ecause risk is the new normal, and an innovative culture is the preparation to handle risk, we’re no longer building for “what if.” We’re building for “OMG, what now.” According to the 2024 World Economic Forum Innovation Barometer, 62% of CEOs said their companies are more committed to innovation today than they were pre-pandemic.

In 1548, King Edward, who followed Henry VIII as the first protestant king of England, published “A Proclamation Against Those That Doeth Innouate.” The order, aimed at any who might stray from the rules created by God and the King, promised “imprisonment, and other greuous punishementes, at his maiejsties wil and pleasure.”

Today, a firm’s innovators may avoid grievous punishments, but the change they attempt—though it may be necessary, if not beneficial—may still encounter resistance. It’s a matter of perspective.

In a world of constraints, you’ve got to take from “the way we do it” to create the new way of doing it. A zero-sum game. Who likes losing?

Innovative comes with risk. We’re not all pioneers or even early adopters. In fact, most of us are cautious when it comes to risk. Even if the “new” brings advantage, it still takes some getting used to.

And quite often what we do is who we are. “I’m an accountant,” or “I’m a software engineer.” If that’s who you are, how do you feel about AI doing taxes or writing code?

Innovation doesn’t come about overnight, and while there are R&D labs, a company can’t be agile and responsive if innovation isn’t a part of every department’s responsibility. If innovation is what we all do, there’s no zero-sum competition for resource. A 2022 report from Deloitte put it bluntly: “Organizational resilience stems from distributed innovation capacity.” Translation: everyone in the organization has both the authority and the responsibility to identify challenges and create solutions, to innovate.

It takes time, but familiarity relieves the anxiety of the new and play is the easiest way to get to familiar. So, give people the time and space to play and experiment with the new idea. Don’t worry about early failures. Two good things can happen. Employees may lose their skepticism of the innovation, and if they don’t, you may discover how the innovation should be tweaked.

Given that familiar is comfortable, it’s no surprise that people and businesses value consistency over time. Remember Edward and his grievous punishments. Don’t change the way we do it. Innovation impacts consistency. However, often a new direction doesn’t have to be a revolution. It can be a continuation. With an adroit blend of human insight and AI, that tax accountant and that software engineer can increase productivity and market share. In its 2024 shareholder report, Walmart said that AI tools increased productivity by 25 percent.

CEO Doug McMillon, told the Wall Street Journal, “We stopped thinking of tech as something you bolt on. It’s in the water now. Everyone owns a piece of innovation.”

There’s the failure from trying something new and untried and the failure that is the result of poor technique, sloppy thinking or lazy habits. Failure on the way to the new is understandable. Lack of professionalism is not. Technical skill, a certain mastery of craft, critical thinking, these are the price of entry. You’re not gonna compose a piece of music if you don’t know how to play an instrument. And you’re not gonna compose a great piece of music if you don’t know the instrument really well.

Tolerance for failure—the kind of failure that leads to innovation—demands a high degree of professional competence. Failure in this context is a valuable lesson on the way forward. Failure from poor workmanship or lack of thoroughness goes nowhere. Thomas Edison, about inventing the viable light bulb: “I didn’t fail. I found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

10,000 was a bit of an exaggeration. According to his records, he only failed 2,774 times. He kept scrupulous notes, designed each experiment to produce the information that would lead to the next, and had a clear sense on whether to move forward or kill an idea. The willingness to kill a losing idea makes it less risky to try the next one. It’s easy to get defensive about an idea, especially if it’s yours. Author William Faulkner offered some hard advice, “kill your darlings.”

In a “safe” environment, people feel free to speak plainly. However, in a collaborative environment, if it’s safe for you to critique my ideas, it must be safe for me to critique yours. And that holds regardless of our relative positions on the organizational ladder. This openness is vital to innovation. Conflict is not to be feared. It’s called creative abrasion. Open discussion not only helps define the “problem to be solved,” it pressure-tests the solution.

In flat organizations (be they flat structurally or culturally), decision making is not centralized. People have the latitude to make decisions and take action. In fact, there’s a lot to be said for pushing decision making down in the company as far as possible. Deference is granted to knowledge, not position. This freedom usually generates a diversity of perspectives and ideas, energizes innovation and enables agility. Everybody has a stake in the company. It may seem that organizational flatness distances leaders, but in fact, it allows them to be closer to the action. Don’t play the telephone game and get the story from the employee’s manager’s director. Get it from the employee.

“Change is inevitable, survival is optional,” says Tee Green a Harbert alum and advisor to the New Venture Accelerator and currently the CEO of 121G, LLC, an investment, business advisory and technology development firm he founded in 2016. “Innovation matters because that’s how firms progress and grow. It’s a mindset. To become an innovative organization, you have to be intentional, draw a line in the sand and say were going to apply the energy and resources to be better tomorrow.”

Know the task in front of you. Understand the potential impediments to innovation. Do the work. Be intentional about creating an innovative mindset. Master the craft. Professionalism inspires trust. Embrace conflict. Creative abrasion leads to innovation. Edison again, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” He used the word “opportunity,” but what he meant was the opportunity brought about by innovation.

Creating and sustaining an innovative culture is a difficult balancing act, but it is the necessary preparation for progress and growth, especially in a climate of change and disruption. It’s not easy and it takes work. But do the work, prepare and as Steve Jobs said, “put a ding in the universe.”

And that’s more than worth the effort.

Cooked Goose

In today’s world, the technologies, the speed at which things are moving, if you’re not innovating, you don’t have a decade to catch up. You just don’t. We’re seeing million-dollar market cap organizations that have 30 employees. If you’re not already moving away from traditional models and using those new technologies, time is something that you don’t have. If you’re a CEO and you don’t see that and don’t understand that, your goose is cooked.

Three Pillars

In his book, “Winning Adaptive Sales,” Hicks describes Others Focus “[as] the ability to place the needs and wants of others before your own.” Imagine a collaboration where your partners’ priority is caring for you, and yours is caring for them. That Others Focus generates the trust that makes for clear, open conversation and ultimately innovation.

Other Focus depends upon a learning mindset. To be fully open to learning, one must—without abandoning critical thought—be willing to say, “I don’t know.” In other words, to approach a task or a problem with the humility of an open mind. That humility goes hand in hand with respect and enables you to listen carefully, to hear and understand other’s thoughts and ideas.

Both of these elements lead to the third, a willingness to give of self, to generously put your effort in the
service of something larger—to, in a word, serve.

From a hardnosed business perspective, these concepts may seem idealistic, evens saccharine, but aren’t these qualities you’d want from a trusted collaborator? So, be that person.