The culture of a company determines the relationships and actions of its employees within the company and shapes its external appearance. It is not openly visible, but shows itself indirectly through values, norms, attitudes and paradigms that employees share collectively.
The culture of innovation, on the other hand, describes a specific form of corporate culture that is primarily intended to promote the development of innovations within the company. Since innovation processes are generally cross-divisional processes, the innovation culture functions as a kind of cross-cutting culture, whose standards and values are shaped and supported by all process participants. A positive innovation culture creates incentives for employees and leads to an increase in the innovative strength of the company.
Innovation activity in the company is to a large extent determined by an innovation-promoting culture that encompasses both "ability" (innovative ability), "willingness" (willingness to innovate) and "may" (innovation potential).
The three dimensions do not stand alone, but influence each other. For example, willingness to innovate is very strongly influenced by the other two dimensions of innovative ability and opportunity. A change in one of the dimensions automatically results in changes in other areas. Ideas can therefore only be efficiently developed into innovations once the framework conditions for ability, will and privilege have been created.
In order to generate ideas and turn them into sustainable innovations, employees must be supported and promoted in developing and unfolding their creative potential. This requires, on the one hand, innovation-promoting management and, on the other hand, increasing the innovative ability of employees through the development of specialist knowledge:
Creativity is not a privilege for individuals, but an ability that all people possess. Prejudices in this regard and a lack of knowledge of innovation methods very often inhibit the innovative ability of employees. Time pressure and stress that make it difficult to think beyond the daily business are also inhibiting for "ability".
Innovative action cannot be ordered. It must be intrinsically motivated in order to establish a lasting culture of innovation in the company. This means that committed and imaginative employees are needed in the company, who are also willing to leave the usual paths of thinking and acting in order to develop an innovation from an idea. Motivated managers and the development of an innovation culture increase the willingness to innovate:
The "willingness" is also positively influenced by the increase in the ability to innovate, since employees are more self-confident, more willing to take risks and more motivated to approach an innovation. In addition to "ability", however, motivated employees also need "permission".
Permission is the necessary prerequisite for actually moving from "ability" and "will" to action. Within a company, therefore, framework conditions must be created that offer employees the opportunity to think and act innovatively and creatively.
If the "may" is combined with numerous hedging loops in the hierarchy, then this very quickly slows down creative thinking and employees lose motivation. The same applies if the power of disposal over the provision of resources is used by managers as an instrument of power and the necessary resources are not allocated. This dimension of "need" in particular shows how serious a company really is about innovation within the company.
Innovation is a question of innovation culture and leadership. Only the executive floor can shape the general conditions in the company in such a way that an innovation-promoting climate is created. Skill" is about bringing the knowledge and skills of employees up to date, "will" focuses on creating motivating structures and "may" creates the corresponding freedom of thought, decision and action for the path from the idea to innovation.
Creating a positive culture of innovation can feel like a balancing act. Rigid structures must be brought into harmony with freedom for new approaches. In our projects, we proceed in three steps. You can learn more about this on our services Web page on the topic of a culture of innovation.