The document provides an agenda and overview for a workshop on implementing a culture of innovation. The agenda covers self-expression, defining innovation and culture, barriers to innovation culture, and implementing a new culture. It discusses defining innovation culture as a pattern of shared assumptions that enable new problem-solving. Barriers include organizational barriers like time pressure, peer pressure, risk-averse culture, and lack of leadership support. Implementing innovation culture requires overcoming these barriers by providing resources, rewarding successes, improving communication, and developing tools and processes like prototyping. The workshop aims to help participants learn how to assess their culture and implement changes to promote innovation.

1. Innovate or Die!
Implementing a
Culture of Innovation
Facilitator: Benny Stein
Date: August 2, 2013

2. Agenda
I. Self-expression
II. Aims
III. Defining a culture of innovation
IV. Implementing a new culture

3. I. Self-expression

4. Organization
We help companies use their knowledge
resources more efficiently for sustainable
business success.
We offer seminars on social business,
collaboration, open innovation and
design thinking.

5. About me
Self-employed creativity and
innovation consultant since 2011,
since 2013 operating as Ideara.
Benny Stein
Vision: Creating of new, unusual things

6. About you
Questions to orient yourself
 Who am I?
 How do I earn my living?
 Which experience do I have with
innovation?
 What do I expect from this workshop?

7. Quote
“Never doubt that a small group of
committed people can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead

8. II. Aims

9. Aims
You‘ll learn:
 Aspects of a culture of innovation
 Barriers on your way to it and
 Ways to overcome these barriers

10. III. Defining a culture of
innovation

11. Brain Teaser
To warm up your brain:
Find 5 ways to check whether the light of a
fridge is off when you close it‘s door!
Why did it take the fax machine 5 years to
become successful?

12. Definition of „innovation“
Definition: „First-time usage of a problem
solution“
Innovation:
 New product
 New service
 New process
 New way of thinking
Difference to idea and invention?

13. Definition of „culture“
Definition: „Pattern of shared basic
assumptions“ (Annahmen)
These assumptions need to be:
 Valid (enough)
 Made visible („corporate identity“,
structures, processes)
 Lived and taught to new members
Difference to climate?

14. Innovation culture
We combine:
Innovation: New ways of problemsolving
+
Culture: Pattern of shared assumptions
=
Innovation culture: „A pattern of shared
assumptions to enable new ways of
problemsolving.“

15. Innovation culture
Most important assumptions of a culture of
innovation:
We need innovation in order to survive.
We support innovative behaviour, provide
resources for it and tolerate mistakes.

16. Composition of a creative team
Crucial questions
 Which persons are needed? Whose point
of view is truly relevant for the process?
 Who is the end-user?
 Who uses similar products?
 Who will buy it?

17. Composition of a creative team
Main groups
 End-users
 Customers
 Theoreticians
 Experts, „nerds“
 Contrarians („Querdenker“)
 Uncomfortable persons that give you
impulses
Avoid the „comfortable clone syndrome“!

18. Composition of a creative team
We need to cover:
Inside view
Outside
view
Process
moderation
Creative
team

19. Exercise: Insiders and outsiders
Co-workers New customers Companies with the
same target group
(no competitor)
Competitors Marketing unit Branch experts
Teenagers R&D unit Trainees
Regular customers Students Suppliers
Canteen personal Cooperation partners CEO
Associate the following groups: Insider or outsider?

20. Classification Insider - OutsiderKnowledgeofthetrade
(Branchenkenntnis)
Yes
• Companies with the same
target group
• Competitors
• Suppliers
• Cooperation partners
• Regular customers
• Branch experts
• Co-workers
• Marketing unit
• R&D unit
• CEO
• Canteen personal
• Trainee
No
• New customers
• Students
• Teenagers
• (Trainee)
No Yes
Belonging to the company

21. Ressources of innovation
We need:
Time
Space
Material
Motivation/
stimulation
Creative
team

22. IV. Implementing a new
culture

23. Obstacles and barriers
Implementing a new culture means
overcoming the old one.
Common barriers:
 Organizational
 Peer group
 Cultural
 Leadership
 Personal

24. We remember
Assumptions of (a new) culture need to be:
 Valid
 Made visible
 Lived and taught to new members

25. Three-level-model by Schein
Artefacts
Espousing
values
Basic underlying
assumptions
Visible elements
Strategy, aims,
vision, philosophy
Unconscious
elements

26. Organizational barriers

27. Organizational barriers
Cause: Organizational structure and
conditions
 Time pressure
 Lack of resources (money, machines,
personal, …)
 Long chain of command, over-
formalization of processes
 Exceeding workload
 Centralized knowledge

28. A short story
Employee on the 5th level of
hierarchy:
„I‘ve got a good idea which will
help to develop our company a lot“
He has to take the chain of
command and tells his superior.

