Culture is What People Do, Not Just What Policies Say
Recently, my company was engaged by a large telecommunications provider to perform an innovation assessment — we were essentially tasked with gaining an appreciation of the organization’s processes, resources and values and forming an opinion as to its innovation readiness.
These are just some of the kinds of questions we seek to answer through a combination of interviews and inspection of policies and systems.
I previously wrote that strategy eats culture for breakfast— what I essentially meant was that if you want to influence culture, update the processes and procedures that underpin decisions, and behaviour will inevitably follow suit — albeit with a considerable time lag.
Now, while I still believe this to be true — this rule is not without its exceptions.
An organisation’s procurement policy is a strong indicator as to how quickly decisions can be made to purchase small goods and services, especially for the purposes of the rapid experimentation and adaptation that supports innovation.
The shorter your feedback loop, the faster you learn — the faster you learn, the faster you orient yourself from Plan-A to a plan that actually works.
But in most organisations, delegations of authority usually deem that several sign-offs are required, even for small purchases of up to $5,000.
Oftentimes, procurement policies require would-be change agents to source several quotes to spend amounts above $10,000.
What all of this amounts to is painstakingly slow progress, if progress is made at all.
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The WorkFlow podcast is hosted by Steve Glaveski with a mission to help you unlock your potential to do more great work in far less time, whether you're working as part of a team or flying solo, and to set you up for a richer life.
To help you avoid stepping into these all too common pitfalls, we’ve reflected on our five years as an organization working on corporate innovation programs across the globe, and have prepared 100 DOs and DON’Ts.
