How Is Your Climate for Innovation?
by by Charles W. Prather, Ph.D.

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Think back over your career to the most satisfying work environment (one hopes it is your current job). Now, contrast this to its opposite, the least satisfying environment. You are likely to see your own enthusiasm and level of innovativeness paralleled the work environment. What dimensions of the environment do you think were most important? If you wanted to improve the environment for innovation, what would you do? Leaders struggle with these questions. In working with organizations. we find that the climate for innovation is crucial. poorly understood, and all but ignored when thoughts turn to improving the level of innovation. When leaders wish to improve the climate, many times they will just 'shotgun ' it, doing something that is poorly thought out or may even worsen the situation. There is a better way: first understand the system and get the data, then decide what to do.

Based on the pioneering work of Goran Ekvall in Sweden some 20 years ago, it is possible to quantify the climate for innovation. Ekvall's work has been further refined and validated by Scott Isaksen and others at the Center for Creative studies, State University of New York-Buffalo, who have defined nine dimensions of the climate for innovation. These are:

1. Challenge (How challenged, emotionally involved,and committed are employees to the work )

2. Freedom (How free is the staff to decide how to do their job?)

3. Idea time (Do employees have time to think things through before having to act?)

4. Idea support Are there resources to give new ideas a try?)

5. Trust and openness (Do people feel safe speaking their minds and offering different points of view?)

6. Playfulness and humor (How relaxed is the workplace-is it okay to have fun. )

7. Conflicts (To what degree do people engage in interpersonal conflict or 'warfare?")

8. Debates (To what degree do people engage in lively debates about the issues')

9. Risk-taking (Is it okay to fail?)

Ekvall was able to validate the climate for innovation as a determinant of business success in his original work in Sweden, and that validation is now in progress in the United States. Intuitively you already know the outcome. Of course there will be a correlation between the climate for innovation and business success!

We can group the nine dimensions into three areas of Resources, Motivation, and Exploration as follows: Resources: Idea Time; Idea Support; Challenge and Involvement Personal Motivation: Trust and Openness: Plav-fulness and Humor; Absence of Interpersonal Conflicts Exploration: Risk-taking; Debates About the Issues; Freedom

In our work with organizations brave enough to measure their climate for innovation, we find striking similarities. The dimensions in greatest need of improvement were: risk-taking, idea time, idea support, and trust and openness. Much less in need were: debates, absence of interpersonal conflicts, and playfulness and humor. Challenge and involvement and freedom were in good shape. You can see that dimensions in greatest need for improvement lie in each of the three arenas. Most R&D organizations are experiencing severely restricted budgets and fewer people, yet the work remains. Therefore, it's not surprising that the dimension of challenge and involvement is doing just fine, and that idea time and idea support are in urgent need of repair. In the face of personnel cutbacks, it is also no surprise that trust and openness and risk-taking are deficient. People are reluctant to take risks when downsizing is looking for the next group to "decruit."

You might be saying to yourself, "That's fine, but we don't have the money or time to worry about environment." The reality is that you cannot afford not to invest in improving the environment. Most of the investment will be in the soft stuff," rather than money and other "hard" resources. Lets look at the dimensions of the climate for innovation requiring "hard stuff' end those requiring "soft stuff." Technically trained people tend to think that what is most important is the hard stuff, and tend to dismiss the soft stuff as unimportant, and at best, elusive. In my experience as an R&D professional, R&D leader, and organizational consultant, it's the hard stuff that's easy and the soft stuff that's hard' Although both are needed, we find that much more attention needs to be paid to the 'soft stuff' after a minimal level of "hard" resources are available.

Rate Your Environment

Each of the following questions seeks to assess one of the dimensions of the climate for innovation. While the full questionnaire is far more accurate, thinking about these questions can be instructive. Consider how people in your organization might answer each question. If you have a formal leadership position, ask your people to answer them anonymously. Use the scale: 1 = little, 5 = a lot

1. To what degree are people deeply committed to their jobs?

2. To what degree are people able to decide how to do their jobs?

3. To what degree do we take the time to think of alternate ways to accomplish a difficult task before having to take action?

4. To what degree are new ideas given a warm reception. and to what degree are resources available to give new ideas a try?

5. To what degree is there emotional tension here?

6. To what degree is there lively debate on the issues?

7. To what degree do we hear good-natured joking, and to what degree is the work atmosphere relaxed?

8. To what degree are people informal and open with one another?

9. To what degree do people feel free to take action when the outcome might not meet expectations?

In working with clients. we consistently find that the view of the environment is directly related to the rater's level in the organization: the higher up in the Organization, the better the environment appears to be. It is a little like flying over New York City at 30,000 feet; from that height it looks just fine, but at street level you begin to notice the problems. However, it is at street level that work gets done. As you think about how to improve your climate for innovation. be sure focus at the "street level" of your organization.