Creating an innovative organization

Posted on May 08, 2017 by Faiyaz Farouk, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Innovation is a hot topic in the corporate world today. Everyone wants to be known as an innovative company. With technology firms engineering cool ways of ordering food, catching a ride, getting the best deal on your next flight, and hotel using only one website or app. Historically, most innovations aren’t a product of institutions but everyday consumers who fill a need or solve a problem in society today. With lots of money to throw around and determined leaders, organizations are looking for ways to create innovative ideas and products to increase their bottom line. Having worked with many different types of organizations around the globe, I’ve found two key things in common when it came to being a real thought leader of innovation: first, its hiring the right talent, second, a culture that allows expression and failure. I use the same framework in helping other organizations that are looking to gain a competitive edge.

Hiring right from the start

Over two decades ago, I had the opportunity to work for an organization as an Outside Sales role. I loved driving to clients, influencing them to change vendors and being responsible for my own paycheck. I was really good at it to; I was top 10 in sales out of 200 people. A couple years after I was hired on, the organization hired a consulting firm to create a corporate structure that would be suitable to another organization looking to purchase them. One of the first things that occurred was a behavioral assessment of all of the top sales representatives. This was a good move since behavioral analytics is one of the best guides in making good hiring decisions. What they missed were my values and what drove me to the levels of success I achieved. To get a complete picture of the candidate, it’s important to understand the individuals values and what drives them. Most organizations attempt to do this with case studies or interviews with a panel, which in my opinion is not effective due to many factors. The second requirement of my role that the company enforced was having a college diploma as a prerequisite to getting an interview and eventually the job. At that time, I didn’t have a college diploma. Therefore, if I would have applied I wouldn’t have been considered for the job. The company would have lost out on having one of the top sales professional due to this policy. That’s not smart business policy. America was built on the backbone of people who couldn’t afford, didn’t want to go to college, or didn’t complete their education due to various factors. We see this trend again with Big business professionals like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Daymond John didnt have college diplomas yet no one can dispute their impact on innovation globally. I agree with the critics there is value in higher education. I also agree that a graduate degree does make a person more analytical and arms them with tools they wouldn’t have outside of attaining the education, but lets be real and not kid ourselves, college diploma’s for sales and administrative assistant are the dumbest HR policies of our time. Years back, thanks to these policies, I was able to hire an amazing telemarketer, who was a top producer in the travel industry. Due to the shift in policy of having a college diploma in order to do the job, she wasn’t able to get a $12 hour job at AAA travel. The irony here isn’t only AAA lost out on a great employee, I’ve never been impressed with any travel agent at AAA. This policy also ties in with organizations that only hire people from IV league colleges. I’m guessing, besides the prestige of the school, the reason for hiring from these schools is because they are the smartest people in the country and everyone else is not. Google has finally figured out that a high GPA is not a guarantee of anything but the persons ability to get good grades; which ultimately means nothing for any organization looking to innovate. Behaviors like Being “risk averse” or “following the heard” are the complete opposite of what it takes to be innovative. To innovate in any manner takes guts, a creative and free mind. This means that person who will cure cancer or invent the next Google, may not have a college diploma. Real innovators are people who work for your organization that are “free” in thought and experienced in your industry.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” Peter Drucker.

Most people are familiar with this quote by the late Peter Drucker. Drucker is the founder of modern day management. Yet most organizations haven’t heard of him nor read any of he’s amazing books. This statement is more true in our digital world today than ever before: having strong and purposeful culture and it’s execution is the most important process of any organization. Without intending on it, every organization has a culture. As I have discovered over the course of two decades, most people “miss the boat” completely on this subject.

If happy cows produce better cheese & milk, then happy employees create a happier and more delightful organization. Most employers usually focus on processes and systems to drive innovation, whereas innovative thinking comes with happy employees who care about the company and it’s mission are even happier. Processes and systems are important to help evaluate new ideas; but those are generally defined more as “controlled processes”. The best innovations have come from “uncontrolled processes”. An uncontrolled process is an organic and natural way of driving ideas. As Peter Drucker mentioned long before the internet age, Knowledge workers require a lot more than a paycheck. They want to be a part of something; they want to have meaning in their work. As leaders of the organization, it is crucial that you provide this for your employees. The organizations that get this are not allowing this philosophy to be “HR’d”, instead the Executives themselves drive this environment of creating happier free employees. Uncontrolled processes allow employees to express themselves openly and their ideas are “genuinely” appreciated. Corporate politics, the “old ways” are the biggest threat to leading an innovative organization. Harvard Business Review has a video I am attaching below on creating an “open” environment which touches into this subject in more detail.

We are on the verge on changing the way we operate in our everyday business lives. The command and control, fear management methods are slowly going away and young American’s are wanting their life to have more meaning and be treated like they matter. Those organization that get this will ultimately win and stay ahead of their competition