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** Add a dynamic presentation on innovation to your annual conference or meeting. To talk about your specific needs, staff@thinksmart.com.

** If you want your employees to think smarter in these challenging times, the InnovationWizard may be just what you're looking for. For more info go to: http://www.thinksmart.com/lead/wizard.html or email staff@thinksmart.com.
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'Existing systems produce existing results. If something different is required, the system must be changed.'
-- Sir Christopher Ball, 'More Means Different'

During economic times such as these, people often put innovation on the back burner, thinking innovation is only about new products and services. However, innovation is a capacity that can help organizations cut costs as well ... and do it in a way that develops important capabilities for the future (rather than crippling the organization through layoffs.)

We have asked Tom Drucker and Alain Rostain to provide some tips for using innovation in the realm of cost-cutting. They will be sharing their experiences and ideas and soliciting your experiences and ideas.

We hope you enjoy, and profit from, this series.
Joyce Wycoff

** Cost Reduction:
Tips for delivering the goods through innovation

by Tom Drucker and Alain Rostain

Given the anticipated continued need for cost-cutting in the near-term business climate, we thought there would be value in sharing some of our learnings from this work of using innovation to cut costs. We've synthesized our understanding into several points and will present some this week and some the following week. The week after that, we'll summarize and present your responses.

In this first week, we're focusing on a critical yet often mismanaged component in any initiative: communicating context.

Why is context-setting so important?

Context shapes meaning and purpose. People want to know that whatever they are being asked to do makes a difference to the leader, to the company and ultimately to their own work and well-being. Effective context-setting alters how your message gets understood. Framing the cost-reduction as a positive challenge excites people to participate with energy.

-- Offer an authentic, balanced and realistic message.

More than ever, we crave authenticity from our leaders. You might think that if you offer an upbeat picture of the future and play the cheerleader role, your staff will act with energy and commitment. In our experience, though, an upbeat yet balanced and realistic message is ultimately more effective and increases your credibility.

-- Gain clarity and alignment around strategy and brand.

Every leadership communication is an opportunity to clearly articulate what your organization is up to and why. You want your people to understand not just the what and why, but to behave differently (make better decisions and perform more effectively) as a result of this understanding.

-- Acknowledge resistance and past efforts.

If you want to gain the buy-in and ownership of the staff you are involving in this initiative, the first thing you need to do is understand and appreciate as many of their concerns as possible. Then, rather than refuting or ignoring these concerns, just acknowledge them as part of your leadership message. This means making it OK for them to have those concerns. In doing this, your audience is likely to put their resistance aside, if only temporarily, and be better positioned to hear and understand the rest of your communication.

Question: If you've experienced cost-cutting in your organization recently, was the context of the change communicated widely? If so, how? Was the communication effective?

*** Tom and Alain partner to deliver innovation coaching, consulting and training across the globe. Tom Drucker can be reached at tom@corporateinnovation.com. Alain Rostain can be reached at arostain@creativeadvantage.com.