10 steps HR leaders can take

to cultivate innovation.

BRIGHT
IDEAS
By Kathryn Tyler

nnovation can be a nebulous goal,

I yet it is crucial for business success.

“ If you’re not innovating, you’re
stagnating,” says Ria Glenn DeMay, J.D.,
labor relations manager for the University
of Maine System in Hallowell, Maine.

46 HR MAGAZINE SPRING 2019

BRIGHT IDEAS

U nlo cking innovation represents a p o w e rfu l

o p p o rtu n ity fo r HR to c o n trib u te to and even
drive an o rg a n iz a tio n ’s co m p e titive n e ss,
says Bill Thom as, SHRM-SCP, m anaging
principal o f C entric P erform ance LLC, an
organizational stra te g y co n su lta n cy in
P ittsburgh.
G enerating and executing fresh
ideas is also a factor affecting an or­
ganization’s long-term survival, says
Jack Phillips, co-author of The Value
o f Innovation (Wiley-Scrivener, 2018).
He notes th a t in 1935, the expected
life span of a company was 95 years;
by 2005, th at average had fallen to 15
years. So how do companies th at have
lasted for more than a century, such as
3M and Johnson & Johnson, continue
to thrive? They innovate.
It should come as no surprise, then,
that innovation is one of the top issues
on senior executives’ minds. “If HR is
to align w ith senior leadership, inno­
vation needs to be one of H R ’s con­
cerns,” says Michael Mitchell, senior
faculty member at the Center for Cre­
ative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C.
According to the center’s 2016 study
of 500 executives, 95 percent said in­
novation is im portant but only 14 per­
cent said their organizations are doing
it effectively.
An environm ent th at supports cre­
ativity can also raise employee engage­
ment. “If you work for an organization
that squashes new ideas and thinking,
it isn’t engaging,” Mitchell says.
HR professionals play a critical role
in creating a culture of innovation.
Experts say the following 10 steps can
help your organization ignite ingenuity.
UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS. “There’s
a misunderstanding that innovation is
all about coming up with ideas,” says
Michael Stanleigh, CEO of Business
Im provem ent A rchitects, a global
m anagem ent consulting firm head­
quartered in Toronto. “Innovation is a
process, and brainstorm ing is just the
first step.”
Ensure th at executives have realis­
tic expectations about what innovation
might deliver. Above all, leaders must
be patient. “New ideas don’t always re­
veal their value at the very beginning,”
Mitchell says. “They have to grow and
prove themselves.”
Before employees can be expected to
contribute to the innovation process,
they must understand what innovation
m eans in the context of the company
and why it m atters. In explaining ex­
pectations to employees, be clear about
param eters. Are leaders looking for
radical new products or to fine-tune
efficiencies? HR can set quantitative
goals and devote appropriate resources
toward achieving them.
W ALK THE TALK. HR can’t expect to
foster an innovative company culture
if it does not have an innovative cul­
ture within its own function. “Lead by
example,” advises Parker C. McKenna,
SHRM-SCP, a member of the Society
for H um an Resource M anagem ent’s
HR Disciplines Special Expertise Panel.
“For example, HR should welcome feed­
back from customers and involve stake­
holders in developing new HR strate­
gies to meet business needs.”
HR staff at the University of Maine
System meet quarterly to brainstorm
and discuss ideas, DeMay says. “Cre­
ate your own th ink tank. Have regu­
lar times, monthly or quarterly, where
you brainstorm. Get out the whiteboard
and think about what issues are affect­
ing employees,” she recommends.
At B etterU p, a m obile-platform
coaching company in San Francisco,
the leader of one fast-grow ing team
needed to figure out how to help
new team members contribute more
quickly after onboarding. He p a rt­
nered w ith HR to develop a custom
coaching program , says G abriella
Rosen Kellerman, the company’s chief
innovation officer.

