6 Ways to Turn Whiners into Innovators

Anyone can complain — especially to their finance leaders. And we bet you’d agree that they do for the most part.

But here’s the good news: Anyone can innovate, too.

Even the whiners. In fact, you might be able to make those whiners your best innovators.

From Whiners to Problem-Solvers

Good company leaders strive to create an environment and opportunities for employees in almost any role to become problem-solvers.

And the good news is that turning whiners into innovators is far more doable than you might think.

Here are some tips on how to make that happen.

1) Invite Innovation

Ask all employees to watch for and report slowdowns at work. When are they waiting too long for things to happen or move forward? What tasks seem too difficult? Where do they recognize bottlenecks?

If you encourage employees to spot and flag inconveniences, your whiners might feel like winners because their complaints turn into something constructive. You’ve managed to create an environment where everyone can innovate.

2. Look Closer at the ‘Norms’

Most day-to-day routines can look the same on the surface. But when employees are encouraged to open their eyes and observe a “normal” process, those closest to those routines will see things they may not have seen before.

On a typical day, they’ll complain that something was left hanging, or is always breaking down. That’s an opportunity for innovation.

Here’s the key: When employees complain about your norms, ask them to bring three solutions with the complaint. Tell them to put no restrictions on their solutions. You’ll take seemingly outlandish, expensive and silly ideas. But you won’t take a complaint without some solutions.

3. Challenge the Motions

In some situations, employees can become so accustomed to doing things in a certain way that they don’t see it as inconvenient, time-consuming or plain ridiculous. They just go through the motions (and complain under their breath).

So the current way you do things might already be efficient. But that shouldn’t stop anyone from challenging that thinking or doing behind it.

Ask employees to think about the difference between the current situation and any possible future improvements they could make. Again, remind them that ideas are free so they can suggest as many and as often as they have a gripe with a process or situation.

4. Get a Different View

When a whiner spots and exposes a hiccup, sometimes getting a broader perspective really makes a difference.

So when an employee accepts the challenge to find a solution, give them the opportunity to go to different places and observe how different people do things.

This could be as simple as going to another department down the hall or talking with co-workers in similar situations during breaks. By observing people from different areas in different situations, employees can often come up with better solutions.

5. Make a List

Try to create a central place to collect the problems people identify. This will give more people a chance to review what’s being discussed and to contribute. You might create a specific innovation channel in your internal communication app. Or put problems on a whiteboard in a common area.

Make your top priorities the problems that are both painful AND solvable.

6. ‘Just Do It’

Taking action is a habit. And as Nike told us (originally) in 1988, we need to Just Do It.

Remind employees that a good first step to creating the habit of taking action is to focus on the result they want, not the means you need to achieve them. This is especially important for whiners because they so often focus on what’s wrong, but don’t really know what would be right.

So tell them: Start with, “What do I want?” and not “What do I have?”