Is your innovation programme working? Chances are that it is not, says Cris Beswick, author of Building a Culture of Innovation and co-founder of innovation specialist Outcome.
For in his experience leaders are misunderstanding what innovation comprises – often confusing digital transformation strategies, for example, with innovation.
True innovation solves complex challenges for every part of an organisation – HR, like sales, like efficiency, logistics. Innovation is a capability, not a department.
Yet leaders are failing to understand that innovation drives and enables every part of an organisation, not just R&D or new product development, says Cris.
“The leadership development that I see senior execs being put on is still teaching them how to lead the business of yesterday and it's not teaching them how to shape the future. And that saddens me because in the components that innovation requires – and a culture of innovation requires – leadership is arguably one of, if not the, key component.
“We have to teach leaders not how to become innovation leaders: it's not about them being innovators per se. We have to teach leaders how to lead for innovation.” This is about “turning up the volume on purpose and turning up the volume on creativity, Beswick says.
“Innovation is fundamentally about the pursuit of better. Better businesses, better business models, better leadership. We have problems and opportunities. Innovation is the conduit that gets us from there's a problem to there's a better solution.”
In this video interview Beswick explains what innovation is, examines why purpose is so important to innovation and offers his tips for creating an innovation culture.
About Cris Beswick
Cris Beswick is a leading thinker and strategic advisor on innovation leadership and culture and a pioneer in the field of measuring corporate innovation maturity. He’s the co-founder of innovation advisory firm Outcome and best-selling author of Building a culture of Innovation.
TRANSCRIPT
The leadership development that I see senior execs being put on is still teaching them how to lead the business of yesterday and it's not teaching them how to shape the future. And that saddens me because in the components that innovation requires and a culture of innovation requires leadership is arguably one of, if not the, key component.
We have to teach leaders not how to become innovation leaders: it's not about them being innovators per se. The language I use is I teach leaders how to lead for innovation.
So I talk about two things at leadership level: turning up the volume on purpose and turning up the volume on creativity. And I don't mean leaders having to be creative but understanding the value of and how creativity works in order to solve problems.
And when you combine purpose and creativity you breed curiosity and curiosity breeds a willingness to ask questions, to explore, to experiment, etc. Those are the precursors to starting to drive innovation.
Definition of innovation
So innovation is about, and should be about, the introduction of things that are new or different. So innovation isn't about putting another element on the periodic table. It's not just about creating something that never ever existed before. So it can either be new and/or it can be just something different or something applied in a different way. So that's the first thing, new or different. So it's got to be intriguing. It's got to be different.
The second thing is it must solve a genuine problem. So there must be a problem, an opportunity, a pain. If we look at things like value proposition design, we talk about pains and gains. So the second component is it must solve a genuine problem.
The third part is, and again, referring to value proposition design, I think innovation is about making things better. So it's not just about solving the problem, it's then about the third component what else do we add? How cool, how great, how accessible do we make it etc.
And then the fourth thing is, and I'm very, very careful with this definition not to talk about ROI or money or something fiscal, which is always the thing that gets tagged to innovation. So the fourth component is as the creator of the solution, what do we get. What's in it for us?
So the definition for me is we are innovating when we are creating solutions that are new and different, that solve genuine problems, that add value over and above the solution and that generate a return for us as the creator.
Innovation drives everything, not just product
Innovation isn't just about new products. It's not just about technology. The number of companies that I go into where they say, Cris, our innovation programme is not working. We're not getting the return on the investment for innovation. And I sit down in the boardroom and they present me their digital transformation strategy. And I'm like, OK, well what's this? Well, this is our innovation. And I’m like, no, it's not.
Or similarly I get presented with the innovation strategy that's just not paying off and all it is a quest for new products. The challenges that we face now – a classic example – and this an example I use with all senior teams: if I sit the global head of business growth and sales and growth down in a boardroom, let's say, Dave, what does innovation mean for you? If your organisation builds demonstrable capability to innovate, what does it mean for you? And Dave's going to say, sales growth, market share, we're going to hit our targets, etc – the typical metrics by which organisations say, this is why we need to innovate.
If I then sit the global HR director down and say, Deborah, what does innovation mean for you? She's going to say, it's great that Dave wants focus on products but what innovation means for me is talent retention, higher engagement, more creativity, happier workforce, better wellbeing and talent acquisition, ie I'm going to be able to recruit the best young people into our business. That's what having a culture of innovation means to me.
Leaders have to understand that innovation drives and enables every part of an organisation, not just R&D or new product development. And it can solve complex challenges for every part of an organisation like HR, like sales, like efficiency, logistics. It's a capability. It's not a department, so that's why I think it's really important.
Tips for developing an innovation culture
We built a tool to enable organisations to triangulate their start point on their innovation journey. And the reason we did that was what I've noticed over the past several years is senior people, whether it's CIOs, CEOs, whatever, have said we're going to now embark on this transformation journey around innovation. We're going to build a culture and they would set off with this beautiful destination in mind.
And I use the sat nav analogy: when I get in my car and turn the ignition on the first thing it does is it triangulates my start point and it triangulates it to within 10 feet, 15 feet, however accurate it is.
What I see most organisations doing is, using the same analogy, they get in their car, they turn the ignition, their sat nav's broken and it can't triangulate their start point but they put their destination in and they press go. So they head off and they go, I want to go there, this beautiful vision of a future culture and a future state and it's all going to be innovation and we've got these values and we're going to build this and build that. They don't know their start point.
So the first bit of advice is build be build this picture of the future and, however beautiful it is, recognise exactly where you are starting from so that you can plot the most efficient journey.
The second thing is they need to ask themselves three questions. The first one is I believe innovation is fundamentally about the pursuit of better. Better businesses, better business models, better leadership. We have problems and opportunities. Innovation is the conduit that gets us from there's a problem to there's a better solution.
Purpose is also about the pursuit of better. The whole concept of purpose is I believe that there's something better and my purpose is trying to get there. So the first thing is figure out has the organisation got a really, really clear purpose? And if it has, has it then got a very, very clear innovation strategy, not is innovation as a word in the traditional corporate strategy. Do you have an innovation strategy and then are they both absolutely aligned?
The second question is that journey building a culture of innovation for me is a conscious leadership decision. You have to choose as a leader that you want to pursue it because it's bloody hard work. It's not difficult, it's not rocket science, but it's hard work and it takes time. So you have to consciously pursue that as a leader.
So the second question is figure out what decisions you are consciously making in pursuit of that innovation culture but also try and figure out what decisions you are subconsciously making that maybe are getting in the way of that. And that's about learning and unlearning just to some extent.
And then the third and final thing is we can't influence results. We can influence behaviour. We can influence practices, processes, and those in turn deliver the outcomes we want. So ask the fundamental question, will the current processes, practices, behaviours and culture that we have today, will they enable us to shape the future?
And if the answer to any of those three questions is no, then you have to go back and say, how do we answer that? How do we align those strategies? How do we figure out what conscious decisions we are making and what does the culture need to look like for us to be able to shape the future?
About the author
