Creating the Innovation Culture: Leveraging Visionaries, Dissenters and Other Useful Troublemakers

Chapter 13. Kickstarting Your Innovation Culture

Although changing the culture is every manager's responsibility, creating one that supports innovation does need a boost, particularly at the initial stages. Appointing an Innovation Manager can do this.

Making Change

In the underground dissent quiz you took a while back, one of the sections assessed the health of your organizational culture. Some cultures are very dysfunctional. Not only is there not much innovation, the organizations are not even very efficient. And they're usually horrible places to work. They would be worth fixing no matter what. But your company's culture being troubled doesn't absolve you of the need to become more innovative. Your competitors won't stop working on the next breakthrough just so you can catch your breath. Much as it might be preferable to let the patient get well before you send him out to climb the mountain, you may not have the time. You may need to start out immediately. However, as with any other sickness, the illness will slow you down, will make it more difficult to climb rocks that other, healthier, organizations bound over easily. Almost everything you do will be resisted, usually covertly. You will have to spend an inordinate amount of time building your employees' trust. It will probably be a long time before you get a great, employee-generated idea and even longer before it is a consistent phenomenon. You will have a tougher time becoming an innovative culture than cultures that are ...