Innovation – whose job is it anyway?

In the world before 2020 - if you can still remember what that was like - the pace of change was already accelerating. With the advent of the global pandemic entire industries are being reinvented and the way we live, work, and do business has changed substantially. Business transformation has become a matter of survival, and very few would disagree that the need for businesses to innovate is greater now than it has ever been.

When businesses start to think of innovation however, often it’s with fear and a little trepidation. Change is scary, and even just the question “What do we need to do?” can be paralyzing. The big decisions about strategy and direction ultimately rest with company leadership, but coming up with those innovative or transformational ideas shoud not be the exclusive domain of the C-Suite. A common trait of companies that are successfully transforming is an innovation culture that promotes creativity throughout the organization and is supportive of idea generation.

Bureaucracy is Still Standard Operating Procedure

Most good ideas come not from professional thinkers, researchers or consultants but from ordinary people who figure out a better way to do something. Many businesses however still rely on company leaders to come up with the next big idea to move the business forward. In their book Humanocracy, Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini make the case that this bureaucratic method was a very effective way of doing things back in 1789 when George Washington was establishing a new government with power and decision-making authority centralized at the top, because only a few people had all the information necessary to make the really important decisions. Fast forward 240 years where everyone is connected all the time and access to information is no longer limited to a privileged few. Yet notice, Hamel and Zanini point out, how the “modern” organizational pyramid still has the thinkers at the top and the doers at the bottom even though the modern worker is well educated, well connected, tech savvy and socially aware.

Employees as a Source of Innovation

Relying solely on leaders to have the bandwidth and imagination to spot the next big thing ignores the potential contribution from creative thinkers in the rest of the organization who deal with the day-today issues of the business and may have a better view of the market opportunities and process gaps. Not only are they closer to the nuts and bolts of the business, but today’s employees want to innovate! In an EY survey from 2015, 62% of millennials said they have considered starting their own business. That’s a significant source of entrepreneurial spirit, expertise and energy that if harnessed could lead to the next big breakthrough, or at the very least, to better business performance and happier employees.

Potential game changing ideas are not the only reason to involve employees in innovation. Disengaged employees are actually bad for your business. In their poll from June 2020, Gallup found that only 31% of US employees are engaged at work, and 14% are actively disengaged. Far from being only a pandemic phenomenon, the “engaged” number has ranged between 26% and 36% in the last 20 years of this poll, meaning that 65-75% of employees are either miserable or at best psychologically unattached to their work and company. Gallup says about these employees:

…[they] put time, but not energy or passion, into their work. Not engaged employees typically show up to work and contribute the minimum effort required. They're also on the lookout for better employment opportunities and will quickly leave their company for a slightly better offer.

If employees feel they don’t have an active stake in business outcomes and that there’s no forum or platform for innovation, process improvement or creativity on the job, then they will disengage. By actively engaging employees in thinking through work challenges and encouraging creative thinking and problem solving, you’re more likely to hold onto those employees and possibly get a great business idea as a result.

Fostering a culture of innovation

Knowing where to start can be overwhelming, but consider that companies that have successfully developed an innovation culture generally have these characteristics:

• Everyone is aligned to the mission and vision – employees share the corporate vision of who we are, what we stand for, what’s our unique point of view, and what value we provide to the customer
• People have a sense of ownership – employees feel like innovation is everyone’s job. People have the flexibility to act as entrepreneurs and have a sense of ownership of the success of the team and company.
• Collaboration is fostered in the organization – this is at the very root of your corporate culture and starts from the top. Employees know that collaboration is not just accepted but is expected and should occur not just within individual teams or workgroups, but across teams and functions with the sharing of ideas and best practices.
• Experimentation encouraged – everyone in the organization is encouraged to always be thinking about process improvements, business ideas, partnerships, etc., and they have the space to try out new things without encountering a lot of obstacles.

In companies that are successfully transforming themselves, innovation is not just the job of one innovation department but is everyone’s responsibility. All employees are encouraged to think critically about their role and how innovation might allow them to better serve internal and external customers. In these organizations, it’s this collective thinking that makes innovation possible.