How to foster a culture of innovation and design, according to Change Maverick Craig Wright

Lasting business growth takes more than just technology. Craig Wright, Change Maverick at HiveMind Network, discusses the importance of mindset, creativity and leadership in developing a culture of innovation and design that drives enduring success.

In an increasingly competitive business landscape, a culture that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking has become essential for organisations seeking long-term success.

Just ask Craig Wright , a Change Maverick at HiveMind Network and Founder of boutique consultancy Moondog & Co. Craig has spent more than a decade working with major brands like Google, Salesforce and Microsoft to create cultures that foster innovation, ingenuity and the cultivation of new ideas.

Cultivating such cultures is not an easy task. It involves a fundamental shift in mindset, organisational structure, and leadership to foster ingenuity. It also requires an understanding of what the word ‘innovation’ means – which, Wright notes, can mean different things to different people and organisations.?

“Innovation is probably one of the worst words out there alongside transformation in the vocabulary of most consultants,” says Wright.

“The type of innovation that I've been doing with customers over the last 10 years has been helping them understand how they become increasingly customer-centric. I'm not working in Microsoft Research working out how to etch an entire bank's data onto a piece of glass – what I'm trying to do is bring a spirit of innovation and the ability for organisations to think differently.”

The innovation mindset

Fostering a culture that encourages unconventional thinking and experimentation is a significant challenge within organisations whose traditional philosophy is to play it safe in the face of change.?

One crucial aspect is creating an environment in which employees feel psychologically safe to think big – which requires the backing of leaders and the provision of spaces in which employees can ask questions, experiment with bold ideas, and challenge the status quo.?

It also means striking a balance between risk management and innovation. Wright disagrees with the notion of ‘failing fast’, a phrase that’s become synonymous with startup culture and agile methodologies, where rapid experimentation and iteration are prioritised over long-term planning and careful risk assessment.

“That's what a lot of people who are outside of innovation and are looking to create a culture of innovation don't get: that this is a highly curated experience.”

“It’s not actually failing,” says Wright.?

“Failing fast is the wrong term. What you want to do is get quick learning and then pivot.” This approach encourages companies to experiment with new ideas while maintaining a proactive attitude towards adjusting their strategies when necessary, Wright explains.

Organisations that excel at managing risks and fostering innovation have a number of things in common, according to Wright. Crucially, they prioritise idea quality by implementing a rubric or scoring mechanism that helps them select the most promising ideas.

They also understand that innovation isn’t a case of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, nor is it a one-off event that happens spontaneously. “It's a very highly tuned process,” says Wright.

“They don't plant a million seeds - they make some very considered bets… I think that's what a lot of people who are outside of innovation and are looking to create a culture of innovation don't get: that this is a highly curated experience.”

The exact methods for measuring the success of new ideas and initiatives will be unique to each individual organisation – there is no one-size-fits-all approach. “It's contextual to each customer, and depends on what [they are] trying to achieve,” notes Wright.

That said, having a clear alignment between the desired outcomes of the initiative and the overall business goal is a sensible place to start, as it helps ensure that prototyping and testing efforts are focused on producing meaningful results.

According to Wright, the organisations that excel here are those that recognise that good ideas can come from anywhere, and as such they “cast the net quite wide”.?

“It could be customers, it could be stakeholders, it could be partners, it could be colleagues, it could be leaders,” says Wright.?

“They democratise how ideas are surfaced and then ranked and rated so that they show that they are working on the best ideas.”

?Democratising ideas and silo-busting

Having an effective mechanism for evaluating and testing ideas also ensures that organisations don’t end up sitting on ideas for too long and allowing them to go stale – or be outpaced by a competitor that has moved more quickly.

This is particularly true as more companies begin to experiment with new, data-driven technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

“A lot of organisations wring the sweat out of their ideas and products until it's too late, and then have a chasm between that version of a product and a new product coming along,” says Wright.

“That culture of innovation, that culture of design means that you can kind of smooth out how items transition through your product portfolio.”

Wright acknowledges that new data technologies can play a powerful role in driving innovation and design decisions within organisations, allowing them to combine both quantitative and qualitative insights to leverage a more comprehensive understanding of their customers and the market.

However, technology alone isn’t a magic fix-all: Wright notes that many companies invest in new, disruptive technologies but fail to see returns on investment because they haven’t cultivated the right mindset within their workforce?

Leaders’ participation in this process is vital, as it helps bridge the gap between leadership and employees and allows leaders to better understand the organisation's direction.

“Unless they [business leaders] can look inside of that organisation and give people the freedom, the space, the skills, the mechanisms, and the psychological safety to actually innovate and think differently, they don't get any return on that investment," says Wright.

It also means that leaders are closer to the action and more likely? to trust – and buy into – innovation efforts.?

Wright adds: “The organisations that win with this won't be the organisations that build the best technology platform… It'll be the organisations that create the culture where the outputs of these AI capabilities are accepted. Because there are many who will say, ‘I don't trust what the data is telling me.’”

The intelligent org

Innovation and design thinking best flourish in an environment that actively promotes collaboration and the open exchange of information.

Wright envisions a future where new roles emerge within organisations to support data-sharing across the organisation and ensure that ideas, insights, and collaborative efforts don’t get stuck in siloed departments.?

Regardless of which part of the business is tasked with leading data initiatives, Wright believes the ultimate strategy should be aimed at creating “an intelligent org”, where data-driven insights are integrated into decision-making processes across all levels and functions.

This requires both bottom-up and top-down strategies, says Wright, who again underscores the importance of empowering individuals across all levels of the business to think creatively and feel comfortable in doing so. “I think everybody is creative, and there's the ability for all roles to be creative,” he says.

“What we're actually looking for is to infuse creativity into everybody's role and have people who can start to ask questions, and have the confidence to ask questions.”

Fostering a culture of innovation and design requires more than superficial changes. It demands a fundamental shift in mindset and a commitment to empowering individuals across all levels and functions of an organisation. By embracing creativity and collaboration, leaders can unlock the latent potential of their workforce and create an environment where breakthrough ideas can flourish.

For leaders just starting out on this journey, Wright offers the following advice: “Make the time to get involved, work with your teams and understand where you're going.”

He adds: “If you aren't going to apply the right level of effort to it and you’re just going to tinker around the edges and just do a little bit of it, you're probably not doing enough.”

If you're ready to transform your organisation and unlock the full creative potential of your team, HiveMind Network is here to help. You can continue the conversation with Craig Wright by booking a complimentary, no-obligation 15-minute call to discuss your unique challenges and opportunities.