THE CHALLENGING JOURNEY FOR THE CULTURE OF INNOVATION

 Changes are necessary, that’s a fact. They are present everywhere, whether in consumer characteristics, service dynamics, technology, etc. The pressures imposed today by a fully globalized market dynamically outline new demands and impose constant changes to keep companies competitive. Continuous adaptation of companies and their employees is increasingly demanded, as changes imply seeking new perspectives through solutions that are effectively efficient and bold, breaking the inertia of the previously achieved state of balance and replacing it with another, and so on, successively.

The fact is that as a company venture into new commercial realms, other issues emerge, and the original values gradually dissolve with the changes, causing a significant impact on the entire organizational context. Awareness and coordinated actions are necessary in response to this context; otherwise, organizational culture can become a heavy burden, leading to disharmony and conflicts among employees. Building culture is the creation of value statements. A company’s values represent its culture, its corporate identity, so to speak.

One can point out that basically, three elements make up a culture: behaviors, systems, and practices, all guided by a comprehensive set of values. When market dynamics begin to influence changes within an organization, values ​​take on a life of their own, automatically stimulating cultural changes. A great culture occurs when there is alignment with the values ​​adopted by the organization in the face of this systematic change. When instabilities begin to appear, organizational problems start to occur, and the result cannot be different – besides the loss of efficiency, excellent employees leave the company.

Organizational cultures are like social contracts that specify internal rules within that organization. When there are changes in an organization’s culture, in a sense, a social contract with its employees, especially those who have been there longer, is being broken. It would not be surprising that many employees of an organization – especially the successful ones with the current rules – somehow oppose them and will do everything to prevent such changes. These are precisely the types of conflicts that hinder the construction of an innovative environment. Due to the dynamics, it becomes evident that implementing an innovative culture is not for everyone. There are numerous challenging factors, but if well-structured, they can help in the coordinated construction of a cultural model open to innovation. Among these factors, we can mention some that correspond as fundamental motivators of failure if proper attention is not given when developing a culture open to innovation. Namely:

• Relationships: Successful innovative companies differ in how they cultivate relationships, in the value they give to collaboration, and in the amount of personal contact required to do the work and make important decisions. In some companies, the only way to influence others is to spend time with them personally. In others, email, text apps, and video conferencing are preferred over face-to-face meetings. When building an innovative environment, dedicate your time to understand the organizational culture and understand what changes need to be made to create an environment open to relationships. If necessary, ask each employee how they believe is the best way to relate to people. For example, do you need to spend time developing a relationship with someone before asking for their help or contribution to a project? Or is it possible to make a list of people to ask for help when needed? Observe, reflect, structure the most efficient way for employees to work in harmony and make decisions more consciously with their responsibilities within the group.

• Lack of Clarity: It is better to be punctual, sincere, and objective early on than to risk feeding skepticism later when the rules begin to change along the way. Make people aware that shared values, as well as distributed engagement rules to guide team actions, are fundamental to the growth not only of the organization but also of everyone, as everyone will have the chance to expand and have access to new knowledge. This is a fact! For this to occur in a coherent and realistic manner, it is necessary for managers who are leading this challenge to understand the need to be prepared to consolidate this dynamic. Therefore, it is important initially to concern oneself with the existing cultural assessment, so that it is possible to understand the basic premises already built and then make it feasible to evaluate people, distinguishing who they are in their daily lives, their practices, their management style, behavior, as well as what they think, what they expect, and their emotional balance. It is necessary to identify who – that is, which individuals or groups – have the greatest potential to prevent positive changes from occurring and, secondly, to weaken them. This means understanding their perspectives.

• Forget High Efficiency: Motivating real change requires uncomplicated, personal, and face-to-face conversations. If a specific workgroup or individual is crucial to your company’s future and is resisting change, it becomes necessary to find time to talk to them personally, and never do so under pressure. The focus is on listening to them. No matter how brilliant the plan or persuasive the argument, everyone must feel understood. This begins and ends with the ability to listen. Thus, it is more likely to perceive a person’s rigidity or flexibility in the face of a dynamic structure – as innovative cultures necessarily are. This assessment also has to do with each employee’s perspective on the company, as they are still under a certain expectation already developed with the current culture. It is vital to build a realistic perspective of how each employee will perceive the changes. Do they see opportunities or threats in innovative situations? Additionally, it is essential to identify the profile of each area and which ones are effectively open to embracing changes, answering questions such as: Which are the most rigid areas and which are the most flexible? What is the vision of the person in charge of them? Who is ready to support? Who tends to defer?