48 HR MAGAZINE SPRING 2019

 SHRM.ORG/HRMAGAZINE

HIRE DIFFERENTLY. While specific job skills can always be

taught, soft skills that are associated with creativity can be TO P DRIVERS
harder to find, says Danna Hewick, SHRM-SCP, vice pres­ OF A CULTURE
ident of hum an resources at USSI, a janitorial company in OF IN N O VA TIO N
Bethesda, Md. “Instead of focusing solely on experience and
hard skills, focus on the soft skills—innovation, collaboration
Positive interpersonal
and change management—needed to bring innovation to life.”
exchange. There is a
To discover candidates w ith the requisite skills, rethink
^ strong sense of cohe­
interview questions. “Ask candidates whether they’ve ever
sion across the organiza­
come up with a great idea and what happened with it,” Stan-
tion, and employees feel like they are
leigh recommends.
all playing for the same team.
“Making the ‘safe hire’kills a lot of innovation,” says Braden
Kelley, author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire (Wiley,
2010). “If a person matches 100 percent of the job description Intellectual stimulation.
and has done this job a thousand times, what will he bring Debate and discussion
th at is new? Obviously, hiring someone who doesn’t fit your are encouraged and
culture is a waste of tim e and money, but which culture are supported.
you trying to fit? The culture you have or the culture you’re
trying to become?” rj Challenge. Workers feel
/T that their jobs are chal-
lenging, complex and
MAKE SPACE. A dedicated area th a t interesting but, at the
moves people out of their day-to-day work same time, not overly stressful.
environment, disrupts their thinking and
encourages face-to-face interaction can Flexibility and risk tak­
be vital to sparking innovation. ing. The organization is
W hat should be available in the room? willing to take risks and
“Comfortable workspaces with couches, deal with the uncertainty
tables and lots of pods where people and ambiguity that tend lo go hand
can gather in small groups, as well as in hand with innovation.
resources th at will help people capture
ideas, like smartboards, whiteboards and
Top-level support.
tools to help people depict their ideas,”
Employees view top
McKenna says.
management as sup­
Kellerman’s company created a library
portive of new ideas.
stocked with books th at have been crit­
ical in shaping the organization’s intel­
lectual roots. “We track what employees
Source: lnsidehr.com.
have read on a companywide chart and
reward people for reading,” she says.

CARVE OUT TIME. Intentionally block time on the calendar to learn something
new and then use th at knowledge to tackle a problem, McKenna advises.
At BetterUp, the HR team instituted “no-meeting Fridays” to build in periods
of tim e th at are conducive to creative flow. “Flow is a cognitive state of immer­
sion that enables deep thinking and creativity th at’s not possible in five-minute
increments between meetings,” Kellerman explains. “We also designate ‘inner
work’ days, during which the office closes and employees are asked to refrain
from ‘outer work’like e-mails and calls and instead focus on reflective practices
like reading, walking and mindfulness.”

SPRING 2019 HR M A G A Z I NE 49
BRIGHT IDEAS

TRAIN LEADERS. Provide training to managers and executives around topics such as
creativity, how to be a better listener and the overall process of being innovative, says
Robert Farmer, SHRM-SCP, senior vice president of people solutions at the Missoula
Federal Credit Union in Missoula, Mont.
W hile leaders at most companies are traditionally taught to minimize risk, “to be an
innovative leader, you have to be open to risk and ambiguity,” Mitchell says.
Stanleigh recom m ends w alking m anagers through hands-on exercises. “Ask
thought-provoking questions so they start to come up with ideas so that by the time they
finish the training, they have some innovations they can explore,” he says.
BetterUp offers “experimentation office hours” to help staff members at various skill
levels try on new roles. For example, the company’s data analytics team makes itself avail­
able to teach others how to design business experiments. Also, the research team offers
anyone in the company the opportunity to help design research studies and to learn about
research in the process. “We also offer all employees ongoing one-on-one coaching to build
innovation-fostering skills like focus, trust and risk tolerance,” Kellerman says.

