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How a culture of equality helps drive innovation


The equality of all employees, regardless of gender and nationality, spurs the development of a culture of innovation in the company, Accenture analysts found out. Innovations also contribute to the growth of profits of the enterprise and the economy as a whole.

The culture of innovation in the company is primarily associated with the freedom to experiment, propose new ideas and projects, with democracy and work for results. But the foundation of such a culture should be the equality of employees, analysts at the consulting agency Accenture are sure. In their Getting To Equal 2019 study, they found that it is the presence of a culture of equality within a company that creates the conditions for innovation.

For a culture of equality, Accenture analysts have deduced 40 criteria that a company must somehow meet. The authors of the report combined them into three large groups.
  • Courageous leadership that sets the goal of maintaining cultural, gender and other diversity in the company, is not afraid to speak up about this and is ready to take responsibility for making this goal a reality.
  • A comprehensive action plan that includes attracting female professionals and helping them advance their careers, equal pay conditions, maternity leave (for both men and women), and more.
  • Environment conducive to professional growth. This is the broadest category, with 20 out of 40 criteria, such as the ability to work away from the office, zero tolerance for discrimination, corporate training, respect for the employee's right to refuse overtime, the ability to replace tedious business trips with video conferencing, and much more.
Analysts at Accenture surveyed 18,000 professionals and 150 top managers around the world to determine if their companies' culture of equality met the 40 criteria. At the same time, a survey on innovative worldview was conducted among these employees. It consists of six elements:
  • confidence and agreement with the goals and objectives of the company;
  • availability of time, incentives, tools and desire to innovate;
  • active cooperation with colleagues;
  • a certain freedom of action, autonomy;
  • feeding with additional inspiration to work outside the company;
  • Willingness to experiment fearlessly and successfully.
According to the results of the first survey, three groups were identified among the respondents: those who speak of the most developed and least developed culture of equality, as well as the median, “typical” group. Comparing the answers to questions about a culture of equality and about an innovative worldview, the researchers found that they are directly dependent on each other. The question “does something prevent me from innovating” was answered negatively by 40% of employees from the group with the most developed culture of equality, 21% from the “typical” group, and only 7% from the group with the least developed culture of equality. In other words, it is equality that promotes innovation.

This discovery also has an economic aspect. Since the survey was conducted in 27 countries, the researchers compared the level of innovative thinking with economic performance. It turned out that the stronger the innovation culture, the higher the growth rates of GDP and labor productivity in this country. Accenture estimates that if an additional 10% of employees around the world adopted an innovative mindset, global GDP would increase by an additional $8 trillion by 2028. Now the volume of the world economy, according to the World Bank, is $86 trillion.