Tag Archives: Innovation Culture

10 Key Traits of Organizations with a Successful Culture of Innovation

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10 Key Traits of Organizations with a Successful Culture of Innovation

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

Innovation has become a critical driver of success for organizations across industries. Cultivating a culture of innovation is not just about embracing new ideas; it requires fostering an environment that encourages risk-taking, collaboration, and continuous learning. In this article, we will explore ten key traits that distinguish organizations with a successful culture of innovation. Additionally, we will delve into two case studies to demonstrate how these traits translate into tangible outcomes.

Trait 1: Visionary Leadership

Organizations with a successful culture of innovation are led by visionary leaders who inspire and guide their teams. These leaders set a clear vision, communicate it effectively, and empower employees to take risks. A notable exemplar of visionary leadership is Apple Inc., led by Steve Jobs, where his vision for intuitive and elegant products guided their innovation journey.

Trait 2: Empowering Employees

Successful organizations foster a sense of ownership by empowering employees to make decisions and contribute to the innovation process. Google’s “20% time” policy, which allows employees to spend one-fifth of their work hours on personal projects, demonstrates the power of employee empowerment. This policy led to the development of Gmail, AdSense, and many other successful projects.

Trait 3: Open and Collaborative Culture

Creating an environment that encourages collaboration enables diverse perspectives to come together and drive innovation. Pixar Animation Studios is a prime example of an organization that fosters collaboration at every level. Its open layout and shared spaces encourage spontaneous interactions, ideation, and cross-pollination of ideas, leading to groundbreaking animated films.

Trait 4: Embracing Failure as a Learning Opportunity

A culture of innovation recognizes that setbacks and failures are an indispensable part of the learning and growth process. Salesforce.com, a customer relationship management company, encourages employees to “fail fast” through its hackathon events, where employees rapidly prototype ideas and learn valuable lessons from failures. This mindset has fueled a continuous stream of innovative products and solutions.

Trait 5: Continuous Learning and Skill Development

Innovative organizations prioritize continuous learning and invest in skill development programs. 3M, a global innovation company, offers a unique “15% Rule” where employees are allowed to spend up to 15% of their time pursuing personal development projects. This initiative empowers employees to explore their interests, acquire new skills, and contribute to company-wide innovation.

Trait 6: Customer-centric Approach

Organizations with successful innovation cultures prioritize understanding and serving their customers. Amazon, the e-commerce giant, relentlessly focuses on customer preferences and employs customer-centric design thinking methods. This approach has led to innovations like Amazon Prime, Echo, and the customer-driven “Just Walk Out” technology in their grocery stores.

Trait 7: Cross-functional Collaboration

Collaboration across departments and functions is vital for driving innovation. Toyota provides a great example with its concept of “obeya,” a cross-functional war room that brings together employees from different divisions to solve complex challenges. This collaborative environment fosters creativity, accelerates decision-making, and ensures multidimensional perspectives are considered.

Trait 8: Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion

Innovative organizations recognize the value of diverse perspectives and inclusion. Microsoft has made significant strides in building a diverse workforce and creating inclusive teams. By fostering an environment where individuals can bring their unique perspectives to the table, Microsoft has been able to leverage innovation and develop products such as the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

Trait 9: Clear and Efficient Communication

Effective communication ensures that innovative ideas are shared, understood, and acted upon. IDEO, a renowned design and innovation firm, employs various communication tools, such as visual storytelling and prototyping, to translate complex ideas into tangible outcomes. This clear and efficient communication helps IDEO harness the collective creativity of its teams.

Trait 10: Strategic Investment in Innovation

Successful organizations commit resources and allocate dedicated budgets for innovation. IBM’s “Corporate Service Corps” program exemplifies this trait. By sending top-performing employees to work on social and business challenges in emerging markets, IBM invests in its employees’ growth and generates innovative solutions for global challenges.

Conclusion

Organizations that consistently foster a culture of innovation possess these ten key traits. By cultivating visionary leadership, empowering employees, encouraging collaboration, embracing failure, prioritizing continuous learning, and implementing customer-centric approaches, organizations can create an environment where innovation thrives. Through the case studies of Apple Inc., Google, Pixar Animation Studios, Salesforce.com, 3M, Amazon, Toyota, Microsoft, IDEO, and IBM, we witness how these traits translate into tangible outcomes. Embracing these traits can help organizations pave the path to innovation and future success.

SPECIAL BONUS: The very best change planners use a visual, collaborative approach to create their deliverables. A methodology and tools like those in Change Planning Toolkit™ can empower anyone to become great change planners themselves.

