Not all of us are innovative, but all of us can champion innovation. Of course, that is assuming we actually want our organisations to be innovative. I suppose if we are happy with the status quo and believe our services and products are timeless, then we don’t need to innovate. But before you get too comfortable, you might want to find out what happened to Kodak, Nokia, Video Ezy, or Blackberry. These are companies that didn’t innovate and now either no longer exist, or are just shadows of their former selves.
Bow that we are all on board with the need to be innovative, how can we foster a culture of innovation in our organisation? In a recent INSEAD Knowledge online article (read it here), Ben Bensaou provides some excellent ideas and examples of innovation in the workplace. To be honest, I just wanted to reproduce here the whole article word-for-word, because it is that good. However, a quick summary below may whet your appetite and encourage you to click on the link above.
The gist of Bensaou’s article is summarised in a quote he used from a Finnish CEO, Kari Kauniskangas, “It is important for me to make sure our people have the desire, will and freedom to find better ways of doing business. In search of new ideas, we have to give them permission to go crazy! But we also have to create boxes that define their focus and challenge people to innovate in the areas of greatest need.”
Addressing the CEO specifically, Bensaou points out that the CEO needs to “take on the role of chief reframing officer’, which is key to facilitating a culture of innovation. But the responsibility doesn’t stop with the CEO, with both middle managers and frontline workers also needing to be contributing. The article provides some excellent commentary around the contributions both of these groups can make.
The strength of the article is also in the examples provided, including ones in industries strongly bounded by tradition. If it can work there, it can work anywhere. In you ant to be successful in innovating, read the article, challenge your status quo, and reframe your culture to one of innovation.