Forced Innovation is Creating Positive Change. Collaboration Can Make It Last.

Last year, business leaders watched 47 million employees walk out the door in search of higher pay, better working conditions, or companies aligned with their values and priorities. This so-called “Great Resignation” is just getting started.?

The World Economic Forum estimates that one-fifth of employees plan to leave their jobs in 2022, requiring companies to make significant adjustments to attract and retain top talent.?

Of course, businesses face a variety of other challenges – from supply chain constraints and rising prices and inflation to perpetual social upheaval and geopolitical conflict – that make excellence even more imperative.?

For many, this moment feels like a wildfire that’s out of control and destructive, burning down years of growth and potential with little regard for progress and future prospects. While this may be true to some degree, it will also produce new growth that propels organizations forward.?

As a result, companies are rethinking and reimagining their approaches to people, processes, and profit performance. I coined a term for this called “forced innovation,” which was prompted by the pandemic, forcing leaders to make changes that were long overdue.?

The results can be incredible, accelerating cross-department integration, advancing needed digital innovation, and preparing for the future of work, and addressing ESG shareholder and investor demand. They are also contingent on collaboration both within organizations and among external partners. It’s clear that forced innovation is creating positive change. Collaboration can make it last. Here’s how.?

Internal Collaboration Accelerates Advancement?

Before the pandemic, the Harvard Business Review reported a detailed study analyzing 95 cross-functional teams from 25 leading corporations. The findings were startling: 75 percent of cross-functional teams were dysfunctional.?

The recent pandemic helped refine the process and increased the impetus for success, redefining collaboration to enhance urgent outcomes.

Consequently, internal collaboration among teams and departments is more important than ever. Deloitte reports that 83 percent of digitally maturing companies rely on cross-functional teams, relying on connection and collaboration to enhance access to resources, diverse perspectives, new skills, and better ideas.?

We are seeing more collaboration between corporate development and other stakeholders. For example, HR executives are working more closely with c-suite executives to support urgent hiring priorities and ESG initiatives.?

Many organizations now recognize that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel to improve organizational outcomes. Instead, leverage internal collaboration to synthesize external data and make it fit their context.?

Consequently, compares are more responsive to current realities, including demands from investors, board members, and customers. They are finding solutions that have got under leverage, empowering better decisions.?

In the months and years ahead, companies need even more internal collaboration. Specifically, PwC’s future of work survey notes, “CFOs and CHROs should have more facetime.” This is especially important for companies looking to fulfill their ESG commitments because strengthening cross-department collaboration is key to better results.?

External Collaboration Expands Reach?

Perpetual hiring challenges are stretching companies thin. In January 2022, CNBC? proclaimed that “the no.1 ESG issue for Americans isn’t climate change. It’s workers.” In total, half of companies say they didn’t meet their hiring goals last year, prompting many to look to external partnerships and support organizations to improve hiring results.?

Diversity talent pipeline organizations that address every level of an organization – from entry-level to c-suite executives – have played an important role in this process. At Culture Shift Labs, we’ve leveraged the science of diversity and innovation embedded in our Culture Shifting Methodology to help clients achieve their leadership, workforce, and commercial goals as much as 70 percent faster.?

At the same time, organizations like Women Back to Work, InternX, and Opportunity at Work, are supporting women, veterans, people with Autism, and formerly incarcerated individuals while connecting companies with incredible talent.?

The results are profound.?

For example, JP Morgan’s Advancing Black Pathways is bringing together internal resources and external collaboration to help address persistent and systematic challenges facing the Black community. In addition to committing $30 billion by the end of 2025 to “drive an inclusive recovery, support employees and break down barriers of systemic racism,” the initiative leverages a diverse and multifaceted Advisory Council to inform its process and refine best practices.?

We Are Better Together?

These are indeed disorienting and disruptive days. They are forcing companies to innovate and change, a process that can be painful but one that ultimately yields stronger, more vibrant organizations moving forward.?

When we enhance and embrace internal and external collaboration, the benefits of forced innovation are multiplied, improving outcomes for companies and communities.?

To learn more about how Culture Shift Labs is partnering and collaborating with Fortune 500 organizations, tech companies, investors – including private equity, venture capital, impact investors, and family offices – and non-profits, to support diversity hiring at every level, visit https://cultureshiftlabs.com/.?

Author Bio

Andrea Hoffman is an advisor, dealmaker, strategist, speaker, author, and founder & CEO of the diversity and innovation management consulting firm Culture Shift Labs (CSL) and Culture Shifting Weekends (CSW). She’s the nation’s leading diversity and innovation expert and is a confidential advisor to Tech, F500s, Non-Profits, the Investor Community, CEOs, millionaires and billionaires. As the co-author of Black is the New Green: Marketing to Affluent African Americans and $50 BILLION Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership, she has been at the forefront of, and personally dedicated to, racial equality since 1999.