The 21st century is defined by the information revolution and the innovation economy which depends on knowledge workers. The organizations across all three sectors – public, private, and non-profit – which foster a culture of innovation will survive and succeed with disruptive change and excel beyond the performance of their peers. How do leaders encourage innovation?
Innovation must be central to the organization’s mission. It should be found within the mission statement of the organization. It must be a stated purpose of the organization. Everyone on the team must know, understand, believe in, act accordingly, and work hard towards this mission.
Innovation starts and is sustained with recruiting, hiring, onboarding, evaluating, and promotions. As Collins would say, it is getting the right people in the right seats on the bus (2001). Consistently successful organizations attract and retain the talent who generate the winning ideas.
Innovation requires the right culture. Innovation cannot be mandated. “But we have always done it this way!” cannot govern. Innovators have organizational cultures which stimulate new ways of thinking, involve continuous learning, foster multi-disciplinary collaboration, and promote creative problem-solving. These cultures recognize and reward innovation while also removing any roadblocks to creative thinking and solutions. What was the difference between the stagnation and suffering of the Middle Ages and the extraordinary scientific, artistic, technological, cultural, economic, and intellectual advancement of humanity experienced during the Renaissance? It is explained by a powerful culture change which embraced innovation.
Innovation takes leadership which always wants the best ideas to win (Jobs, 2010). Leaders in these organizations model, message, incentivize, and celebrate innovation. Leaders take responsibility for the mission of excellence in innovation. They apply metrics to evaluate innovation and make the changes needed so it flourishes. They encourage employees to take sound evidence-based risks to innovate.
These leaders align and structure the organization to optimize innovation. They want objectives, organization, operations, and outcomes to match. Form follows function and structure should facilitate performance. The policies, procedures, systems, resources, facilities, technology, and processes of the organization must help and not hinder innovation.
The organizations who could successfully innovate during the 2020 global pandemic survived and strengthened themselves. The organizations who could not rapidly respond and dramatically change their operations in real time experienced major problems or have ceased to continue. Don’t let crisis be the first time you are faced with the challenge to innovate. Innovate when you should, even during times of prosperity and achievement.
As Simon Sinek notes, leaders must reward employees for the right thinking and behavior even if the expected results did not occur. Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric, shared about the time a team produced an environmentally friendly product in the 1980s which would be popular today. At the time, consumer attitudes and expectations were not as geared towards purchasing products based upon their environmental impact. Even though the team had done an excellent job from start to finish with their research, product design, marketing, etc., it did not sell. It was ahead of the market. What did Welch do? For a company that lives or dies based upon innovation, he knew the answer. He hosted all the employees for a celebration and recognized and praised this team for their strong commitment to innovation. He explained that GE was simply ahead of its time and this product would have high consumer demand in the future. The message was sent and received – we want you innovating at GE!
With a mission, recruitment, retention, culture, leadership, and alignment centered on innovation, an organization can continually produce the ideas which result in progress and triumph and change history (Abrashoff, 2002; Blanchard, 2011; Collins, 2001; Drucker, 2001; Grant, 2017; Kotter, 2012; Lencioni, 2012; Maxwell, 1998; Welch, 2005).
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