In order for an organization to remain competitive and relevant in today’s world, they have to be willing to embrace change. But change is something that human beings are naturally resistant to. This is something that is seen very strongly in stagnant companies, which are companies that often have a lot of capital behind them, meaning that they don’t notice that their lack of engagement with innovation management software is actually costing them dearly.
Complex Issues within Stagnant Companies
Usually, managers at stagnant companies do want to change, but they don’t know where or how to start. This is due to certain complexities and conflicts within the internal organization, such as:
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The fact that a hierarchical, conservative culture is more suitable to the organization, perhaps because it fits with the clientele of the business.
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The fact that it takes a long time to change the culture of an organization, requiring measurement and monitoring around the clock.
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The fact that not everybody wants to change, particularly not on a large scale.
The reality is, however, that leaders and managers can have it all: they can have a stagnant company that still embraces innovative management. They can stay conservative, keeping change to a minimum, while at the same time innovating at every opportunity. They key is identifying those opportunities.
How to Have it All
There are a few strategies and tactics that managers and leaders should employ within a stagnant organization, including:
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Making teams available outside of the organization’s core. They should be responsible for innovation and creativity, take an outside look on the issues that exist, and come up with solutions to solve them. It is then the role of management to decide whether or not any of these solutions should be implemented. If any are, then the outside team should be responsible for implementation as well.
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Ensuring that the external creative teams are able to gradually become part of the company’s overall culture, thereby changing something, but not the way people work and are comfortable with.
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Making sure that people are connected directly to those who can make decisions. People within the organization are bound to be full of good ideas and if they know they can speak to someone in power about those, they are more likely to generate more and to inspire others to do the same. This is often a very difficult thing to do, particularly in stagnant and conservative organizations, as they are often hierarchical in nature. However, is there is just one thing that you are willing to change, let it be that communication should be open.
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Whenever anything produces results, it should be highlighted and celebrated. This will help people to feel better about things that are happening, and it will show them that change, while scary, is often for the better.
It is impossible to escape innovation nowadays, but how you implement it can be done in such a way that it isn’t too frightening.