Building an Innovation Culture

According to one study of 1,026 executives and managers in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, there are six dynamically linked “building blocks” that support an innovation culture:

1. Values: How leaders behave and what leaders invest in, rather than what they say or write in the annual report, e.g. the values of entrepreneurship, creativity and learning
2. Behaviours: The actions leaders and employees take to fight for the cause of innovation such as tenacity to overcome obstacles and “scrounging” resources when budgets are tight, e.g. behaviours that energise, engage and enable
3. Climate: An atmosphere that encourages engagement and enthusiasm, facilitates risk taking within a safe environment, promotes learning and brings about independent thinking, e.g. climate of safety, simplicity and collaboration
4. Resources: People, systems and resources to encourage innovation – with people being the most critical because of their effect on innovation climate and values
5. Processes: The path that innovations follow as they are developed – for example, the “innovation funnel” or stage-gate systems for reviewing and prioritising projects and prototyping, e.g. processes based on ideation, shaping and capturing
6. Success: The extent to which an organisation values success and strives for the highest standards of performance. Success exists at three levels: (a) External, i.e. manifested in customer and competitor recognition (b) enterprise, and (c) individual

Sources: Rao, J. and Weintraub, J. (2013) How Innovative Is Your Company’s Culture?, SMR, Spring; Hogan, S. and Coote, L. (2014) Organizational Culture, Innovation, and Performance: A Test of Schein’s Model, Journal of Business Research, 67, 1609-1621.

Action Point

Evaluate the extent to which your organisation has mastered the six building blocks of innovation culture.