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01.09
Creating an
Innovative
Culture
Dennis Sherwood
The right of Dennis Sherwood to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
CIP catalogue records for this book are available from the British Library
and the US Library of Congress
ISBN 1-84112-387-0
You! Products
Strategy Processes
Relationships Structures
Idea generation
Evaluation
Development
Implementation
Fig. 1.1
Organizations that can do this also reap the reward – the reward of
being able to solve problems, to grasp opportunities, to create their
own future. The organizational capability to innovate truly confers the
ultimate competitive advantage.
This title will therefore focus on those aspects of innovation which
require organizational cooperation and coordination – namely, the
three stages of evaluation, development, and implementation. For
completeness, the following box summarizes the key points of the
first stage of idea generation: much more information is to be found
in the accompanying title Innovation Express, and the whole field of
innovation is explored in depth in my book Smart Things to Know
about Innovation and Creativity, published by Capstone in 2001.
EVALUATION IN ACTION
As a result of a recent review of overhead expenditure, a study
team has identified that your organization’s recruitment process for
middle managers (in the age bracket 30–35) is cumbersome (there
are many interviews before a candidate can be given an offer),
time-consuming (the process can extend over three months),
and expensive (in terms of interviewer time, assessment centers,
and candidates’ expenses). This is causing a number of good
candidates to withdraw before an offer is made, and there is also
some disappointment with the quality of those candidates who do
join, but don’t seem to come up to expectations after a year in the
organization.
You are a departmental manager attending a meeting to discuss
this, and since you are not directly involved with recruitment, you
have no particular axe to grind – your key objective is to help
contribute to the discussion of ideas as to how to improve the
recruitment process.
During the meeting, a junior manager, newly recruited herself,
says: ‘‘What about this for an idea? Why don’t we dispense with
most of our process altogether, but offer three-month temporary
contracts to candidates that have got particularly good CVs? If they
work out, we can then make their contract permanent; if not, they
can go.’’
What is your immediate reaction to this idea?
Most people’s immediate reaction is ‘‘That’s nuts.’’ So, if that was your
reaction too, you are not alone. And most people would have no angst
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY EVALUATION? 9
» ‘‘As soon as word got out, we’d be flooded with crazy applicants.’’
» ‘‘We’d never be able to get rid of those that don’t make the grade.’’
» ‘‘No good applicant would be willing to join on a three-month
contract.’’
» ‘‘It’s illegal.’’
» ‘‘We’d be taken to every employment tribunal under the sun.’’
of making money out of that!’’, ‘‘We tried that before you joined
the company and it was a total failure!’’, and ‘‘How much revenue
do you think that will make, then?’’ aren’t smart at all, they’re
just put-downs. So wise managers don’t evaluate prematurely, and
they help build internal processes in their organizations which
allow time and space for ideas to be developed to a sufficient state
of robustness that they can be evaluated fairly and professionally.
That means that genuinely good ideas are backed, no matter who
originated them; and when ideas are rejected, the originators are
not damaged, but positively encouraged to come up with more
and more new ideas.
Wise managers also know the importance of language and the
power of phrases such as ‘‘Tell me more about that’’, ‘‘What do
we have to do to make that work?’’, and ‘‘What resources do you
need to work that idea up into a full business case?’’