Inspire Me!

A long time ago when first I was a manager (in the early 80s), we were asked how much budget we needed to deliver the required services.  The crash in the late 80s led to drastic budget cuts, then decades of constraints, then … Oh! Budgeting hasn’t changed since then!  Good or bad, managers need to abandon the vocabulary of cutbacks and fiscal constraints.  The words are discouraging; they are the language of a crisis used to describe the norm.  We need to find the language and the reality of inspiration! 

The budget available is simply a fact, amongst many other business facts.  We must cease replying to suggestions with, “We don’t have the money.”  We need to find answers that inspire more and richer ideas that will change the way we provide services.  The good answers will not be simplistic and may require our mentoring the idea generators to help them learn to fit sparks of inspiration into the work environment.

• “Interesting idea!  Let’s talk about that at a team meeting.  Could you work out how this might be implemented and make a presentation to the others?”
• “That’s a big idea!  Have you considered how it might be accomplished through several steps?”
• “What a new approach!  Let’s do some analysis to understand how this new process could replace what we are doing now.”

Gradually build understanding within your team about how ideas should be analyzed, supported and implemented in the actual environment of your organization.