KINDNOVATE

Adam Grant shared this image in the past days when the Olympic Games began in Paris. Both together reminded me of many of the presentations I gave since 2018 about: - innovation and kindness, - generalists and specialists both at work and sport, - and the art of zooming in to show details or zooming out to catch the landscapes, as I learned from my passion for photography. Some of you listened to me, and I remember surprised people, questions and great discussions around those topics. In the coming days I am going to write a new article putting together some fresh perspectives I thought about and I never collected all together. Before that, I start from a quick recap of David J. Epstein's book, RANGE, the most relevant book I read about Generalists and Specialists, starting from that declaration on the cover page, ‘How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World', which often raises suspicion and disagreement among those I've recommended the book to, with many responding similarly: “We don't need more know-it-alls.” Epstein's book underscores how our times continue to favor the pursuit and production of increasingly specialized expertise. Many see specialization as a quick fix for managing the complexity of today's world, however, breaking down complexity into simple, understandable components often leads to the realization that solving individual problems doesn't equate to solving the initial complex issue. The book clarifies the misconceptions surrounding generalists, often mistaken for the much-maligned “jack-of-all-trades.” A generalist is not a know-it-all, any more than a specialist is when placed in the wrong environment. Generalists are shown to be the most suitable "specialists" for tackling new, wicked problems, where specialists are prone to take bad decision and make tragic errors. One particularly interesting example involves firefighters, drawing on Gary Klein's studies on Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM). Klein's research found that specialists, like chess players and firefighters, can make quick, intuitive decisions in familiar situations, relying on past experiences. However, when faced with actual unfamiliar scenarios (e.g., a high-rise fire), their usual intuitive responses fail, leading to potential mistakes. In a world increasingly populated by specialists, it's vital to remember the value of range. Broad-minded individuals are essential in navigating new, uncertain, and innovative situations. “And he refused to specialize in anything, preferring to keep an eye on the overall estate rather than any of its parts. ... And Nikolay’s management produces the most brilliant results.” Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace #kindinnovation

Is your organization treating employees with care and support? Or what you experience is care-washing? Carewashing can be seen as a misalignment between what leaders portray as cultures of care (often referencing the organization’s stated values)🌹 and employees’ actual daily experiences at work.🥀 Maren Gube, PhD, Cynthia Mathieu Ph.D. and Debra Sabatini Hennelly explain how to avoid the pitfalls of carewashing: 🤍🤍 Be who you say you are Ensure alignment between commitments and capabilities. Select a limited number of care-related commitments you know you can live up to in a specified time frame, and make sure the implementation lives up to the messaging. Be transparent in your care efforts and acknowledge where they fall short. 👂👂 Ask and be prepared to really listen Conduct regular organization-wide assessments that get to the root of the desired culture of caring. Assessments should preserve employee anonymity and use scientifically validated measures to ensure the results are accurate, reliable, credible, and ethical. Recognize that you may receive news that is hard to hear. As such, it may be necessary to work with senior leaders and HR to safeguard the integrity of assessment results and ensure transparency, even if it is not comfortabe. We’ve seen cases where results were altered because “management needs this to look good,” breeding cynicism from employees who didn’t see their responses or concerns reflected. 🦸♀️🦹♀️ Align leadership criteria with organizational values Organizations singularly focused on short-term profits may base their leader selection on charisma and high risk tolerance. The problem with this profile is that it can correspond to dark personalities. To create a safe and healthy workplace, organizations should screen for people-based values and competencies (empathy, listening skills, openness to others, caring) and ethical behavior in hiring and promoting; evaluate performance based on criteria that go beyond superficial, short-term results; and implement (in action, not only words) policies and procedures that recognize and address red flags in leader behaviors. 🔎 Be self-aware Senior leaders who want to avoid carewashing need the wisdom and humility to admit they don’t have all the answers, be willing to be vulnerable, and display curiosity and a learner mindset. Not acknowledging the impact of the emotional culture on employee productivity is a central feature of carewashing. #leadership #culture #wellbeing #ethics #values youhttps://lnkd.in/eb_77r3P

In the past days, some meetings I had reminded me about this short article I’ve written some years ago. I believe that, despite being very simple, the original Venn diagram by IDEO, a compass to increase the possibility to reach successful innovations, is still one of the toughest framework which too many professionals are not able to follow properly. Three are the topics to consider all together: - Business (viability) - Technology (feasibility) - Human (desirability) In my short article I added some nuances to the three main ingredients of innovation as conceived by IDEO; I put those additions just to better explain the mindset and difference of focus between the three. (that mindset diversity represents the actual challenge). The easy (on paper) and unavoidable rule to increase success probabilities of an innovation, is to consider all the three topics together and with the same weight and priority while developing a new idea, project, product, service. During the meetings I had, I’ve listened people talking fast and easy about - TRL (technology readiness level) or - BRL (Business readiness level) and no one mentioned the - HRL (Human readiness level). While I was listening to people worried about improving the business mindset of technologists, I was thinking about the necessity to improving the human mindset of both business people and technologists. There is a (false) common belief that new ideas does not reach success on the market because their inventors lack business knowledge, and despite being high in their TRL are performing bad in their BRL. I would like to share a different point of view: many ideas developed with both a good TRL and BRL are definitely failing on the market because of their terrible poor HRL which no one is paying attention to. Many are the new ideas failing in the market because of their extremely low HRL. That’s one of the main cause preventing to develop actual and meaningful innovations. It’s full of people who start doing new things just because they can. It’s full of people who start, from the early beginning, to think only about profiting from the idea. We are missing people who care more from the early start about how their ideas are going to impact others people and planet. ‘Kindness eases change’ at first could seem a naive sentence, but kindness is actually the best practical ingredients which help us not forgetting about that human side. #innovation #kpi #readiness #designthinking #kindinnovation

🧠💔 June is PTSD support month. And one way to support those struggling with PTSD is to create a society that does not repeatedly re-traumatize the most vulnerable. When bullying targets are expected to do anti-bullying work, society fails the most vulnerable. When disabled or neurodivergent people have to fight uncaring healthcare and unaccommodating accommodation systems, society fails the most vulnerable. When struggling people are expected to make themselves invisible so they would not “upset” the more fortunate, society fails the most vulnerable. When the lack of kindness is the default, society fails the most vulnerable. By sporting each other, speaking up for each other, amplifying silenced voices, and modeling caring behavior, we can contribute to creating cultures of proactive #kindness and care. Even small pockets of proactive care around us make a difference - including a positive difference in mental health. #culture #MentalHealth #PTSD #disability #neurodiversity #care #bullying #society

Is Kindness gaining traction again? "Ultimately, kindness is a choice, and we all have a choice.” That choice could nudge change, as stated since years here, as well on the KINDNOVATE website by Alessio 🌔 #kindnesseaseschange #kindnessisachoice #choosekindness #kindinnovation