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The Power of Employee Engagement in Building an Innovation Culture

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The Power of Employee Engagement in Building an Innovation Culture

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In today’s fast-paced and competitive business environment, organizations are constantly seeking ways to stay ahead of the curve and drive innovation. One of the key factors in fostering a culture of innovation is employee engagement. When employees are engaged and motivated, they are more likely to bring their best ideas to the table, collaborate effectively with their colleagues, and contribute to the overall success of the company.

Employee engagement is not just about having happy employees; it is about creating a work environment where employees feel valued, empowered, and inspired to do their best work. Research has shown that companies with high levels of employee engagement are more innovative, productive, and profitable than those with low levels of engagement. In fact, companies with engaged employees outperform their competitors by up to 202%.

Case Study 1: Google

One company that has successfully leveraged the power of employee engagement to drive innovation is Google. Google is known for its innovative culture, which encourages employees to take risks, think creatively, and experiment with new ideas. Google offers its employees a range of perks and benefits, from flexible work hours to on-site gyms and free meals, to foster a sense of belonging and ownership. Google also values transparency and communication, with regular town hall meetings and open forums where employees can share their ideas and feedback. As a result, Google has been able to develop revolutionary products and services, such as Gmail, Google Maps, and Android, that have reshaped the tech industry.

Case Study 2: Zappos

Another company that has embraced employee engagement as a driver of innovation is Zappos. Zappos is known for its unique company culture, which is based on the core values of delivering WOW through service, embracing and driving change, and creating fun and a little weirdness. Zappos places a strong emphasis on employee recognition and appreciation, with programs such as “WowWallas” where employees can give shoutouts to their colleagues for their hard work and dedication. Zappos also offers employees opportunities for professional growth and development, with a focus on continuous learning and skill-building. This culture of engagement has enabled Zappos to create a customer-centric organization that is constantly pushing the boundaries of e-commerce innovation.

Conclusion

The link between employee engagement and innovation culture is clear. By fostering a work environment where employees feel engaged, empowered, and inspired, companies can drive creativity, collaboration, and ultimately, innovation. Tactics such as transparent communication, recognition programs, and providing opportunities for professional growth can help organizations enhance employee engagement and build a culture of innovation that sets them apart from the competition. As leaders, it is essential to prioritize employee engagement and invest in strategies that cultivate a culture of innovation, as it is the key to long-term success in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

Bottom line: The Change Planning Toolkit™ is grounded in extensive research and proven methodologies, providing users with a reliable and evidence-based approach to change management. The toolkit offers a comprehensive set of tools and resources that guide users through each stage of the change planning process, enabling them to develop effective strategies and navigate potential obstacles with confidence.

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Design Thinking in the Workplace

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Creating a Culture of Innovation

Design Thinking in the Workplace

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are increasingly realizing the importance of fostering a culture of creativity and innovation. Design thinking, a problem-solving approach rooted in human-centered design, has emerged as a powerful tool for organizations seeking to create an environment conducive to innovation. By embracing design thinking, companies can transform their workplaces into hubs of creativity, unlock untapped potential, and stay ahead of the competition. In this article, we explore the concept of design thinking and delve into two case study examples that illustrate its impact on creating a culture of innovation in the workplace.

Case Study 1: Airbnb’s Reinvention of Customer Experience

Airbnb, the disruptive accommodation-sharing platform, understood the need to revamp their user experience to meet the evolving needs of their customers. By integrating design thinking into their organizational culture, Airbnb was able to create a culture of innovation that propelled them to new heights. The company embraced empathy as a core principle, encouraging employees to immerse themselves in the lives of their customers to gain a deep understanding of their pain points and desires.

Using design thinking methodologies, Airbnb redesigned its entire booking process to provide a more intuitive and seamless experience for their users. The company’s cross-functional teams used ideation sessions and rapid prototyping to test and refine their ideas, fostering an environment of collaboration and iteration. The result was not only a user-friendly and engaging platform but also a transformative cultural shift that made innovation a part of the company’s DNA.

Case Study 2: IBM’s Design Thinking Transformation

IBM, a technology giant with a long-standing legacy, recognized the need to reinvent itself to stay relevant in a fast-changing industry. The company embarked on a design thinking transformation by embedding design as a fundamental approach to problem-solving across its entire organization. IBM understood that design thinking would not only enhance their product development but also spark a cultural shift within their workforce, making them more agile and responsive to market needs.

IBM’s design thinking transformation focused on nurturing a diverse, collaborative, and empathetic workforce. Teams were trained on empathy-building techniques, actively involving end-users in the design process. Through ongoing collaboration and iteration, IBM successfully designed innovative products and experiences that addressed their customers’ emerging needs. The transformation empowered employees to think beyond technical solutions, fostering a culture where creativity and innovation thrived.

