The culture of innovation in the company is a kind of magnet for talented and advanced personnel. Everyone would like to work in a liberal environment, where you are not reprimanded for mistakes, but offered to correct them yourself, and where truth is really born in a dispute. But only really high-class specialists get there. With these talents, the company’s digital transformation is accelerating and its business is growing faster than the market. In order not to fall behind the digital barrier (the gap between leading and lagging firms in terms of new technologies), more and more enterprises are trying to embrace an innovative culture.
The trouble is that many perceive this culture wrongly: do not confuse freedom with permissiveness. In an article in the Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School professor Gary Pisano outlined six principles of innovative corporate culture that managers often don't fully understand, emphasizing free-thinking and omitting the less pleasant side of this coin.
1. Tolerance only for productive mistakes
One of the key components of an innovation culture is error tolerance. If some idea failed or the product didn’t work for consumers, it’s okay, we will take into account the mistakes and next time we will do even better. There are times when you try and try, but it doesn't work. But the emphasis here is precisely on “you try and try,” and this is the second side of the same principle - intolerance for incompetence.
By hiring the best personnel, the company expects from them full return, involvement in the process, so there should be no place for negligence or negligence. Mistakes that occur due to a high-risk project or due to carelessness are two different things. That is why IT giants allow employees to take risks and make mistakes: they are confident in the competence of their specialists. Otherwise, these employees will not stay there for a long time.
Even if you clearly set corporate quality standards and separate productive errors from the result of negligence, finding a happy medium in the approach to employees is not easy, writes Pisano. Hence, some companies sit for years without new developments, and employees there spit at the ceiling, while in others, the requirements for efficiency bring people to tears.
2. Willingness to experiment within narrow limits
Closely related to the previous principle is the willingness of companies to experiment, look for new product forms, business models, and so on. But this is not chaotic throwing, but a conscious process of search and subsequent verification. Openness to fresh ideas must be combined with industrial discipline: not just to offer something, but to carefully consider the experiment. As a result, analyze the results. Everything should go into the treasury of knowledge and experience.
The trouble is that many perceive this culture wrongly: do not confuse freedom with permissiveness. In an article in the Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School professor Gary Pisano outlined six principles of innovative corporate culture that managers often don't fully understand, emphasizing free-thinking and omitting the less pleasant side of this coin.
1. Tolerance only for productive mistakes
One of the key components of an innovation culture is error tolerance. If some idea failed or the product didn’t work for consumers, it’s okay, we will take into account the mistakes and next time we will do even better. There are times when you try and try, but it doesn't work. But the emphasis here is precisely on “you try and try,” and this is the second side of the same principle - intolerance for incompetence.
By hiring the best personnel, the company expects from them full return, involvement in the process, so there should be no place for negligence or negligence. Mistakes that occur due to a high-risk project or due to carelessness are two different things. That is why IT giants allow employees to take risks and make mistakes: they are confident in the competence of their specialists. Otherwise, these employees will not stay there for a long time.
Even if you clearly set corporate quality standards and separate productive errors from the result of negligence, finding a happy medium in the approach to employees is not easy, writes Pisano. Hence, some companies sit for years without new developments, and employees there spit at the ceiling, while in others, the requirements for efficiency bring people to tears.
2. Willingness to experiment within narrow limits
Closely related to the previous principle is the willingness of companies to experiment, look for new product forms, business models, and so on. But this is not chaotic throwing, but a conscious process of search and subsequent verification. Openness to fresh ideas must be combined with industrial discipline: not just to offer something, but to carefully consider the experiment. As a result, analyze the results. Everything should go into the treasury of knowledge and experience.
3. Openness should be mutual
For an innovative business, the right of employees to constructive criticism of management, the right to fearlessly offer a variety of innovations is important. Accordingly, the employee must be prepared for reverse criticism from the boss or colleagues.
On the other hand, many companies, Pisano notes, adhere to the principle of psychological comfort, cultivating soft and delicate communication within the team. Such enterprises, he is sure, will always be behind those who practice open and honest discussion of problems.
It is important, again, to find a middle ground, namely, to build a culture of open discussions that will allow employees to jointly develop really good solutions without stooping to mutual insults.
