35 Questions to Gauge How Innovative Your Company Culture Might Likely Be

Culture is the Most Important Determinant of Innovation and Overall Success in Any Organization

Every corporation, firm, government agency or any type of organization or association has a unique culture that determines the form, degree and speed of innovation and performance practiced there.?Some have cultures that stifle creativity and progress with a rigid bureaucracy and autocratic, command-and-control style management that rules with a heavy hand and hard heart. Others have an exhilarating and satisfying work climate with highly interactive, open-minded and engaging leaders. In these types of cultures, a visitor can feel the pulse of the place that is filled with imaginative energy and eager excitement to continuously innovate and do amazing things.?

Metaphorically, you might think of your institutional culture as the “collective personality” of your organization. These personalities run the continuum from serious, stern, restrained, slow-moving and cautious to those on the other end as playful, open-minded, energetic, optimistic, bold and daring with a sense of spirited adventure and can-do-ism.?Some cultures are conservative and traditional with strict adherence to “the way things are done around here” by the book — with no deviation. Other companies have small numbers of flexible (but critical) guidelines and directions to follow. Red tape is minimized so their creative people can move fast and sure to deal with suddenly changing technologies, aggressive competitors and an unpredictable marketplace where innovative newcomers will start to grab market share.?

Forward-thinking, risk-taking leaders of these innovative cultures — who are not afraid to defiantly buck the crowd of me-too imitators in their industry — often encourage and reward the “bad boy rule-breakers” and mavericks who create their team’s spectacular results and successes because they are allowed to think and do audacious things.?Whether a conforming or creative culture (or a mix somewhere in between), every organization has DNA in their organization that oftentimes reflects what the company’s founder or current top leader espouses.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Corporate cultures (like human personalities and characters) have of a mix of positive and negative aspects and strong and weak characteristics and traits. I also compare an organization’s culture to a computer’s operating system that oversees (behind the scenes) how all operations really function.?An organization’s culture, which consists of deeply embedded values, beliefs, philosophies, attitudes, assumptions, principles, priorities, and operating norms, essentially boils down to “how things are done around here.”?Culture determines what people focus on and what they get rewarded or punished for.?

Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Fedex, Ford, Disney, BMW, Intel, Boeing, IBM and Microsoft are just some of the corporations that thrive in a culture that honors and rewards as much innovation as employees can bring about. There are cultures of innovation in every industry, not just those in high technology sectors. IBM, which is now over 100 years old, has a more formal “buttoned-down” culture, although it has loosened up quite a bit in the last twenty years. Their famous company slogan was “Think.”?Apple and Google have a more informal and playful culture compared to IBM. Apple’s slogan is “Think Different.”

Yet, IBM has reinvented itself several times and is a superb innovator and eminently financially successful company. IBM was the first company to exceed 7,000 patents in a year. It received a record 7,534 patents in 2014 — marking the 22nd consecutive year that the company topped the annual list of U.S. patent recipients.?Its culture (with its effect on talent selection, employee development, management styles and visionary leadership) was primarily responsible for its stellar industry success. How many companies like IBM have survived and thrived for over 100 years?

?What all exceptional, future-oriented, top performing companies have in common is that they consider creativity and innovation to be the lasting, absolutely vital bedrock of their foundation of their past, present and future successes. Innovation will get an organization out of trouble and keep it out of trouble as long as it is applied aggressively throughout the organization.?

Impact of a Culture on Creativity and Innovation

Without a doubt, the biggest factor in determining just how creative, innovative and change-oriented an organization can be is the overall makeup of its culture. Culture powerfully sets the stage for the degree and amount of continuous innovation that happens there. It is the petri dish of growing great ideas.?If you, as a leader, want to have maximum amounts of sustained innovation over the long run, then your job is to create, nurture and grow such a culture where innovation really is"JOB ONE" in every aspect of your organization’s operation. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc. was a multi-billionaire who worked as CEO right before he passed away. He didn’t just love being innovative, he was innovation personified with his deep abiding love of elegant product design and function. Steve Jobs was an unrivaled master of vision, motivation and execution, who created a powerful corporate culture of innovation that will surely last as long as his famed legacy.

