It is not enough simply to encourage employees to innovate. Your organization’s culture must communicate clearly how you will support innovators who take intelligent risks to move promising ideas forward. Too many organizations say that they want employees to take risks, but reward only final success—or worse, punish those who fall short because they moved beyond the boundaries of the known, safe choices.

Leaders of successfully innovative organizations ask for and expect ideas from everyone in the organization. They communicate their strategy for innovation and recognize those who take intelligent risks. They free up resources for innovation by withdrawing support from mature products and services. They minimize cultural and structural barriers to innovation and encourage learning from both failure and success. In this course, leaders and managers learn skills that stimulate, support, and encourage innovation, and coach employees as they move ideas into action.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Take leadership in moving their organizations toward greater support for innovation
• Manage and overcome cultural and structural barriers to innovation
• Monitor their personal approach to risk-taking and innovation and its impact on their organizations
• Identify, practice, and apply leadership skills that encourage intelligent risk taking and innovation
• Analyze and assess their own organizations' culture and plan for development
   

Who Should Participate

This class is designed for executives, senior managers, and other leaders who set direction and make decisions that can affect organizational culture.

What You Will Learn

What is an Innovation Culture?

• Introduction to the fundamentals of organizational culture and their relationship to innovation
   

Setting

• Examination of the core aspects of an organization and their impact on innovation
   

Strategy

• Exploration of two elements in the strategy of organizations that relate to innovation and intelligent risk-taking
   

Managing Risk Factors

• The role of the manager and leader in dealing with the costs, benefits, and probabilities involved in decision-making
   

Systems

• Review of specific organizational structures and processes that have an impact on risk and innovation
   

Skills

• Practice session: interactive skills for promoting, supporting, and coaching for innovation
   

Establishing and Supporting an Innovation Culture: The Innovation Dashboard

• Summary of insights for creating and supporting a more innovative organizational culture and systems
   

Change Planning

• Development of action steps to move toward the needed changes.