Innovation Habits – Time to Think

Creating time to think is a key enabler of innovation. Organisations that create the time and environments for their people to think, and increase the quality of collective thinking, can foster a culture that increases innovation – as well as many other positive outcomes.

Innovation happens by helping people establish the habits that create time to think, and managing meetings that increase the quality of thinking.

The challenge is not one of creating time but changing individual and organisational habits that change organisational culture, the nature of collaboration and communication, and respect for other people's time.

But people’s and organisation’s habits are hard to change. Over time they just become the ‘way we do things around here’.

Grand plans to change lifestyles or business transformation programmes may deliver short-term change but, unless the underlying daily habits change, the likelihood is that over time things will return to how they were, or very near to how they were before the ‘change initiative’.

Why might habits change?

In most cases, irreversible change comes about because of one of two of the following:

  • A shock event that changes your own or organisation’s core beliefs, perspective. or environment. At a personal level this could be a critical health issue, bereavement, a change in self-esteem or a change in a relationship. At an organisational level it might be a sudden unforeseen or enforced change to the business, a scandal, lay-offs, reorganisation, or even just office relocation.
  • Small incremental changes where day-to-day bad habits are replaced using strategies such as changing your environment, avoiding triggers, getting back on track when things don’t go well and overcoming the very real barriers to change – James Clear’s Atomic Habits provides a comprehensive overview.

Both types of change can happen at a personal level and organisational level - but our focus is on making small incremental changes that increase organisational innovation.

People

At an individual level, taking time away to step back from an organisation’s daily rituals and routines, even for just a few minutes, can help people to think, spot new patterns and join dots that have not been connected.  This can provide new insights that might be shared and explored. 

At a personal level, creating time to think is different to the often and overused recommendations of just taking a break or a brisk walk, albeit these may help. It is about setting aside uninterrupted time to think, on your own and at a time you can concentrate to consider a problem. And, as you do so, recording your thinking – its sequence and outcomes – maybe through written notes or voice notes. The overarching aim is to create the space to improve your own quality of thinking.

Creating Time

So how do you create a new habit that gives you time to think– a key enabler of innovation. Building on James Clear’s concept of atomic habits:

  1. Create a simple cue, maybe an everyday act at work that gives you as a first step just two minutes to think about a problem or connections - uninterrupted or distracted by people or your environment. Creating two minutes in an 8-hour or more day should be possible for everybody – even if only during a break. Then, try to create a slot to make it 2 ½ minutes, or 3 minutes – just a little more at a time. 5 minutes each day is a reasonable target, but not a limit.
  2. Even this may be hard – there may be cues to overcome that eat up time. Using time to check emails and social media are the most common examples. So maybe just closing your browser or email application, or even just shutting the lid on your laptop, may overcome the craving to do something else that eats up those few minutes.
  3. With a cue in place and the craving to do something else reduced, your commitment is increased, and you can respond. Pick up a pen, write down a problem or a statement you want to think about – then record your thinking. If this is your approach, make the response easy to do. Always make sure you have a pen and paper to hand at the time and place you want to think. Or a voice note app on your phone that you can use regularly.
  4. Then, reward yourself. This can feel strange but there are some simple things that create a sense of reward. In the same way that fitness tracker apps record steps, or calories every day – record the fact you have met your commitment in a diary - or maybe even a record of the time spent (but best to avoid the cream doughnuts – there may be unintended consequences).

Organisations

At an organisational level, teams need time to think and the challenge for every organisation should be to create an environment that increases the quality of organisational-level thinking. Nancy Kline, in her latest book, The Promise that Changes Everything: I Won’t Interrupt You, identifies that one of the key reasons that the quality of thinking is constrained is interruption.  

Unfortunately, it happens all the time. I doubt that anyone reading this article can think of a meeting without interruption. The act of interruption is often seen as positive, it indicates that people may be, or are, listening and engaged. But at the same time, it indicates that they think that what they are about to say next is more important than what was going to be said by the speaker, which may be lost forever. Interruption is a judgement that what you have to say is the most important thing that needs saying next. Maybe it is – and it maybe that it prevents something being said that should not be said nor overlooked, under any circumstances. A breach of confidentiality, an offensive remark, something that causes personal hurt are real examples where interruption may be the only way of making sure a barrier is not crossed. 

But for most situations, does holding off and making a note mean your own thinking is lost forever that the opportunity for correction and judgement is lost? Probably not.

So what can be done to improve the quality of thinking in an organisation?

Meetings

Meetings make up a part of everybody’s working lives. But so many are unproductive, with too many people and too much time given to things that don’t matter, and where people don’t even engage. Often, people may use the meeting time to discretely catch up on emails, pop-up notifications, or just think about something else. Being physically (not mentally) present at the meeting can often be interpreted as the most important measure of success – not the quality of thinking.

Recognising that interruptions destroy the quality of good thinking what can you do when you are leading a meeting?

  1. Set out a simple expectation, at the start of each meeting, that you want to avoid interruptions. Present this in the context of the need to show others respect, giving people time to talk through their thoughts so they can be considered in full. Using humour and humility, admitting you may be a culprit yourself, can help reinforce the expectation about interrupting behaviours.
  2. Establish a protocol that allows people to speak at an appropriate time – ‘raising a hand’ in a Teams, Zoom or face-to-face meeting is one example that is now widely accepted. Strangely, this is often easier to do online than it is in a room. In these cases, the protocol can in fact stop people rambling and eating up valuable time – saving themselves as they lose their train of thought.
  3. If somebody is failing or finding it hard to comply, remind them and everyone around the table that interruptions lower the quality of good thinking. And give them a way to get out what might be a difficult situation. Dealing with these situations rather than overlooking them will help bed-down the practice and show you are leading by example – acting as a role model for positive habits.

Innovation Habits

Changing habits is hard - it means doing things differently and sticking with the new ways.

Stickiness is a challenge for not just individuals, but for organisations and industries – change initiatives often peter out over time and old unwanted habits return.

To help overcome this, we have identified 9 habits that anyone or any organisation can develop to increase innovation. But because changing habits is hard, it's best to start with only one, maybe two, and take some very small steps that just get you started. 

  • Create time to think at work
  • Challenge Generalisations
  • Exchange knowledge on multiple interests
  • Be curious about problems and their opportunities
  • Create something
  • Take something apart
  • Learn from failures
  • Celebrate successes
  • Be a role model for positive habits

The first step might be creating time to think.