Here are some of the benefits and outcomes of having a culture imbued with exciting ideas and innovation:

• ?Top line revenues and bottom line profits are maximized.
• ?Increased employee morale, motivation, engagement and initiative on the job.
• ?Improved retention of your current employees and easier recruitment of top students from universities and top performers from other corporations and organizations.
• ?Better able to hold onto or advance your competitive edge in your industry.
• ?Customers become more loyal and more new, desirable ones come on board.
• ?Your company’s reputation and prestige in your industry are elevated.
• ?Operational effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and quality are all improved.
• ?Your organization becomes a terrific, rewarding and fun place to work.
• ?The work climate becomes much more exciting, satisfying and enjoyable.
• ?Employees feel a greater sense of their mission, purpose and meaning in their work.
• ?Every stakeholder—employees, stockholders, suppliers, partners, customers, your industry, the community—involved with your organization, will benefit more from your strong culture of innovation.

Asking the Right Culture Assessment Questions

One of the initial steps in sculpting an innovative culture for creativity and boldness is to discuss and assess your organization’s current culture.?You can do this by answering the following questions that address (indirectly and directly) how innovation is either ignited and fueled, or snuffed out, within the borders of your company.?Your answers, combined with those of others in your organization, will intuitively, if not obviously, tell you the general nature of the innovative culture and climate there.

1. How would you currently describe the general culture of your organization??What main words would you use to sum up your culture??
2. How would you describe the main values, beliefs, philosophies, principles, attitudes, assumptions, preconceptions and operating norms that define how people think, behave and perform at work?
3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being highly innovative), how innovative do you think your company is right now??Explain why.?
4. Compared to your top two competitors, how would you gauge your organization’s culture of innovation: more innovative than your competitors, less so or about the same??
5. Do your employees know your organization’s vision, mission, and key strategies??Did they have input into developing them, even in a small way??Do they understand the reason for and importance of them? How do your vision and goals compare to your competitors? Do your employees understand their roles and contribution to achieving the vision and goals? Can every employee simply, clearly and accurately describe your company’s vision (not the made-up vision “statement” on your web site) — in their own words? How aggressively and eagerly do your employees focus on achieving your company’s vision and goals?
6. Some companies call themselves a “factory of ideas?”?In your organization, how would you describe?the amount of ideas that most employees will eagerly suggest to management: lots of ideas on a regular basis??About medium number of ideas? Not too many?
7. What would you say motivates most people to generously offer up ideas in your organization? What demotivates or prevents people from coming up with and offering lots of new ideas (e.g., ineffective managers, nonproductive rules and regulations, burdensome bureaucracy, being punished for ideas that don’t pan out, other)?
8. How would you describe the types of ideas that generally get a fair hearing within your organization: all ideas (however wild and outrageous)??Ideas that are “practical” and risk-free??Ideas that are usually the “low-hanging fruit — average, common ideas??
9. Where are most ideas generated in your company: from executives and managers??Only those involved in R&D, product development, marketing or other “creative functions?” From anyone and everyone?
10. Does your organization have a formal system to collect, analyze, prioritize and suggest the best ideas for implementation??How effective is that system, in terms of getting lots of ideas and then creating an effective and efficient mechanism to implement them?
11. What “types” of ideas are generally frowned upon by your top and middle management and why? To what degree are people scorned, reprimanded or punished outright for recommending ideas that ultimately flop?
12. Does your organization have regular, structured types of idea-generating sessions on a widespread basis within most (or all) all departments??What have been the positive results? If not, why??Are these brainstorming sessions considered not only productive, but fun to engage in??What percentage of the leaders facilitating these sessions have been formerly trained using structured methodology to get optimum results from teams?
13. How many managers in your organization encourage and support people to come up with all sorts of ideas to improve operations and financials? Generally, how open-minded are most managers to fresh, new ideas that may be quite different in nature compared to what has been suggested in the past??
14. Describe what many in your organization might remember as historically important ideas that have changed your organization??When was the last time people can recall an idea that was considered significant, a breakthrough or a quantum leap in some strategic respect?
15. Do employees typically jump at the first viable solution to a problem or go on explore (in greater depth) other different solutions that might prove superior to the first one that appeared to work “well?”
