Climate for Innovation

Much attention has been focused on innovation and revisiting productivity since the Economic Steering Committee’s (ESC) report was released in February.

I first became aware of innovation as a discipline just at the turn of the millennium some 10 years back when I was doing work on organizational climate surveys.

Charles W Prather, Ph.D. in his article How is Your Climate for Innovation lists nine dimensions of the climate for innovation as follows:

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?)

This was based on the pioneering work of Goran Ekvall in Sweden some 20 years ago where he was able to validate the climate for innovation as a determinant of business success. Ekvall's work has now been further refined and validated by Scott Isaksen and others at the Center for Creative studies, State University of New York-Buffalo.

So, as Singapore embarks on this journey of innovation - organizations, teams and individuals should be mindful of these dimensions as a basis for self-assessment, self-reflection and action.