All too often we talk about innovation as something that needs to be ‘done’. “We need to be more innovative” is a common catchcry in today’s fast paced environment. But the risk with this approach is that we don’t recognise that innovation is an outcome. Innovation is the result of doing certain things right.

So rather than saying “we need to be more innovative” we really should be saying “we need to be better at……., so we can be more innovative”. 

Organisations don’t innovate – people in organisations innovate.

For that to happen, people need to be able to do certain things – they need to be able to contribute ideas, they need to be on top of what’s happening, they need to be talking with people in other parts of the organisation to avoid repetition and increase coordination, they need to feed off and build on each other’s ideas, they need to be committed to the advancement of the organisation and they need to feel they have a stake in the business.

In other words they need to be working within a culture that encourages and supports people being able to do this. In this paper, Shaun McCarthy looks at how an organisation’s culture can limit innovation and what the requirements are to build a culture that supports innovation.

Download the Building a Culture for Innovation white paper - PDF 1.1 MB