29. A short story
The superior on the 4th level of hierarchy:
„His idea is good. It will help to develop our
company a lot!
But wait… if I told my superior about that
idea, what will he think?
He might think, this employee has to earn a
preferment. I will lose power!
And by the way… the employee is good at
his actual workplace… I don‘t want to lose
him and train somebody new into it!“

30. A short story
The superior on the 3rd level of hierarchy:
„This employee‘s idea is good. It will help to
develop our company a lot!
But wait… it would concern many units and
lead to a big change. That is too much effort
and I don‘t want to be responsible if it
doesn‘t work out!

31. A short story
The top management, 1st level of hierarchy:
„We started our new innovation program
three months ago… why don‘t we get new
ideas?“

32. Work environment

33. Work environment
It should be:
 Inspiring
 Inviting
 Allowing communication
 Providing possibilities of retreat

34. Exercise/ Homework: Collage
Step 1: Collect all magazines, catalogues,
prospects, travel guides and pictures you
can get
Step 2: Grab a big piece of paper, scissors
and glue and model your dream work
environment
Also works to visualize the reward of a
competition.

35. Peer group barriers

36. Peer group barriers
Cause: Interpersonal processes
 Social conflicts
 Group pressure, tendencies of
normalization
 Too homogeneous work groups
(comfortable clonde syndrome)

37. Short break

38. Cultural barriers

39. Exercise: Defining culture types
Step 1: Look at your worksheet.
Step 2: Answer the questions by marking
where you see your (future) company.

40. Culture types
 Stable: Past-orientated, introverted, tries to
keep the status quo, avoids risks
 Reactive: Present-orientated, introverted,
accepts little risks and deviation from the
status quo
 Anticipative: Present-orientated, takes
calculable risks in known environments
 Explorative: Future-orientated, extraverted,
assesses chance and risk
 Creative: actively searches for a new
future and changes, extraverted, takes
unfamiliar risks

41. Cultural barriers
Cause: Unsuitable culture
 High need for secureness
 Risk-avoiding
 Little tolerance for mistakes
 Lack of artefacts
 Different underlying assumptions and
espousing values

42. Culture of risk-taking

43. Fast decision making
Which way should he take?
”You miss 100% of the
shots you never take.”
- Wayne Gretzky

44. Finding new ideas
Balance between randomness (chaos) and
control (order)

45. Culture of trial and error
Turning the question:
Why did you fail?
to
What have you learned?

46. Quote
“In the end, management doesn’t change
culture. Management invites the workforce
itself to change the culture.”
- Lou Gerstner

47. Personal barriers
Leadership barriers

48. Leadership and personal barriers
Personal barriers
Cause: Personal doubts
 Persons perceive themselves as uncreative
 No intrinsic motivation
Leadership barriers
Cause: Lack of trust, centralization of power
 Exceeding control, little delegation
 No setting of extrinsic incentives

49. Innovation roles
Creative
geniuses
Innovation
champions
Innovation
leaders

50. Innovation roles
Creative genius
 Key person in the actual development of
new ideas
 Often bridges the gap between company
and customer, connecting an inside with
an an outside view
The creative mind, „idea generator“.

51. Innovation roles
Innovation champion
 Influences, encourages, promotes and
supports innovation
 They are usually the interface between a
company‘s strategy and it‘s operational
business
The practitioner.

52. Innovation roles
Innovation leader
 Defines the core structures
 Defines basic operations of an
organization
 Sets the general focus on innovation
The strategic planner.

53. Exercise: 10 statements
Step 1: Build teams (maximum: 6 teams)
Step 2: You get 5 red, blue and green pins
Red: Creative geniuses
Blue: Innovation champions
Green: Innovation leaders
Step 3: Assign them to the statements on
your worksheets (1 pin per statement)

54. Exercise: Balancing innovation roles
Step 1: Take your 15 pins (5 red, green and
blue)
Step 2: Model the perfect balance of the
three roles by adding/ taking away the pins
you (don‘t) need.
Example: 1 genius, 5 champions, 3 leaders

55. Innovation motor
Greatest motor of innovation:
Talent
Beware: Creativity is NOT intelligence.
It‘s not necessarily from within the branch.
Example: Sony hired an opera singer with a
phenomenal hearing to increase their product‘s
audio engineering.

