Innovation in Action: Challenging the Status Quo and Transforming the Future of Work

I have always been a person who is curious and asks questions about the way we do things. My parents influenced this at a very young age. My father had many inventions, and my mom is, to this day, the most efficient person I know. With this thinking, I developed a mindset that challenges the status quo and innovates, all to make something better or create something that will solve a problem. I have challenged myself and the companies I have worked with to do just that continuously. If you take one thing from this article, it would be to challenge your environment! Ask yourself, what is working and not working? What is archaic? What can be transformed? And what needs to scale?

A simple way to start is with the design thinking method. Even though this method is often used in marketing, it gives a very simple framework that can be followed in many departments. It includes the following phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, implement. It all starts with empathizing with the problem you want to solve and defining how you will try to come up with the solution. Ideation is such an important element in this framework but also independent of this. Create time and space to ideate alone and in collaboration with your peers. Once you do, you will be surprised at how many ideas you will generate. Some will develop into the most rewarding projects and experiences of your life! After you ideate, you will test the product/process and be ready to implement it.

I’d like to share a recent innovation project where I led a squad of colleagues from different departments to solve a current pain point - onboarding. We created a virtual onboarding for new hires using VR technology. It was certainly a new frontier for us and, at times, tough to navigate. But we knew we wanted to digitally transform this task to not only improve the employee experience but also make this process more efficient. It started with an idea; we built out what we envisioned it to look like, how we wanted people to feel, and how it would sound. As we were not technology experts, we needed partners to help us bring our vision to reality. It took months to develop the content and the flow, and it evolved numerous times during this stage. We developed a prototype (with the hard work of our creative agency and developers). Let’s just say when we did user experience testing, it really took people’s breaths away. We took in the feedback given and then went to the testing phase. Here, we were able to identify some kinks and glitches that, once we corrected, we were able to launch and implement! Needless to say, it completely transformed a mundane, not interactive, and time-consuming process into a state-of-the-art, completely immersive experience.

People often assume that innovation has to involve technology (in this case, it did). However, innovation can be any form of creating or adopting something new. For example, it can be methodologies that will improve processes. Whether you are using kanban, kaizen, or agile, adopting a form of continuous improvement is important. These methodologies keep you organized and focused and tackle projects. This will reduce the risk of becoming stagnant, complacent, or obsolete—the opposite of innovation, right?

Over the last 17 years that I have been in the HR sector, I have spent a lot of time working with people, processes, flows, systems, and most recently, the topic of the “future of work.” The future of work is already upon us and is constantly changing. They say change is the only constant, right? So, we need to keep adapting and pivoting when necessary. But above all, the spirit of innovation needs to exist in every organization. It is the essence of evolution and the very thing that will keep companies competitive and successful. Most organizations have already started to think about their processes and flow to see where and what can be more efficient, what can be automated, and, most importantly, how this will impact our workforce. For example, the use of artificial intelligence can reduce labor significantly. We know that robots are being developed, and we will need to coexist with them. They are not being developed to take our jobs but rather to automate mundane tasks and subject to more human error. Humans will now be able to spend time analyzing what the robot has gathered, making recommendations, and adding more context and value to the data. Because, after all, we know the business more intimately, not the robot! Many consulting firms specialize in the implementation of such topics, so you have the opportunity to align yourself with experts in this subject matter.

Lastly, preparing your workforce for the future is very important. What skills will your current employees need for the future? A suggestion would be to identify the top skills of the future (they are ever-changing, but #1 continues to be emotional intelligence), perform a skills gap analysis, and determine what suits your needs and your company. Many tools and platforms help with upskilling and retooling, and you can customize a learning and development program to monitor this for your organization.

We are in a revolutionary time where innovation should be at the forefront of our actions. Are you ready to challenge yourself and your environment and innovate?