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FEATURE
Of all the changes Lou Gerstner found LISTEN
necessary when he became CEO at IBM,
culture was the hardest. He would have Members of an organization’s internal and external
preferred to stay away from it and stick with community often have tremendous insights and ideas that
the strategy, analysis, and measurement lead to new innovations.
style he had been successful with before.
Culture is not one of those soft matters
to be dealt with when the real business
is done. Culture is a complement to STAY OPEN
the formal, established rules of doing
business. An understanding of and Ideas don’t always come from experts. Sometimes the
commitment to the organization’s mission greatest innovations come from novices and backroom
will guide employees when confronted by tinkers. Open-minded organizations often convert off-
the unexpected for which no rules exist. the-wall ideas into marketable products.
It is all too easy for organizations to fall
into the analysis trap and focus on left-
brain skills like process, measurement, COLLABORATE
and execution. Sustained innovation No organization holds all the cards in developing
enterprises embrace right-brained skills: new innovation. Collaboration with outside groups–
creativity, imagination, analogy, and complementary corporations, universities, government
empathy. Unlike most organizations agencies, and think tanks–often brings new perspectives
that separate these individuals into silos and ideas to the innovation process.
(such as marketing versus engineering),
innovative enterprises build teams that
morph as new processes and ideas unfold. GO FLAT
This results in the creation of focus during
ideation and analytical emphasis as A flat management structure doesn’t have the long
market growth accelerates. approval processes and disjointed lines of communications
that impede innovation. Organizations that can’t go flat in
How often in corporations and other management can achieve the same results by empowering
organizations do existing fiefdoms stifle workers to act independently.
any attempt to do something differently?
When studied carefully, innovative EMBRACE FAILURE
organizations are consistently able to do
the following: Many of the greatest innovations’ leapfrogs were
unintended results and, oftentimes, created by accident.
Breakthroughs such as the discovery of penicillin or the
power of microwaves were the result of accidents.
An innovative culture begins with the organizational
attitude of accepting that the world really has changed.
It’s about cultivating a mindset to learn to see the world
Sustained innovation in new ways.
enterprises embrace
right-brained Melissa Grigsby is the Director of Communications and Events
skills: creativity, at IEC National.
imagination, analogy,
and empathy.
www.ieci.org | July/August 2019 | Insights Magazine 29
