Ideas And Innovative Organizations

A tribal approach to innovation is found within cutting-edge organizations that pursue ideas and initiatives that are extraordinary. This approach is driven by groups of people that have an ambitious mandate, positive values or codes of conduct, well-defined roles, robust flows of knowledge, the ability to endure hardship, an analytical focus, and a willingness to sacrifice. Together, these attributes signal a favorable predisposition to discover breakthrough ideas and navigate difficult projects. This approach is manifest in modern day super projects such as the Event Horizon Telescope as well as historical initiatives such as the invention of flight by the Wright Brothers. For leaders and team members, the tribal framework provides a perspective for measuring the capacity of a team to generate novel ideas and see those ideas through to a successful conclusion.

This book explores five cultural traits – Diversity, Integrity, Curiosity, Reflection, and Connection – that encourage the birth and successful development of new ideas, and shows how organizations that are serious about innovation can embrace them. Innovation – the driver of change and resilience – It is totally dependent on culture, the social environment which shapes how ideas emerge and evolve. Ideas need to breathe, and culture determines the quality of the air. If it’s stuffy and lacks flow, then no idea, however brilliant, will live long enough to fulfil its potential. Creating these innovation-friendly conditions is one of the key challenges facing organizations today, and one that is especially difficult for them – focused as they are on efficiency and control. Innovation, Anna Simpson argues, begins with diversity of thought and attitude: the opposite of conformity and standardisation. Likewise, with ongoing pressures to deliver results before yesterday, how can organizations allow sufficient space for the seemingly aimless process of following interesting possibilities and pondering on the impact of various options? Anna Simpson shows how large organizations can adapt their culture to enable the exchange of different perspectives; to support each person to bring their whole self to their work; to embrace the aimlessness that fosters creative experimentation; to take the time to approach change with the care it deserves, and – lastly – to develop the collective strength needed to face the ultimate ‘sledgehammer test’.

This volume presents a distinctly multilevel perspective on creativity and innovation that considers individual-level, team-level, and firm-level factors. In illustrating these factors, this volume presents both theoretical and practical implications to guide researchers and practitioners alike in the continued study and advancement of creativity and innovation in organizations. Chapter authors not only discuss the abilities, personality, and motivational attributes that contribute to employee creativity, but they also address the impact of leadership and climate on creative performance in teams. Subsequently, firm-level influences such as planning, learning, strategy, and professions that influence the success of creative and innovative efforts are examined. With contributions from leading scholars around the globe, this book offers a comprehensive review of creativity and innovation to assist researchers and practitioners in their quests to understand and improve organizational creativity and innovation. This is an essential resource for scholars, researchers, or graduate students interested in creativity, innovation, and organizational behavior.

Companies that fail to innovate will, like prehistoric dinosaurs, eventually disapper from the face of the earth. This book contains 100 great innovation ideas, extracted from the world’s best companies.Ideas provide the fuel for individuals and companies to create value and success. Indeed the power of ideas can even exceed the power of money. One simple idea can be the catalyst to move markets, inspire colleagues and employees, and capture the hearts and imaginations of customers. This book can be that very catalyst. Each innovation idea is succinctly described and is followed by advice on how it can be applied to the reader’s own business situation. A simple but potenitally powerful book for anyone seeking new inspiration and that killer application.

Why are some organizations more innovative than others? How can we tap into, empower, and leverage the natural innovation within our organizations that is so vital to our future success? Now more than ever, companies and institutions of all types and sizes are determined to create more innovative organizations. In study after study, leaders say that fostering innovation and the need for transformational change are among their top priorities. But they also report struggling with how to engage their cultures to implement the changes necessary to maximize their innovative targets. In Innovation by Design, authors Thomas Lockwood and Edgar Papke share the results of their study of some of the world’s most innovative organizations, including: The 10 attributes leaders can use to create and develop effective cultures of innovation. How to use design thinking as a powerful method to drive employee creativity and innovation. How to leverage the natural influence of the collective imagination to produce the “pull effect” of creativity and risk taking. How leaders can take the “Fifth Step of Design” and create their ideal culture. Innovation by Design offers a powerful set of insights and practical solutions to the most important challenge for today’s businesses—the need for relevant innovation.

New ideas and new ways of doing things are one of the main ingredients in sustained business success, but how do you create the right conditions for innovation? Leadership for Innovation will help you to create an innovative climate that encourages the development of new products and services. Drawing upon real-life examples including Google, Honda and 3M, John Adair sets out practical ways for bringing about change in organizations. As well as identifying the characteristics of an innovative organization, he discusses key topics such as organizing for team creativity; motivating creative people, how to build on ideas and how to be a creative leader and team member. Leadership for Innovation will help you to inspire your team to go that one step further and generate the kind of ideas that are the foundations of future success.

“Examples from all over the world make it fun to read…convincingly demonstrate[s] the power of incorporating frontline thinking into your organization.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Triggers Too many organizations overlook, or even suppress, their single most powerful source of growth and innovation—and it’s right under their noses. The frontline employees who interact directly with your customers, make your products, and provide your services have unparalleled insights into where problems exist and what improvements and new offerings would have the most impact. In this follow-up to their bestseller Ideas Are Free, Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder show how to align every part of an organization around generating and implementing employee ideas and offer dozens of examples of what a tremendous competitive advantage this can offer—not just for revenue but for worker retention. Their advice enables leaders to build organizations capable of implementing twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per employee per year. Citing organizations from around the world, they explain what’s needed to put together a management team that embraces grassroots ideas and describe the strategies, policies, and practices that enable them. They detail exactly how high-performing idea processes work and how to design one for your organization. There’s pressure today to do more with less. But cutting wages and benefits and pushing people to work harder with fewer resources can go only so far. Ironically, the best solution resides with the very people who’ve been bearing the brunt of these measures. With this book, you can unleash a constant stream of great ideas that will strengthen every facet of your organization.

A leader's ability to discover and implement innovations is crucial to adapting to changing technologies and customer preferences, enhancing employee creativity, developing new products, supporting market competitiveness, and sustaining economic growth. Gliddon and Rothwell provide an exciting and comprehensive resource for readers that are currently seeking to build success in organizations with new ideas. Innovation leadership involves synthesizing different leadership styles in organizations to influence employees to produce creative ideas, products, services, and solutions. It is a practice and an approach to organization development and organizational change. Innovation leadership commonly includes four basic stages, which are: (a) support for idea generation, (b) identifying innovations, (c) evaluating innovations, and (d) implementation. There are two types of innovations, including: (a) exploratory innovation, which involves generating brand new ideas, and (b) value-added innovation, which involves modifying and renewing ideas that already exist. The two fundamental leadership theories that are generally necessary for innovation leadership are path-goal theory and Leader Member Exchange theory. The key role in the practice of innovation leadership is that of the innovation leader. However, there are currently multiple perspectives on the definition of an innovation leader. An individual in an organization, a group within an organization, the organization itself, and even a community, state, or nation can be considered an innovation leader. The book explores each of these perspectives on the definition of an innovation leader.