56. Characteristics of „talent“
Look for people with these attitudes:
 Divergent thinking
 Fluent generation of ideas
 Ability to elaborate and refine their results
And most important:
Obsession for what they do

57. Cost of talent
Amount of professional experience, degrees, inflexibility, …
Cost to get
the talent

58. Innovation motor
So when‘s the best time to get talent?
As early as possible!
(Including schools and universities.)
Innovation capability means
Human Resources

59. Motivation

60. Promote (healthy) competition

61. Rewarding success

62. Rewarding success
Money is not the only possible reward.
What about fulfilling a dream?
Which of your dreams is worth to win the
„ideation contest“ of your company?
A travel? A new lawn moyer? A language
course? A newspaper abonnement?
Be creative!

63. Recognizing successes

64. Recognizing success
Recognizing means
Celebrating!
Hit a bell, have a party, just show that you
encourage the trial and success.
Even mistakes can be celebrated. They
won‘t be repeated!

65. Giving feedback

66. Communication structure

67. Exercise: Modeling com. structures
Step 1: Build teams of at least 4 persons. One
of you is your chief. Mark him somehow.
Step 2: You get twines. Each of them is a
communication link.
Step 3: Model the most ineffectual
communication structure you can think of.
Step 4: Now model your most effective
communication structure.

68. Communication structure
Lessons:
The most ineffectual communication = no
communication
The best form: (Controlled) communication
with everyone
… leading to „dare to share“

69. Innovation lab
A company grants users access to some of
their resources, like raw intern ideas, source
code or even a real test lab.
What it gets in return:
 New ideas
 Advertisement
 Direct contact to talent
 Customers who developed „their“ product

70. Work-life-balance

71. Work-life-balance
Even the most creative minds need time to
refresh their batteries.
Why don‘t you plan their vacation?
Disentangle them from their work for a while
and give them one mission:
Find something cool for our company!

72. Providing with tools

73. Tools
 Access to information
 Access to resources of innovation
 Tools of analyzation, measurement,
improvement
 Creativity methods

74. 7 steps of prototyping
1. On an A4 page: Describe a short practical
test.
2. Collect disposable material the cheapest
way.
3. Find a partner/ customer who provides a
testing area and will be a critical voice.
4. Fix a date for the test run (within 5 days).

75. 7 steps of prototyping
5. Do the test as soon as possible.
6. Document and analyze your results.
7. Fix the date for the next test run. It should
be within 5-10 days.

76. Quotes
“Effective prototyping may be the most
valuable core competence an innovative
organization can hope to have.”
- Michael Schrage
„Fail faster. Succeed Sooner.”
- David Kelley

77. How to measure „innovation culture“
Indicators:
 Output of ideas and innovation
 Espousing values and assumptions have
been internalized
 Visible artefacts
 Perceived image
 Regularity of innovation happenings

78. Troubleshooting

79. A few tips
…when trying to implement a new culture
 The change must be supported by
management and employees. Let them
create the culture together.
 People seek secureness, new things scare
them. Therefore, implementation needs
time.
 The new culture must be visible, valid and
internalized.

80. Reactions towards a new culture
Innovators
Early
adopters
Late
adopters
Resistors
People of the organization

81. Change curve
•Shock
•Denial
•Resistance
•Test
•Acceptance
•Implementation
Turning point

82. Closing remark
„Excellence in innovation.
We can’t all be Apple or Cirque du Soleil or
Basement Systems Inc.
But we can damn well die trying.”
- Tom Peters

83. Questions left?

84. Thoughts and impressions

85. Evaluation

86. Anstehende Veranstaltungen
13.08.2013: Ideenworkshop 4x3 in Berlin
28.08.2013: Ideenworkshop 4x3 in Berlin
19./20.09.2013: Praxis-Seminar Zusammenarbeit
im digitalen Zeitalter
17./18.10.2013: Praxis-Seminar Open Innovation
13./14.02.2014: Praxis-Seminar Open Innovation