Creating A Culture Of Innovation

Think about some of the most innovative companies in the world, Airbnb or Uber, for example. The technology behind their products is not exceptional or groundbreaking: geo-localized content on a website and mobile app. However, their business models are innovative. They found a loophole and were able to connect demand with a previously untapped supply in a new way. This is innovation in action. 

Go Beyond the Buzzword

Innovation has become a bit of an overused buzzword nowadays. A lot of companies are out there preaching about innovative work cultures or talking about how they’ve transformed their company to become more innovative.

In reality, a lot of these companies have a misguided approach to innovation, one that prevents innovation from actually happening.  

To have an innovative work culture, your entire workforce has to become innovative. A lot of times, you will find companies that set up an Innovation Lab or Centre that is headed by a Chief Innovation Officer with the expectation that this will automatically make the whole company innovative.

It doesn’t work that way. To set up systems that enable innovation, you’ll first need to understand what it actually means.

Getting it Right

f you’re in a leadership role, you might be tempted to farm out innovation to a single team or department because you don’t have the bandwidth. However, as a decision-maker, you need to be involved in creating the conditions in which innovation can happen. 

“People drive innovation. Leadership allows innovation to thrive.”

Instead of thinking of innovation as being a department that exists in isolation, look at innovation as a necessary culture change within all levels of your organization. Adopt a 360-degree approach.

Innovation doesn’t have to be about brainstorming and creating a new product that you can sell, it can be as simple as finding faster and better ways of working. Innovation is about acting on ideas, implementing and executing them, and therefore involves everybody. 

How do you get your entire workforce on board? It goes right down to the way you hire and the culture you create. 

Know Your Why

To make innovation meaningful to your company, you should have a clear understanding of your “why” and what issues you envision that innovation will solve. Without knowing your “why,” there’s no point having the “how” in place. Are you able to articulate to your team what you expect them to achieve by innovating?

Being clear about what your objectives and expectations are will make sure that innovation remains productive and add commercial value to your business. 

Encourage Diversity

Innovation thrives when you have people questioning the status quo. If your teams are homogenous - mostly coming from the same background and upbringing - and don’t represent a variety of perspectives, you don’t have the environment in which innovative thinking can happen. The hiring process needs to be changed.

Hire people who align themselves with your vision and culture. Don’t just look for people who agree with you. Seek out people who have different perspectives but share a common goal. When your team has the same vision, this helps foster teamwork and allows your businesses and projects to run smoothly. 

Think about hiring from a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. Consider hiring people from outside your industry who work in different ways and are able to adapt those ways of thinking to your industry.

If you’ve been working in an industry for an extended period of time, you might be so entrenched in the processes that you don’t see new solutions to issues that exist. Having fresh perspectives from people from outside your industry can help you question the way you do things that could significantly improve your business and see future roadblocks that could be standing in your way.

An Ongoing Process

Let’s take the example of manufacturing. In this industry, if you are working with automation, artificial intelligence, digitizing information, or data analytics, you’re seen as being innovative and progressive. This may be true, but for how long? Innovation isn’t a one-stop fix that will prepare you for the next 10-15 years. 

“Innovation is a concept premised on the notion of constant change. You need to be constantly redeveloping and rethinking how you innovate in order to stay relevant.”

Think of innovation as an ongoing process. With the way the world is working today, you need to be constantly on your toes to be successful. Put people at the heart of your innovation: people who can move fast and work together in short sprints to look at various issues and come up with solutions.

Going back to the example of the manufacturing industry, innovation isn’t just about the technology that enables data analytics. It is about the people who are interpreting this data or setting parameters for the AI that is analyzing data.

Dealing with Failure

The phrase “failure is not an option” does not exist in an innovative environment. Allow for failure. Fail often and fail fast. This is where lessons are learned. Learn your lessons quickly and move on. 

In order to manage failure effectively, look at the development phase of your process, and shorten it. This will give your employees the freedom to explore, develop concepts and fail before it gets unmanageable. You need to embrace failure as part of the work process and allow it to happen without judgment.  As an organization, try to create shorter planning cycles.

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