3 Questions - a Challenge

Tomasz Rudolf with Innovatika in Poland asks the following:  I am wondering.... If you could ask employees of the company 3 questions to assess the climate for innovation, what would they be? 

I think that's a great challenge for us.  Below are 3 questions I came up with ... what would your 3 be?  Remember, these are questions we would ask "employees of the company."

• Do you understand what the innovation challenge is?
• Do you understand who your customers are and what they need and how you fit into meeting those needs?
• Do you have time to think and tinker with possibilities?

Comments

[Alastair McCulloch]

I would ask:

1) What generally happens when someone comes up with a new idea in your organisation?

2) How are good ideas captured and taken forward?

3) What support is provided to those implementing innovative new ideas or ways of doing things?

[Shaik Roslinah Bux]

In the era of self managed work teams, a lot of self-responsibility is encouraged. As such, my three questions would be:
1) Do you like to create (new) differences to the product/service that we have been producing / rendering?
2) Do you feel excited / energised by the idea that you could create differences to your product / service?
3) What do you think of the opportunities of you contrbuting ways to keep your company's customer loyal or speak well of the company?

[Jonathan Vehar]

Great question! Only three?

Well, first I'd have to define "climate," and differentiate it from "culture:"

Culture: The shared beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and norms of functioning that shape and influence behavior within an organization and distinguish it from others of its kind. The "maze-ways," or the ways in which people negotiate the maze of the organization in order to get things done.

Climate: The prevailing set of conditions, feeling, or “mood” of the organization. A perception of “the way things are” in an organization. More of a “feeling” that prevails.

That said, I'd suggest these three questions to assess climate:

1) How committed is the entire organization to doing something new and/or different?

2) How much support is there from management for creating and actually launching something new?

3) Who is responsible for innovating in the organization? At what level of the organization? From which department/division/silo?

[superviva]

1. Is there an incentive to innovate, such as rewards and recognition?
2. Is there a culture of innovation, based on the current employees and industry?
3. How committed is the management team to implementing employee innovations, that come from diverse groups vs. a program that just goes through the motions?