Presentation about how to create a company culture that supports innovation. Practical and hands on approach.

1. Innovating Company
Culture
A practical approach
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2. Introduction
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If all pre-requisites are taken into consideration, then the
company/organization will have a good foundation for an innovative
company culture
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To create an innovative company/organizational culture it is necessary to
understand a number of pre-requisites of innovation
Continuously revisiting these pre-requisites and re-evaluating them is
essential to remain innovative
2013-11-12
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3. Company Culture
Edgar Schein presents culture as a series
of assumptions a person makes about
the group in which they participate.
These assumptions are grouped into
three levels, each level becoming more
difficult to articulate and change. These
assumptions can be seen through:
• Artifacts (what you experience with your
senses, such as language, styles, stories,
and published statements);
• Espoused beliefs and values (ideals,
goals and aspirations); and
• Basic underlying beliefs (taken for
granted conditions). [10]
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4. Overview
By having
answers to these
8 questions, an
organization can
build a good
foundation for
an innovative
culture
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5. How do we innovate?
Method
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To reduce this barrier of entry and facilitate for people to start thinking
about innovation, there are several methods available
•
Lateral and parallel thinking are two methods introduced by Edward de
Bono [8], and there are many others available as well
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It can be difficult for people to just sit down and think about innovation
without any help
The line manager should introduce different methods to the organization to
facilitate the innovation process
2013-11-12
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6. How do we innovate?
Infrastructure
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An innovation portal where all new ideas are listed and where it is easy to
see the follow up of each new idea could be one solution
•
Once a person has come up with an idea, it should never be intimidating or
cumbersome to submit that idea, and all members of a group should be
able to support and comment on each others ideas
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There needs to be an easy and transparent way of submitting new
innovations and ideas
You can always go into more details if the idea gets positive attention
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7. Why do we innovate?
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Is reducing costs the major driver of innovation? Or is it a lack of quality in
reports? Or is it the number of submitted patents? Or lack of product
quality?
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It should be clear to a group why they should invest time and effort to
innovate and come up with new ideas
If the group knows why they have to innovate, it is easier to focus their
attention on innovations that will actually get positive attention
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8. Why do we innovate?
Assessment of ideas
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If an idea is accepted or rejected, it should be clear not only why, but how
that assessment was done, and based on what criteria
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The assessment criteria should be clear to everyone
This transparency is critical to give the innovation program credibility
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9. Why do we innovate?
Personal Incentives
•
Why should an individual invest effort in the innovation
process? What incentives are available to motivate people?
• Financial incentives are often not effective and overreliance on
them can erode emotional commitment [7] [11]
Incentives [6]
Financial Incentives
Moral Incentives
• Allowing people to control what they do and give them autonomy is
one way – allow people to drive the implementation of their own
innovations [7]
• Recognition within the group is another way – have a monthly
department innovation meeting where top innovators are
recognized [7]
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Personal Incentives
Natural Incentives
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10. When do we innovate?
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Monthly brain storming [9] sessions?
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10 minutes on each weekly section meeting?
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Lessons learned after each project?
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One hour each Friday?
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10 minutes on a morning stand up innovation meeting?
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When will the group have time to innovate? Don’t expect people to innovate on
their own time - Hopefully they will, but that will be a by-product of a good
innovation culture
One hour bi-weekly to think about ideas alone?
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11. Who innovates?
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However people with less than 6 months experience will have a hard time
doing meaningful contributions because of their lack of knowledge, and
participating should be seen more as training
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Everyone in the group should be part of the innovation effort
People with 6-18 months of experience could be separated from the rest of
the group since they have a unique opportunity to have enough experience
to do meaningful contributions, but not been involved long enough to
become rigid and trapped in their way of working
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12. What do we innovate?
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Without knowledge it is easy to invent the wheel over and over again
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Of course we should never prohibit anyone from innovating within other
areas, but for the innovations to be relevant and to get the right follow up,
it is easier if the innovations are relevant to the groups work
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Meaningful innovation requires understanding and knowledge – we
innovate primarily within our core competence
The line manager should focus to groups attention in the right direction
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13. For Whom do we innovate?
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If an idea is generated, it should be clear who receives and asses that idea
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The stakeholders should be clear to everyone
It should also be clear who supports and finances the implementation,
development and follow up of the idea
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14. Where do we innovate?
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Can we use the environment to facilitate innovation somehow?
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Specific innovation white boards in the coffee room?
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Do we have specific rooms for innovation? Or do we use regular meeting
rooms?
The more we can support the exchange and development of ideas, the
better
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15. With whom to we innovate?
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Innovation is a group effort, but of course parts of it can be done alone as
well
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An initial idea can be generated alone, and then developed and improved
with the group, but everything can also be done as a group
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It should be clear with whom a person can bounce ideas with and who is
involved in the innovation process
The manager should also be involved in the innovation effort and add input
from a different perspective and abstraction level
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16. Conclusion
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The leader of the group has significant responsibility to drive the group in
the right direction and give the pre-requisites needed for innovation to
become an intricate part of the groups foundation
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If the group has these 8 questions answered in a satisfactory way, they
have a solid foundation and a good pre-requisite for creating a thriving
innovation culture
Innovation cannot end with an excel sheet full of ideas that no one acts
upon – follow up, support, implementation and rewarding effort is critical
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17. References
[1] The Four Drivers of Innovation
http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/26068/four-drivers-innovation.aspx
[2] Creating an Innovation Culture: Failure is necessary
http://www.forbes.com/sites/darden/2012/06/20/creating-an-innovation-culture-accepting-failure-is-necessary/
[3] 8 Pillars of Innovation
http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/innovation/8-pillars-of-innovation.html
[4] Why corporate culture is important for innovation
http://innovateonpurpose.blogspot.se/2012/10/why-corporate-culture-is-important-for.html
[5] The Truth about Innovation Culture
http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/11/14/the-truth-about-innovation-culture/
[6] Wikipedia – Incentives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incentive
[7] Money is not the best motivator
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/06/money-motivation-pay-leadership-managing-employees.html
[8] Edward de Bono
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Bono
[9] Brainstorming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming
[10] Organisational Culture Defines
http://www.sidewaysthoughts.com/blog/2010/11/organisational-culture-defined-courtesy-of-edgar-schein/
[11] The Puzzle of Motivation
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
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2013-11-12
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Confidential