Leadership: If You Want To Change Things, You Might Have To Break Them First…If you Want Your Company to Be Innovative, it’s Going to Take More, Much More, than Just Saying the Words

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“The problem with this company is it lacks an innovative culture,” said the CEO while asking his secretary to print out his emails for that day so he could check them, pulling out a pen at the same to sign the minutes of a meeting…

SheepHerder

Okay, I made that up, but the scene is played out all too often in the business world: managers who say they want an innovative culture in their company, a proactive approach toward what they still call “the new technologies” —when in reality they are talking about products and services that have generally been around for several years… how long does a technology have to have been in used by us before some people stop calling its “new”? — but who are unable to even consider giving up some of the oldest and outdated aspects of their own culture.

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The first thing you must have clear in your mind when talking about innovation is whether you really want your organization to be innovative. Managing genuinely innovative companies is a headache of the first order. Compared to the classic concept of a company where everybody has their job and their responsibilities are clearly defined, as well as their place in the hierarchy and roles properly assigned, managing an innovative company is like trying to herd cats, where just about every day, some nutcase keen to discuss the latest idea they’ve been reading about who knows where or has heard about from who knows who, and that in their opinion needs to be got going right now. Madness.

If you’re an “old school” manager, of the kind that look beyond the protective walls of your company with raised eyebrows and a large dose of skepticism, it’s very likely you think “all that innovation stuff” is little more than posturing, and that saying: “I’m an innovator” is pretty much the same as saying: “I keep up with fashion”, and that the implications of trying to develop innovation are enough to make you think twice.

Let’s face it, at the end of the day, you’ve been around the block a few times, life is short, and if you just carry on the way you have until now, there’s every chance you’ll make it to retirement (I swear I have heard that said by more than one manager over the years).
But if, after looking at the issue more closely, you really want to make your company innovative, then bear in mind the following: if you wanna change things, you gotta break things. You can’t ask the people who work with you to be innovative if the company where they spend hours working has always done things in the same way. It just isn’t coherent. It makes no sense. It’s not going to happen.

Businesses, all businesses, have a common enemy:isomorphism. The academic definition of isomorphism, which comes from the field of sociology, is something along the lines of the similarity of an organization’s processes or structures to those operating in the same environment.

All banks look like other banks, all electricity companies tend to be similar, all universities are practically identical, and all carmakers seem to be cut from the same pattern. If we were to be teletransported to the offices of any of these companies, it wouldn’t be so hard to say in which industry we found ourselves, because almost all the companies in that industry respond to any number of common stereotypes and all tend to look alike.

When one comes along that does things differently, managing in the process to overcome the established entry barriers, they tend to stand out. Tesla Motors stands out in the automotive industry because it is so unlike everything else in the industry, and is what the vast majority of observers would consider to be an innovative company.

At the same time, isomorphism doesn’t happen by accident. For example, companies look for efficiency, for optimization: so certain ways of doing things because it seems more logical, more efficient, to do them in that way; the most logical and efficient… at a certain moment, and in light of the technological advances of that specific moment.

On the one hand, isomorphism comes from the strengths of the industry itself, an infinity of rules, processes and standardization, or simply, from the progressive incorporation of managers and workers from other companies in the same sector, producing a kind of promiscuity or genetic crossbreeding that results in the characteristics of companies in the same industry mingle to create a common prototypes, an accepted standard.

If you really want to change things, if you really want to help create an innovative culture, then you’ll have to break things. You’ll have to identify the isomorphism and challenge it if your company isn’t going to seem like all the others. Identify all those people who contribute to things being done in the same way all the time: those who refuse to try new things, who seek comfort, those who are convinced they’ve seen it all… the disciples of isomorphism.

If they don’t want to change, show them that in this company and under your management, they are going to find an unequivocal vocation for change: no complicities, no privileges for the “old guard”, and no exceptions based on time served. If you want to be innovative, then don’t prop up those old structures any more, because each of these exceptions will be an obstacle on the road of coherence.

If you want your company to be innovative, it’s going to take more, much more, than just saying the words. You’re going to have to break things. Starting with old habits; today, rather than tomorrow.

Forbes.com |  February 4, 2015  |   Enrique Dans