Five Steps to Building an Innovative Culture

During the 90s Vodafone incorporated SMS into its mobile services portfolio by conceiving of it as a tool in order to let its customers know when they lost calls. When this tool fell into the hands of teenagers the true potential of SMS became readily apparent. A new mobile culture was born, strongly focused on sending text messages when communicating with others. This is a real life example of how innovation usually occurs when the inventor of a technology makes it available for mass audiences. These customers are the ones who will define an invention’s purpose and its uses. Innovation happens all across society, often in a decentralized way, and not only when the innovation process is conducted by a group of “elite” inventors.

We are used to dealing with innovations that didn’t even exist a few years ago. Smartphones, social media, cloud computing, big data, wearable devices, and the newly born Internet of Things all play a part in our daily lives now.

All of this makes us realize how necessary it is to rethink many of the things we do, our processes, standards, and even our minds, in order to prepare ourselves to innovate, not as closed processes, but as part of a unified culture. We need to be ready to create and innovate from the inside out. We must also listen to what the market and other users have to say in order to successfully leverage their feedback.

Some of the main places that foster innovation are companies and organizations. So what do they have to do in order to incorporate the innovation gene into their culture? I’d like to share with you some of the key steps that, in our opinion, are essential to enabling this change.   

1. Align every person within an organization toward the same purpose. If everyone shares the same dream, they will all work in the same direction. Ideas and initiatives that arise will take the company closer to its goals, no matter who proposes them. This is essential when creating a transparent and open culture.
2. Give autonomy. People should be able to show their innovation skills and at the same time be part of teams where they can use and show their knowledge. They should feel motivated to share knowledge and to learn from the knowledge of others.
3. Replace your “Innovation Department” with an “Innovation Culture.” A closed group of people working to innovate will not do the job right. It’s necessary for the entire organizational structure to listen and absorb what’s happening both within and outside the company.
4. Establish practices that promote innovation. Crowdsourcing activities, lab exploration, internal contests innovating through new ideas, multidisciplinary sessions where everyone has a say, and meetings that seek to translate innovative ideas into concrete solutions, all allow an organization to really listen to what’s happening and evaluate how the market reacts to our innovations.  
5. Most importantly, maintain a culture always in “beta.” A truly innovative company is in constant evolution, accepts constant change, and is flexible enough to adapt to new realities.

Those who remain stuck in a previous model, one that mandates that innovation belongs to an elite group, will only get partial results. It’s like trying to improve the design of a car by only hiring an expert in interior design, but forgetting about the rest of the vehicle’s engineering. That’s why every leader should ask themselves when they are about to make a decision whether they want to be part of this new world. Innovation is every person’s responsibility.