Does Your Company Have Mental Shrinkage?

If you’re in the hospitality, retail, or grocery business, you understand the concept of shrinkage. It’s when inventory expires, goes bad, or is stolen. It can’t be sold, so the company must take it as a loss.

Other businesses, like a bank, don’t have this challenge. Yet arguably, every industry has shrinkage in its way. Those without inventory have shrinkage in the form of innovation atrophy. This occurs when an employee is asked for their ideas and input, and invests time and effort working through them, only to learn it’s all for naught.

When this happens over and over and over again in a company, where’s the motivation to innovate? Moreover, who wants to even try?

A colleague and marketing manager of a multi-million-dollar financial services company, Kathy, shared her perspective on it, explaining it like this:

“The team wants to do new things. They want a challenge. And when leadership brings something to the table, they’re all over it. But we now know better — there have been too many times when we’ve developed a plan, designed a campaign, or created a program, only to learn that there was something else entirely they planned to do. Now we just wait to be told so we don’t waste our time and resources.”

This is a company culture and idea killer. A great example is the CEO of a North American manufacturer, Jim, who shared with me the frustration he had with his team, stating:

“It has become incredibly hard to get anyone to bring new ideas to the table. We always ask for input, but it seems like we hear nothing new or nothing at all. It ends up being the executive team that determines everything. I just don’t think our culture is passionate for the business anymore.”

However, his team had a different opinion. Through an anonymous survey, 68% felt their ideas were never recognized or glossed over. 79% said they had at least four instances where an idea they ran with was kiboshed midstream. 81% said they were informed by peers that certain topics were culturally closed off to input. 88% said it was an unwritten rule to hold tight and stay quiet when an executive asked for ideas or approaches to solve a problem.

All of them said they provided this guidance to new hires.

Once you set the precedent that your team can’t produce great ideas, whether by rejecting or usurping their generation, an organization’s culture begins to shift towards a permanent wait-and-see mode. Once this gets established, it’s incredibly hard to undo.

New hires start shortening their tenure. Veteran employees start reinforcing and retaining the status quo to sustain consistency as long as possible before their eventual retirement. Innovation begins to drain out of the organization like a leak under a sink you don’t see until it’s too late.

About the Author

Andrea’s 25-year, field-tested background provides practical, behavioral science approaches to creating differentiated, human-focused organizations. A 4x ADDY award-winner, TEDx presenter, and 3x book author, she began her career at a tech start-up and led the strategic sales, marketing, and customer engagement efforts at two global industrial manufacturers. She now leads a change agency dedicated to helping organizations differentiate their brands using behavioral science.

In addition to writing and consulting, Andrea speaks to leaders and industry organizations around the world. Connect with Andrea to access information on her book, keynoting, research, or consulting. More information is also available on www.pragmadik.com or . www.andreabelkolson.com

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.