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.
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.
With a mission, recruitment, retention, culture, leadership, and alignment centered on innovation, an organization can continually produce the ideas which result in progress and achievement 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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