Why East Coasters Can't Tell Time
...and more cultural mysteries that are sapping innovation from your company
I have a confession.
Thirteen years ago I moved from Boston to Seattle and quickly realized what an idiot I'd been my entire career. I was a time zone bigot; an affliction that, best as I can tell, affects the majority of the population residing in the United States' East Coast. Thank goodness I'm since reformed, but my tolerance has waned.
Since becoming a "west coaster," I can't tell you how many times I've set up meetings or calls with people on the east coast who never specify the time zone of the meeting (if there isn't one specified, just assume ET) or who can't seem to calculate the time between the multiple zones in the United States ("no, the west coast is three hours behind you, not ahead of you...") or who simply don't even think about time zone differences. Today, I have way too many 6 a.m. PT calls with the East Coast, merely because they have no idea that is what a 9 a.m. ET call translates into. (By the way, I realize this problem is pronounced by an order of magnitude for my friends and business associates who live outside of the continental United States. But, for the sake of brevity, I'll keep this rant confined to those of us in the contiguous 48.)
But don't blame the east coasters. In the United States, everyone – particularly the media – caters to the Eastern Time Zone, a fact that everyone in the U.S. understands except those that actually live in the Eastern Time Zone. They, like I used to be, are simply products of their culture.
Culture is one of the most perplexing yet fascinating subjects we study at the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). It's something ingrained in every company, yet it's something that many organizations have a tough time describing. Ask any two employees "what's your corporate culture like?" and you are bound to get two different answers. It's also a topic that perplexes many of the world's CEO's because they often wonder, "how can I change my culture?"
This week I met with the chief human resources officer of a Fortune 500 company, and she described to me how the new CEO's empowerment views are driving decision making down into the company, and how his approach is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the former CEO's "command and control" style. Yet, even though the new CEO has been in place for a while, the culture has been difficult to change – the old ways are too embedded and they continue to impede innovation and risk taking. Once a culture is set, it often deeply permeates an organization, and like it or not drives behavior...behavior that ultimately impacts the bottom line.
A culture that "fosters innovation" is what I hear the most from senior executives when asked what kind of culture they desire; a sentiment that appears to be growing in importance. Our research shows that most executives believe that innovation will be even more important to their organization in the next five years, yet most admit they are failing at fostering innovation today. In fact, only 28% believe they are effective at it, which means many more organizations are likely unprepared to continue to innovate.
Sustaining innovation is critical. It should be no surprise that, in our research, "ability to innovate" is strongly associated with an organization's business performance. When we break out effectiveness at innovation by organizations with the greatest growth trends in market performance (revenue, profitability, market share and customer satisfaction), the results are clear: 42% of high-performance organizations indicate they are effective at innovation while only 15% of low-performance organizations perceive the same.
Still, most organizations are not currently equipped to promote and support innovation. Seventy-five percent (75%) of executives in our study on innovation admit their organizations do not have a specific strategy for increasing creative ideas in their organizations. Most have the "Eastern Time Zone mentality;" that's just the way things are done around here.
Understanding how innovation happens, how to encourage it among the entire workforce, and how to kill certain ideas early and surface the right big bets is essential to establishing a risk-taking and agile environment, and making any organization more innovative. This is where the human capital function can play a big role. Although many organizations have chief innovation officers (or innovation is a key function of another senior executive, such as the chief marketing officer), innovation should not be the duty of one person or department--rather all areas need to share innovation management responsibilities and all executives need to become savvy innovation leaders.
In order to explore this further and uncover the keys to fostering an innovative culture, i4cp has, in partnership with Executive Networks, launched a Collaborative on Creating a Culture of Sustainable Innovation Leadership. This unique group of organizations is an "action learning" forum designed to co-create next practices on innovation, and will provide HR leaders with the capabilities and tools needed to build and sustain high-innovation cultures in partnership with their peers inside and outside HR. The Collaborative has assembled thought leaders and experts in innovation to challenge the status quo and conventional wisdom, and aim well beyond "incremental change."
More information on this Culture Collaborative, including the team of experts which is supporting it, can be found in the brochure. This forum is expected to kick off this fall, with a limited number of organizations participating. Using a combination of in-person and virtual meetings, we're excited to unlock the innovation potential that exists in most organizations today.
And, don't worry. We promise to specify the time zone for all meetings.