• Fear: Every change generates insecurity, that’s a fact. Fear can be a major barrier to implementing an innovative culture. Invisible fear and insecurity are what keep many employees trapped and insisting on certain behaviors, even when they know rationally that they do not help them at all; on the contrary, it limits their efficiency as professionals. If you add the anxiety that every change can bring, what you have is a true chaos. To implement innovation, it is necessary to understand that one cannot make the same mistake that many organizations insist on keeping by being concerned with strategy and execution rather than with what people feel and think when they are asked to adopt some kind of change. Resistance, especially when it is apathetic, intangible, and unconscious, can even render the best strategy unworkable and hinder the tactical implementation of innovation.

It is necessary to develop precise and consistent movements with collaborative reality so that transformations are built around structural elements, including policies, processes, facilities, and technology. Defining new practices, training new skills, providing sustainable tools for the conscious incorporation of a new culture to bring the strategy to life.

Prevent beliefs from arising along with assumptions in the form of fear and insecurity generated by change. It is fundamental to understand that transforming a culture also depends on the transformation of everyone who is part of it, vertically or horizontally, as well as those who are influencers. It is very difficult for a company to find enough time to observe and understand its own motivations, question assumptions, or go beyond, allowing oneself to step out of the comfort zone, whether intellectual or emotional, and this is indeed the path to start on.

• Paradox of Contradiction: It seems strange to say, but it’s true. According to recent research, one of the major reasons for the difficulties encountered in developing an innovative environment lies precisely in the inability of some professionals to deal with contradictions. In other words, many professionals can’t handle failure. And in this case, in companies that foster innovation, failure can be synonymous with success. Indeed, companies struggle to develop the maturity needed to build an environment where the team is ready to face mistakes and setbacks, while also recognizing that errors can represent learning. It is through them that it becomes possible to build truly innovative ideas that make a difference. Drawing lessons from frustrations, mistakes, and failures is essential for an innovative environment. For some, understanding that innovating isn’t about doing the same thing but rather standing out is very difficult, and for this, it’s necessary to take risks and learn from disappointments, as these are what make the environment highly efficient, capable, and independent.

The main issue pointed out in recent research is that this difficulty influences the lack of coherence in the face of the combination of seemingly contradictory behaviors, and this has been a reason for risk and confusion. This is because not everything can go wrong, nor is everything wrong. This level of maturity is related to fundamental values for an innovative universe, such as transparency, knowledge, humility, responsibility, vulnerability, among many others. If there is no clarity about the company’s values in line with those of the employees, unprepared people can become confused and even skeptical about the intentions and purposes, which can make things incomprehensible and unmanageable. The challenge of creating innovative cultures should not be underestimated; it is necessary to carefully select all those responsible for their implementation, integration, and continuation, which is why specific behavioral development work must be constantly invested in these people. It is this work that will allow the employee not to get lost in the face of innovative dynamics.

• Human Behavior: Influenced by psychological factors (and insecurity about changes), by the existing pressure from innovative companies, and by the mistaken view of what it means to work on innovative projects, certain required behaviors are relatively easy to accept, while others are less acceptable in the organization. Even though the company values people and cooperation is part of the culture. Innovative development requires a certain excess that develops insidiously. Therefore, it is necessary for each employee to understand that innovation is not open to everyone, as discipline is a fundamental part of its construction and the people involved must understand that this is a sign of individual responsibility, as it is about collaborative environments and each one must recognize exactly their duties and responsibilities as part of the whole. When these attitudes are common at work, it is common for many to act contrary due to their own beliefs and fears, and therefore they will not be able to keep up with the pace of an innovative environment.

Innovating is constantly exposing oneself, it is not about a judgmental environment, of right or wrong, of better or worse, but rather that growth is cooperative and everyone must strive to move forward together, which does not mean that they will be trapped in a circle of unhappiness, compromising creativity and low productivity, but rather that there is no room for independence and insubordination in innovative environments, just as there cannot be people wanting to feed their narcissism in them.

