“The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.”
Here’s the thing: you may have done everything right until this point. You activated your Intent, identified a strategic Need, generated lots of exciting Options, predicted the Value Blockers, designed just the right experiment to Act on, and recruited an ideal Team. But none of that means that your organization will immediately recognize the brilliance of your innovation idea. Generally speaking, the environments in which internal innovators operate are less than helpful and often downright threatening.
Successful internal innovators see navigating the political headwinds as part of the problem-solving process. They do not expect immediate support. They know they will have to work through numerous no’s to find someone willing to give them the yes they deserve.
They don’t see rejection as a sign that innovating is impossible. Indeed, some of the internal innovators I interviewed say they see rejection as sign that their ideas have potential. As one person said, “If people get the idea immediately, it probably is not that novel.”
The key is to find or engineer “islands of freedom.” To do so, it helps to understand the organizational drivers that will either encourage new ideas or rebuff them. When you understand these drivers, you can more skillfully pull the levers that will create the freedom you need.
Our research shows that there are four types of drivers:
Talent: If you can access the type of talent naturally adept at innovating, you will have a better chance of succeeding.
Structure: However, even if you have the right talent, if they must operate under structures that hinder their attempts, they will be ineffective.
Culture: Even with the right talent and empowering organizational structures in place, your team’s efforts will be frustrated, and innovation is likely to fizzle out, if you do not also support them with the right culture.
Leadership: Finally, having the right talent in place, under the right structures, and supported by the right culture is still likely to produce only temporary success if you do not also find leadership that does the right things.
This tool will help you think through the proven drivers of internal innovation and thereby enable you to find or create an “island of freedom” on which to pursue your innovation.