One place is never the same place again. Heraclitus, the Greek Philosopher that stated that the predominant force in the universe is ever-present change, wrote that no man steps in the same river twice and this idea is still present today. An organisations’ needs and customer demands are constantly changing and evolving, while the overall integrity of the process is retained.
If evolution and change are unavoidable, is in the best interest of organisations to review elements and look for a way to pair innovation (implementation of new ideas) with positive change. Change might not be desirable if it means moving from a point to a stage so strange and different that is not recognisable any more or, on the other hand, if the real potential of those changes is not perceived and key opportunities are lost forever. Innovation is not invention but it inescapably implies creativity (Solokov/LinkedIn, 2015), understood as the ability to produce the new ideas that boost innovation.
Innovation takes priority within organisations because managers and leaders know that it helps to consolidate a competitive advantage in the market. Famous business failures such as Kodak (that disregarded the potential of digital photography) or Blockbuster (that considered streaming unlikely) occurred due to a lack of creative minds that could have been able to think out of the box and change within to endure external changes
A good balance between risks management and using tested methods indicates that an already known environment can be addressed through new approaches. Peter Drucker, a management expert, said that if an established organization is not able to innovate, it faces decline and extinction and recent surveys identified that almost 90 per cent of businesses believe that innovation is a priority for them.
Innovation can undo the riddle of consistent improvement of existing products, granted that factors such as resources, procedures, and funding and organisational structures are present and in place within the organisation. With respect to people, this involves defining and measuring strategic leadership competencies for innovation throughout the organisation and talent management for employees.
Identifying radical, innovative and expressive behaviours with the help of predictive analytics can help you come up with creative ideas to solve problems and produce inexpensive, useful and replicable changes (Henderson/ Forbes, 2017). To increase innovation within an organisation, it is key that you are able to identify those behaviours that drive innovation, whether the organisation promotes these behaviours and whether these behaviours are present among the employees in the company.
The process and interpretation of innovation differ from one organisation to another, therefore a bespoke approach should enable each organisation to identify the specifically required behaviours. Using behavioural diagnostics, organisations can recognise the extent to which the environment promotes behaviours that enhance innovation and the extent to which employees depict behaviours that drive innovation. You are then able to identify personal and organisational behaviours with respect to innovation, assess the alignment between the two, and discover the behaviours that need to be improved to create an organisational culture that drives and enhances innovation.
If you don’t wish the one tossing the roll of film or videotape into Heraclitus’ river, it is important to identify those blockers to innovation and work towards providing a facilitative environment for continuous improvement. If innovation leads to agility, resilience, and productivity in a highly competitive market (Livingstone/ The Conversation, 2016), CultureScope, our behavioural diagnostic tool provides alternatives to shape innovation into a collective process and produce results that are better than the predecessor, easier to use and (very importantly) simultaneously compatible with the environment and prone to new, ever-present, changes.
Find out more about CultureScope here.
