Innovation is more about culture than about ideas

Innovation isn`t something that happens out of the blue, out of context, or even outside the box. It happens in the right conditions, in a logical way, and in tune with some of the most basic human values - such as freedom of thought and expression, collaboration and respect for diversity.

According to the InnovationNetwork, almost 70% of all innovation projects fail. Not because innovation is inherently risky. But because most business cultures are so rigid, hierarchical, unforgiving of mistakes, and actually frightened that the will to innovate withers.

In addition, we mistakenly think that innovation is based on the generation of ideas - or ideation. So those organisations that have tried to innovate have set aside a team of employees to come up with new ideas.

Trouble is, ideas are, according to the Oxford Concise Dictionary, simply `concepts or plans formed by mental effort`. Ideas in themselves aren`t inherently `good`. They need to fit into and support a context - a business strategy - to have any positive value.

At the same time, a team that is separated from the rest of the organisation, either by intellectual capacity or operational experience, to work in isolation on ideas creates several problems. The most awkward is the need for that team to sell its now seemingly elitist ideas back into the organisation. And the process of ideation becomes mechanistic - `you will produce one idea a week for the next 10 weeks`. By contrast, ideas that germinate in an organic way from the diverse thinking styles naturally inherent in an entire workforce don`t need any selling. Everyone owns them because everyone contributed to creating them. By the people, for the people, is as valid for innovation as it is for democracy.

Which brings us to the trickiest part of innovation. A business is not a democracy. People at work don`t feel free to express themselves because the price of getting something wrong is loss of employment - or, at the very least, being yelled at by the boss. And there`s even less motivation for an employee to risk doing something differently if the leadership team never takes risks and never creates an environment that encourages experimentation.

In other words, innovation has to be driven from the top down. The leadership team has to have the courage to proactively manage for innovation.

That`s not as simple as it sounds. It`s not about having a two-day bosberaad at which everyone commits to innovation. It`s not about putting up notices on the walls exhorting employees to think new thoughts. It`s not about writing new mission or value statements.

It`s about running your entire business differently. You have to be innovative to trigger innovation.

The first step is to ensure that someone with the necessary power and authority takes ownership of innovation within the organisation. That means someone at board level.

Then, ensure that everyone in the organisation understands the corporate strategy in terms that help them relate it quite specifically to their own jobs. This provides an accurate context in which relevant innovation can happen. And it also sets the scene for involving everyone in the organisation in innovation. You`ll consolidate this later by making innovation one of the key performance indicators for every single employee.

Decide - before you initiate any innovation - the criteria and metrics by which you as the leadership team will evaluate and prioritise ideas that percolate up from the organisation. In this way, you ensure that innovation efforts are aligned with where you want the company to go. But don`t entirely eliminate the `outlier` ideas, as Innovation Network`s Joyce Wycoff, calls them. Every now and then one of these will become your key differentiator.

Provide structured tools for innovation. These include training, education, mentoring and coaching focused on engendering innovation. Most of us are not raised to be innovative. We`re raised to follow rules. So, for instance, we`re not accustomed to scan our environment for new trends or technologies and to make connections from them to our own circumstances. That involves learning new observation and relational techniques.

Crucially, you must provide the time and money necessary to generate and then tinker with new concepts. Employees under deadline or sales target stress won`t have the energy or will to innovate. You need to give them the opportunity to play or take time out. The great scientists of the first half of the 20th century - including Albert Einstein - when asked by Arthur Koestler for his book The Ghost in the Machine how they came by their most ground-breaking ideas, all said that it was when they had `stopped thinking`. Thinking is linear. Innovation is fuzzy. It bubbles out of the subconscious at unpredictable times. It needs time and freedom from worry to surface.

Innovation is also inclusive rather than exclusive. For example, you need to scan every part of your internal and external environment, including customers, suppliers, and competitors to find the gaps that you can fill meaningfully. If you confine yourself only to your organisation or those things you already know about, you`ll be wasting money and time on ideas that some other organisation may already have implemented.

Also, ideas are not limited by age, gender, race, experience, or business role. If you are going to work with a specific innovation team, make sure its members represent every shade of human opinion.

And, because innovation tends to arise out of collaboration and diversity, you need to open up communications within and outside of your organisation. And you need to reward teams or groups rather than individuals for successful innovation outcomes.

Finally, you need to put in place a formal system that not only ensures you capture all relevant ideas but also enables you to tweak, enlarge and eventually implement them.

Within this larger framework there are some crucial specifics. Provide a particular innovation challenge. Give people a focused reason to rock the boat. Your best bet will be customer-related.

Don`t focus on owning the idea. Ideas have a way of popping up in many places at once. Focus on owning the results.

And, if anyone in your organisation uses the word `impossible`, see it as a warning sign that your organisation is dying creatively. Never forget those experts who declared that the personal computer would never work?

You see, innovation is a journey into the unknown. To travel that road successfully and arrive safely in the land of growth and profit, your corporate culture must reflect the human values of freedom of thought and expression, capacity for synergy, fearlessness, and the resilience to embrace adventure and uncertainty.