Creating a Climate For Effective Change and Innovation

In the same way that the pandemic has pushed us over the digital edge with online meetings now standard and remote/hybrid being the topic on everyone’s mind, so too do we see “the big return” questioning policies and procedures, processes and standards, expectations and engagement. What is at the heart of all of this change and transition? Why does the rate of change seem to be increasing at exponential rates? The simple answer lies within the competition for creative ideas and innovative goods and services. The new strategic edge has become the rate at which companies can create not only better approaches but how well they actually define markets with innovative products and services.

“The business enterprise has two, and only two, basic functions: marketing and innovation. It is not necessary for a business to grow bigger; but it is necessary that it constantly grow better.” —Peter Drucker

An enterprise whose management does not foster creativity and innovation will not survive long. Businesses and organizations have to be designed to continually assure that their environments identify and explore new opportunities and offer innovation in their talent management practices. Much of the workforce of 2021 has discovered that they like working with some form of remote flexibility.

Innovation can be defined as the effort to create purposeful, focused change in thought that opens up an enterprise’s economic and social potential. Sometimes it is coming up with new initiatives; more often than not, it involves taking developed ideas and applying them in new situations. Here are four critical components to creating the climate for creativity:

1. Matching of the right persons with the right jobs in order to maximize their expertise and creative thinking skills. Making a good match requires having access to important information about employees and their preferences. This may mean using information available through assessments such as the Birkman that we use in our developmental coaching practice indicates passions, values and preferences. Good listening and observation skills are also important. People express over time what interests and excites them. Are you listening?

2. Freedom to safely take different paths. When creative people are free to approach their work experimentally, innovation is more likely to result. This does NOT mean allowing total open-endedness or changing goals frequently or failing to define them clearly. It means encouraging the appropriate balance between structure and process, between spontaneity and control, between creativity and predictability.

3. Team Diversity: The potential for innovation is enhanced when managers intentionally create teams with a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. When people come together with diverse thinking styles and approaches to work, ideas often combine in exciting and useful ways. Once again, we use the exemplary technology of the Birkman Method to identify and encourage this “diversity of thought”. Managers often make the mistake of putting similar people together. Their homogeneity may seem to create harmony, however, it does little to enhance the interplay that supports creative thinking.

4. Organizational Support: Creativity is enabled when the entire organization and especially those at the top support it. Leaders must create environments where information sharing and collaboration are the norm rather than the exception. That sense of mutual purpose and excitement must be supported by shared vision and mission. Employees need access to the right information at the right time.

All leaders can and must change how they think about innovation. If people are given opportunities and encouraged to gather good ideas from all sources inside or outside the company, innovation can be significantly enhanced in any workplace whether remote, hybrid or onsite. If the company has the right attitude toward innovation and supports the managing of transition, change and innovation will flourish and lead the way.

“Foremost among life’s teaching is the recognition that humans possess the capability to deal with complexity and interconnection. Human creativity and commitment are our greatest resources.” —Margaret Wheatley