The right work culture will foster innovation. A negative culture can significantly impede innovation. An employee who feels confident, secure, and supported is more likely to identify and propose innovative solutions. On the flip side, employees who feel unsupported are less likely to feel comfortable to innovate or support others in doing so. We want to increase your awareness of insensitivity to cultural conditions so you can gauge what is possible in your work environment, leverage the benefits, and as a leader, influence change by helping to role model the right behaviors. What is culture? We could spend the better part of the module identifying the impacts of culture and how to cultivate favorable aspects of strong culture, and we will in a future module. In the meantime, quite simply and at its essence, the culture of a company comprises the beliefs and behaviors that guide how management and employees interact, make decisions, and implement projects. Culture has a big influence on an organization's ability to innovate. Google conducted a study to understand the attributes of high-performing teams. The results of which, of course, included the capacity to innovate. The study revealed five attributes. Psychological safety, which results in people allowing themselves to be vulnerable and believe that they can survive failure. Dependability, everyone can be counted on and the work getting done is dependable. Structure and clarity, there are clear goals and roles, and even when there's plenty of ambiguity, there's a structure to how work gets done and no one debates who does what. Meaning, people feel intrinsically rewarded by their work. It's not just about the paycheck. Impact, the work has purpose and affects the greater good. People believe efforts can make a difference. Culture is the responsibility of every member of an organization. It really can't be overestimated in its impact. While the leader sets the tone, all members influence and model the culture through their behavior and actions. Think about it. You must have encountered a situation during your career where the stated intention of a company mandate met with indirect resistance and never quite accomplished what was set out to accomplish. It was likely that culture got in the way. When we say mindset, what we're getting at is how we cultivate an environment that fosters the support needed to achieve a desired outcome. In our case, that outcome is to set the stage for a company or department or team to nurture innovation as a means of supporting the business' vision and strategy and continuing to serve customers changing needs and expectations. Psychological safety is created when people feel comfortable taking risks. There are many layers involved in creating an environment that supports psychological safety. In a future module, we'll go into great detail. In the meantime, one of the ways that can be achieved in addition to supporting teammates is by having a leader who models pro-innovation behavior and asks clarifying questions to understand rationale. The proverbial walk the talk, teammates may ask themselves, how has that leader reacted to suggestions in the past? Have they been open to ideas? Have they supported the team in testing new ideas and ways of doing things? Does think outside the box result in embraced possibilities or silence when presented? One of the most important roles of a leader is that of creating a roadmap in the form of structure and clarity that answers the question, is everyone on the same page and able to articulate goals clearly? As we've shared, innovation can challenge pre-existing boundaries and be out of the ordinary, or simply be an incremental evolution from the present. In any case, leaders need to lay the groundwork to promote action and ultimately success. It's important for leaders at every level to set the tone based upon the already established set of values and driving forces within the company and to ensure that the people on their teams have a clear understanding of company values and support to drive change when it comes to both new endeavors and for any pursuits that involve change. With innovation, the path can be ambiguous and unpredictable. Leading under those circumstances requires different skills and a willingness to not know all of the answers. Innovation leaders and enablers think big, operate in the face of ambiguity, and are open to change and are able to see a different future that is not just a repeat of the way things are today. They find ways to take measured risks, the kinds of risks that are essential to testing and proving new opportunities. They value creativity and are open to testing, making mistakes, and trying again. They know that innovation comes from collaboration between people who bring diverse skills and perspectives to a team, show courage to challenge norms, and know that speed is critical to produce results. Above all, innovation leaders and enablers approach challenges and opportunities with curiosity and support others to do the same. To succeed in possessing and conveying those attributes is a tall order and one that requires intention and focus. We will introduce you to innovation leaders working throughout the accounting and finance profession and this in later modules so you can directly hear how they are putting concepts presented here into practice. As a leader, it's important to move beyond your assumptions, which can inhibit openness to new ideas and begin to embrace what may be possible. Understanding and addressing reservations about adopting an innovation-based mindset is a critical first step. It's impossible to lead by example and inspire innovation without fully embracing the characteristics that promote new possibilities. As a forward-thinking leader, it's important to acknowledge that what worked in the past may not work moving forward. Consistently challenging our assumptions is an everyday part of the work of an innovator. While Thomas Edison lived in a different era, he exhibited behaviors required of an innovation leader today. He invented the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and held nearly 1,100 patents. He is credited with pioneering what has become the research and development or R&D process in his lab, which he referred to as an invention factory. Having made several visits over the years to Edison's labs, it's easy to spot evidence throughout the facility of his innovation leadership. How did he do it? Edison kept thousands of samples of all kinds of materials gathered from around the world on hand in the lab. He saw this collection as a source of inspiration and enablement. He focused on turning new ideas that had the potential to lead to functioning feasible models into prototypes that could eventually be manufactured, distributed, and sold at scale. Edison was a role model of the behaviors and mindset that drive ideas to prototypes and then to commercialization. What did he do? Firstly, well, he never abandoned testing and learning to uncover new breakthroughs and confirm fit with the market. He was equally committed to figuring out whether his inventions were viable financially, operationally, technologically, and in terms of go-to-market sales and distribution. Secondly, Edison was not a lone wolf innovator. He employed and enabled a team who were empowered to tinker in the search for new inventions. Finally, he exhibited the wiring of an innovation leader. The intangible but critical qualities of intellectual curiosity necessary to want to explore and experiment. Passion and clarity about the purpose of the organization. Resourcefulness about always finding ways to make progress. An ability to see failure not as defeat, but as movement one step closer to success, and tenacity and optimism to persist. Now that you know some of the key attributes of innovation leadership, it's time you're introduced to the Seek, Seed, and Scale framework.
