Understanding the barriers to workplace innovation

Many CEOs and senior teams face the challenge of not having a clear enough picture of the live barriers to innovation in the workplace – the things that act as real roadblocks, whether they be management approaches to innovation, leadership sponsorship, communication about innovation strategy, perception versus reality, lack of tools and processes, etc.

Without visibility of what’s holding an organisation back from developing organisation-wide innovation capability, it isn’t easy to create an efficient roadmap and plan for moving forward and tapping into the innovation potential of an organisation’s people.

So, while innovation may be consistently in the top 3 strategic priorities for CEOs, without a clear-cut path of how to build capability and culture in pursuit of it, and how to measure progress, many organisations are sailing without an innovation rudder.

Because building a culture of innovation is an enterprise-wide commitment and a capability that requires a multidisciplinary approach, an ecosystem to survive, and the right conditions to thrive, it is critical to build a clear picture of an organisation’s current state. Understanding innovation strategy at the boardroom level and how that manifests at the employee level, with clear leadership sponsorship, risk-taking and organisation-wide collaboration and trust – if CEOs and senior teams want to drive their organisations forward through innovation, it’s crucial to have a clear, aligned and well communicated strategy and direction around building innovation capability and culture.