HOW TO INCULCATE THE PRACTICE OF INNOVATIVE THINKING

Organisational setups have to blanket numerous responsibilities. In any PR company/firm there are several factions working simultaneously to achieve specified goals, ranging from the active doers, to resident managers, to technical experts, onsite/on-field networkers combing all corners and contacts to assemble the best PR strategy for their clients. However, as the unspoken rules goes, the top brass always takes the cake. The reason is obvious. They direct the work environment and orchestrate its success or failure depending upon their approach towards employee management. There are many ways to motivate your employees. Tough love. Soft approach. Follow-by-example. Or sometimes the dull but excessively stylized corporate culture where rules flow and workers obey and work becomes about meeting deadlines. From general experience, there is no fun when you start to aim for the end rather than enjoy the process of getting there. It is essential to enjoy the road, and gain experience enroute to make the destination worth reaching.

The greatest advantage of building Public Relations is possibility. The vast opportunities lying untapped, various methods remaining unexplored or simply to revamp existing mediums to improve your method of communication. It’s not just the present. It’s also the packaging. Thought leadership here is the working mantra. It essentially combines a leader’s willingness to extend the courtesy of experimenting with ideas to all of its employees and encourage participation from all sections. This not only builds confidence in one’s own ideas but also gives the strength to accept and improve upon the ones that fail or are shot down. In order that a team be able to cope with all exigencies, failure is mandatory. Failure in the sense that something was off from its inception. It is also not sudden. Failure is also a study in realization. Often firms adopt a very selective approach via, practice without exploring possibilities and get stuck in a rut. This stagnancy can only be overcome by a series of hits and misses or trials and errors, because it only helps to eliminate methods that do not work in the long run. Henceforth, restructuring and innovation play significant roles to overcome such hurdles. Someone’s capacity to lead is also weighed against their ability to handle failures and keep the collective tempo raised to maximum.

A thought leader, ensures brainstorming. It is respect for all ideas while filtering the most feasible. It is important to zoom in on the process of elimination, what separates the best from the not so much, what fits perfectly into the client’s ideas or generates maximum responses. This is because there are several ways of doing the same thing, the polish lies in its execution. Thought leadership happens to be an increasingly popular concept finding takers in all aspects of a company. One can teach actions, force habits and do the same thing in the same manner by the same rules getting the same results. This is typical of failure in competition. In order to survive and thrive in an industry which gets its bread and butter from having the strongest approach to building people relations, one must be able to gauge people’s rapidly shifting moods and foresee what makes them tick. The trick lies in inculcating a feeling of curiosity, of critical inquiry, of being able to analyse something and recreate another version of it, to think out-of-the-box, while retaining the sphere of familiarity. It’s a an exceptionally well-hidden balancing act, not to push the public understanding to grave extremes which would then transform into a propaganda leaving the objective far behind. The recently released Vogue Empower video featuring Deepika Padukone is one such thing, inviting ire from everybody Empowered with words, internet and a laptop. Innovation is not a one-time incident. It is a process, a well-oiled practice. As soon as an idea stops fulfilling the parameters required to achieve the goal, one must change tactics, like a jigsaw puzzle piece. If it doesn’t fit, either change the picture or find the right piece. A leader always keeps the tenets of transparency and accountability on the forefront. Unless there are appropriate incentives to capture the imagination of the workers nudging them to take risks and apply their own formulas, potentially successful ventures can be lost in a go.

All that is required is an honest encouragement, and some faith to instil confidence in one’s person and motivate them to look forward to bigger, better ideas without the fear of ridicule. As soon as this practice starts to seep into the normal work culture it becomes a norm infecting all involved, making the process more fun and inclusive. Participation increases and there is pride in the work.