Innovation is perhaps the most talked-about concept in the business world today. It frequently appears in mission statements and visions and as a fundamental corporate value across various sectors.
But do we truly understand what innovation means and what is required to achieve it?
A 2008 McKinsey report, based on responses from over 1,400 executives globally, revealed:
- Senior executives view innovation as a key growth driver, yet few lead it explicitly.
- CEOs express frustration with their efforts to advance innovation initiatives.
- There is widespread dissatisfaction with the outcomes of innovation efforts.
- Mimicking “best” innovation practices often prove inefficient.
Interestingly, the same study found that 94% of executives believe that people and organizational culture are the primary drivers of innovation.
If the need for innovation and its link to people and culture is so apparent, why do so few companies go beyond brainstorming sessions or product development to truly materialize innovation?
Just like culture, innovation doesn’t happen overnight or by accident—it must be designed. Culture runs deep and is foundational, making the creation of Innovation Cultures the new innovation paradigm. This approach highlights the growing importance of Human Resource departments and a focus on people.
Beyond processes, methodologies, or management systems, the ideal is to instill values, behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes in the people within a company (or even a country) that make innovation natural. Can we learn to innovate “from within”? If we can’t observe and find opportunities to innovate and transform ourselves, how can we hope to innovate in our environment?
A New Set of Skills and Tools
Is innovation a skill that can be learned? Companies have long debated whether specific roles, positions, or departments should be creative and innovative, and what skills and behaviors define them as such. Traditionally, two areas requiring different skills have been identified:
The Sphere of Idea Generation: Skills involved include challenging the status quo, observing, imagining, exploring, and ideating.
The Sphere of Implementation: This involves transforming ideas into action, requiring focus and resilience to achieve results.
Otto Scharmer (The U Theory) presents a less common perspective, inviting us to examine the “blind spots” from which we operate and how they impact our capacity to lead and innovate: «The quality of the source (the internal state of the person) determines the quality of the outcome (innovation/value generation).» This calls for developing new skills, such as slowing down and understanding and cultivating deep attention and awareness.
This approach requires deeper personal understanding, leveraging rational and ideation capabilities while encouraging us to work from Purpose and embrace the holistic nature of the human being: heart, emotion, and sensation.
Sources:
- The McKinsey Quarterly. (2008). Leadership and Innovation (Vol. 1).
- Scharmer, Otto. (2007). Leading from the Future as It Emerges.
