your team doesn’t understand the vision for the future and their role, they’ll constantly be looking to you for direction. Ensuring your team understands the customer and their needs will empower them to operate more efficiently – and make delegating much easier.
• Give your employees agency. Allow them to experiment. Give them permission to come up with ideas. Create a culture where it’s okay to point out when something doesn’t work or ask why something is done a certain way. Without the ability to challenge the status quo, your team won’t share their observations – and won’t drive innovation.
• Make change visible. My friend Rebecca Macieira Kaufmann, author of FitCEO , once had a job to shut down divisions at large financial services companies. As soon as she arrived, she told people why she was there and promised to give them months of advance notice of when change was coming. She attended many farewell parties where employees thanked her for her honesty and transparency. Instead of keeping the changes hidden, make sure anyone who will be impacted knows as soon as possible.?

This kind of culture – one where failure and transparency are normalized – is one that creates trust across the entire organization and allows you to drive innovation.?

We’re going to dive deeper into trust next week: the importance of intimacy at work, a sense of inclusion, and a feeling of belonging. I’ll see you back here on Tuesday, February 15 at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET. I hope you’ll join me to learn more about developing intimacy at work – and what it really looks like!

PS: I’m also talking about intimacy in my private Disruption Dispatch, and sharing a story about my family. If you haven’t subscribed, please do !?

Your Turn

Finding balance in all we do is a juggling act, so I want to know how you’re managing and thinking about the balance between operational excellence and innovation. What’s your personal experience? What’s worked and what hasn’t? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments!