Continual innovation #2: favourable 'climate'
This article is about how leadership needs to own up to the responsibility of creating a healthy environment – the favourable conditions or ‘climate’ for innovation. It was written by Perspectiv’s Andy Wilkins and Master’s in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership Alumni, Anne Maria Aydin.
Don’t change culture, change climate
When we refer to organisational context, the concepts of ‘climate’ and ‘culture’ are often conflated. Typically, we find ‘culture’ is the more widely-used word and it is often used as a fluffy catch-all to cover anything and everything that is elusive and/or ‘soft’. As a result, no one really has any idea how to define it or change it.
Culture develops over years and is ingrained which is why it makes it incredibly challenging to change. It is based on deep and underlying values and beliefs. Additionally, there is no clear definition of a bad or a good culture. Think about it, when you sit down and talk with someone or have a meeting, you do not manage the culture – even saying it sounds daft. ‘Hey team I’d like us to manage the culture of this meeting.’
On the other hand, managing the climate is both possible and productive. Climate can be influenced by all of us, including managers and leaders. Climate is observable – it is the habits and patterns of behaviour that characterise life in an organisation and enable or hinder innovation.
A way to illustrate the difference between culture and climate is to think of a tree. Climate is represented by the parts above ground that are observable and culture is represented by the roots below ground that are the hidden elements of an organisation, such as values and beliefs.
As Kevin Thomson’s book Emotional Capital states:
‘Changing the culture of an organisation by tackling it head on as a single facet of organisational life is really, really tough. To go deep into cultural change, you have to be talking about beliefs and values, and these go to the very soul of the organisation and its people. It is much easier to change the climate and language of the business.’
While climate changes can be implemented and measured within seconds, it has been said it is often easier to kill a company and start afresh rather than try to change the culture.
Climate’s impact on conversations, learning and innovation
There is plenty of contemporary research suggesting that for organisations to stay competitive, retain talent, produce quality, be more productive and many other output measures, the number one responsibility of leadership is to create an innovative climate – a climate that is genuinely open to different perspectives. This sense of psychological safety enables people to express diverse opinions and ideas amongst each other – the really valuable tacit knowledge.
Intuitively, you already know this to be true – that the outputs of an organisation are dependent on its climate, including the amount of tacit knowledge created. Of course there will be a correlation between the climate and business success. Think back over your career to the work situation that provided the most satisfying working environment for you. Now, contrast that one to the opposite – the one that provided the least satisfying working environment. You are probably instantly able to see that your personal enthusiasm and the level of your energy paralleled the work environment, but what dimensions of the environment are most important? If you wanted to improve the working climate, what would you focus on?
Measure the quality of your climate and innovation potential
SOQ RESULTS CHART FOR INNOVATIVE, AVERAGE & STAGNATED ORGANISATIONS
Is your business ready for organised surprises? Climate is made up of many elements, but there are nine key factors that helps foster a more positive environment for organised surprises.
To measure climate fully there is a psychometric tool called the Situational Outlook Questionnaire® (SOQ), which is recognised by The Buros Center for Testing. However, can use the nine dimensions as questions to help you start to consider the strengths and limitations of an existing environment. As you read each question below, consider your team, a project you are working on, or your whole organisation and how you would score each dimension on a scale of 1 to 7.
Challenge and Involvement: How challenged, emotionally involved and committed do I feel to our work?
Freedom: How free am I to decide how to do my job?
Trust and Openness: How safe is it to really speak my mind and openly offer different points of view?
Idea-Time: How much time do I have to think things through and explore before having to act?
Playfulness and Humour: How relaxed is our workplace – is it OK to have fun?
Conflict: How much personal tension do I feel with others?
Idea-Support: How supported do I feel to give new ideas a try?
Debate: How much lively debate is there about important issues?
Risk-Taking: How safe is it to fail when trying new things?
If you are scoring mainly 5s, 6s and 7s, then you will have favourable conditions. If you are scoring mainly 3s and 4s, then you will have average conditions. If you are scoring 1s and 2s, then your conditions are stagnated, as illustrated by the SOQ radar chart shown above.
climate is leadership’s No.1 responsibility
Organisations such as 3M, GE, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Ogilvy & Mather, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) that manages over $1 trillion in stocks, and the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) that oversees over $300 billion – now pay attention to what lies ‘between the ears’, which is hugely influenced by the workplace climate.
The most consistent theme over the last 15 years of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies (WMAC) is that they go to great lengths to create the right conditions for people to thrive. Leaders create the climate that leads to productivity.
One of the risks of talking about culture rather than climate is that leaders might be thinking that they have a ‘get out of jail free card’ because we all know deep down that culture is immutable and immovable and that means it is best left alone.
However, climate is local and situational and is therefore something everyone and anyone can put on their agenda. If you are serious about wanting to influence outcomes, then you need to get serious about climate. The following outlines general strategies that can be taken to help establish and improve climate:
Make fostering a creative climate an organisational priority
Develop creative leadership capability to support climate awareness and climate building
Equip people with attitudes, skills and knowledge to foster a creative climate
Select and promote people who are more capable at fostering a creative climate.