5 Steps To A Mindset Of Innovation In Your Business

Based on my own experiences in big businesses, as well as being an advisor to new startups, I have concluded that innovation starts with a mindset that change is inevitable and most often good, rather than something to be avoided at all costs. This mindset must be nurtured in every part of the organization and every team member, starting from the top levels of the business.

I’ve never been quite sure how to maintain and foster this culture, so I was pleased to see some specific guidelines in a new book, “How To Create Innovation,” by Stefan F. Dieffenbacher, et al. The authors all speak from international consulting experience with clients like Amazon, BMW, Google, and Pfizer in delivering innovative transformation.

The authors are convinced that the right mindset is of critical importance, and they identify five steps to a transformation that any of us can make as business leaders to assure that innovation is the norm in business. I outline the steps here, with my own insights added, for your personal efforts to transform your organization into a powerhouse in today’s chaotic business world:

1. Check and reset your personal innovation mindset. We all tend to perceive our “comfort zone” mindset to be fixed by past experiences. You need to consciously let your emotional triggers take a back seat and learn from today’s rapidly changing environment. Consciously reach for the next level to self-confidently evaluate new innovations at work.

2. Increase team collaboration within departments. Eliminate competition between individuals and groups and incent cooperative forms of collaboration. Evolve complex matrix organizations to more highly networked teams inside and outside the business. Your challenge is to make sure that everyone is on the same page with your leadership.

3. Foster an organizational culture of innovation. Today, you need to make everyone recognize that digitalization is unleashing a vast cultural progression from power over people to empowered self-determination, leading to a positive acceptance of change and innovation. This helps individuals to develop and upgrade their own psyche and mindset.

4. Flatten the levels of management hierarchy. Eliminate steep hierarchies and move to circular organizations, where all teams are part of the same whole, working together in alignment and collaborating through networks. Minimize middle managers between staff and executives, allowing innovation decisions to be made by self-organizing teams.

5. Adapt to evolving economic development models. I am seeing paradigm shifts from the industrial model, now to the informational and even holistic cultural model. We are leaving the endless-growth thinking to perceiving the world as a finite organism. This leads to new business models, such as donating an item to charity for every purchase.

We are not suggesting here that earlier and current mindsets are inferior. They are simply stages with built-in filters that determine not only how your teams perceive something, but also what they can perceive. When it comes to the complex world of innovation, we need everyone to be the most adaptable to today’s complex and rapidly changing world of business.

In all cases, when working to change the mindset and culture of a business group, a key task is to work together with peers to identify all aspects of your current culture. You may need outside help or specialized tools to make this assessment, as a jumping-off point for new thinking about innovation, leadership, culture, and the changes that need to be made.

Don’t forget that it all must start with you expanding your own mindset, to let your worldview grow from one stage to the next. You must develop a larger “holding capacity” which transcends and integrates earlier mindsets, just like a larger bowl can incorporate earlier ones. Only then can you and your business make the real difference in this world that you want to be your legacy.