Formality – The Enemy of Innovation?

Lose Control

So how do organisations become agile and flexible enough to release their potential?  Arguably, it could be through their culture.  The answer may lie in enabling the opposite of what decades of management practice have encouraged – control.  As human beings we are programmed to look for form, create order from chaos, structure situations, define and even encourage engagement!

We dislike uncertainty, so we constantly look for patterns and meaning as a way of dealing with ambiguity. Hence in business we have come to regard building models, making correlations and measures as a way of bringing predictability to our work.  But these don’t always help us in turbulent times and it can be argued that they are the antithesis of the behaviour that gives rise to innovation.  In fact, models and obsessive measurement are often the hallmarks of the bureaucracies and behemoths that entrepreneurs spurn and successful start-up ventures reject.  New technology has led to disruption in many sectors, and means that change is happening at  a quickening pace.

It is people and not technology who have the capacity to innovate

In tough economic times, it could be said that a number of business functions, if not all, have a role in innovation.  However HR and marketing professionals tend to be much better at facilitating and managing planned change compared to opportunistic or the spontaneous kind of change needed when there is no time for detailed forecasting and planning.  Creating a culture that encourages communication of new ideas, releases new initiatives to happen quickly requires different, adaptive ways of thinking and working. Employees require freedom, opportunities, trust, encouragement and support to enable innovation. Furthermore they need to see evidence of it all around them in the attitudes and behaviours of managers and leaders throughout the organisation and a willingness to demonstrate and facilitate their intention to change.

For example, looking at examples of successful start-up organisations, or renowned innovative brands (e.g. Gore) it is clear that some working environments and conditions lend themselves much better to spontaneity and innovation than others.

Co-location in an open plan space contributes to ease of communication between key roles as do flatter structures that take out layers of decision making. Even the more relaxed conditions contributed by having a radio on may well stimulate the kind of conversations and ideas that spark different ways of thinking. Spaces and places to play around with ideas – writing or drawing on flip charts and whiteboards and whitewalls rather than the stiff rules that forbid posters, stickies on the paintwork, and working in virtual silence etc.

Rules send a clear signal  that order and image, individual achievement rather than collaboration, are more highly valued than spontaneity.  Without the right level of disorder ideas are stifled at birth rather than stimulated.

People and Culture

During the recession HR have come to the forefront of business strategy, in the process becoming adept at implementing strategies for survival.  Their innovation and evolution in areas like contracting – zero hours, temporary employment, outsourcing etc. have increased flexibility in the workplace. While they may not be popular with some employees or their representatives, they do also present opportunitiesand they may, in fact, offer a key to innovation.  Most shrewd organisations have not simply sought to reduce head count for easy, immediate savings. They have recognised and sought to retain vital knowledge, as well as potential, in their organisation. Innovation is not the sole preserve of either the longest serving or the newest recruit.  Innovation is about attitude, irrespective of time served, and a mix of valuable skills and knowledge, applied with fresh thinking. In a culture ‘unencumbered’ by history and add in experience and voila! You have a potentially powerful mix.

Innovation is often about right idea, right place, right time, right circumstances or any combination thereof.

Innovation Skills

Good facilitation, engagement and enabling skills are required to build a picture of what is required.  You need to build skills in questioning and listening, encouraging and leading new ways of thinking about solutions, rather than getting fixated by reductive ways of analysing problems and challenges.

Encouraging diversity and rewarding challenge and suggestions are behaviours recognised as good signs of true employee engagement.  Challenges after all are often signals that people care, and signs of potential solutions.  Actively seeking and listening to feedback and a willingness to experiment, take risks, test and measure impact are all behaviours and skills that can be trained and encouraged – or if they are missing, need to be recruited in to build innovation into a culture.

Neontics works with leaders, managers and their teams to introduce innovation to how they think and work to create a higher performance culture. Contact liz@eneontics.com for more details.