What are the best strategies for overcoming resistance to innovation in the digital age?

In today's digital age, innovation is a game-changer. Overcoming resistance begins with highlighting the extensive benefits innovation brings. It's imperative to embed innovation across all aspects of our operations. Without continuous innovation, progress stagnates, and differentiation from competitors becomes challenging. Innovation isn't merely an option; it's the lifeline that propels us forward in a fiercely competitive landscape. Digital environments demand a keen focus on innovation as competition intensifies. By embracing innovation wholeheartedly, we pave the way for sustained growth and success.

Organisational leaders should create a culture where experimentation and failure is not only accepted but encouraged. Culture is one key ingredient but not the only one. Teams and individuals should have the means to experiment: time and resources. To boost innovation, a culture of sharing and collaboration should be promoted also. A culture of experimentation, tolerance to failure and collaboration is the perfect recipe for bottom up innovation within an organisation. Focusing on what I call "practical innovation" will remove resistance, targeting outcomes: how can we do this x10 faster? or x10 cheaper? or 10x better?

In my experience, empowering individuals and motivating them towards common goals works wonders. In the current context, resistance to innovation can be due to a lack of freedom for thoughts and actions. If the right set of people are well communicated about the right problem at the right time without any barriers or bottlenecks in terms of resources, that would bring in dramatic developments.

In my perspective, the main source of generating such resistance to innovation is not considering innovation as key part of our corporate planning and strategy. You cannot ask team members neither management team to spend their time and efforts on a not measured objective. True Innovation should be foundational in the corporate strategy and corporate culture with the allocated resources in terms of working time, compensation for time spent and measured for achievement.

It’s easy to make assumptions as to why people are resistant to change. Taking a chance to step back and really understand the other person’s perspective can go a long way in overcoming that resistance. Often simply asking questions and actively listening is enough to turn things around.

Inspire them. Make your team a part of the journey. To make them involve, they should believe in problem, need and possible outcomes. Provide a clear picture.

It is essential to recognize that not all members of the organization will engage with innovation in the same way. Some will be eager to drive it and actively participate, while others may prefer to just use the new tools or processes, and there will be those who are reluctant or even resistant to change. Identifying and understanding these different groups allows for the development of more effective communication and motivation strategies, which are crucial for fostering an inclusive and comprehensive culture of innovation.

I find that keeping the vision short - say to six words - really helps people remember it. Then leaders have to repeat that vision as often as they can, and all managers need to help their teams understand how they contribute to the vision. All leaders need to show how they're changing to meet the vision, otherwise the vision won't come alive.

Good communication between leaders and the C-level is important for the team to understand this way of innovating, without abruptly stopping what has brought us to this point, and this communication helps in engaging innovation and sustaining the company during this period.

One thing I have found very helpful is to effectively communicate the innovation vision by distilling key benefits into clear, compelling messages that your audience can relate to and see the benefits. Use concrete examples, engage stakeholders very early, and tailor communication to resonate with diverse audiences to have a holistic approach

Speaking to a diverse set of stakeholders is important here. Sometimes leaders ask the same set of people for input - people that they know will generally support their vision and perhaps add to it, rather than those who may provide a challenge.

Innovation requires a diversity of experiences, expertise and perspectives - in digital innovation ideally a clash of strategy, technology and creativity. Involving and empowering stakeholders in co-creation sessions, workshops and reviews will allow the ideation to take various forms and unexpected routes needed in order to find the way to new areas… where innovation exists.

Taking an inclusive approach by involving employees at all levels in the innovation process. Encourage their participation, feedback, and ideas to foster a sense of ownership. Promoting a culture that encourages and rewards innovation. Encourage experimentation, learning from failure, and open-mindedness with a continuous feedback and improvement mechanism.

Involving and empowering stakeholders is critical in any project, particularly one where innovation is at the heart of it. This can be done in so many ways but the most important components are that the engagement is genuine and that you are truly open to changing or adjusting your approach and that you spend more time listening than you do talking. Genuine involvement and engagement comes from making space for the different ways of approaching a challenge to come to life and for diversity of thought and approach.

Inviting stakeholders to take part in the creative side of innovation is a great way to boost their engagement and commitment. Many stakeholders see innovation as some kind of 'black box' or magic formula - a guaranteed recipe for skepticism and mistrust. Yet there's great value in giving them a feel for how things really happen, especially for how you deal with constant ambiguity and uncertainty.

Recognizing transformation as its own workstream, running in parallel with the rollout of the innovation. Drawing out stakeholder concerns early in the journey using a pre-mortem or other exercise to imagine what could happen, and potential mitigation strategies. Often just naming the fear quells some of the anxiety, and inviting people with different lived experience and thinking styles will increase the number of potential mitigation ideas. As others have mentioned, simulations can serve to prepare through multiple tries from low stakes to higher, building confidence. On the flip side, running real people through simulations can also point out flaws in models, experiences, etc. that can be missed by Quality Assurance.

