workplace culture
avoid lingo that distracts people from the fundamentals. Even
the word “innovation,” while it sounds exciting, can detract from
the factors that both motivate and make the collective pursuit
more accessible.
PRINCIPLE 5: EQUIP PEOPLE TO CONTRIBUTE
People are intrinsically motivated by purpose, and more likely to
embrace “progress” over “change.” When this aspiration is clearly
articulated, it is important to give people inside the organization
the methods and means to contribute. The more inclusive the ap-proach,
the more people across the organization will be motivated
to contribute to progress. That often requires cultivating new
mindsets and skills.
PRINCIPLE 6: CONSIDER STRUCTURES AND
PROCESSES AS BOTH ASSETS AND BARRIERS
With new ideas comes a need to rethink the systems and struc-tures
that can best enable and accelerate the flow of new ideas
to the market. That means designing how people work (organi-zational
teaming and structures) and processes (systems to move
ideas through to implementation) and measurement (e.g., KPIs).
PRINCIPLE 7: INSPIRE LEADERSHIP AT ALL LEVELS
While it is important for senior leaders to articulate the enter-prise
ambition, ideology and overarching strategy, the “front line”
brings critical insights that can inform and act on new opportuni-ties.
That requires leadership at all levels. Listen to and empower
emerging leaders; they have fresh insights into the future, energy
and a desire to make a meaningful difference.
PRINCIPLE 8: TRY SOMETHING NEW,
WITH AN AIM TO LEARN
Experiments help to mitigate risk and offer an opportuni-ty
to learn, while gathering evidence to build confidence in your
build-out. There is a lot of discussion about embracing failure;
but is failure really an option? The smartest companies put an
emphasis on learning rather than failing through rapid cycles of
measured experiments.
PRINCIPLE 9: CREATE CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS
Navigating the path forward is equally a business and organiza-tional
pursuit. It is important to give an appropriate balance of
effort in managing current business and creating future business,
while selectively “unlearning” the practices of the past. That calls
for bringing all of the aforementioned principles together in a plan
that harnesses the talents in an organization while “redirecting”
and supporting efforts in a productive and motivating manner.
PRINCIPLE 10: GIVE IT TIME
Building a culture of innovation is an evolutionary process – a col-lective
journey that calls for inspirational leadership, thoughtful
planning, collective perseverance and tolerance when things don’t
go exactly as planned. Celebrating new learning and early wins can
build confidence and momentum.
Innovation is an enterprise-wide pursuit. Sustainable innova-tion
requires strategic intent, new skills and support structures
and systems to ultimately build enterprise agility. The principles
and practices of Business Design can help guide that path. As ev-ery
organization navigates its own innovation journey, trying new
approaches is far more important than trying to be perfect out of
the gate. At the same time, it is helpful to pause and reflect on how
to create the conditions for enterprise success. n
Heather Fraser is the co-founder of Rotman DesignWorks and
adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, the founder
of Vuka Innovation, and author of Design Works: How to Tackle
Your Toughest Innovation Challenges through Business Design.
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