1. Define creativity and innovation
Innovation can be interpreted in various ways, depending on the type or level of innovation. For example, there is a huge difference between administrative simplification and new high-tech mobile equipment.
Because of the unclear definition of innovation, employees do not know what is expected from them. Don't ask someone to be 'innovative', but make this specific. For organisations, it is extremely important to link clear objectives to innovation.
2. Know your organisation
A good understanding of the critical process factors determines the level of innovative success. Especially for break-through innovation this is crucial. Therefore, formulate a precise diagnosis of your organisation. Map your strong points and points of attention.
Apart from these general guidelines in order to stimulate the innovation process, it is essential to take the organisational culture into account. Analysing the organisational culture is crucial for innovation. The organisation will not only get a clear overview of its strengths and weaknesses, but also a framework for innovative projects can take place.
Initiatives for innovation must take place within the desired culture type. If your organisation is strongly characterised by the clan culture, then you certainly cannot initiate innovation from the top-down. If your organisation is strongly characterised by the hierarchy culture, you will probably face resistance if you don't take the necessary time to implement an organisational innovation project.
3. Choose a coherent reward system
Few organisations know their own creative talent. Creativity is hardly defined or identified. Innovative organisations stress innovation, but on the other hand hardly pay any attention to the creative intellectual skills of their employees.
Other innovative organisations do not check creative skills when they recruit, but do reward the innovative thinking at an individual level afterwards. Realise that creativity is the starting point of innovation.
Without paying attention to idea development via techniques, tools, or rewards for creativity, break-through innovation is impossible. The creativity index is a tool to map creativity. You can complete this test online.
4. Adjust your human resources policy to innovation
Pay more attention to the HR policy, in which recruitment plays an important role. It is difficult to stimulate the development of ideas if the HR policy is aimed at recruiting planners instead of creative persons. The other way round, an organisation that consists of creative employees who cannot implement their creativity will have few chances for innovation.
Realise that the need for creative persons is very large during the idea phases, but that the implementation phase especially requires precise implementation. If heterogeneity is not pursued, the company will consist of ‘yes-men’ that think the same and assume that the future is a perfect imitation of the past. Do not focus your recruitment efforts on the knowledge aspect, but definitely also include a dimension for 'motivation' and 'creative thinking'.
Select the persons with 'drive', but also create an atmosphere where people like to work. Increase the intrinsic motivation of your employees by taking their preferences into account.
5. Technological innovation requires organisational innovation
An organisation that is technologically at the top will sooner or later have to adjust its organisational structure to the changing environment. By structuring the organisational activities in a more efficient way than its competitors, a company can produce at lower costs, deliver faster to the client, or offer better products and services.
Organisational innovation is a searching process however, at which a company gradually learns how the new organisational structure functions. The history of companies like Siemens, General Motors, or Toyota teaches us that organisational innovation is an evolutionary process characterised by trial-and-error. Long-term improvements should prevail above short-term profits. An organisation should learn how to organise, and can build up an organisational competence that cannot be imitated easily by competitors. Building up and spreading of knowledge about organising is at the heart of this matter.
6. Seek a proper balance between flexibility and monitoring
Break-through innovation requires flexibility and autonomy. Monitoring and evaluation only help to define the problems precisely, so that a constructive discussion can be started. Employees should know where the focus is, so that they can develop ideas further.
Sutton (2005) proposes maintenance of the balance between flexibility and rigidity by either holding on to the solution or to the problem, then letting the other fluctuate. The strategy used most is to keep the problem constant, and then to look for alternative solutions. All problem-driven innovations fall into this category.
Another proposed way to maintain the balance between flexibility and rigidity is to keep the solution constant and have the problem vary. This is referred to as solution-driven innovation. This takes place more and more by setting up technology platforms, which allows technology, a product, or a service to be regarded as a possible solution for many unknown problems.
7. Keep the process simple
Keep the process from idea to launching as simple as possible. Complexity and bureaucracy prevent innovation. Limit the number of meetings and the number of participants in those meetings. Not every person within the organisation has sufficient knowledge to co-determine a project.
Furthermore, efforts aimed at creating more order and structure in the chaos can result in more 'red tape' and even more preventable meetings. The Manager of General Electric, Jack Welch, concludes: ‘Bureaucracy hates simplicity… Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach markets faster, and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making.’ (Welch, 2005).
8. Decide without falling into the trap
A number of obstacles can arise at decision moments. Overconfidence is one of them. In all their enthusiasm, managers quite often draw the wrong conclusions at the cost of facts and data that appear to be different. Your choice to approve an innovation project should be based on relevant, objective, basic ratios, not on 'gut feeling'.
Escalation of involvement also occurs during important decision moments in the innovation process. Managers often keep continuing an innovation project since they already have invested so much money in it. There are a number of items that should be given proper attention in order to to prevent managers from falling into this trap. One suggestion is to not involve people who are responsible for the start-up of a project and who are committed to the success thereof in decisions with regard to the fate of the project.
Projects should be structured in such a way that various groups decide on whether it will continue or not. The danger of irrational perseverance in a project can also be mitigated by creating an atmosphere in which failures are tolerated and in which trial-and-error is even part of the growth. If people believe their reputation is linked to the project, however, they will regard discontinuation as a downfall, and they will do everything possible in order to keep the project alive.
9. Involve your own people in the process
Not all employees are open to changes that are the logical consequence of an innovation project. Especially organizational innovations quite often face 'resistance'. Remarks like "It's been done like this for 10 years, so why change it?" are common bottlenecks.
In order to get employees aboard, it is important to involve them in the innovation process. It is essential that your employees recognize the need for innovation and even experience it by themselves.
You can involve them by informing them; have them collect data by themselves; or by demonstrating them where they can make the difference. Concrete, achievable objectives help motivate. In times of organization innovation create support from internal employees so that they also want to put their shoulders behind the drive to innovate.