4. Balance of personal responsibility and cooperation
Employee job responsibilities delineate their areas of responsibility, but if the company encourages a collaborative culture, employees are encouraged, even encouraged, to go beyond their narrow confines by helping colleagues. Because everyone is working towards a common goal.
But cooperation, writes Pisano, is often confused with unanimity. The search for consensus delays decision-making so much that such a principle is already becoming a brake on development. Another important factor to keep in mind is personal responsibility. Employees from multiple departments may work together on a project, but every decision has a decision maker. Or the project team leader assumes responsibility - this is an apt example of how a leader should set an example for employees.
5. Leader as first among equals
Companies with a “flat” hierarchy encourage employees not to be afraid to offer and try, give them freedom of action and decision, and contribute to all of the above. But one should not confuse democracy with anarchy: such firms even need a strong leader, Pisano is sure.
Ultimately, someone must have both the knowledge and the authority to formulate and promote the strategic vision. By keeping the level of decision-making and accountability as low as possible, key development principles must be retained by management.
In fact, we are talking about delegation of authority, which is opposed to the principle of manual control: the manager does not move away from the team, knows the details of the process, at the same time trusts employees and reserves strategic issues, being able to convey them to colleagues.
6. Cultural change is not a toy
At first glance, the introduction of a democratic innovation culture is a pleasant process that will gradually unlock the creative potential of employees and lead the company to success. In fact, this is a laborious and dangerous path, the head of the company must understand this, be able to convey it to colleagues and be sensitive to all kinds of “excesses on the ground”. Pisano identifies three reasons why implementing a culture of innovation is difficult:
For an innovative business, the right of employees to constructive criticism of management, the right to fearlessly offer a variety of innovations is important. Accordingly, the employee must be prepared for reverse criticism from the boss or colleagues.
On the other hand, many companies, Pisano notes, adhere to the principle of psychological comfort, cultivating soft and delicate communication within the team. Such enterprises, he is sure, will always be behind those who practice open and honest discussion of problems.
It is important, again, to find a middle ground, namely, to build a culture of open discussions that will allow employees to jointly develop really good solutions without stooping to mutual insults.
4. Balance of personal responsibility and cooperation
Employee job responsibilities delineate their areas of responsibility, but if the company encourages a collaborative culture, employees are encouraged, even encouraged, to go beyond their narrow confines by helping colleagues. Because everyone is working towards a common goal.
But cooperation, writes Pisano, is often confused with unanimity. The search for consensus delays decision-making so much that such a principle is already becoming a brake on development. Another important factor to keep in mind is personal responsibility. Employees from multiple departments may work together on a project, but every decision has a decision maker. Or the project team leader assumes responsibility - this is an apt example of how a leader should set an example for employees.
5. Leader as first among equals
Companies with a “flat” hierarchy encourage employees not to be afraid to offer and try, give them freedom of action and decision, and contribute to all of the above. But one should not confuse democracy with anarchy: such firms even need a strong leader, Pisano is sure.
Ultimately, someone must have both the knowledge and the authority to formulate and promote the strategic vision. By keeping the level of decision-making and accountability as low as possible, key development principles must be retained by management.
In fact, we are talking about delegation of authority, which is opposed to the principle of manual control: the manager does not move away from the team, knows the details of the process, at the same time trusts employees and reserves strategic issues, being able to convey them to colleagues.
6. Cultural change is not a toy
At first glance, the introduction of a democratic innovation culture is a pleasant process that will gradually unlock the creative potential of employees and lead the company to success. In fact, this is a laborious and dangerous path, the head of the company must understand this, be able to convey it to colleagues and be sensitive to all kinds of “excesses on the ground”. Pisano identifies three reasons why implementing a culture of innovation is difficult:
- employees may not understand how to act in certain circumstances according to the new rules: if the project fails, should they run to learn from mistakes or just blame someone?
- different principles of the new culture can cause rejection of various employees: discipline will not please freethinkers, and personal responsibility will frighten those who are used to hiding behind their colleagues;
- corporate culture is a set of interrelated behavioral models, so it will not be possible to implement it in stages.