The Role of Mindset, Culture and Collaboration for Innovation

Here, you get some inspiration and simple advice for building a stronger corporate culture, improving on your collaboration efforts and developing stronger ecosystems for innovation.

This is based on these three questions that I was given as a guidance tool for my keynote talk and mini-workshop at the upcoming ilumina event ?in Concepcion, Chile.

1 - What are the key factor(s) for developing a good innovation ecosystem?

2 - Is a transformation of the corporate culture" in companies necessary for the development of collaborative innovation and if so, where to start?

3 - How can we develop “collaboration to innovate” in a competitive environment??

Let me share my answers with a few bullets and in particular with some of my images that I will be using as talking points as I cover these questions in my sessions.?

The first question…

1 - What are the key factor(s) for developing a good innovation ecosystem?

# Be clear on your objectives! Set the direction, goals and make sure this is tied to the overall business strategy of your organization.

# Facilitate collaboration, networking! It does not happen by itself, training is required and so is strong facilitation.

# Put people first!…Focus on what (and who) you have, what you need and how you close the gaps. This goes for mindset, capabilities and experience.

# …and start with leadership! The top people needs to be personally committed and engaged. If not, there’s no reason to start.

# Create a good story, communicate well! What is your unique story to tell and what is the communication strategy for this?

2 - Is a transformation of the corporate culture" in companies necessary for the development of collaborative innovation and if so, where to start?

# Don’t go for an innovation culture. It’s a trap! You only have one corporate culture and it’s not defined by innovation.

# Work the transformation triangle! It requires a strategic HR function and the development of a learning organization.

# Be aware of - and ready for - the big picture! This goes beyond innovation but it’s a good way to think about the complexity of transformation.

# It starts with mindset! Get in touch if you want some of my image decks on mindset and dynamics for high performance teams.

3- How can we develop “collaboration to innovate” in a competitive environment??

# First, see previous issues, questions! Many of these elements are also relevant here and in particular the fit to overall strategy and starting from the top elements.

# Go for a learning culture! One that is collaborative, social with internal as well as external stakeholders. Learning is a strong enabler for collaboration.

# Time - or the prioritization of it - is your key challenge! You can only address this from the top.

# Root causes first! Don’t fight obstacles and barriers head-on, first address the root causes. This is about seeing the bigger picture and working on your challenges, opportunities in the right order.

# Develop training programs for networking, collaboration! Think of mindset as well as capabilities for this.

# See jobs to be done in new ways! Apply the lens of collaboration, networking for jobs to be done within your organization. What could/should change then?

# Turn curiosity into a process!

Your reflections, comments and questions around these questions and answers are appreciated. Think of this as a discussion starter!