How long does this take?
We are constantly asked by clients – how long will it take to change the focus and intent of our culture, to make it more innovative? This is not a change you can force in six months. After all, your corporate culture has been constructed and reinforced since the business began. You can’t simply whipsaw a culture in a new direction and new focus in a few months. GE famously attempted to shift from Jack Welch’s priorities (Number one or two in an industry or out) to Jeff Immelt’s (more innovation) by establishing corporate innovation funds to the tune of several hundred million dollars. In the first year of funding, not one business unit accepted the innovation funds, because the existing culture that Welch left was so predominant.
The answer is: it depends. It depends on the continuity and focus of the executive team. It depends on the vision you create and how the story associated with that vision is reinforced and propagated throughout the organization. It depends on how the people who are the keepers and reinforcers of the culture are willing to change and adapt. It depends on how risk and uncertainty is tolerated, on how open the organization is to change. It depends on introducing new perspectives, new skills and new techniques. It won’t be fast, but it can be effective.
Corporate culture is the most powerful and most intangible barrier to innovation. Place Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein in a corporate culture that resists innovation and we wait another decade for electric lights or special relativity. A good idea in a resistant culture is a scream in a vacuum. It simply won’t be heard. As an executive, a leader, a manager who wants more innovation, there’s no more important aspect to focus on, and none more difficult to influence. Nailing jello to a wall is probably an adequate metaphor. But it must be done. You can’t sustain innovation without changing the culture, and your business can’t thrive without sustained innovation.
image credit: happy team image from bigstock
Jeffrey Phillips is a senior leader at OVO Innovation. OVO works with large distributed organizations to build innovation teams, processes and capabilities. Jeffrey is the author of “Make us more Innovative”, and innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com.