Part 1 of 3 on creating an effective innovation culture inside companies and teams. This part gives the background for what kind of innovation culture we're going after. The other two parts talk about the innovation environment to set up and the idea exercise to follow to implement that culture. No MBA mumbo jumbo and preaching. We will look at some specific steps to take for thriving in times of change.
What's your company's inner animal like?
Does your company remind you of any of these lovely creatures?- Brontosaurus: Had a great past but struggling to grow in the changing world (whether because of own faults, Euro crisis, or cut-throat competition from Asia)
- Sitting Duck: A start-up or a young company, has been doing well in its niche, but not prepared to survive and grow in a changing landscape
- Sheep: Employees are too jaded or scared to suggest how to improve the company - typically found nestling inside a Brontosaurus herd
- Chameleon: Southwest Airlines, -insert your favorite example-
. The organization thrives on innovation. You don't need this article, but you can tell us how you do it!
Btw, "you" = All of us working at companies. It IS meant to be taken personally.
What kind of innovation culture do you need?
One where every employee is motivated to innovate towards a shared mission.If you don't ask the person connecting wires in your data center to think, you might miss an energy-saving opportunity there, right? The knowledge of problems and solutions is spread throughout the organization. Don't expect an offsite with a small group of "thinkers" to innovate your company out of crisis. This has to be a universal and continuous process. A corporate culture thing.
Given the shrinking resources and time-to-react, you also need to align much of the innovation towards specific business goals. This is more like Southwest Airlines innovating towards affordable travel, and less of the open-ended research at Bell Labs / Xerox PARC where 1000 disruptive ideas bloom. There's a place for both, but right now we're focusing on a more focused and more urgent goal-driven innovation.
How do you create such a culture?
Interestingly, creating an innovation culture in a company is not like making people build the bridge over Kwai. In fact, it's the most natural thing for humans to want to do - improve things around them in a creative way to evolve, survive, and have fun. The hard part is allowing people to be natural!IMO you need to orchestrate two things:
- Stage: Create an environment where people are allowed to behave like natural born thinkers, are rewarded, and have the basic tools for innovating.
- Ritual: Keep the innovation beat going at the right pitch and in the right harmony through some periodic practices (yes, I finally used a music metaphor, all those guitar lessons paid off!). In particular, have specific goals identified for each session of the ritual which may last a few months
In the next article, we will see how to create the Stage. If you want to discuss it in your team's unique context, you can email me at vpoosala AT gmail DOT com. I'm happy to help and learn!
Innovation is not Invention
Much of this spiel comes from my experience at Bell Labs, helping with transforming a service provider company, and reading stuff like this:- Southwest Airlines, the poster child for a pervasive, goal-driven innovation culture. Next time you're flying, please read this book on going NUTS!
- Summary of The Southwest Way, by Jody Gittell
- St. Peter Drucker: Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Essential Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century
- HBR on innovation's enemies
- Making Innovation Work by Davila et al.
thanks, vishy
innovate & impact
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