Most organisations believe their people are their best assets.
They invest heavily in talent development programs and encourage their people to participate in strategic plans. While these activities start off looking promising, they end up producing lackluster results.
For instance, program participation rates start to dip. Or while employees are equipped with new skills and perspectives, there's little evidence this improves their output.
On a broader scale, the organisation suffers from employee churn rates and disengagement.
Why does this happen?
An underlying reason boils down to unintentionally creating an organisational culture that discourages participation and innovation.
To some, it is perceived as yet another buzzword. A vague term that is thrown around by corporates and 'experts' - adding to the noise and confusion.
To others, organisational culture is recognised to have a real business impact. It is the glue that attracts and retains top talent while reducing expenses due to costly staff turnover.
It is also considered a hidden growth engine. With the right talent and approach, you can unlock breakthrough innovation. This is critical when it comes to staying ahead of the curve - in the face of competitors and disruptive technology.
A common mistake organisations make is treating culture as an afterthought. For instance, adding bean bags and ping pong tables in hopes of creating a work environment with a 'startup feel'.
Or they might go one better by running innovation programs such as hackathons. While these initiatives might create buzz during the event day, everyone returns to the status quo the day after.
So how do you create an organisational culture that drives innovation while engaging employees?
“CULTURE TAKES CARE OF ITSELF WHEN YOU INSTALL THE RIGHT TYPE OF PLUMBING.” - LARRY KEELEY
Enticing young talent to innovate isn't enough. Larry advises linking incentives to innovation outcomes. When working with young talent, organisations can structure incentives so that seniors executives have skin in the game. For instance, they could risk losing up to 40% of their bonuses if they don't hit certain innovation KPIs.
"When senior leaders say everyone needs to be an innovator, they are partially right yet completely wrong." - Alex Osterwalder
Not everyone in your organisation needs to be responsible for generating groundbreaking innovation. Alex recommends different expectations across various departments. Teams in supply chain and operation, for instance, should aim for incremental improvements. On the other hand, individuals who are responsible for building new growth engines should be held to a different standard.
"Be open to hiring team members who appear different on the outside but hold similar shared beliefs" - Rand Fishkin
Innovation starts with attracting the right people for your company. Prior to hiring, you should make clear your core values, while communicating with candidates about your expectations and deal breakers. This allows them to decide if they would a good culture fit. One tactic would be to include a section on the position description on "why you should NOT work for us".
"The way feedback is received depends on how we frame it" - Adam Grant
Innovation starts with giving honest feedback on what's working well and what can be improved. Yet radical transparency can be difficult as people are conditioned to be socially polite. Adam shares how Bridgewater Associates has a "challenge network" culture. Each employee has a network of superiors and colleagues who are actively encouraged to challenge them to be better. This helps team make conscious decisions between protecting a person's feelings versus rooting for them to grow.
"Tie innovation projects to tangible outcomes." - Dr. Nicole Forsgren
Most companies are well-intentioned when it comes to launching hackathons and ideation session. Unfortunately, they lack proper planning when it comes to following through. Hence, employees who participate in such projects could end up feeling disgruntled and demotivated especially if their ideas get shelved.
Nicole recommends being very clear about follow-up actions. For instance, listing out reasons why ideas wouldn't be pursued further (e.g. lack of product market fit, misalignment with strategic direction). Or detailing action steps if an idea is shortlisted (e.g. prototyping, market testing).
"Quit overpromising employees." - CY Wakeman
.jpeg)
Most employee engagement programs fail because their focus is on "perfecting the environment" in order to create happy employees. Cy cautions against chasing for employees' love as it creates a huge amount of emotional waste (drama) and entitlement. Worst case scenario, it reinforces the "victim mindset".
Instead of worrying about creating a perfect environment for employees, leaders should focus on cultivating personal accountability, which is death to the ego and the ultimate foundation for engagement. Cy reminds us that happiness and engagement are not correlated to your circumstances, but to the amount of accountability you take for your circumstances. When employees are accountable, ready for what's next, and willing to buy-in to the goals of the organization, they will naturally be more engaged. For those lower in accountability, you need to be aware of how much they are costing you in terms of their drama quotient, instead of trying to appease them based on their past merits. This helps you decide which employees to keep and nurture or let go.
"Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing" - Sam Walker
Common mistake: Employees who challenge the status quo and take unpopular stances create healthy conflict that can lead to breakthrough solutions and better ways of doing things. Unfortunately, the same type of individual tends to be squeezed out in the corporate hierarchy. Employees are discouraged from thinking independently and pushing back against the well-oiled machine. While this can create efficiency in the short term, it prevents the organisation from discovering opportunities for exponential improvements
"Employee engagement is a short-term fix to a long-term problem." - Jacob Morgan
.jpeg)
Most companies try to entice employees with superficial perks such as free lunches, free yoga classes and working from home arrangements. Yet their employees are still stuck with outdated workplaces and practices.
Hence it is no surprise that many companies invest in employee engagement programs, yet they experience low happiness scores. Jacob recommends re-designing and changing workplace practices. This includes breaking down silos between departments and allowing employees to experiment with new ideas.
Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Future of Work University
"Leaders need to get out of their echo chambers" - Lawrence Levy
Common mistake - When corporate innovators face setbacks, senior executives typically feel the urge to rush in and try to fix things. Instead, it takes courage to take a step back and give your people the space to navigate out of things. Lawrence recommends developing a tolerance for ambiguity and equipping your people with the necessary innovation skills.
"Celebrate both successes and failures." - Kevin Mulcahy
Make your workplace a safe space to experiment. The default assumption among employees are that there has to be guaranteed successes or someone's head is going to roll. Kevin recommends organisations make it explicitly clear that employees should focus on the innovation process while results are secondary. It's only by trying new things that the team gain the breakthroughs that matter.
"Don't boil the whole ocean" - Katherine Squire
Initiating top-down changes across various departments can be very difficult. People are resistant to change and getting buy-in from gatekeepers becomes an uphill task. Instead, Katherine recommends implementing new ideas on a tiny scale, creating small circles of excellence, then sharing success stories. When employees from other departments see the benefits, they become curious and start to participate.
"Get employees involved with idea generation" - Maggie Riad
.jpeg)
Inviting employees to share ideas has dual benefits. It helps give decision makers new perspectives while raising staff engagement levels. Maggie shares how by engaging employees through idea contests and hackathons, they learn so much - whether its company culture, how the company makes decisions and the selection process for picking good ideas. These bits of information might be previously unknown to employees especially if they don't have access to executive meetings and boardroom sessions.
"Create a culture where people are comfortable with failing." - Robert Kegan
Robert shares how allowing employees to "fail fast" is vital. The default mindset for most employees is to avoid failing and looking stupid. Hence you should give people the opportunities to experiment and the safety net for failure. When the right environment is set in place, innovation starts happening.
It is also important to install rapid feedback loops. Millennials, in particular, want quick feedback about how well they are doing. One company that does this well is Bridgewater Associates. Every employee brings an iPad to a meeting. They can use a feedback app to rate other employees on particular qualities and give feedback. This raises performance across the entire workforce.
"Encourage radical questions." - Dave Gray
Dave shares how Nokia had a great culture where ideas flowed and people got along well. Unfortunately, it was eventually overtaken by competitors like Apple and Samsung. The reason is that their culture didn't keep up with their business requirements.
You can avoid this fate starts by asking radically different questions. A banking corporation, for instance, could ask "Should we be a bank?", instead of "how do we differentiate ourselves from other banks?". When the world has a high level of volatility, you have to ask a whole different set of questions. Then align your culture and people accordingly.
"In trying to put an innovation process in place in a large company, you have to hack the culture. It's not just one big bang and let HR implement training. It boils down which part of the system needs to adapt and adopt. What do we need to change in HR? What do we need to change in Finance? And where and when and how?" - Steve Blank
Steve shares that when a large Japanese corporation first launched an innovation program, it faced dismal attendance rates. The reason? Middle managers were reluctant to release their team from daily responsibilities. This changed when the company's president wrote a commendation letter - praising the first manager who took the leap and let his staff take part in the program. Since middle managers valued recognition from their big boss, they quickly let their staff attend the program.
.png)
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.
