Some of the conditions for innovation may seem ’idealistic’ and it is extremely unlikely that the perfect organisation exists. All of the key areas are important and it is useful to identify how effective organisations are and whether any aspects of the organisation are being neglected. This only gives a broad overview. To get a detailed picture it is necessary to look at how creativity and knowledge are used and managed.
Team Work
Do people work as individuals or in teams, how effective are they, are teams multi/single function. An important factor is the degree of autonomy.
Hands-on Management
How much interference is there by managers in every-day working and how prescriptive are they? What actions are taken when problems occur. Do managers take immediate control or do they trust the people working for them to resolve problems?
Desire To Win
Is there evidence of a desire to win, to beat the competition. Even though there may be insufficient resources to carry out a project or implement a plan there should be a ’yes and ..’ culture rather than ’yes but...’. There should be evidence of doing everything that can be done to secure even the smallest advantage.
Knowing How To Win
Organisations that know how to win will have a thorough understanding of their marketplace and all of the factors that affect it such as the economy and relevant legislation. They are willing to exploit these factors and be first movers or early adopters.
Environmental Scanning
To be successful, organisations must be able to scan their environments and be aware of new competition, changes and spot trends and patterns. This information will then be used to determine key success factors within the marketplace and drive the building of strategic capabilities.
External Relationships
In order to maximise potential, it is necessary to nurture external relationships with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. How well is information disseminated, and vision, branding etc communicated to stakeholders?
Growing The Right Culture
A truly innovative culture relies heavily on intrinsic motivation. Employees must have a clear idea of what they are expected to achieve and of the amount of support that they have. There should be little or no evidence of stress.
Stretching To Achieve
When maximising potential it is often necessary to take employees out of their ’comfort zone’. To do this successfully there must be an effective framework for delivering the necessary training and development.
Getting The Best From People
In order to get the best from employees it is necessary to involve everybody. Not only does this improve the culture but it maximises the resources that are available for generating ideas, capturing and storing knowledge. The greater the variety of sources, the greater the potential for innovation.
Derek Cheshire is an expert, speaker, consultant and facilitator in the areas of Business Creativity, Innovation and Idea Generation. He is creator of the Innovation Toolkit, and co creator of workshops such as Creating The Difference, Creativity as a Business Tool, Sticky Strategy and The Idea Factory.
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