Innovation Management Software Only Works if You Welcome Feedback 

What a business wants to do is get more customers. If they perform properly, they will achieve that. Hence, they focus on performance management. That is a formula that has been followed for many generations. We have controlled ourselves with labor agreements, forms, competency frameworks, manuals, ratings, processes, and other forms of performance management. They were useful back in their day, but they are not fit for purpose anymore today. Today, what is needed is innovation management rather than performance management, which starts with innovation management software being in place.

Out with the Old in with the New with Innovation Management Software

What innovation management software enables you to do, is get rid of old processes that no longer work and replace them with the things people are looking for today. What does that mean practically? It means that people learn how to connect and how to give each other feedback, thereby ensuring everybody improves the way they work. That is how performance will be improved as well.

In the old manner:

• You would have annual performance measuring exercises.
• You would have an annual review of compensation.
• You would have a single manager rate their subordinate.
• You would find tenure more important than meritocracy.

In an innovative system:

• You provide feedback in real team.
• You give people options to assess themselves.
• You complete team assessments.
• You ask customers to assess performance.

To achieve this, there are a few things that you must get right, however. Those include:

1. That you must get your workforce to align with the objectives. They must have purpose and they must know what is expected of them.
2. That feedback is vital, and it must be given in real time. This makes it meaningful and allows people to grow.
3. That it is vital that everybody is allowed to make mistakes. This is a change climate, which means the future is unsure. Mistakes will happen, and that is ok.
4. That you should no longer judge those below you, but mentor them instead. This goes above and beyond having an open door policy. It is about management actually embodying the change they want to see.
5. That you should stop using compensation as a way to improve performance. This is perhaps the biggest shift of all, but the reality is that money is not the greatest motivator. Money is finite and while it is nice, there are other, longer lasting things that would motivate people far more.
6. That you should review the ratings you have been working with to measure staff performance. Those old forms with fancy traffic light systems are simply not fit for purpose. They never really were, as you should have noticed over the past years of using them. Ditch the ratings and talk about what’s real instead.
7. That you should also performance manage any external contractors or companies that you have outsourced to, as well as freelancers.

With the above, innovation should become an integral and successful part of your organization.