Why Organizations Struggle with Innovation
Innovation is the result of the right mix of circumstances. If your mix is off, people and organizations will stagnate. This is because innovation requires people to think differently. When people are stressed, they revert back to what they know. When people are disengaged, they just go with the flow so they can get by. When people are content, they have no reason to change.
Essentially, anything that will lower an organization’s performance is also likely to lower innovation. Since most organizations are running at only a small fraction of their potential, it stands to reason that most organizations also struggle with innovation.
Why Innovation is Important
The nature of the universe is that things must evolve or die. The average lifespan of organizations is shrinking. We can communicate at rates never before imagined and that means the world is changing faster than it ever has before. Just think about how many companies have all but disappeared in recent years: MySpace, AOL, Blockbuster, K-Mart, Best Products, Sears, Montgomery Wards. This list goes on but the theme is all the same. These organizations all stagnated or failed to innovate and were replaced by organizations that better met their customer’s needs.
One of the top business people in the world commonly says that business is nothing more than marketing and innovation. While that is not entirely true, organizations that want to be the best in the world must continually find ways to boost their performance and to deliver more value than their competitors (unless they have a unique and sustainable advantage). In other words, being a high-performance organization means you have to be good at innovation and being good at innovation is a competitive advantage on its own.
Besides the value to ourselves, innovation makes the world a better place. Maybe there are times when innovation moves us backward, but it generally helps to improve the quality of our lives in some way. Improving lives and making the world a better place should be the ultimate goal of all organizations so it stands to reason that we should all do our best to innovate. This is the type of culture we should all strive to build in our workplaces.
How to Boost Innovation
Innovation is not something that should be forced, but it should be encouraged by creating ideal circumstances. In order to create the optimal environment, first ask yourself these questions:
1) Do you have the right people? – People that are willing to try new things and are highly skilled in their fields.
2) Do your people have a clear mission and challenging goals?
3) Are you creating an environment that fosters innovation by giving your people the appropriate time, support, and resources?
This video explores the idea of setting challenging goals and creating a culture of innovation. Use the contact form below to reach out if you have questions or if you would like to have a conversation about increasing innovation at your organization.