EMPOWER THE FRONT LINE. “Many of the brightest and most use­
ful ideas come from the lowest levels of the organization—people
who deal daily with customers, suppliers, products and services,”
Thomas says. An example of this concept can be found in W hirl­
pool’s m antra: “Innovation comes from everyone, everywhere.”
For an organization to take advantage of this, senior employees
need to be open-minded toward their junior counterparts. “Some­
tim es senior leaders tend to silence the ideas of less experienced
employees,” DeMay says. She maintains it’s better to avoid dismiss­
ing anyone’s ideas and to allow open dialogue. “Ideas that may not
look feasible at first might become feasible with a little creativity,”
she says.
Thomas w arns about exerting too much control. “If there are
too many levels of approval or too much time between an idea and SHARE CREATIVITY STORIES.
implementation, it discourages idea creation,” he says. Stories are an im portant part
To solicit input from front-line employees, McKenna recommends of an organization’s in stitu ­
resurrecting the old-school suggestion box and bringing it up-to- tional memory. The narratives
date using technology. “Digital suggestion boxes encourage those th at employees tell and retell
closest to the work to submit ideas for improving it,” he says. are ones th at convey core ele­
ments of the company’s identity.
Be intentional about which sto­
ries HR chooses to tell in case
studies, training sessions and
DESIGN EXPANSIVE WORK new sletters. “O rganizations
ASSIGNMENTS. Innovation re­ where the m ost-talked-about
quires collaboration across many stories revolve around creativ­
different areas in the company, ity inspire others to follow suit,
but, unfortunately, a lot of com­ building a culture of innovation,”
panies have a siloed approach to Stanleigh says.
talent. To encourage people to And don’t be afraid to tell
work across boundaries, Kelley stories about failures, either—
recommends offering job rota­ b u t refram e those tale s as
tions and internal internships, learn in g o p p o rtu n ities. “In ­
as well as “innovation vacations,” novative cultures and leaders
when employees can schedule u n d erstan d the role failure
time away from their usual jobs plays in the innovation process,”
to pursue new ideas. Thomas says.

