Habits for Success
I was exploring the blogosphere and stubbled upon an article talking about the habits of rich people. I normally overlook these types of articles as I have little interest in the journey of “getting rich”. I was intrigued by the fact that the author didn’t appear to be trying to “hook me” with the gimmicks of getting rich quick or the normal “sure fire ways” of achieving similar richness. On top of that the word “Habit” really grabbed my attention.
Action (good or bad) is a measure of change that is hard to deny. Habits tend to be actions performed repeatedly and consistently over time to the point that it becomes a part of the person, or at least their persona. As a leader of a company dedicated to helping organizations make changes to their culture of innovation, Ever Evolving coaches partners to recognize habit is one of the most powerful tools an organization can leverage to ensure successful cultural change. I was pleasantly surprised to see a list of habits that are applicable to helping people “make lots of money” and almost as directly applicable to companies looking for long term organization success through the “habit” of being innovative.
Personal and Organizational “Richness”
I took the sample of the research provided in Mr. Corley article and overlaid my experience and personal research into habits that make organizations more successful with cultural innovation.
| Habit | Action taken by the Rich | Action taken by an Organization |
| Experimentation | Trying new things in order to uncover an innate talent or passion. | Trying new things in order to realize the vision set for the organization and to achieve long-term success. |
| Reading (Continuous learning) | 30 minutes or more every day for self-education | Programs designed to grow knowledge worker’s technical and soft skills. |
| Building rich relationships (Nurturing like-positioned partners) | Forming connections with the right people — other future millionaires. | Collaborating with likeminded and even disparate organizations with intersecting visions. |
| Goal-setting (Vision creation) | Pursuing goals that are stepping stones to your dreams. | Creating a vision that provides enough clarity and flexibility to ensure organizational success. |
| Taking calculated risks | Not being afraid to take the type of risk that requires you to do your homework before investing your money. | A willingness to invest in building solutions that allow for near-immediate value realization from created experiments with the knowledge that some of those systems could overtake successful existing products or services |
Risk of Doing Nothing
And just like Tom Corley found “do-nothing habits” for those who don’t achieve riches, I have found organizations have a set of habits that caused them to fail in their attempt at a culture of innovation and even cause them to begin moving in the direction of obsolescence (and ultimately going out of business).
- Not practicing continuous learning
- Not practicing innovation management tools and techniques
- Not feeding your organization a healthy diet of knowledge and challenging work
- Not helping your employees meet career goals
- Not creating a vision for everyone to march towards
- Not following up with people inside and outside of your organizations
- Not being good fiscal stewards
- Not finding the proper balance between investing for the future and current solution/product spending.
- Not aligning the company with other organizations with visions that intersect with their own.
- Not celebrating and/or recognizing the achievement of organization milestones
- Not taking responsibility of what your future company looks like and how you get there.
- Not instilling social benefits into either your core mission or part of your external outreach.
- Not helping all stakeholders achieve a win-win-win scenario
A culture of innovation isn’t as simple as letting your employees play with the newest wiz bang gadget or experimenting with the coolest app on the market. It truly takes a set of habits that shape your company at it’s core and ensures everyone in the company is pushing toward a common vision. If you are looking for proven methods for instilling these types of habits within your company, feel free to contact us today!
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