Everybody wants innovative teams, but it’s more about an attitude and point of view than anything else.
Innovation. It’s the holy grail of productive creativity and everyone wants it. Or do they?
What does it take to build an innovative culture?
The most important piece in building an innovating culture involves a willingness to let go of what you’ve learned and adopt a beginner's mind while facing challenges.
Our experiences tend to bring the “we’ve tried that before” and the “that won’t work here” approach. Most organizational hierarchies dictate that leaders, because of their experience and know-how, pass first judgment on ideas as they come through. That’s the problem. Innovation requires new and different thinking, yet our structures and learned behaviors do not support the adoption of new and different.
Al West from SEI investments says that “ideas are the most important thing, and everyone’s ideas are equal,” and challenges the status quo.
James Dyson, the inventor behind the bag-less vacuum, says that “very few people can be brilliant, and they’re overvalued. It’s much more exciting to be a pioneer,” and by doing so shakes up the typical company hierarchy. These two CEOs have busted up the notion of typical organization structure and have innovative environments.
What do you need to bust up in order to innovate?
