Designing Your Team and Organization for Innovation

If innovation is not part of your team or organizational DNA, your company risks falling behind its competitors, losing market share, and demoralizing your best talent. And yet, you cannot create an innovative organization by simply saying “Be innovative” or adding it to the company values statement. Innovation requires a solid understanding of what motivates people and a deep examination of organizational structure, culture, and leadership styles—such as top-down project control or directive leadership—that may be barriers to innovation. Jim Elvidge explores a path to changing such an environment by improving team empowerment and creating an environment where it is safe to fail. Leaders championing this approach of “environment design” present people with a wider range of learning experiences, resulting in increased responsiveness to change, unleashed creativity, and greater job satisfaction. Learn how to use thinking and analysis tools—including double-loop learning and current reality trees—to find and remove your impediments to innovation.