Exposure means getting employees out of the building. Employees need to see first-hand how other organizations operate, even outside of your industry. Employees need to get periodically removed from the day-to-day, interrupting the rhythm of sameness and jolting their thinking through stepping back from a myopic perspective.
Corning uses Action Learning for diversity training, where employees are put into diverse gender and race balanced groups to develop new approaches to handling issues involving sexual and racial bias.
Exploration means providing employees time to discuss, debate, inquire, and question new ways of doing things. A study conducted at seven Fortune 1000 companies found those with an organizational Growth Mindset had 49% of employees stating innovation was fostered and 65% stating risk-taking was supported. Generating real innovation requires an intentional effort to increase exposureand foster exploration for employees.
