Millennials Agree: Businesses Are Not Doing Enough To Innovate

Innovation is the lifeblood of business. Inventions, improved offerings and new ways of thinking help drive society forward. Businesses will simply be left behind if they ignore the need for ongoing innovation. Worryingly, Deloitte research shows that the Millennial generation believes their employers are not doing enough to encourage creativity and innovation.

So it’s the responsibility of leaders at all levels to foster a culture of innovation within their organizations. And it starts with building open, collaborative and innovative teams. Here’s how.

1. Get past the myths

In a team environment, when looking at ways to innovate, people typically need to get past two myths.

The first is the myth that real innovation can only come about through the work of one lone genius. While it’s true the big idea often begins with an individual, bringing that idea to fruition regularly requires many diverse talents. We see examples of this over and over regardless of the arena – business, politics, aerospace, medicine, entertainment, and so on.

Great ideas can come from anywhere and from anyone; it’s how these ideas are advanced and implemented that makes the difference. And that difference is more often than not linked to talented teams that collaborate and expand on the original premise or discovery.

Take my organization, Deloitte, for example. I was inspired by Deloitte UK’s challenge to their employees late last year: come up with completely new or substantially improved services to benefit our clients. 40% of the Deloitte UK staff got involved in the challenge and 434 ideas were originated, collaborated on and developed. A number of these were advanced further, drawing on central support, resources and capital investment to create new propositions.

The second is the myth that team innovations must yield a revolutionary product, service, or process in a single blinding flash. True, this may happen in isolated cases, but usually innovation takes shape in a series of small, incremental steps – evolutionary advances, as opposed to one momentous discovery.

Step by step, idea by idea, it typically takes a team to find the true path to innovation.

2. Check your ego at the door

In 1903, when the two founders of Harley-Davidson built their first motorcycle, their skills seemed to fit hand in glove. Having worked six years for a bicycle manufacturer, 23-year-old William Harley knew about bicycles, and 22-year-old Arthur Davidson knew about small gas engines.

However, after building their first machine, the two young partners realized the need for a truly skilled mechanic, and hired Arthur Davidson’s brother William. Later, they hired another Davidson brother for his business experience, which they both lacked.

In short, their strength lay in understanding and facing their weaknesses and not letting their egos stand in their way. They brought in a diverse team to support their efforts. And look where it eventually got them. Of the dozens of American motorcycle manufacturers in business at the dawn of the 20th century, today only one remains: Harley-Davidson.

Let’s face it – we can’t all be experts at everything. So check your ego at the door and build the kind of team that can deliver the most value. In short, it’s not about who gets the credit, it’s about delivering the right team that then produces the right result.

3. Fail often

There are a couple of common mistakes teams make in the pursuit of success. One is not allowing enough time for success to fully germinate. The other is refusing to admit that an obviously foundering effort should be shut down. If you think about it, both missteps stem from a common worry: the fear of failure.

Fortunately, teams with a wider, more balanced range of perspectives and ideas are less likely to kill a blossoming success or perpetuate a clearly doomed failure. Still, as Thomas Edison proved with the development of the electric light bulb, finding the right balance can be a difficult process.

Contrary to popular belief, Edison did not come up with the idea of the light bulb – in fact, it was a concept that had been around for years, but no one had been successful at developing a marketable product. So, starting in 1878, with a large and talented team around him, Edison spent two years searching for a workable lighting filament and experimented with thousands of carbonized plant materials, ranging from bamboo to boxwood.

Clearly, Edison and his team were unafraid of failure, and he understood the effort required. “I have not failed,” Edison said later. “I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

As you can see, failure can teach important lessons.

4. Cooperate

Everybody wants to be successful. But to team effectively in today’s world, we need to remember a lesson many of us first learned as kids on the baseball diamond. I’m thinking of the familiar spectacle of two young fielders heading for a fly ball, each crying out, “I got it, I got it,” only to bump into each other and miss the catch. Why? Because each was thinking “me” not “we” – they were not cooperating.

Cooperative teaming is a key to our success, and one big way to get there is to emphasize “we” as opposed to the “me” thinking that can trip up young fielders – not to mention all the rest of us.

So I’m eager to learn, what methods does your organization employ to nurture innovation and teamwork? And how does this shape your view of them as an employer? Please add your voice to the conversation in the comments section below.

Barry Salzberg is the Global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (www.deloitte.com/global). Click the 'Follow' link below to stay up to date with Barry's exclusive LinkedIn Influencer content.