One of the things that Covid demonstrated was the capacity that people have for change. The way many people worked shifted dramatically overnight, and yet many people adapted quickly and even embraced the change. This applies to any innovation, especially those that feel seismic. Create a tone from the top that embracing innovation is essential, not optional, and ask for feedback on what people need to succeed. Establish technology, HR and operational processes to solve problems and provide support. Ensure that people understand the innovation so that they can articulate obstacles, but ensure they, or readily available teams, are empowered to remove them. Reward speaking up, flexibility and those who move with your organisation.

Identify influential individuals who can positively impact others. Involve them by aligning the benefits of innovation with their own, making them ambassadors for implementation. Additionally, recommends that key decision-makers contribute to the roadmap of implementing innovative products by providing guidance and instructions.

Recognizing and acknowledging the pivotal role employees play in driving change is important. To foster commitment and motivation, it is crucial to not only highlight their contributions but also to reward and incentivize their efforts effectively. Implementing a well-crafted incentive plan is a strategic approach to ensure that employees are not only engaged in the process but are also enthusiastic about presenting innovative solutions. This not only boosts morale but also fosters a culture where employees feel valued and appreciated for their forward-thinking contributions.

The beauty of using 'open-innovation' is that its empowering in its entirety. The process is the innovation and it maps a scope for all stakeholders to produce their core and function independently. Being able to allot a clear mandate of functions can be a great incentive to allow performance and that everyone thrives in their own capacity.

Psychological safety is a critical component to innovation as it allows people to feel safe taking risks, being creative and curious, breaking tradition and admitting when they’ve made a mistake and be able to learn from it. Cultures that don’t invest in psychological safety in purposeful ways will have challenges being truly innovative as their people will spend as much time worried about what will happen if they fail then what would happen if they succeed.

Here’s a career-changing question: “What if the company where you work was your own business? One that you bootstrapped with your personal cash?” If it was your own business, you would be experimenting a lot, to learn what works and what doesn’t, without spending a ton of time and money. If you work with this attitude, you will drive a ton of success that will make up for any failed experiments!

Rapid scrappy experimentation that does not require large budgets and become a default yes can help foster a culture of innovation. This is a way to obtain real world data points to influence stakeholders.

I’m a big believer of test and learn along with innovation spikes to test our theories and/or thesis. Having the right outcomes and measuring them through the process is critical. We need to go beyond subjective to being objective.

Adopting a new mindset is the ultimate goal, but it starts with promoting the right behavior and providing very simple tools and frameworks for experimentation. Use orca training tactics: praise constructive behavior, and ignore the rest. What you pay attention to grows.

Fighter pilot John Boyd battled resistant generals dismissing his aerial innovations as recklessly impractical. Rather than preach, he invited skeptics to visceral simulations where they experienced maneuvers firsthand. This exposure kindled curiosity despite prejudices. Boyd built an informal community of fellow pioneers grounded in mutual trust. This ad hoc network spread new thinking virally through shared passion, not persuasion campaigns. To critics, Boyd highlighted incremental applications over major overhauls, sincerely addressing fears to make adoption psychologically safe. Though this example is from before the so called digital age, it gives interesting insights on how we can overcome resistance in the digital age too!

After doing all the helpful things in this article, what if you still face resistance internally in an organization you’re leading? Sometimes you have to triage the people. It’s not the comfortable answer, but an honest one - especially if you need to move quickly or the required change is not just incremental. You will have people who welcome innovation and promote it, you will have people who can be convinced/converted, and you will have people who will never get on board. Before the latter become a negative multiplier, you need to find a way to ring-fence them or replace them. The action is difficult, but reinforces wished attitude and opens the opportunity to increase the number of positive voices in the company.

Success will always drive positive actions and beliefs. Demonstrating quick wins will get your strategy off the ground and also will generate interest and enthusiasm. Too often organizations spin their wheels in getting a product perfect. If the prototype is good enough for stakeholders to experiment with, it will overcome the initial skepticism from the laggards. It will also help in generating newer ideas for its feature and applications. I remember the idiom, “if the apple is ripe just eat it, don’t polish the apple.” Bias toward action is a critical executive skill that today’s leaders must possess.

In the mortgage industry, embracing automation is imperative, particularly in overcoming resistance to innovation, where challenges like fear of change and a lack of trust can cloud judgment. It's important to identify the "why" behind our need for advanced technology and innovation. Diverse perspectives, facilitated through co-creation, are pivotal in creating robust mortgage solutions. Addressing key components and concerns proactively, as well as having the right team players involved are essential for achieving success. Innovative technology is vital for creating solutions that are not only efficient and compliant but also competitively robust. In my view, Path Software emerges as the solution lenders are looking for in 2024 and beyond.

+ Lead by Example: Leaders should actively support and engage with new technology and processes. When they demonstrate commitment, they encourage others to follow. + Integrate Feedback Mechanisms: Regularly gathering feedback on the innovation process and its impact is essential. This not only helps in making necessary adjustments but also makes people feel heard and valued. + Highlight Success Stories: Sharing success stories of implementation and its positive impact on the organisation or individuals can motivate others to embrace change.