Key Learnings:

The case studies above offer valuable insights into how organizations can leverage design thinking to create a culture of innovation in the workplace. Some key learnings include:

1. Embracing empathy: By placing empathy at the core of their design thinking process, both Airbnb and IBM were able to gain a deep understanding of their customers’ needs, thus enabling them to design products and services that truly resonate.

2. Cross-functional collaboration: Integrating design thinking requires breaking down departmental silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration. Both companies emphasized the importance of diverse perspectives in problem-solving, ultimately resulting in breakthrough ideas.

3. Iterative prototyping: Rapid prototyping and iterative testing allow organizations to continuously refine and improve their offerings. Embracing a mindset of learning from failure encourages risk-taking and propels innovation forward.

Conclusion

Design thinking has proven to be a powerful tool in creating a culture of innovation in the workplace. By fostering empathy, encouraging collaboration, and embracing iterative prototyping, organizations like Airbnb and IBM have harnessed the potential of design thinking to transform their products, services, and organizational cultures. As companies strive to stay ahead of disruption and adapt to the ever-changing needs of their customers, integrating design thinking into their DNA can provide a competitive advantage and unlock new possibilities for innovation.

Bottom line: Futurists are not fortune tellers. They use a formal approach to achieve their outcomes, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to be their own futurist.

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Start 2021 with a Free Innovation Audit

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Free Innovation AuditNow in Portuguese or English

Are you struggling to identify why your innovation efforts are failing to achieve their desired results?

Identify your areas of opportunity with my FREE 50 question audit in one of two ways:

1. Get immediate feedback with the online version

2. Download the Microsoft Excel worksheet (in English or Portuguese)

  • have people across your organization fill it out and collate your results
  • OR purchase the Innovation Diagnostic Service for my help setting up a study and analyzing results

The innovation audit is most powerful when answers are gathered at multiple levels of the organization across several groups and several sites.

I created my FREE Innovation Audit for buyers of my first book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, but it’s now available for global use.

NOTE: If you’d like to translate the audit into another language, please contact me.

In addition to helping you identify areas of potential improvement and the strengths/weaknesses of your innovation culture, it will also help you see your level of innovation maturity.

Innovation Maturity Model

Image adapted from the book Innovation Tournaments by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich

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How to Encourage a Culture of Innovation

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How to Encourage a Culture of Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

What is a Culture of Innovation?

A culture of innovation is a working environment in which creative thinking, experimentation, and risk-taking are encouraged and rewarded. It is a way of working that values the development of new ideas, products, and processes. It is also a culture that supports collaboration and open communication in order to foster creativity, problem-solving, and innovation.

Fostering a Culture of Innovation

When it comes to fostering a culture of innovation in the workplace, there are a few key steps that can be taken to get the ball rolling. By encouraging employees to think creatively and to be open to new ideas, businesses can create an atmosphere of growth and progress that can lead to increased productivity and revenue.

1. Set Clear Goals – Make sure that all employees are aware of the company’s vision and mission. Clarifying the company’s goals and objectives will help employees understand what they’re working towards and why it’s important.

2. Provide Resources – Provide employees with the necessary tools and resources to enable them to think creatively and come up with innovative ideas. This can include access to research materials, training opportunities, and brainstorming sessions.

3. Encourage Risk-Taking – Be open to new ideas and don’t be afraid to take risks. Encourage employees to take calculated risks and be willing to make mistakes—it’s often through trial and error that the best ideas come about.

4. Reward Innovation – Recognize and celebrate employees who come up with innovative solutions. Not only will this motivate them, but it will also show other employees that the company values creative thinking.

5. Foster Collaboration – Encourage collaboration and open communication between teams. By bringing different perspectives together, teams can generate new ideas and find better solutions to problems.

Innovation is essential for any business looking to stay competitive and grow. By following these steps, businesses can create a culture of innovation and reap the rewards of a more creative and productive workforce.

Image credit: Pixabay

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5 Keys to Developing an Innovation Culture

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5 Keys to Developing an Innovation CultureThe Interview

Listen to the interview on The Everyday Innovator Podcast

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Chad McAllister recently for the Everyday Innovator Podcast on the topic of how an organization can become more innovative. Below you will find Chad’s summary of the Five Keys to Developing an Innovation Culture that I shared with him:

  1. Learn the basics of culture change, such as the 8-step Kotter change model or the Leading Change Formula. Braden is developing a Change Planning Toolkit™ based on his experience and research helping organizations change their culture to support innovation. We’ll discuss this in detail in a future interview when the Toolkit is available.

