What’s the secret sauce of a culture of innovation?

This Thursday we’ll discuss “Measuring an innovation ecosystem” on Innochat. Many will argue that to develop a culture of innovation you need talent, support, capital and a host of other mechanisms.

It’s such a common response that many organizations and governments around the world have created their own mechanisms to “drive” entrepreneurship and innovation in their respective ecosystems, but all their efforts don’t matter much because they lack a critical ingredient: culture.

Why? Because many don’t pay attention to culture.

Culture is not mandated, it is shaped by daily beliefs and actions. How do you shape culture?

Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, authors of Uncommon Service, have a good answer that applies to any organization: If you want people to change their behavior, you can’t address behavior directly. Willpower doesn’t work.

How can you influence people’s behavior? Change will happen in an instant when we realize that they way in which we behave, manifests from how we think. Thinking manifests behavior. You want someone to behave differently? You have to credibly make them think differently.

It is culture that provides boundaries for people in the absence of rules. There are many signs that you are developing a culture of innovation, the evidence is in the behavior first, not results. Therefore, the secret sauce of culture is mindset and heart-set.

Easier said than done; but it can be done.

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Measuring an innovation ecosystem