An organization looking to extend its innovation capability faces the same prospects as a company looking to undergo a major culture transformation. The work requires focus, commitment, and persistence to achieve the desired outcome. Even those firms seeking to boost their innovation capability by acquisition or merger face the same challenges. So many mergers and acquisitions end in less than satisfying outcomes because companies are not paying attention to the details of integration and capability development. Recent research suggests that the failure rate of these actions may be as high as 70 percent.

Rather than succumbing to failure, why not build a supportive infrastructure so that your innovation efforts have a better chance of survival?

The answer does not require an overly complex response; what it does require is a measured, sustained effort that seeks to build behaviors, capabilities, and capacities over time. The greater challenges demand that anyone going down this path be clear about what they are trying to accomplish strategically, and that they have the intestinal fortitude (okay, guts) to commit to act even when it seems progress is slow or moving in reverse.

Three simple concepts can help keep an organization focused on growing its innovation backbone: creating a framework to support the new desired behaviors; establishing a set of few but strictly enforced rules to anchor those behaviors over time; and developing a shared story that gives the organization’s participants something they feel they can belong to and own.

Frames and scaffolding
High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
- Charles F. Kettering

Frames are often used in construction to provide support for a foundation as it is being poured into place (especially for concrete foundations) or until materials are locked into place (such as brick or stone footings). The framework provides stability while the long-term superstructure is being placed. Without a framework in place, the foundation might shift, possibly creating a fundamental weakness that may not be readily apparent until the structure comes crashing to the ground after use.

Scaffolding, on the other hand, enables you to renovate while still making use of an existing structure. It supports walls and facades during the course of their modification, yet it little interferes with the internal operations of a building. By placing scaffolding at key load-bearing points, and using it to access hard-to-reach places without necessarily applying any load force, major structural transformations can take place. The changes, while commonly understood to be underway given the highly visible nature of scaffolding, are only completely revealed when the scaffolding is removed.

What does this mean for supporting the development of innovation capabilities?

A basic framework for innovation might be the establishment of a common language for handling the actions of creating and implementing innovations. Design thinking, for example, is one such fundamental language and practice, which, when shared across an organization, provides a foundation for other supporting practices to flourish. With a foundation of design thinking in place across an organization, human-centered design and rapid prototyping can follow closely behind.

In the context of using scaffolding to support the renovation of an organization’s innovation practices, consider the decision-making and risk management skill sets. Both of these capabilities do little to impact existing business processes, yet they can vastly improve their efficacy. These both enable the wiser use of resources and the faster commitment to appropriate action. This reduces the cycle time for employing new skills and behaviors that are being applied to innovation efforts.

Another key practice in support of a strong innovation backbone is the creation of a limited set of rules, tightly enforced, that establish clear guidelines but provide maximum responsiveness.

Loose and tight
Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Another set of factors that contribute to an organization sustaining a successful culture of innovation are loose coupling and rule-making. Loose coupling is a term introduced into organization theory that proposes that an organization creates a shorthand or abstract model of the reality in which it finds itself loosely coupled with the hard reality that actually exists. This quality enables an organization to respond flexibly and adaptively to changes in its environment. It fosters an organizational resilience that would not otherwise exist if all decisions and actions were driven only by hard data—which may or may not be readily available.

It is this resilience that is key to an organization’s strength. An ability to quickly and robustly recover from setbacks is the hallmark of a truly vital innovation culture, because these organizations are constantly placing themselves at risk through their willful exploration and implementation of change. With the resilience that loose coupling provides, organizations would fracture at the social level, which would have consequences within business processes and systems.

Another capability that, combined with loose coupling, helps create the necessary structure for effective innovation is the making of simple rules. Fewer rules means more exploration. The rules put in place are tightly managed, and set loose limits (conservation, focus, effort) on the way behaviors are governed. The rules contribute to a collective mindfulness and a focus on outcomes rather than a preoccupation with present needs.

This alignment also provides the basis for the final element in creating an organization’s backbone; the fostering of a shared story about the organization’s purpose that galvanizes participants’ actions.

Part of something greater
Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situation of experience its own full and unique meaning.
- John Dewey

Much of the behavior in organizations is driven by affiliation needs. Being a part of something informs the choices we make for ourselves and for the people around us. It drives competition and the desire to improve. By creating a shared story, one that exemplifies the life of the organization and what it values, an organization’s leaders can positively influence the behavior of the participants. A vibrant story creates a crucible in which an organization can extend itself—creating an environment of renewal.

The stronger and more compelling the story, the more engaged an organization’s participants will become. This often causes a positive feedback loop in which the story of the organization becomes regenerative. The participants of the organization “own” the story, it becomes their own, and as they retell it, the story becomes more of a reflection of their commitment to the organization than an advertisement for the organization’s strategic intent.

Each retelling of elements of the organization’s story reinforces itself and reinforces the reasons why each participant commits to be an organization member. And the resulting engagement can be capitalized on by being guided and directed to innovation practices.

In order to create the best circumstances for supporting innovation, an organization’s leaders would be wise to attend to certain basic elements. They should create elemental frameworks that support their innovation intent. They should implement rules that create boundaries for performance without choking creativity out of the enterprise. And they should craft and disseminate a story that unifies the organization’s strategic intent and its operational reality. By addressing these elements, they can create an organization with a backbone that can not only support innovation but hold up the organization on the dynamic edge of change.

How strong is your organization’s backbone? And what will you do to make it stronger?