50 HR MAGAZINE S P R IN G 2 0 1 9
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* ‘ •’ *
*1 i i

MEASURING INNOVATION
T h e d iffe r e n c e b e t w e e n a fa ile d
• •
id e a a n d a s u c c e s s fu l in n o v a ­
tio n is o fte n r e fle c te d in d a ta .
“ P ro v id in g d a ta in u p -to -d a te
a n d e a s y -to -u n d e r s ta n d d a s h ­
b o a rd s a llo w s fo r c o n tin u o u s
in n o v a tio n a d o p tio n a n d ju s t-in -
tim e w o r k fo r c e s u p p o rt,” s ays
D a n n a H e w ic k , S H R M -S C P , v ic e
p r e s id e n t o f h u m a n re s o u rc e s
a t ja n ito r ia l c o m p a n y U S S I.
H e r e a re s o m e in n o v a tio n
m e tric s to a p p ly n o w a n d in th e
fu tu re :
Employee engagement. Y es,
e m p lo y e e e n g a g e m e n t e n c o m ­
p a s s e s m u c h m o re th a n in n o ­
v a tio n , b u t h o w o p e n - m in d e d
s u p e rv is o rs a re to s u g g e s tio n s
fro m e n tr y -le v e l e m p lo y e e s is a
g o o d b e n c h m a r k o f th e c o m p a -
n y ’s o v e ra ll in n o v a tiv e n e s s .
“S u rv e y e m p lo y e e s a n d a s k
th e e x te n t to w h ic h th e c o m p a n y
is o p e n to n e w id e a s a n d w h e th -
e r o r n o t th e ir id e a s a re w e ll-r e -
c e iv e d ,” says P a rk e r C . M c K e n n a ,
S H R M -S C P , a m e m b e r o f th e
S o c ie ty fo r H u m a n R e s o u rc e
M a n a g e m e n t ’s H R D is c ip lin e s
S p e c ia l E x p e rtis e P a n e l.
Number of new ideas. H o w
m a n y n e w id e a s d id H R r e c e iv e
la s t q u a rte r? F iv e? T en? N o n e ?
W h y ? “ L o o k a t t h e p ro c e s s y o u i#
h a v e fo r e n s u rin g t h a t in p u t
o f t h o s e c lo s e s t to t h e w o r k is
c o n s id e r e d . Y o u c a n ’t b e in ­
n o v a tiv e if y o u ’re n o t s e t u p to
r e c e iv e id e a s ,” M c K e n n a s ay s.
Is t h e r e a r o u tin e b y w h ic h H R
r e v ie w s c h a n g e m a n a g e m e n t
c y c le s , o r d o le a d e r s w a it fo r
t h e w h e e l to s ta r t s q u e a k in g
b e f o r e n e w id e a s a re c o n s id ­
e re d ? M e a s u r e id e a s in t h e
in n o v a tio n p ro c e s s p ip e lin e
a n d m o n ito r t h e ir s ta tu s .
A ls o , c o m p a r e t h e n u m b e r
o f k ille d in n o v a tio n s w ith t h e
to ta l n u m b e r o f id e a s s u b m itte d ,
s u g g e s ts M ic h a e l S ta n le ig h ,
C E O o f g lo b a l m a n a g e m e n t
c o n s u ltin g firm B u s in e s s Im -
p r o v e m e n t A rc h ite c ts . “ If t h e
p e r c e n ta g e is to o h ig h , m a y b e
y o u r o rg a n iz a tio n is b e in g to o
s tric t in its s e le c tio n c rite ria . B e
a w a r e o f w h a t y o u a re k illin g
a n d w h y .”
Solicited feedback. It is c o m -
m o n p la c e to r e q u e s t c u s to m e r
re v ie w s to h e lp e v a lu a t e p a s t
e m p lo y e e p e r fo r m a n c e , b u t
it is le s s c o m m o n to r e q u e s t
c u s to m e r f e e d b a c k a b o u t n e w
id e a s . “T h a t c a n b e a s simp
a d d in g a s u r v e y lin k to t h e
s ig n a tu r e lin e i n \ o u r e -t» a il:« l
w e lc o m e y o u r f e e d b a c k . C lic k
.•
. .h e r e to g iv e it,’- M c K e n n a s ay s.
Time spent: on innovation.
• W h ile th is m e tric m a y b e halrd
tp q u a n tify , it is stiff C ru c ia l. A s k
e m p lo y e e s h o w m u c h t im e
, « th e y s p e n d w o r k in g o n in n o ­
v a tio n v e rs u s h o w m u c h tin te
t h e y s p e n d o n t h e ir d a y ; t o - d a y
r e s p o n s ib ilitie s . If e m p lo y e e s
a re n o t s p e n d in g e n o u g h
t im e — o r a n y t im e — o n in n o -
v a tio n , h o w c a n t h e c o m p a n y
e x p e c t to b rin g n e w p ro d u c ts
a n d s e rv ic e s to m a rk e t?
“ In n o v a tio n n e e d s s tru c tu re
a n d s tim u la tio n ,” s a y s Bill
T h o m a s , S H R M -S C P , m a n a g -
in g p rin c ip a l o f o rg a n iz a tio n a l
s tr a te g y c o n s u lta n c y C e n tric
P e r fo r m a n c e LLC.
Revenue growth. R e tu rn on
in n o v a tio n in v e s tm e n t p ro v id e s
a t a n g ib le m e a s u r e m e n t fo r t h e
o v e ra ll p ro c e s s . “ L o o k a t y o u r
o r g a n iz a t io n ’s to ta l p ro fits fro m
n e w p r o d u c ts , n e w s e rv ic e s
a n d k e y b u s in e s s p ro c e s s e s
g e n e r a t e d th r o u g h t h e in n o v a -
tio n p ro c e s s ,” S ta n le ig h s a y s .

TIE INNOVATION EFFORTS TO PERFOR­

MANCE REVIEWS. It is natural for employ­
ees to focus their time on the activities on
which they are evaluated. So if organizations
want workers to spend time on innovation,
they should measure employees’ effective­
ness toward th at goal. Evaluate the extent
to which an employee thinks creatively, ac­
cepts new ways of doing things and adapts
to change, McKenna advises.
“C hange can come from anyw here,”
Mitchell says, “and organizations need to
be ready to respond.” [0

Kathryn Tyler is a freelance writer end for­

mer HR generalist and trainer in Wixom,
Mich.

SPRING 2019 HR MAGAZINE 51

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