  2. Build a common language of innovation. Define what innovation means for the organization. Braden’s definition is that innovation transforms the useful seeds of invention into widely adopted solutions valued above every existing alternative. Then build vision, strategy, and goals for innovation. Finally, consider what infrastructure is needed to support innovation.

  3. Create a connected organization. Design the organization to apply the additional talents and skills employees have but are not used in their primary role. This “overhang” of capabilities can be applied for innovation by connecting people with the work that needs to be done. One model, used at Cisco, is to create internal internships to contribute to other projects. Another is Intuit’s innovation vacations (my term) that allows employees to take a scheduled break from the regular work to work on a short-term basis for another project.

  4. Identify those who care about innovation. Recognize that some employees are most comfortable in day-to-day operational roles and maintaining the status quo while others are constantly looking to change things for the better. Those that are seeking to make improvements, especially from the customer’s perspective, should be identified to contribute to product development. This also involves unlocking employees’ initiative, creativity, and passion.

  5. Make innovation a team sport. There is no such thing as a lone innovator. All innovators have a team around them. Braden created The Nine Innovation Roles™ for effective innovation teams: revolutionary, conscript, connector, artist, customer champion, troubleshooter, judge, magic maker, and evangelist. See details in the blog post he wrote for Innovation Excellence.

Listen to the interview on The Everyday Innovator Podcast

Image credit: EverythingZoomer.com


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Are You Lying to Your Customers?

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Are You Lying to Your Customers?

It seems like every company these days is trying to claim that they are innovative, trying to claim that they are customer-centric, trying to claim that their employees are important to them. But are they?

Can all this be true?

Or, are all of these companies lying to their customers, lying to their employees, and lying to their shareholders?

Many companies say that they are committed to innovation, but employees know the truth. If employees’ experience around the innovation efforts of the company (and its outcomes) isn’t consistent with the innovation messages being communicated, then not only will innovation participation and outcomes be low, but ongoing trust and loyalty will be further eroded in the organization.

Employees can see the Lucky Charms on your face when you say you’re committed to innovation publicly, but behind the scenes your actions demonstrate that you really are not.

And don’t be fooled, customers will start to see the Lucky Charms show up on your face, no matter how hard you try and convince them that the marshmallow goodness is not there.

If you aren’t going to define what innovation means to your company, if you aren’t going to create a common language of innovation, if you aren’t going to teach people new innovation skills and support innovation at all levels by making limited amounts of time and capital available to push their ideas forward, then don’t say you’re committed to innovation. You’ll tear the organization down instead of building it up.

Lying to CustomersIf customers don’t see you increasing your level of value creation, improving your level of value access, and doing a better job at value translation (see Innovation is All About Value), especially when compared to the competition, then they too will become disillusioned, frustrated, and start to look for other alternative solutions that deliver more value then all of your offerings.

Meanwhile, shareholders behave like customers on steroids. If you are being rewarded with an innovation premium by the market, you can’t be “all hat and no cattle” for very long, meaning you have to deliver compelling inventions on a repeated basis with a strong potential to become the innovations that drive the future growth of the company. This is hard to do once, let alone on a repeated basis. We will likely see Apple be the latest victim in the next twelve months.

Why? Because AAPL is at an all-time high based on the likely high percentage of people that are likely to upgrade from an iPhone 4 or 5s to an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. What about after that? Well, the smartphone industry is about to enter the same place that the PC industry hit a few years ago, when replacement cycles began to lengthen, reducing revenues, and forcing prices (and margins) lower. Simultaneously carriers will seek to extract more of the margin from the overall equation, and if Google/Motorola/Lenovo, Nokia and others start to bring $99 smartphones developed for India and other places to the richer economies that will in their next generation likely be “good enough” compared to the high end $699 handsets, more people will choose to wait longer between upgrades, or trade down with their next purchase, much as they did when $400 laptops started to become the rage.

So, what are we to learn from Apple’s pending share price collapse about the middle of next year?

Well, the first thing we will learn is that continuous innovation is hard. Now I’m not saying that Apple is going to go away, HP and Dell haven’t gone away, but Apple’s share price in Q2/Q3 2015 will struggle, they will face employee defections, and it will become more like Dell, HP and Microsoft than Facebook or Google. Not because those companies are any more or less innovative than any of the others, but because the growth paradigms are different and those companies are still in a different place on their growth curves.

We can also learn that continuous innovation requires consistency, commitment, the ability to recognize and prepare for the inevitable peaking of any growth curve, the organizational agility necessary to change as fast as the wants and needs of your customers and your environment, and the ability to understand what your customers will give you permission to do (so you know where to go next when your most profitable growth curve begins to peak).

