innovation
Ross & McBrideLLP
www.rossmcbride.com
areas that are inconsistent with the culture
of innovation and modify those behav-iours
and assumptions. By migrating the
organization to exemplify the six factors
of a culture of innovation, HR becomes a
driver of innovation.
4. HR NEEDS TO DRIVE CHANGE
MANAGEMENT OF THE NEW
INNOVATIVE IDEAS
Innovation needs an implementation track
record so that people will believe the work
is meaningful and not a waste of time.
Implementing new ideas also reinforces a
culture of innovation, which will help sus-tain
the focus on innovation. HR should
ensure that the leaders follow best prac-tices
in change management in order that
employees and teams effectively and rapid-ly
adopt innovative solutions that become
the new business as usual.
5. HR TARGETS AND REMOVES
ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES
THAT MAKE INNOVATION
MORE DIFFICULT
HR needs to drive innovation by develop-ing
practices and programs that motivate
employees and teams to be more inno-vative
and leaders to become leaders of
innovation. HR should also review its cur-rent
practices and programs to ensure they
are not inadvertently making innovation
more difficult. HR should ask questions
such as: Are the job descriptions creating
rigid job definitions that prohibit employ-ees
from working on diverse teams? Do
the leadership development and succes-sion
processes encourage or inhibit the
development of leaders of innovation?
Subsequently, HR needs to look at other
parts of the organization and champion
the removal or modification of various or-ganizational
practices that inadvertently
make innovation more difficult. For exam-ple,
if finance has a budgeting process that
only allows innovative ideas to be imple-mented
at the beginning of a budget cycle,
then that will limit the willingness of em-ployees
to generate innovative solutions
within the year. If parts of the organiza-tion
require four or five signatures for
approvals to proceed with innovative ini-tiatives,
then HR needs to remove those
barriers because they slow down the im-plementation
of ideas.
Overall, HR has a fundamental role as
a driver of innovation in organizations to
help overcome the innovation gap. HR
should develop leaders of innovation, cre-ate
an openness to diverse thought, build a
culture of innovation and ensure that in-novative
ideas are implemented effectively.
HR also needs to remove or modify the
organizational practices that are barriers
to innovation and that make innovation
more difficult. As a driver of innovation,
HR becomes a core asset for an organiza-tion
to overcome its innovation gap. ■
Dr. David S. Weiss, FCTDP, ICD.D is
president and CEO of Weiss International
Ltd., a firm specializing in innovation, lead-ership
and HR consulting.
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HRPATODAY.CA ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2014 ❚ 47