• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
The Ingredients of an Innovative Organization:Creating a
Culture of Curiosity
.Lindsay Collier Speaker, Author, Squeezer of Organizational Thinking JuicesFew would argue that innovation is a critical key to the future of business. And, as organizations getfurther along in their learning curves, innovation becomes more necessary and more difficult. The bottom-line results we got from simple innovations yesterday will have to come from real breakthroughs in thefuture. When we think of innovation we most often think of product innovation. But innovation is alsorequired in processes, marketing, and management. There is literally no part of organizational life thatcan’t benefit from tapping the creative and innovative capacity of the workplace. And yet, in mostorganizations, the creative/innovative potential can be likened to a Ferrari sitting in a garage - atremendous unreleased power.What’s the difference between creativity and innovation? Creativity is brought to play in the generation of new ideas - innovation focuses more on turning these ideas into real products or solutions and changes inthe business.What are the real ingredients of organizational innovation? There are a number of academic studies of this but here is my list based on over 30 years of observation and experience helping organizations tap thisgreat resource. Some of them might surprise you and there is some overlap between these items.
1.
There must be
trust and support
within the organization. If there is no trust and respect for eachother and people are unwilling to support the creative thinking of their associates, there is no chancefor innovation! If people aren’t open with each other, jealous of other’s ideas, talk about others innegative ways, or just flat don’t particularly even like their associates, you are pretty much guaranteedthat all creativity and innovation will be stifled.
2.
There is a
willingness to take risks and accept failure as learning experiences
. Fear of failure isone of the most powerful blocks to creativity. People will rarely stretch into the creative zone if theythink there is a good possibility of failure and that it will harm their future opportunities. The fear may come from a range of possibilities from real punishment (losing my job) to subtle (making a foolof myself). People must not be hung up on the need to
look good 
.
3.
The work must provide
significant challenge
and the ability to stretch thinking to places it’s never  been. A bridled mind is generally not a creative one. Few organizations really stretch the thinkingcapacity of their members. And many tend to burden their people with insignificant tasks requiringlittle creative input. Are people in your organization really challenged?
4.
There must be willingness to question accepted rules and assumptions. Areas of real breakthrough areoften blocked by existing patterns of thinking. Remember the
 
White Bread Warning 
. If you use thesame recipe, you’ll get the same bread. Innovative organizations know how to question, and shift,existing assumptions, rules, patterns, and paradigms. And, they really enjoy the process of questioning and, perhaps, breaking the rules.
5.
There must be willingness to
value resources outside their field of knowledge
. The NIH (notinvented here) syndrome must be cast aside. The illusion that the only good ideas are the ones that
we
have is very powerful in organizations. History shows that a large percentage of innovations comefrom outside the knowledge communities that you might expect (the ballpoint pen was invented by 2Hungarian barbers, Kodachrome was the brainchild of 2 musicians, etc.). There must always be awillingness to accept other’s thinking.
 
6.
There must be a
creative orientation
rather than a reactive, responsive one. People in a creativeorganization have a positive spin on everything. They are playing to win rather than playing “not tolose”. They are creating their future and not protecting their past. If your organization has preponderance towards reactive problem solving there will be little time for creating anything new.
7.
Positive humor
must be valued as a resource. If people aren’t getting real kicks out of what they’redoing and having some laughs along the way, you might as well kiss the creativity goodbye. Peopleneed to be able to get loose and crazy and get into the
 silly
 
 zone
often. The good news is that theability to tap humor as a resource has many benefits apart from helping to tap creativity.
8.
People must have a
passion
in their work. Where there is no passion there is no creativity. People justhave difficult times conjuring up creative energy regarding things that don’t turn them on. Passion isdriven by an exciting, visual, attainable, stretch vision along with a good dose of self-confidence. Dothese things exist for you and your associates? Do you have a way of helping people focus on their areas of passion?
9.
Creative idea stimulating techniques
must be understood along with the ability to use them inspontaneous ways. There are some wonderful ways to stimulate creative thinking to get people intothe zone. It’s often well to rely on skilled creative process consultants to bring out the best in thethinking capacity of you and your associates.
10.
There must be an understanding that creativity and innovation is not something you turn on and off with the flip of a switch. The
environment must exude creativity
in all aspects. It must look, sound,feel, and smell creative. Just entering the environment makes people come alive. In a creativeenvironment, creativity and innovation is like garlic - no matter what you do, you can’t shake it.
11.
There needs to be a good balance of 
dreamers, builders, and realists
and an appropriate balance of creative processes (expanding thinking) and innovative processes (making them real). If your entiregroup consists of all dreamers who love to ideate all the time but really don’t like to bring anything toits innovative conclusion, nothing will be accomplished! If it’s all realists who spend most of their time in relatively judgmental modes, there will also be little innovative output. Work to get a goodmixture in the group.
12.
The creative/innovative process must contain the ability to
scout the future
. Information abouttrends, drivers, technologies, and emerging capabilities in the future serves as some of the most powerful fodder for today’s ideas. Pulling yourself toward some powerful future possibilities is muchmore exciting (and effective) than pushing forward from today’s problems. My own experience is thatfew companies do a very good job in this area, so the potential for an organization with these abilitiesis awesome.
13.
There must be the ability to carry out processes with total
non-judgment
. Much easier said thendone! Most of us seem to have a natural built in tendency to evaluate. It’s difficult to listen toanything without thinking about whether it’s right or wrong. It takes a good amount of practice beforewe can truly take in information in a non-evaluative mode where there is no good or bad - onlyinteresting. How might you bring out some non-judgmental behavior in your own situation?
14.
Fear of success
is also a blockage to creativity and innovation. People need to know that, if theycreate breakthrough through their creativity, they won’t eliminate their job or compromise their future. This is particularly true of consultants - internal and external. I speak from experience on bothends. A consultant’s job, in most cases, is to work themselves out of a job. This can be a hard pill toswallow so many consultants opt to recommend things that will lengthen their association with their clients.
15.
The environment needs to provide opportunities for people to
play outside of their normalsandboxes
. There needs to be time to wander away from the normal work and wonder about just
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...