You should see by now that continuous innovation is about far more than technological innovation, but instead requires not only continuous commitment, but also a continuous willingness and ability to change, and a continuous scanning of your environment using a Global Sensing Network.

Do you have one?

What is yours telling you about your company’s future?

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Are You Investing in an Innovation Culture?

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Are You Investing in an Innovation Culture?

Innovation is everywhere.

You can’t go an entire commercial break during the Super Bowl or a State of the Union address (okay, sorry, both American examples) without hearing the word innovation pop up at least once or twice. Companies have added innovation to their company values and mission statements in accelerating numbers. Some organizations have implemented idea management systems. And others are willing to spend large sums of money on design firms and innovation boutique consultancies to get help designing some new widget or service to flog to new or existing customers. Based on all of that you would think that most companies are committed to innovation, right?

If you asked most CEOs “Is your organization committed to innovation?”, do you think you could find a single CEO that would say no?

So, why do think I’m about to make the following statement?

90+% of organizations have no sustained commitment to innovation.

When it comes to fostering continuous innovation, most organizational cultures stink at it.

Let’s look at some data, because anyone who is committed to innovation (and not just creativity) should love data (especially unstructured data from customers):

  • Over the last 50 years the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has dropped from 61 years to 18 years (and is forecast to grow even shorter in the future)1

  • In a worldwide survey of 175 companies by Hill & Knowlton (a communications consultancy), executives cited “promoting continuous innovation” as the most difficult goal for their company to get right. “Structurally, many companies just aren’t set up to deliver continuous innovation.”2

  • 84% of more than 2,200 executives agree that their organization’s culture is critical to business success3

  • “96% of respondents say some change is needed to their culture, and 51% think their culture requires a major overhaul.”3

So what does this data tell us?

For one thing, it helps to reinforce the notion that the pace of innovation is increasing.

For another thing, it doesn’t exactly scream that organizations are as committed to building an innovation culture internally as their words externally say about being committed to innovation.

Why is this?

Well, as fellow Innovation Excellence contributor Jeffrey Phillips once said:

“When it comes to innovation, ideas are the easy part. The cultural resistance learned over 30 years of efficiency is the hard part.”

And when you get right down to it, most employees in most organizations are slaves to execution, efficiency, and improvement. And while those things are all important (you can’t have innovation without execution), organizations that fail to strike a balance between improvement/efficiency and innovation/entrepreneurship, are well, doomed to fail.

This increasing pace of innovation along with the lower cost of starting/scaling a business and the always difficult challenge of building a productive culture of continuous innovation, is the reason that the lifespan of organizations is shrinking.

So if it isn’t enough to talk about innovation, or to invest in trying to come up with new products and services, shouldn’t more organizations be also investing to making sure their innovation culture doesn’t, well, stink?

The obvious answer is… (insert yours here)

So, if your innovation culture stinks, I encourage you to come join me at Pipeline 2014 and attend my keynote session on exploring five ways to make it smell better:

“Our Innovation Culture Stinks – Five Ways to Make it Smell Better”

It’s a free virtual event on June 6, 2014.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Sources:
1. Innosight/Richard N. Foster/Standard & Poor’s
2. Hill & Knowlton Executive Survey
3. Booz & Company Global Culture and Change Management Survey 2013


Build a common language of innovation on your team

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How healthy are your innovation efforts?

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How healthy are your innovation efforts?As organizations become more mature in their process excellence efforts, an increasing number of organizations are turning their attention to try and achieve innovation excellence.

So where should your journey of a thousand innovation steps begin?

As your organization begins its innovation journey it is helpful to know where you are starting from in terms of your innovation maturity level and where the strengths and weaknesses of your innovation culture lie.

In my popular book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, that many organizations are buying in bulk and using to help establish their organization’s common language of innovation, I promised to share my 50 question innovation audit on this web site, and so here it is.

The audit is designed to examine many different areas of your innovation culture and help you identify both what your level of innovation maturity is, but also the areas where you have a strong base to build from and where you need to invest more effort.

Innovation Maturity Model

To properly use my innovation audit, you should have large sections of your employee population fill out the survey (both in management and operational roles) across several different business specialties and office locations. The data can then be looked at by department, business specialty, office location and other groupings that make sense to identify both commonalities and differences.

If you would like assistance interpreting the results, please contact me to see the different options for engaging my services. Many companies combine this with an innovation speaker engagement or some innovation training for their employees.

I hope you find this innovation audit of use, and I thank you for buying the book (or considering doing it now)!

Download my FREE innovation audit


Build a common language of innovation on your team

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