• Implementation: Innovative cultures are systems of interdependent behaviors and in no way can compromise the values of their employees, this is not beneficial for people or for the company. Innovation is about diversity. The ability to gain from the sum of differences. The truth is that, to implement a culture of innovation, you have to embrace the problems and create mechanisms capable of not fragmenting, not allowing the emergence of resonant microcultures, and this is where you have the greatest chances of success. The problem is the misunderstanding of this. Many leaders believe that by fragmenting the organization into smaller units or creating autonomous “small departments,” they can emulate the beginning of an innovative culture. This approach rarely works. Simply fragmenting an organization into smaller units does not magically endow them with an entrepreneurial spirit. Without strong management efforts to shape values, norms, and behaviors, these generated units tend to inherit a rigid, outdated culture, with no chance of accepting the necessary continuous changes. It is important to emphasize that this does not mean that autonomous units or teams cannot be used to experience a culture or incubate a new one.

• Change Agents: Senior executives in high leadership positions often see their work routine embedded in the existing culture, and any change can be perceived as a threat to the company. They may even perceive it as a challenge, undermining the entire purpose of innovation. Faced with evolving risks, there is often a significant disconnect between the current culture of the company and the new desired purposes and objectives, which can represent a major problem.

If it is not very clear and transparent communication to avoid assumptions, there may be organizational disharmony and behavioral problems that will be accentuated by unnecessary disputes, which can cost the company dearly and generate long-term consequences. Here comes a major issue that should always be evaluated. Even if there are competent people in the organization to develop a new culture, it is always important to accept the fact that an outside perspective, provided by a specialist, can greatly help the process. Therefore, a great piece of advice to minimize negative risk is to seek assistance, at all stages, from a change agent.

With the help of an experienced professional in change management, the company can develop more practical mechanisms to minimize negative risks and accelerate the process. This enables demonstrating the accountability assigned to existing positions, as well as raising the awareness of the board about the need and advantages of a cultural reform, especially for the development of an innovative environment. Change initiatives directly conflict with people as well as the way they carry out their work, involving processes, functions, and workflows, reporting structures, behaviors, and even their identity within the organization.

Furthermore, the impact of change also involves more delicate changes such as staff reduction or turnover, transition of roles, increased responsibilities, or even the introduction of new technologies for business management. A trained professional in change management can develop a well-elaborated and consistent work that will help expand the company’s systemic vision and assist employees, managers, and executives in gaining a clear understanding of the change without bias. As a result, teams become aware of the need for transformation and the importance of preparing to adapt to the new. Change management is the organizational process that can help employees understand, commit to, and accept changes in the current business environment. After creating awareness about the change, your employees will become part of it. A good change agent is competent to work with the company to build a strategic adaptation plan, as well as training programs that help employees adjust concisely to the expected expectations, thereby supporting them in developing the knowledge and skills necessary to adapt as quickly as possible.

It’s All About Leadership

While on one hand, new leadership emerges and may not be aligned with the values of the founders or older leaders, groups start to develop in silos with their own agendas and incentives, which often become biased, generating organizational disharmony. One of the most serious consequences of this is that these biased actions influence behavior and will affect team qualification as well as promotions and dismissals. Since the company can no longer succinctly demonstrate which behaviors are desired and which behaviors are not desired in its employees, conflicts arise, and sectarian leadership begins to be followed as an example – both of what to do and what not to do – and thus values deteriorate, and the environment becomes polarized.

The leader must be ready to change themselves. A resistant person who perceives that the leader is solely dedicated to achieving something will not open up and definitely will not join the team. The leader needs to maintain an open attitude – be ready to learn something new and, if necessary, modify their own plans. Showing that the opinions and feelings of the professionals on their team are important and that they will shape their way of thinking and acting. The behavior of the leaders represents the dynamics of their team – how they put or do not put these values into practice. Your employees see everything the leaders do. If the leaders are not exhibiting behaviors that reflect the values, these will not make sense.

