Do you aspire to change your organization’s innovation culture?

Start “MAKING AND CREATING” instead of just “overthinking” it!If you ask CEOs today what the most important current issue is which needs to be implemented within their company, most probably the answer will be: “to build and promote an innovation and creativity culture within our organization”.

If you subsequently ask them: “and how are you planning on realizing this challenge?”...the mousetrap reveals itself!

Either they will tell you that they have outsourced this challenge to one of the big consultancy firms or to a government-financed institution, and that they are paying them to audit and create the innovation strategy vision on the one hand and furthermore develop all including guidelines & manuals, operational processes, working norms and performance metrics on the other hand.

To be clear, we are talking here about the same ‘old school’ approaches, models and tools, but this time neatly dressed up under the sexy terminology of “innovation”, fashionably renewed under a layer of cosmetics, make-up, facelifts or even silicone implants!

Others will tell you that they have installed a fully operational innovation department filled with very talented and gifted collaborators from top universities.

Good, we like that! But what exactly are they doing?

They are studying, defining strategies, defining processes, metrics systems, defining the guideline manuals on the basis of their company’s set of rules and norms....Bottom line: Are they just doing the same exercises over and over again, instead of genuinely taking a next step and start creating?

Let’s go back to the roots for a second here...

Innovation is about “MAKING”, “CREATING”, and it is foremost a hands-on approach.  It’s about the intrinsic freedom to experiment and having fun while doing it! And YES, if you are being given the “freedom” to experiment, create and prototypein combination with “responsibility” and if you are having fun doing your job, you will keep on doing it! You will even become better and better in doing so, you will start achieving small successes and will work even harder for the next project which might turn out to be the big one!

Let’s go back to your childhood for a minute...

...if you are allowed to naturally find your friends, to create “your” group or tribewhich shares the same passion for a special type of play, to ‘discover’ the world, and to create strong unbreakable bounds....then the collective power gets you to higher levels of achievement and realizations!

Together you can create, with your own hands, the future of your companies’ products, services, business models, communication strategies!

Nowadays, the rush of individual achievement is very high.

To individually achieve success, you have to push your limits, overcome your limitations, and/or win the procreation fight...But when you achieve success collectively, the orgasmic effect is even higher! Collective success means that you overcome relations, frictions and egos. It means that you had to push not only your own but also each other’s limits. A consensus needs to be sought and beliefs systemswill have to be adapted and changed to the group’s dominant ‘mental system’ (i.e. values, concepts and perspectives).

For over 10 years, I had the privilege (Américo Mateus) to be part of a branding and design company that continuously co-created with the direct input of all collaborators (as they still do nowadays) resulting in a strong creative and innovative culture within the company. The company leaders (not managers) possessed the natural ability to warm up their co-workers to their vision, ambition and company statement. We all knew what we wanted to “bring to the market”, what we wanted to be recognized for, and what we stood for as a company.

The projects were always executed by multidisciplinary teams.

Special “task forces” were created for special clients, and we always felt like ‘special agents’ being part of a very important life-saving mission!

These company leaders genuinely understood the art of creating a specific setting fit for innovation:

• Special task forces occupied special spaces in the company – sometimes in the basement, sometimes in particular spaces rented for the specific project.
• Special teams were given special codes. The projects were kept secret to the others. The projects had special coded names.  Even when prints or prototypes were made, the actual client’s name could never be printed or shown.
• We as ‘special agents’ needed to sign specific confidentiality clauses of course.
• Presentations to clients were always created and designed as a genuine performance.

But to create a real ‘project culture’, ‘project storytelling’ and ‘project mythical’ status, the wins and losses were always celebrated together with the entire company. I am talking about events that happened 15 years ago!, thus being a creating culture “Avant la lettre”.

Question is: When I entered the company, how did I get in touch with the company’s prevailing culture? Did I have to follow a training? Yes, even several, but none of them focused on or even talking about the understanding and feeling of the company’s culture! Did I receive an employee manual with guideline and rules? Yes, certainly, but I never read it J, not even one single line!

So let’s rephrase...a simple system that is human centered since moment it saw daylight!  Yes, it is possible and it certainly does exist!

The director who hired me, interviewed me in his own office, not in a meeting room. He told me to sit down near him because he was busy (as always) and working on very important projects. While he was making phone calls, and helping designers with answering their specific questions, he asked me to introduce myself.  Throughout my story, he interrupted me with questions such as: “can you see yourself doing this all day?”... “as you can see, we always need to have answers to give to them...if we don’t assist them fast, the work flow stops”...”can you do two things at the same time?”. Another official question “what is your experience” was interruption to make a joke with a co-worker, telling him he needed to watch is back since his colleague was acting as one of the bosses to impress the girls....

Finally, he presented me my final challenge: “can you please help me and call this company in my name and ask them about the “damn budget” they promised to send me two days ago. The team is presenting the project tomorrow, so I need to give them numbers!”.... I just did it! J

At that exact moment I understood everything there was to know about “the company’s culture” in a “real contextual” and a “MAKERS” approach, and my inner voice told me “you are going to be very happy here, I wish I can get the job!... and after two hours of “working” during my interview, Engº Eduardo Medeiros (thank you Chief!), told me: “you are in for the job, if you want it. No other candidate felt so comfortable in this chaos like you, and I need a new assistant right now”. After just a few days, I started working there and dived deeply into a real-life changing experience! “Living” for 10 years in such a creative, innovative environment and culture proved to be worth my while and can be regarded as resulting in my second university “degree”!

The one million dollar question is: “was this an example of a new HR department recruitment strategy and tool”?

No, it’s an example of how giving your collaborators and co-workers freedom to create, to be innovative and to change the rules is rewarding.  And you can rest assured that pays off!

Becoming part of this MAKERS movement towards a hands-on innovation culture implementation process can turn your company into a “lighthouse” of innovation for you and your co-workers.

We believe it is high time to redirect governmental efforts and money currently used to “overthink” creativity and innovation within companies and organizations towards and in favor of supporting a genuine creative and innovative “makers-approach”.

Just do it, but do it well and for a long time! To achieve this, please run away from cosmetic “formulas” and turn your organization into a “MAKER’S” and “HANDS-ON” one!

We, at Innokinetics, have the life experience to help you and your company to ignite the Hands-on “makers” approach and to implement a genuine productive type of innovation culture within your organization! We also believe that a true innovation culture must change today’s HR paradigm. We can help your HR to define new and innovative recruitment approaches and other HR tools based on design thinking and innovation processes. And due to our experience and expertise, we stand for a new role for HR within your organization: leading the innovation culture quest!

Photo Credits: http://www.sudouest-artdevivre.fr/ecrouler-la-melee/

This post was originally published on our company website under: http://innokinetics.com/do-you-aspire-to-change-your-organizations-innovation-culture/