Page 129 - Appreciative Leadership

102 Appreciative Leadership

In the process a midlevel professional—someone who,
in most organizations, would not have been invited to
participate in strategic planning—articulated a business
changing “ah-ha.” As he looked at the information posted
on fl ip charts around the room, he suddenly understood and
communicated to others that the division’s core capability
had nothing to do with window fashions. Their core
capability was actually the technology they used to create
the window fashions. The room became silent. Everyone
realized that what he said was indeed true. 3

This crucial insight led the business to reinvent itself. A new stra-
tegic vision was craft ed. Within a year, the company applied its core
technology to the development of a new product in a new market: an
acoustical ceiling tile. In this case, inclusion not only led to innovation
but also to the formation of a new business unit and profi table growth
for the company.
Many people learn about the importance of inclusion and its rela-
tionship to innovation the hard way: by failing to include people in
discussions and decisions that impact their lives. By making the “error
of exclusion” early in her career, one HR manager we interviewed
learned that inclusion is the key to successful innovation:

My team was tasked to create a companywide employee devel-
opment program. Initially, we created a series of programs and

told employees about them. The programs were not success-
ful. Attendance was low, and all the feedback told us that the
programs were not relevant. We decided to try another route.
We gathered groups of employees and asked them what they

needed and wanted in the way of development. They gave us
a lot of ideas. Some people even volunteered to help us create
some of the programs. By including employees, we were able,