1.) Conduct conversations differently:
Bosses ask at team meetings: ‘What surprised you?’ or ‘Which project excites you?’ Questions like these invite employees to open their minds and pay attention to the unexpected. It is also about creating more points of contact in conversations. When asked ‘What do you do?’, you don’t just answer with your job title, but name various things that you enjoy doing.
2) Broaden your perspective: If the company boss asks the executives to ‘cut costs’, she is narrowing the field of possible solutions. It is more promising to ask employees to look for ways to ‘become more profitable’. They then also look for new sources of income.’ ‘Successful managers don’t cling to plans. They cultivate intelligent happiness’ NZZ, 23.8.2022
I would like to add a third aspect to Christian Busch’s findings:
3.) Learning from others: people often talk in companies about ideas that have come to nothing. This is not about celebrating failure, but about promoting learning from unexpected situations (error culture).
