April 27th, 2009
Innovation is one of those things. One of those things that everyone is talking about. Everyone is talking about it because it is cool and exciting, but truth be told it also represents tremendous opportunity for competitive advantage (for organizations, industries, communities and regions). Just because everyone is talking about it does not mean everyone understands it, and it seems to me that innovation (or at least how it happens) is largely misunderstood. There has been some really good writing on innovation from folks like Peter Drucker, Tom Kelley, Tom Peters and others. I am also a fan of the writing of Frans Johansson, Scott Page and Daniel Pink as it applies to innovation.
Maybe the most poorly understood aspect of innovation is the role that organizational culture plays. I have worked with organizations that talked a good game about innovation. I worked with an organization that had a Vice President of Innovation and spent a lot of money on facilitators, white boards and comfy chairs for planning and ideation meetings. Those things are all nice, but innovation they do not make. You can talk about innovation, and spend money on innovation but if the organizational culture does not support innovation, you will get little or no innovation.
Innovation requires difference (and a healthy understanding of the value of difference), intersections, questions, experimentation and the ability to learn together. Those are all things that the culture must support if an organization is going to be innovative.
So, does your organization value difference? And if so, what is your evidence?
Does your organization work to create intersections? Does it actively bring together different perspectives, different experiences, different ways of thinking? When did you last bring a poet or a potter in to visit with your leadership team? When is the last time you brought in a high school senior to participate in your strategic planning session? When is the last time that you included a client?
Is your organization good at asking questions (big, open-ended, creative questions)? Can and do you regularly ask questions in meetings without generating defensive posturing? Are questions expected or out of the ordinary?
Is your organization good at experimenting? Does it try new things on a regular basis? Does your organization have the ability to learn from experiments…mistakes? Are mistakes viewed as a wonderful opportunity for learning or are they surrounded by negative energy, denial, spin, etc.?
These questions will provide you with some insight regarding your organizational culture and whether it supports innovation or not.
Joe, I stumbled on this post and wanted to offer an example. For the internal communicators trying to put forth the forums or messages that will instill innovation, I’d like to suggest using social responsibility initiatives already taking place in the company as one way to get minds thinking differently. I posted some other examples on the SR LINK. I hope you’ll come join our conversation as well and comment where you see fit.
Hi Joe. I was just talking with a colleague this morning about what it takes for managers and employees to embody the qualities it takes to create a more Human, dynamic, living culture (which certainly supports innovation). Was talking to her about how simply challenging some of the assumptions we make re: Humans comforming at work could blow the lid off. I’m coming at it from the perspective of treating people Humanly at work, meeting Human needs for belongingness, among other things. I see our work really intersecting here. We should talk about this.