16. Who would say are the most creative people in your organization and why are they considered so?
17. Does your organization have a VP or Director of Innovation??Do you have various creativity workshops as a part of your training curriculum??If not, why?
18. Overall, what would you change to make your organization more conducive to innovation?
19. What typically motivates people to excel at their jobs in your organization??Why would people show initiative to get things accomplished??Why might others remain passive and not take initiative (especially if they had done so in the past)?
20. What percentage of executives, managers and professionals in influential and strategic positions have been trained to clearly, concisely and compellingly communicate their ideas, concepts, strategies or proposed solutions??How would you generally describe the quality of presentations (formal or informal) in your organization: very good, acceptable, mediocre, fairly poor??
21. If you took a poll of most employees in your organization, what percentage might agree that their work was challenging, in a positive way? Satisfying and meaningful??Enjoyable and even fun??If you were to ask people, “What portion of your true potential are you using on the job?” what would be the most common answers?
22. What percentage of employees throughout your business would likely agree with this statement, “I seldom have enough time in the day to do all I want to do or that is required of me let alone have the time or energy to be “creative.”
23. On a scale of 1-10, how supportive is your culture to risk-taking and why do you feel that way??
24. What are the real motivating factors that regulate whether there are mostly individual or team projects??What effect do they have on employees being more creative and proactive?
25. What specific bureaucratic rules, procedures, norms, methods, and management behaviors inhibit innovation??How can they be eliminated, minimized, or modified?
26. What factors or types of “successes” determine how front-line employees, managers, and executives are recognized, rewarded, and promoted??What are people penalized for??How does that affect on-going innovative efforts?
27. How does your organization view: a) daring, even far-fetched ideas, b) ultra-visionary concepts, c) calculated risk-taking, and d) unavoidable mistakes from creative endeavors that didn’t pan out???Is failure generally seen as a learning or a career-limiting/burning experience?
28. How does your organization deal with frequent change??Historically, what’s been the resulting consequences and impact???What drives change and who typically does it??How is change planned and executed??
29. What is the ratio between employees focusing on problem-solving (“fighting fires”) and opportunity-seeking (exploring for, and grabbing, new opportunities) for your organization?
30. Do employees feel appreciated for their ideas and recommendations??Do they perceive benefits for being innovatively proactive??What causes employees to stop their flow of ideas and drop out from actively pursuing innovation?
31. Does your organization have a structured innovation process that’s regularly used to generate ideas (from mild to wild) prioritize them and implement the most important ones effectively and efficiently???
32. How much flexibility do people have in going outside of their normal job descriptions?
33. What percentage of ideas are implemented and how long does it generally take??How are potentially blockbuster ideas evaluated?
34. How would you describe the overall communication climate in your organization??To what extent is it open, honest, frank, positive, and supportive versus closed, adversarial, or chain-of-command driven, for example??How does communication affect the way people react to ideas and work together to approve, and implement them?
35. To what extent does your organization invest in sufficient employee training for: a) creative problem-solving, b) imaginative thinking, c) innovation concepts and application, and d) synergistic team-building techniques??Are employees given adequate resources?such as materials, equipment, time, funds and additional staff to pursue steady innovation?

Answering these questions can give you more insights into how your organization collectively thinks and acts. Culture is a major determinant of your company’s ability and desire to be more creative and to boost innovation.?Understanding what your culture is now—and how it needs to evolve—will help you map out a way to produce even higher octane levels of performance in your organization, whatever its size and makeup may be.?Assuming your management adheres to generally good business and financial practices, being more innovative always equates to being much more successful in your marketplace and industry.?Research conclusively proves that innovative companies produce superior returns on investment compared to those who lack in innovation.

About the Author

Ray Anthony?is the?Chief “Innovader”?in The Woodlands, Texas, USA. He is the author of 9 books and over 100 articles on organizational change, innovation, leadership, creativity, sales, presentation skills and other strategic business topics. His vanguard book,?Innovative Presentations For Dummies?(Wiley Publishing) shows how to powerfully reimagine, reinvent and remake presentations that win against the toughest odds. Ray is a successful, dynamic keynote speaker, executive coach, program developer, corporate trainer, videographer and creative who has worked with numerous Fortune 500 corporations and elite U.S. government agencies (e.g. CIA, NASA and USSOCOM) to help improve their operational performance and results through creativity and innovation. He can be reached [email protected] or cell: 832-594-4747.