Everyday innovation report - Nesta

26
26. Sauermann, H. and
Cohen, W.M. (2008)
‘What makes them tick?
Employee motives and firm
innovation.’ NBER Working
Paper N.14443. Cambridge,
MA: NBER.
Working practices to promote everyday innovation
Peter Cheese, Head of Learning &
Development, Accenture says: “In the
UK, organisations need to focus more
than ever on learning and development
of their workforces. We need to ensure we
have the necessary skills and show people
how to connect, to innovate and also to
increase workforce engagement – these
are fundamental to the recovery process.
We also need some clarity about how our
employees are really feeling. A great deal
of trust has been damaged. We need to be
able to answer questions such as ‘what’s
important for innovation in an uncertainl
environment – what are the dynamics
for recovery in this setting, and repairing
employer-employee engagement?’
“Engaged people are usually prepared to
contribute more, so engagement becomes
an important driver of innovation but why
should they if they don’t trust the leadership
in their organisation? There’s been almost
constant fire-fighting in many businesses
over the last year, it’s been enormously
stressful, and it means that some
organisations have lost some of their best
people, or are in danger of losing them as
the job market begins to recover. Improving
engagement begins with understanding the
issues and strengthening the connections
at every level in the organisation. Every
manager needs to take responsibility for
this, but they also need to be supported and
trained to strengthen their skills and
financial incentives for innovating, whereas in
small, charity or consulting organisations, more
use is made of intrinsic incentives. However,
the research evidence from the literature
shows that intrinsic incentives are more likely
to promote sustained innovative working in
organisations. 26
4.5 Excessive financial constraints, lack
of time and lack of resources are the top
three reported barriers to innovation
Table 3 presents the barriers to innovation
reported by survey respondents. A lack of
encourage the right behaviours.
“As we begin to see the early signs of
recovery, organisations now need to look
afresh – think about the basics and their
key values and use this great time of
change to streamline, refine, and improve
the way things get done, the processes,
and organisation..This kind of innovation
is something every employee can be part
of, and being part of this will help them
reconnect and engage.
“Looking ahead is the first part of the
recovery process. Key questions are; how do
we encourage innovation in difficult times?
What do leaders need to do to promote
innovation? How do we involve people in
the process of recovery? The worst thing
to do is to close the Executive doors – this
creates fear and distrust. We need to learn
things at a faster rate than we ever have
before, learn to innovate faster, and learn
how to manage change and become more
agile for the future. We need to embrace
new ways of working, for example in using
social networking, the way that more and
more people communicate today. In our
own business, travel budgets have been
cut, social networking technology has now
become part of the day to day in how
people communicate and learn from each
other. Don’t let the crisis go to waste – we
can’t afford not to make the most of it to
shift behaviour and working practices.”
resources was reported as the main barrier to
innovative working (e.g. ‘perceived excessive
financial constraints’, and ‘lack of time’).
Comparing responses between sectors showed
that employees from the public sector were
significantly more likely to list ‘risk aversion
and a fear of failure among leaders’ and ‘too
hierarchical a structure across staff levels’ as
common barriers to innovation; private sector
employees were more likely to cite ‘lack of
time’.
Claire Whitaker, Director at Serious, identifies
“attitude to failure, especially true in this
economic climate”, the “pressure to deliver”,
and “bureaucracy” as the main barriers to