A few conversations recently with the idea of innovation in mind have led me to this month’s theme. Many businesses will say they have a culture where innovation thrives and so it’s always a good idea to try and put this to the test, so here’s a few ideas on what this may look like along with what you could think about doing to get more of this.
There may be of course those of us that don’t see the value in having this cultural descriptor as part of our makeup. Well, in 2025 if you’re not thinking around how you can get more of this within your business you are possibly going to fall behind, regardless of sector, given the competitive nature of the world we live in.
The challenge with all of this really comes in the ways that we decide to try and cultivate a culture of innovation as it may require more than posters on the walls, brainstorming sessions, or investing in R&D teams and projects. If you are going to win at this it demands deliberate design of habits and behaviours (a definition of culture) that support creativity, collaboration, experimentation, and resilience.
So, what does an innovative culture look like? And how can leaders intentionally design the conditions that support it?
What makes up an Innovative Culture?
In a nutshell, I would say that an innovative business culture is one where employees are encouraged and empowered to think creatively, challenge the norm, and take calculated risks. These companies will most probably foster psychological safety, reward learning from failure, and align innovation with strategic intent. Here’s a few areas to consider (not an exhaustive list), when thinking around the habits and behaviours that typically define this type of culture.
1. Curiosity and Continuous Learning
What it looks like:
Employees at all levels ask questions, seek new information, and are aware of emerging trends. There is a natural curiosity about customer needs, market shifts, and technological advancements that could be helpful to consider in context.
How to design for it:
– Encourage ongoing education through different channels e.g. workshops, online. Make this part of the role, not an additional time requirement.
Create regular coming together of team members where they share insights from books, courses, or industry events. You may need to get people out of the operational discussion and into this mindset.
– Celebrate curiosity by recognising people who bring fresh perspectives or challenge assumptions. The opposite of shooting them down or not listening.
2. Psychological Safety and Trust
What it looks like:
People feel safe to voice ideas, raise concerns, and admit mistakes without fear of blame or ridicule. Trust is high, and communication is open and respectful. Obviously this would be a part of the make-up, but often overlooked or implied.
How to design for it:
– Help leaders to understand and then bring High Trust behaviours. Stephen Covey highlights 13 of these in his ‘Speed of Trust’ book that anyone can work with
– Model vulnerability at the top: when leaders share failures and uncertainties, it sets the tone for authenticity. You are not perfect and no one expects you to be (except yourself possibly)
– Create structured forums that encourage open feedback. I spoke to someone the other month around how they were doing this and the impact it had just by creating the right conditions
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration
What it looks like:
Departments don’t work in silos. Instead, they come together to solve problems, co-create solutions, and share insights. Collaboration is the norm, not the exception. Innovation is often not vertical but horizontal.
How to design for it:
– You could create cross-functional innovation teams with clear mandates and autonomy. There are other significant benefits from breaking the functional walls.
– Incentivise shared outcomes over functional KPIs so that people have shared goals they can collaborate on.
4. Experimentation and Risk-Taking
What it looks like:
Employees test ideas quickly and cheaply, learn from results, and iterate. Failure is reframed as a stepping stone to learning. This could apply to process, IT, anything really as long as we’re not taking significantly high risk i.e. safety is compromised.
How to design for it:
– Allocate budget and time for experimentation e.g., 10% of time for side projects might be one way of coming at this. Sounds counter intuitive and requires an innovative mindset in itself to give this type of activity a go.
– Publicly recognise experiments that didn’t succeed but provided valuable insights. Always finding the value through learning and using it to power the behaviours you want.
5. Leadership Support and Role Modelling
What it looks like:
Leaders visibly champion innovation, participate in ideation, and act on new ideas. They take accountability for failure and draw out the value in learning for everyone to see.
How to design for it:
– Make innovation a part of leadership KPIs and performance reviews. I’m guessing this isn’t in there as you would probably never measure positively what could be deemed as failure.
– Share stories of innovation from across the business. Leaders will get air time in a number of pockets and you could use this to bring some compelling stories. Remember what you want from people when considering how you tell this story is key i.e. what do you want them to feel
– Get leaders to mentor innovation projects or teams so that they are closer to the action and can role model even more.
Aligning Strategy and Innovation
One thing that could be overlooked in this idea of having an Innovation culture, is the link back to strategy. Obviously we want innovation but ideally pointing us in the right direction. We don’t want lots of random acts of innovation that don’t move us there or even worse move us away from our strategic goals. So there needs to be some way in the design, to tie directly to the organisation’s broader goals.
A way of looking at all of this could be to consider that you are effectively trying to design a system that reinforces the behaviour you want. So you will need to consider what is rewarded, punished, or ignored. Make sure your systems support the behaviours you want to ‘see’.
Is your business doing ‘Innovation’?
Businesses that make innovation cultural—not just procedural or project—position themselves to adapt, grow, and lead in the current environment. The habits and behaviours described here are definitely not exhaustive, they are just a view, but they offer a frame for considering what you’ve got and what you’re doing.
So, when you consider what it may ‘look’ like in a business that has this going on, how does that seem when considering your own?
What does this tell you about the opportunity to become more ‘innovative’?