How to – Get Beyond Corporate Inertia A new year! Psychologically, it can signify a new beginning. Many of us are eager to break out of the bureaucratic way of doing business that weighs us down and holds us back from being as responsive and intrapreneurial as we’d like to be. With so many aspects that make up an organizational culture (how things get done), it can be frustrating to determine effective ways to help people break free of stifling corporate traditions and the inertia that can result from pessimistic predictions about the economy. But take heart - evidence exists that there IS something that can be done to get and keep employees engaged and motivated to innovate.

Studies show that when a person’s personal sense of purpose, values, work, organization and community are aligned around a mission, they feel engaged. When people are engaged, they take pride in their work. When they see the link between objectives at work and their personal mission and vision, it makes sense to them to change themselves and innovate in order to achieve those corporate goals.

While aligning your work with your firm’s mission and vision isn’t a new concept, it’s difficult to do - difficult, but possible. In a perfect world, it should start at the top, and requires observable leadership behaviors, such as:

• Testing assumptions and history (“We’ve always done it this way.”)

• Encouraging creativity

• Supporting experimentation

• Not punishing people for failure

• Helping people with their work

Even if a company’s leadership isn’t visionary, there is always something the individual can do. You could build consensus, sow the seeds of change, test an idea, and find people who are like-minded to create a solid foundation for innovation. Change doesn’t always come from the top.  12:10 PM •