Your competitor is not who you think he or she is. Blockbuster could’ve easily gotten into the streaming business, but the company missed it because its leaders thought people wanted to walk into a store to pick their Friday night movie. AirBnB now manages more rooms than any hotel chain on the planet and they do it without owning an inch of real estate. Elon Musk is about to take out the solar business by creating a solar roof panel that costs the same as and looks like your current roof. What are you going to do when the Amazon of your industry takes over? What are you going to do to adapt to changing times?
Rather than trying to maintain the level of production you’ve always achieved, rewrite the book, drawing on past successes without getting locked into trying to reproduce them. Always search for the next big idea no one has ever tried.
How? Here are four steps:
1. Build a culture that rewards going for it
Too often, team cultures promote the “safe play”—put in your time, don’t rock the boat, follow the script, and, after X years, you’ll be in line for a payout. But you don’t innovate by playing it safe.
Such a culture stifles innovation and puts your team in prime position to get lapped by the competition. Shake things up by finding ways to publicly praise your outside-the-box thinkers and doers. Make sure team members understand that the way it’s been done before probably isn’t some magic formula that’ll always work. Empower them to bring you any idea they’re willing to own—and to pitch the ones you approve to colleagues.
2. Challenge people to set big goals
Use every coaching opportunity you have, whether a formal performance evaluation or a hallway high-five, to lead your team members to dream boldly about what’s next. Let them know you’re pleased when they hit a home run, but don’t let them milk previous successes.
3. Only add team members who raise the bar
Building a team that’s fully on board with what you’re working toward is never more important than when you bring on someone new. Only hire people who will raise the bar. Think of each hire as an opportunity to add a piece you don’t have yet, and you’ll stimulate everyone to step up.
4. Anticipate to innovate
Leaders who think big—and require team members to do the same—reach far higher than the minimum expectations. We all have benchmarks we’re required to hit in order to keep our jobs. But those should just be a starting point. Never settle for just plugging leaks and staying afloat. Set sail to explore territory no one’s even seen before. Give everyone a chance to improve and leave no one the option to put it in cruise control. One way to do this is to schedule meeting time once a quarter to do some innovation exercises. What would Amazon or Tesla do if they were in our industry? Don’t focus on your next step, take Larry Page’s approach and focus on what would be 10 times better than anything that currently exists.
Unlike their mediocre counterparts, innovative companies and team members fight to innovate, not just to maintain. What will you do to become home building’s game changer?
