Pride Is an Innovation Strategy
I once asked the team at Swiss Railways SBB why they worked so hard to run a punctual railway, despite being a monopoly public service.
“Pride,” they said.
That has implications.
When people care deeply, you don’t need layers of control. It’s hard to innovate if every improvement has to be justified.
Pride skips the justification and goes straight to action.
👉 There’s more on the implications of this for the creation of GBR here
Take Action
If you're a leader
Look for places where people already show pride, then remove just one control mechanism and watch what happens. Don’t gamble on pride being the answer but don’t rule it out. Spot it, test it, then trust it.
If you're a team member
If you see something broken, don’t wait for permission to fix it. By building a culture of pride, you’re also creating a building block towards being empowered.