Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six seventy two. Innovation has a bad reputation
Speaker 2: and a lot of organizations, not because people don't want it,
Speaker 2: but because they've seen what it turns into. Long meetings,
Speaker 2: big plans, fancy language, consultants, slide decks that look great
Speaker 2: but don't change anything, and somewhere along the way, innovation
Speaker 2: becomes heavy, slow, and complicated. That's the exact opposite of
Speaker 2: what innovation is supposed to be. Innovation is supposed to
Speaker 2: make things better, easier, faster, and smarter. So today I
Speaker 2: want to talk about how to innovate without overcomplicating. Because
Speaker 2: if your innovation process is complicated, it's already broken. So
Speaker 2: let's start with this. Innovation is not about creating something
Speaker 2: new from scratch every time. It's about improving what already exists.
Speaker 2: Most leaders miss this. They think innovation means big change,
Speaker 2: big risk, big announcements. No, real innovation lives in the
Speaker 2: small improvements nobody claps for it's the tweak that saves
Speaker 2: five minutes per shift. It's the adjustment that removes frustration
Speaker 2: from a daily task. It's the fix that stops a
Speaker 2: reoccurring problem. That's innovation, and it's happening every day, whether
Speaker 2: you recognize it or not. So the first move you
Speaker 2: need to make is this, stop chasing big ideas and
Speaker 2: start noticing small problems, because every small problem is an
Speaker 2: innovation opportunity. If your team is constantly saying things like
Speaker 2: this is annoying, or why do we do it this way?
Speaker 2: Or this slows us down, that's your signal. That's your
Speaker 2: innovation pipeline talking to you, and most leaders ignore it.
Speaker 2: Great leaders lean into it. Now here's where things usually
Speaker 2: go sideways. Someone identifies a problem and instead of solving
Speaker 2: it simply, they build a system around it, policies, committees,
Speaker 2: and layers of approval, and suddenly a five minute problem
Speaker 2: becomes a five week project. That's over complication. So here's
Speaker 2: your second move. Solve problems at the lowest possible level.
Speaker 2: If a frontline employee can fix it, let them fix it.
Speaker 2: If a supervisor can adjust it, let them adjust it.
Speaker 2: Not everything needs executive involvement. Not everything needs a rollout plan.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the best innovation is quiet, immediate, and just done.
Speaker 2: This is where trust comes in. If you don't trust
Speaker 2: your people to make improvements, you're going to choke innovation
Speaker 2: before it even starts. Now, let's talk about something that
Speaker 2: kills innovation fast perfection. Leaders want the perfect solution before
Speaker 2: they move. They want it tested, validated, approved, and polished.
Speaker 2: By the time they're ready, the moment is gone. Innovation
Speaker 2: doesn't work like that. Innovation is messy. It's trial and error.
Speaker 2: It's trying something, seeing what happens, and adjusting. So your
Speaker 2: third move is this, lower the standard for starting, raise
Speaker 2: the standard for learning. You don't need a perfect plan
Speaker 2: to begin. You need a clear intention in the willingness
Speaker 2: to adapt. If something works, keep it if it doesn't,
Speaker 2: fix it. If it fails, learn from it. But don't
Speaker 2: sit still waiting for perfect. Now let's get real for
Speaker 2: a second. A lot of leaders say they want innovation,
Speaker 2: but what they really want is control. They want to
Speaker 2: approve everything, shape everything, and own everything, and that creates
Speaker 2: a bottleneck, and bottlenecks kill momentum. So your fourth move
Speaker 2: is this, get out of the way. More often. Give
Speaker 2: your team permission to experiment within boundaries, set the guardrails,
Speaker 2: and then step back. You'll be surprised how many good
Speaker 2: ideas come forward when people like that they're allowed to think. Now,
Speaker 2: let's talk about communication, because this is where innovation either
Speaker 2: spreads or dies. If someone on your team improves something
Speaker 2: and nobody hears about it, it stays isolated. If people
Speaker 2: hear about it, it spreads. So your fifth move is simple.
Speaker 2: Share wins fast, not in a formal report, not in
Speaker 2: a long email, quick direct communication. Hey we tried this,
Speaker 2: it worked. Here's what we learned. That's how innovation moves
Speaker 2: through an organization, fast, clear, and repeatable. Now let's address
Speaker 2: something else. Complexity feels impressive. Simple feels basic, and that's
Speaker 2: where leaders get fulled. They think if something as simple,
Speaker 2: it must not be valuable, and that's wrong. The best
Speaker 2: ideas are usually simple because simple scales, simple gets used.
Speaker 2: Simple sticks. So your sixth move is this. If you
Speaker 2: can't explain your idea in one or two sentences, it's
Speaker 2: probably too complicated. Strip it down, refine it, make it clear,
Speaker 2: because if your team doesn't understand it, they won't use it.
Speaker 2: And if they don't use it. It's not innovation, it's noise.
Speaker 2: So let's bring this together. Innovation without over complication comes
Speaker 2: down to a few core behaviors. Pay attention to small problems,
Speaker 2: solve things quickly at the right level. Stop waiting for
Speaker 2: perfect trust your people, communicate what works, keep things simple.
Speaker 2: That's it. No corporate buzzwords, no over engineered systems, no
Speaker 2: unnecessary layers. Real innovation is practical. It's built into the
Speaker 2: day to day work. It's led by people who are
Speaker 2: paying attention and willing to act. And here's the part
Speaker 2: I want you to think about after this episode. Take
Speaker 2: one process in your organization right now, something that frustrates people,
Speaker 2: something that slows things down, and ask one question, what's
Speaker 2: the simplest way to make this better today, not next month,
Speaker 2: not next quarter today. Because innovation doesn't happen in strategy meetings.
Speaker 2: It happens in moments, and if you're willing to act
Speaker 2: on those moments, you'll build a culture that improves constantly
Speaker 2: without ever becoming complicated. That's leadership, that's innovation, and that's
Speaker 2: how you move forward without getting stuck in your own process.
Speaker 2: So if you take one thing from today's episode, make it.
Speaker 2: This innovation is not about doing more, it's about doing better.
Speaker 2: Look for the friction, fix it fast, keep it simple.
Speaker 2: That's how you stay ahead without burning yourself or your
Speaker 2: team out. And if you want more free leadership resources,
Speaker 2: head over to Paulfallavalito dot com and click on free Stuff.
Speaker 2: I have over twenty five free leadership documents you can
Speaker 2: download and start using today. This has been the seven
Speaker 2: Minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fallavalito podcasts, visit allfellowalito dot com