Tips to Drive Innovation in the Corporate World
The corporate world, in all its grandeur and might, often seems to be an inflexible giant, strongly resisting the winds of change. When tasked with driving innovation in such an environment, I've faced many challenges so here are a few tips on how to overcome them.
1) Understanding Natural Instincts
Much like individuals, organizations gravitate towards stability, certainty, and the reassuring comfort of the status quo. As creatures of habit, our intrinsic survival instinct nudges us to avoid the uncharted waters of disruption and change.
During my initial months at Cinepolis (one of the biggest movie theater chains in the world), a top director quipped, "You're a virus for this organization." It wasn't the welcome I had expected, but the metaphor was right on. He explained that the organization was a well-oiled machine, a Swiss watch, adhering to established processes, and rules. My innovation role seemed to be dedicated to disrupting that harmony, introducing risk and uncertainty.
This metaphor helped me understand that organizations have an instinctual reaction to protect the way things are (because it’s what has gotten them success in the past). So instead of expecting people to immediately see the need for change and get on board, you should fully expect them to push back to maintain things as they are–it’s their job! Once you understand that resistance is natural and logical, it’s easier to figure out how to deal with it.
2) Using Empathy to Get People Onboard
There was a time when I viewed those reluctant to change as dinosaurs, soon to be left behind. But once I recognized their reaction was completely natural, I started to develop empathy. Using empathy made the path to innovation more achievable, and with time it became my new purpose: Help people and organizations to accept, embrace and drive change.
I found that people often fear change, not because they are opposed to the concept, but because they're scared of losing something important - their role, their reputation, or some other benefit of the status quo. As an innovator, your role is to ensure that while some things might be lost, others are maintained, and the gains make it worthwhile for the people you are asking to change. The way to get people onboard is to truly consider and understand their perspective so that you can either help them see that the gains outweigh the losses for them or if it turns out that’s not the case, change the equation to create bigger gains and smaller losses!
3) Using Tools to Map the Change
To organize your change leadership, stakeholder mapping is an invaluable tool. It consists in making a list of all the people involved in the change and then identifying their current posture toward the change. It allows you to identify and understand all the players, gauge their level of support or resistance to the change given their perceived and real gains and losses, and then define a plan of action to get them onboard. You should create this map early on in your change journey and update it as things evolve. This tool is key to taking a proactive and human approach to driving change.
Change is necessary in corporate contexts but it is also incredibly difficult to successfully drive forward. Understanding and knowing how to overcome resistance to change is what transforms you into a Change Master.
