Cécile Dejoux is University Professor at Cnam and affiliated with ESCP Business School. She runs the "Human Change" Learning Lab at the Cnam, and her fascinating MOOCs on managerial innovation are well known, including "Manager par le CARE pour engager les équipes". In October, she launches "ChatGPT et AI : mode d'emploi pour managers et RH".
For Beeshake, she shares her views on corporate innovation in the post-covid era, the role of the manager in this new normal, and the trends to follow in this area.
What do you think is the current state of the corporate innovation culture?
Innovation changed shape after Covid.
Traditionally, innovation is based on the creation of new ideas, new technologies and new products. And it's a high-speed train! Companies that don't jump on the bandwagon find themselves lagging behind in the race for innovation, and therefore in the race for growth. Until now, companies have innovated by mimicry, to keep up with the times. And this mode of operation has not been called into question, simply because it worked.
After Covid, however, innovation as we knew it showed its flaws, and raised new questions. In particular, the profound relationship between innovation and growth has been called into question by the new paradigm of ecology and sobriety. Is growth always necessary? Does innovation mean doing more? Or is it about doing things differently? Is it about growth, or is it about repair?
Against this backdrop, it's worth asking whether the race to innovate in business still makes sense. Traditional ways of thinking are being called into question. We realize that we need to slow down this race to innovate. All the more so as, for an employee, "producing more" is not synonymous with "having more" at the end of the day.
What's more, business innovation is shifting towards repair innovation. It's possible to innovate and repair, and this is the leitmotiv of postcovid innovation in the new normal. And companies that want to foster a culture of innovation must take this new paradigm into account.
So how do you become an agile, innovative manager?
First of all, it's essential to train managers to work with digital tools that are linked to generative artificial intelligence. This is the subject of my next MOOC on chatgpt and AI. Because today, we can't ignore efficiency and productivity tools. Generative artificial intelligences are powerful and innovative.
But these technologies have an access cost: they are complicated to use. So it's absolutely essential to make managers want to learn about generative artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, it's important to understand that collective intelligence is necessary, but no longer sufficient. I therefore advocate the combo: Data - Artificial Intelligence - Collective Intelligence - Care Management. Care Management is when a manager pays attention to his employees and their uniqueness. Why is this important?
- Because burn-outs are exploding, affecting younger people who are over-invested in their work
- Because we need to give everyone the tools to know themselves and be balanced
- Because we need to adapt to each individual, and provide personalized management for each person.
If we don't start with Care, we can't move towards thecollective commitment.
In short, you can't manage at the pace of innovation for business. You have to go at a very slow pace for your teams. Because we're human, in other words, limited beings, and we can't keep up with the pace of innovation.
In short, managers need to keep pace with business innovation, but not with management innovation.
How can we measure the effectiveness and impact of managerial innovation? What are the key indicators to take into account?
Mind you, you can't use KPIs for everything. But I would say that you can use a few tools:
- Engagement surveys
- Turnover rate
- And of course, the informal that we can capture
Do you have any examples of companies applying Care management?
Several examples are detailed in the interviews on my YouTube channel "Les jeudis de Cécile" :
At Malakoff Humanis, for example, the issue of Care is addressed through individual recognition, listening to everyone, and the ability to spot weak signals.
Another example is at SAUR, where change management went through phases of transformation (of the organization, tools and processes) and pauses to catch our breath and take care of ourselves. Thanks to this approach, the team was able to reap the overall benefits of the transformations carried out.