One of the greatest culture diluting factors occurs when people who do not represent the organization’s values end up, for some reason, being promoted or kept in their positions despite showing, through their behaviors, a lack of synchrony with what is preached as culture in the organization. Clarifying the expected behaviors for employees is also the responsibility of leaders. Do not be fooled, organization members perceive the discrepancy and become less incentivized to act in accordance with the values. Stories and behaviors that influence how everyone behaves in the organization also serve as encouragement.

When there is strong leadership present in the group, it ends up serving as a great example for all its other members, who seek to imitate their behaviors. Although it may be easier to do this when you are the leader of the team, it is not essential to be in a position of power. Think about how behaviors complement and reinforce each other when everyone is aware of the cooperative advantages in an innovative culture.

Leadership makes a difference. It is the leader’s role to develop organizational strategies to build an adequate and transparent environment. Extremely competent people will become more comfortable with objective conversations and in making decisions and taking on responsibilities – the awareness that their “mistakes” will likely lead to learning, instead of losses or reprimands, will already bring more security and commitment to this profile. It is the leader’s role to make people aware of responsibility, and this greatly facilitates leveling – and leveled organizations create a fast flow of information, leading to more agile and intelligent decision-making.

However, it is important to remember that efforts for cultural change are complex and as soon as the new culture is put into practice, things will not change overnight. Cultural changes have to do with identity. It is difficult to forget old habits, and the pressure of the corporate culture from the rest of the company may still be very much alive. Therefore, there must be patience, resilience, and a lot of support from top executives. Additionally, it is necessary to be aware that, especially in innovative cultures, they are often unstable – we are talking about human relationships, a fundamental factor to be understood in these types of environments. As much as efforts are made to find mechanisms for behavioral balance among people, there will always be tension between balancing forces, and therefore, strong leadership is crucial so that there is no chance of unbalancing them. It is necessary to be attentive to signs of excess in any area, and the leader must be surgically precise to intervene and restore balance when necessary.

Another fundamental issue for the leader is to know how to create in the company culture the habit of quantifying efforts. Continuously develop mechanisms for evaluation and critical analysis. See, just as the maturity of the process should be a topic of continuous discussion and shared among all, it is necessary for those involved to be able to build competencies capable of perceiving when they are being negligent about excessive tolerance of errors and failures and build a synergy that allows developing a high level of qualitative criticism regarding incompetence, without generating fear of taking risks, after all, excessive permission or discipline are also repressors of good ideas.

Implementing this is not simple when we take into account all the variables present in innovative environments. Therefore, the culture must be prepared for the dynamics of metrics and constant evaluations, otherwise how can we identify specific problems? For example, excessive collaboration can hinder strategic decisions, placing excessive emphasis on individual responsibility can also create an unfavorable climate where, if not managed properly, people tend to protect their own interests. People may be excited about the prospects of having more freedom to experiment, fail, collaborate, speak openly, and make decisions, but they also need to recognize that these freedoms come with serious responsibilities and that they are continuously being evaluated. Leaders need to be alert to tendencies toward exaggeration, especially in themselves.

Lastly, remember that if you intend for your organization to achieve the delicate balance necessary, then develop a culture capable of achieving that balance. After all, for every human being, it is always easier to blame others for mistakes and inefficiency, and losing sight of the line between reality and vanity is very quick. Recognizing one’s own limits and accepting imperfections is not for everyone. However, you don’t have to be subjected to the toxicity that characterizes an innovative environment. It is possible to do something to remedy this situation through ethical efficiency and the evidence of fundamental values so that people can present themselves as imperfect and thus, through a cultural construction that values ​​behavioral development, facilitating your employees to choose how to act – the one each one is proud to show.

Remember that culture is a powerful driver of human thought and behavior. It informs us not only what the company is like and what to expect, but also each employee. It makes us realize what is right or wrong, good or bad. It also offers us rails that keep us in line and ensure that we think, say, and do what is right. The “right” thing for innovation is anything that aligns with the purposes they are part of.

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Hello, I’m Marcello de Souza! I started my career in 1997 as a leader and manager in a large company in the IT and Telecommunications market. Since then, I have participated in important projects of structuring, implementation, and optimization of telecommunications networks in Brazil. Restless and passionate about behavioral and social psychology. In 2008, I decided to delve into the universe of the human mind.

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