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CROSS POLLINATION IN BUSINESS


Your company wants to beat the odds of competition in the market place but there is no openness to experience. The management team has observed slow performance and absence of enthusiasm among the employees. You are worried what to do next. Well, here’s a strategy to implement that could save your business, it’s less costly and requires engaging your employees in the different departments. The Plan is to do Cross Pollination. Yep, I call it the breakthrough strategy, it’s the new original to informing your decision making processes and increasing productivity.

What exactly is Cross Pollination?

Cross Pollination is a biological word for the transfer of pollen grains from one flower to another flower thereby permitting the fertilization process.  Pollination occurs with the help of insects, wind or can be done by hand to produce offspring with desired traits, like colour, improved quality or pest resistance. The process makes the seed plants pass their genetic material to the next-generation,
just like all other living creatures.

In the business world we define cross pollination as the process of bringing together the intellectual capital of individuals with different ways of thinking to reach innovative solutions. With that in mind how then do you incorporate cross pollination in a business to ensure productivity and informed decision-making process? Well, you can expose employees to new ways of thinking by sharing knowledge, ideas, experiences, understandings, and practices. Sharing and interchanging of ideas, thoughts, information, and tacit knowledge can greatly enrich the team’s capabilities bringing about productivity.

When one plant pollinates a plant of another variety the genetic material of both plants merge and the seeds that are produced include characteristics from both flowers. Same case applies in business when different departments or individuals are placed in the same blend, the result can be an exciting fusion of fresh ideas, a shift in thought patterns and a build in lasting bond between departments. When there is openness to experience and learning, a person is eager to consider new ideas and opportunities. Some people enjoy doing something new and thinking about new things others prefer to stick with familiar ideas and activities, which is very acceptable. However, to be creative requires doing something that has not been done before, if you are not willing to do something new, then it’s hard to be creative.

Cross pollination is a great tool of taking diverse approaches and ideas from practices or people and using them as inspiration. When employees interact and engage in random conversations, whether in cafeteria, hallways or elevator, shared interests often surface. Often times it is through these unplanned conversations that intriguing new ideas are sparked. Cross pollination saves money as you will not need to hire experts, apart from solving problems it leads to unexpected Innovation and it builds network growth within the company.

Cross pollination is also useful for one’s growth and evolution. It will help you burst that bubble that prevents you from advancing in your career or business. Have you ever been in a session with incredibly dynamic and intelligent folks and you left feeling energized and ready to try new ideas formed within the group. I have, not once or twice; it’s a stimulating experience I must say. You realise that they broaden your perspectives, provide fresh angles on issues that you are already concerned about and add a lot of “to-work-on” points that you may not have considered. 

So how do you cross pollinate on a personal level you might ask? Here’s some tips: Join mastermind groups, ask your friends to add you to creative groups (I remember one of my friends added me to a business incubation group on WhatsApp and that’s how I met some great business gurus and attended business forums), join virtual groups to learn new ideas and thoughts and also read widely on articles that inform on new developments. These are just some of the ways you can learn to self-develop through cross pollination.

When all is said and done remember that acts of kindness and reciprocity play vital roles in allowing cross pollination to happen in the workplace and in personal development.



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