SGDT7063

INNOVATION, CHANGE AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

LECTURER : DR BYABAZAIRE YUSOFF

RELATIONSHIPS : TELLING THE STORY

PREPARED BY
CHE KHAIRULEFFENDI CHE KAMARUZAMAN
904692
 INTRODUCTION

It is commonly understood that innovation process

involves the coordinated efforts of many organisational
members to develop, implement and promote innovative
ideas to improve work practices (Bessant & Tidd, 2015).
Articulating innovative ideas, sharing them and
persuading others to adapt and implement them is
essentially a process of storytelling (Sergeeva, 2018).
 Storytelling can generate common understanding of innovation and future
vision among organisational members (Perkins, Lean, & Newbery, 2017).
 Innovation is often promoted in organisations by telling stories about past,
present and future innovations, e.g. a new or improved product, a process, a
service, work practice.
 Innovation managers are responsible for promoting innovation through
different channels, ensuring that organisations have the capabilities to develop
innovation strategies and to create and maintain the culture of innovation.
 Stories about innovation can be repeated in organisations. Retelling stories of
innovation is a way of reinforcing the cultural norms and values around
innovation (Garud & Turunen, 2018).
 THE ROLE OF STORYTELLING

According Sergeeva (2018), the role of storytelling divided into two categories ;

The Role of Storytelling at The Earlier The Role of Storytelling at The Later
Stages of The Innovation Process Stages of The Innovation Process

• Developing innovative ideas • Stories about happened innovations, past

• Getting approval from senior successes and failures, and how they get
management team shared and promoted in organisations
• Refining ideas further • The implications for future motivation to
innovate.
HOW TO USE STORIES AS A STRATEGIC TOOL

 The wonderful thing about stories is that they are not only powerful cognitive tools
but they can be malleable based on our challenges and how we want to create change
within our organization. Organizational stories can be used to persuade, educate,
reassure, inform, explain, connect, construct meaning, or simplify.
1. STORIES TO TRANSPORT MESSAGES OR VISION

 We use stories to help illustrate our innovation process through emotive and authentic
stories that not only help contextualise our mission and values but generate a common
understanding of what innovation is and who gets to be an innovator
 These stories are critical for changing the culture of the organization and familiarising
people with a vivid vision of innovation.
 Creating a compelling vision is a key element for sustainable innovation across an
organization — our vision needs to energise and compel others to move and act.
Stories of innovation allow us to create this shared vision and common understanding
to introduce positive change.
2. STORIES TO DIFFUSE OR PITCH IDEAS

 People love ideas, and innovators have many tools to prototype their novel products,
services or processes.
 Storytelling offers a key framework to emotionally connect with our audience or
decision makers. Instead of developing a Powerpoint presentation, create a story
around our idea that people will yearn to retell.
 Move beyond a basic pitch and see how we can utilise the science of story-building to
make our idea resonate and more memorable for our target audience.
3. STORIES TO CAPTURE BRIGHT SPOTS

 Telling stories of others in the organization who are innovating can not only help
people overcome anxieties and concern about various attributes of the innovation
process. But it can make innovation more accessible.
 Storytelling is key for building understanding and engagement for innovation.
4. STORIES AS A ROAD MAP FOR BEHAVIOUR
CHANGE
 The strategic communications can be used to not only build support for innovation
but also to change behaviours at a cultural level.
 Often, resistance to change is simply a lack of understanding of how to change.
Innovation and experimentation can walk in lockstep with uncertainty, and with
uncertainty comes ambiguity.
 We can use stories to script behaviours and create a pathway for innovation that is
accessible for colleagues who may not know where to start. If we want to create an
organization that breeds innovators, it is not enough to tell them “be innovative” or
“be creative.” Through detailed stories, we can tell them how they cultivate change.
5. STORIES TO BUILD KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATE

 Storytelling is an extremely valuable tool to challenge the notion that innovation is

only technology and to build knowledge about what the innovation process looks like
in practise.
 Stories also allow us to capture lessons learned around experimenting and how to
build knowledge around what works and what doesn’t.
 Ultimately, our learning has greater value when we share it and reading a
humanitarian innovation story is more inspirational than another report.
6. STORIES TO UNDERSTAND THE PAST

 Innovation is rarely straightforward, and a lack of institutional memory can reinforce

the status-quo.
 Through storytelling, we can capture the long-dormant seeds of innovation’s past and
guide others through the trials and tribulations of the innovators who came before us.
7. STORIES TO EXPLORE THE FUTURE OR THE
UNKNOWN

 Stories allow us to gaze into what our future could look like, and the norms and
beliefs pulsing through it.
INNOVATION OF STORYTELLING (CONCLUSSION)

 While in some cases people may not understand how innovation relates to their work, in
other instances people simply don’t believe they can be an innovator.
 To change our organizational culture we need to question the paradigm of who gets to be
an innovator. We have to tell stories to steward our culture forward. We have to tell
stories to demystify the role of creativity and innovation in people’s day-to-day lives.
 This experience of creativity has historically not been accessible to the many because
someone once spoke of its false innateness.
 We have to tell stories that value the virtue of inquisitiveness and reward the merit of
curiosity. There are too many people cast out from the innovation conversation because
of distorted archetypes of ‘changemakers’ who wield an innate gift.
 The false shadow of the lone inventor frightens people outside the creative
experience.
 We have to tell stories that depict creativity as accessible and curiosity as a friend we
can always revisit.
 We also have to recognise the cultural variations in what people expect to see in
stories — how can we use innovation to speak across cultures whether that is through
speech, gestures, or drawing stories.
 We need to tell better stories. We need to tell more inclusive stories. We need to tell
stories about the intersectional spaces, the complexity of systems and the nuances of
the human experience.
 REFERENCES

Lauren Parater. (June 3, 2019). Why innovation needs storytelling.UNHCR Innocation Service.
https://medium.com/unhcr-innovation-service/why-innovation-needs-storytelling-965d26943c02
Sergeeva N. (2018). The role of storytelling in the innovation process. Wiley Online Library. 27 (4).
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10055686/3/Sergeeva_The%20role%20of%20storytelling%20i
n%20the%20innovation%20proces%20Final.pdf