What does Google, GE, Amazon, and SpaceX have in common? Cultures of innovation that are changing the world. Many times, the idea of a culture of innovation is easy for startups and even companies creating new products or services that are dramatically different than existing offerings. But how do existing organizations sustainably create cultures of innovation that can help them to change the world (or at least change their world)?
Why is Innovating Important?
Let’s start with the WHY. Humans have been evolving, changing, and improving since the beginning of our existence. Our ability to innovate or create better solutions that achieve new results has been essential in this transformation. The difference between yesteryear and today is the pace of change which has continually increased due to technological advances and our increased ability to communicate and collaborate. And while change has always “left some behind” the speed at which things are changing today has a strong potential of causing an overwhelming number of people and organizations to find themselves “behind the times”. Organizations who are constantly and consistently innovating are finding themselves leading their industries, putting competitors out of business, and in quite a few cases even pushing in to new markets (becoming a major player or even the market leader). Innovation has become a new currency of business with those most successful being able to print their own money and increase their corporate lifespan to exist indefinitely. To be truly successful innovators, organizations MUST put innovation at the center of their culture.
Culture Starts with Your People
A culture of innovation isn’t something that an executives or leadership team is solely responsible for but is something that everyone in the company must embrace, own, and set at their very core. My favorite definition of culture (according to Merriam Webster) is “the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time”. If the activities you are performing regarding innovation aren’t shared by all and performed every day, it isn’t truly a part of your organization’s culture. Some companies have even enacted policies that use innovation as a diversion from employee’s everyday work (like Google’s concept of 20 percent time). But you must keep in mind that the most important factor to creating a culture of innovation is the environment; where your people can explore, learn, and even fail. Once the environment is in place, find a way to reward and recognize impactful innovations and you will be able to watch the culture of your organization change and idea generation become commonplace.
Idea Transmutation
Ideas can be sourced from inside and outside of the organization. These ideas can come from customers, partners, vendors, and employees. Ensuring you have a methodology to take ideas in and immediately transmute them into innovations puts organizations on the path to printing their own money. With the proverbial “money coming in”, it is now up to the leadership of the company to point everyone in the direction of some of the most complex and troublesome challenges and you quickly find yourself in company with the Googles and SpaceXs of the world.