The common DNA of innovative companies

To reinvent themselves over and over again in response to customer demand for cheaper, faster and better round-the-clock availability of goods and services, companies have looked to various management theories for a blueprint for success — with each fashionable theory giving way to a subsequent one expounding new processes and methodologies to be slavishly followed.

With hindsight provided by the many organisations which, through various processes of “restructuring”, “rightsizing” or “downsizing”, had become too lean to be able to respond flexibly and innovatively in the competitive marketplace, attention is now focused much more on building a sustainable approach to change, based on organisational culture and reflected in management and employee behaviour good practices.

Rather than focusing exclusively on short-term success, high-performance organisations — which continue to compete successfully in a changing global marketplace — are those that build foundations for longer-term viability while, at the same time, delivering success here and now.

Roffey Park’s research has noted that many of these high-performance organisations place a great deal of emphasis on creating an environment for innovation, which has enabled them to prosper, react quickly, learn from others and create options for the future.

Organisations which are generally successful at fostering creativity and innovation have key enablers within their organisational culture. They appear to possess distinct markers — an organisation DNA — that allow innovation to flourish.

PARAMETERS FOR EXPERIMENTS

Within the organisational culture of innovative companies exists parameters for experimentation.

It is not surprising that, in the current climate of austerity in Europe where companies are finding it hard to grow, a KPMG study has shown that hierarchies stifle innovation at work. Only 8 per cent of respondents said their organisations were good at spotting and nurturing innovation from the bottom up.

Innovation can wane as austerity leads to over-cautiousness, with innovators facing an uphill battle at each stage to push their ideas through. An innovative culture allows creativity to flourish by giving employees the freedom to experiment.

An environment where risks and mistakes are acceptable if learning takes place is vital. It is one where failure is not punished or negatively dealt with, and where mistakes are even applauded. After all, the most successful entrepreneurs and innovators have one thing in common — they all failed in the beginning before regrouping and discovering success.

Tolerating and even — to a certain extent — encouraging failure, however, does not entail giving employees carte blanche. There need to be parameters set at the very beginning, demarcating specific areas within the organisation where innovation is needed. People need to know the boundaries within which to experiment or innovate.

Once the parameters are set, organisations should then allow employees the freedom to unleash their creativity and give them the necessary support and encouragement. High-performance organisations reinforce values or attitudes towards innovation, rather than leaving good practice to chance.

3M, for example, has a well-known policy which enables all technical staff to spend 15 per cent of their time on their own projects. In practice, the actual time spent varies from person to person, but the message to all is undeniably one that supports the freedom to innovate.

Further reinforcement of this might include putting at the disposal of staff a development budget which allows them to spend their training budget on an area of their choice, fuelling their ability to create innovation within the sphere of their expertise.

SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE-SHARING

Innovative companies do not just place responsibility to innovate on the person at the top. The most successful innovators enable the process to take root in different parts of the organisation, with ideas linked together through networking and collaboration across various functional teams.

Employees, given the opportunity to share ideas and work in cross-boundary teams, may often come up with better ideas. To facilitate sharing across different teams and levels, physical space is often designed to bring them together rather than separate them; and a process of sharing ideas is put in place, which might entail having meetings chaired by facilitators.

Surprisingly, the use of technology, which is so relied upon nowadays as a means of communication, may be a real hindrance to the innovative process — inhibiting rather than encouraging dialogue.

Protocols which restrict the use of email to essential purposes and email-free days (during which this means of communication among staff is prohibited) are some of the ways in which organisations can encourage sharing and learning across boundaries.

GIVE CREDIT, REWARDS

It is a reality that people need recognition for efforts expended. Innovation cannot be encouraged where credit is not given where it is due.

Some of the main blocks to the co-creation and sharing of new ideas and knowledge lie within the societal or emotional realm. In a society which increasingly treats employees as dispensable and replaceable, few employees rely solely on their employers to safeguard their interests. Developing “intellectual capital” should be in the interest of both the organisation and the employees to further their career.

Nevertheless, where a climate of mistrust exists, employees may be unwilling to avail the organisation of their ideas as it may be at their own expense — particularly where they are not given recognition or credit for their work.

In fact, sharing their ideas may be perceived to be damaging to their “uniqueness” and a reduction of their value as knowledge experts.

Organisations that value innovation have recognised these concerns and built equitable means of sharing the rewards for innovative ideas, while protecting the career interests of their employees. Recognition may be financial or non-financial but often need to be a combination of both.

While many think of innovation and creativity as being an unregulated and “free-spirited” activity that happens by chance — perhaps reinforced in part by the fabled tales of scientific and engineering discoveries that appear to have stemmed from singular strokes of genius — it is actually a process that has been successfully implemented in organisations.

The end result might be a major discovery or an incremental improvement, but the fact of the matter is that foundations have to be laid to allow that “eureka” moment to happen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Gary Miles is the Director of International Operations at Roffey Park Institute, a leadership institute with offices in the United Kingdom and Singapore.