Elevating Innovation: Creating a Culture of Success (Christine Hollinden)

Christine did a nice session on company culture that left the audience with a few small steps to changing the culture of an organization. Here is what I learned:

Culture is the DNA or driving force for your firm. Changing a firms culture can at times be the “flavor of the month”, but done well can impact success. In a services firm people are the #1 impact (what we sell, who connects, etc). Changing culture is the result of small steps or actions. It happens over time from the people within your organization. To change that culture takes several actions and event then, won't change right away.

First – She defined different types of culture. Each has their pluses and minuses and I especially loved this discussion because you could immediately see everyone in the room relating at least one to their firm. They included:

• Clan culture: family, team centered, collaboration, group think, inwardly focused, but change is slow and they have the tendency to say this is the way we have always done it.

• Adhocracy culture: flexibility, adaptability, unmanageable chaos, creator cultures, but, it requires management style that can transform the stress into drive, love, passion, and creativity.

• Hierarchy culture: governed by rules, very defined, us vs. them, they value control, standardization and conformity. It is process based this is OK for some, it creates a since of order, but it squelches creativity and a sense of accountability, etc.

• Market culture: outward focus, driven to beat the competition, use the drive to win to motivate, but do not see employee happiness as valuable.

I always say when you don’t know what needs to be changed – start by figuring out what you have to start with. Christine suggests getting started by asking staff to rank or get their perception of the firm. Then she went on to offer these small steps you can use to change culture a little bit at a time.

Step 1: Dialogue. You can't just push information out. You have to be having a two-way conversation. Try to reverse who speaks in your firm... Let staff educate the leadership. Have an idea board. Hold a ‘why not’ or a ‘what if’ meeting and just ask the questions... Just let it flow. Generate new ideas and solutions.

Step 2: Participation. Everyone has a voice (are you listening). Facilitate meetings where everyone has equal participation.

Step 3: Collaboration. Promoted through relaxed brains and better work environments.

Step 4: Change the Environment. Paint, paintings, plants, move things around, mix it up. Left the same and we stop creating, innovating, we get routine, stuck, less creative. Have a space for reflection but with tools available to capture ideas when the brain is relaxed and focused.

Step 5: Vision Success. You have to repeat the message AND people want to be a part of it.

Step 6: Game Changers. Find those who are open to change and let them spread the word. But it needs to come from the top.

Step 7: Let them Eat Cake. Celebrate success. Celebration creates good feelings and inspires more innovation, thoughts, dialogue, etc. Move, exercise, laugh, play music, dress-up ... Play (or as I like to say - let them pretend to make cake :))!

I’ve seen plenty of sessions and books on creating cultures of innovation and success but I enjoyed these really basic steps. Actually if any of you were at last year’s event you might remember when Mark Zweig, our key note, said that he likes to move people around in the office often, in fact he likes to move people who don’t tend to get along right next to each other just to make them be forced to talk more…. that is exactly what this session reminded me of.

You may not be able to make all these changes if you are not at the top but trying a few of the small steps for yourself or with your team members might be a great first step in taking a new path.