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In today’s competitive business environment, successful innovation is a non-negotiable. At Miro, we’ve been studying innovation for nearly two years, surveying 5,000 leaders and 17,000 information workers across global enterprises and interviewing dozens of product and innovation executives from leading companies. Our 2023 research revealed that nearly all (98%) enterprise decision makers agree that innovation is urgent for their company. What’s more, 94% say that a company would survive for just a decade or less without innovating successfully.
There’s no doubt about it — enterprises must prioritize innovation today or risk paying the price in the near future. But what does it take to innovate well and, more to the point, what distinguishes strong innovators from their competition? We wanted to learn more, so in 2024 we ran two additional global innovation surveys and are excited to share our learnings.
While there’s no doubt that tooling and technology is important for innovation, the human elements are a much bigger piece of the puzzle — and culture holds the key. When companies are optimized for innovation, their cultures reduce roadblocks and friction to all stages of the innovation lifecycle — and they can, in turn, innovate better, faster, and more efficiently.
But, more often than not, workers and leaders alike report a variety of cultural obstacles that slow them at each turn, from fear of making the wrong decisions to doubts about leadership, communication breakdowns, inability to tap into market or user insights, lack of psychological safety, and more. But don’t worry: it’s not too late to address these common issues and build a culture of innovation — and we at Miro are here to help.
This is the introductory article in an upcoming four-part series, which will dive into our findings on the four building blocks of innovative cultures. We’ll share insights on why these core drivers of innovation are so crucial, along with our findings on where enterprises are struggling, the root causes, and how to do better. Let’s take a closer look at the four building blocks of innovative cultures — and a sneak peek at what’s to come in our series.
Without a clear purpose, innovation flounders
Purpose is the first of the four building blocks of innovation velocity. We define purpose as the ability to align around a shared strategy and goals, which gives each individual and team clarity on how their work contributes to the bigger picture. Purpose brings a company’s innovation strategy to life at every level of the org chart.
But our research in 2023 found that enterprises struggle greatly with this. Seventy-nine percent of enterprise leaders agreed that their company struggles to turn its strategic vision into a reality, and more than one in three information workers report that they do not even know what their company’s innovation strategy is.
A strong sense of purpose isn’t just good for business — it’s good for people. When a company’s culture prioritizes purpose, it brings people together to become something greater than the sum of their parts. Purpose contributes a shared sense of value to each person and their projects. It is the glue that binds strategy to our individual and team contributions, boosting engagement and a sense of meaning. And, ultimately, it ensures that everyone — from new hires to seasoned executives — can align around a shared goal and know that their contributions matter.
Adaptability is table stakes in our changing world
We are living in a time of intense change. From tremendous breakthroughs in technologies like AI to political and economic shifts, it can be difficult to predict what will come next.
That’s why adaptability, the second building block, is more important than ever for today’s enterprises. We define adaptability as the ability to adapt to changing internal and external circumstances, continuously adjusting projects and processes to develop the best end product possible. However, only 21% of information workers strongly agree that their company will adjust or stop a project in development, even if research indicates that changes are needed — a clear adaptability gap.
When enterprises prioritize adaptability, they empower individuals and teams to be flexible in the face of our changing world. For example, organizations embody adaptability when teams are able and willing to adjust project plans in unanticipated ways, such as when customer research suggests that certain tweaks will create a better user experience or meet a changing market need. Adaptability also helps enterprises roll with the punches when small challenges arise, an important ingredient for successful innovation in uncertain times and beyond.
Collaboration unlocks innovation potential
Innovation is always a group effort, since bringing a new product or service to market necessarily involves individuals and teams with diverse expertise and skills coming together. This is why collaboration is an essential building block of an innovative culture — yet only one in five information workers describe their company’s collaboration as “excellent,” so there’s clearly room for improvement.1
We define collaboration as the ability to nurture and maintain effective ways of working, thus creating workflows that increase productivity, engagement, and empower individuals and teams to do their best work together. When collaboration thrives, individuals and teams experience far less friction when completing their tasks, whether large or small. A collaborative mindset also supports and is strengthened by a strong sense of purpose, since everyone takes pride in coming together to turn their shared vision into a reality — and it also supports adaptability, since it’s far easier to roll with the punches when everyone is aligned and working together.
Always keep the customer close
The final building block of innovative cultures is customer-centricity. Customer-centricity refers to the ability to maintain a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences, as well as market shifts. We find that customer-centricity both supports and is supported by velocity: 64% of innovation leaders say that maintaining a quick pace of innovation enables their company to respond to market shifts and customer needs.
But our research also shows that customer-centricity is much harder than it sounds. For example, less than 20% of decision makers rate their companies as “really strong” on gathering customer insights, turning these into strategic recommendations, and ensuring that these insights are accessible to teams.1 What’s more, leaders identify a lack of alignment with customer needs and market trends as the top challenge to innovation in their company.
By building a more customer-centric culture, enterprises can boost their innovation success while also helping all team members understand the real and potential impact of their efforts.
Stay tuned for a closer look
In our forthcoming series, we’ll take a deep dive into why purpose, adaptability, collaboration, and customer-centricity fuel cultures of innovation. Each article will feature our original research on why these are so crucial, as well as a look at what is (and isn’t) working for enterprises.
At Miro, our mission is to empower teams to build the next big thing. With our insights into these core ingredients of innovative cultures, we are excited to help enterprises do just that — and, in the process, build a more innovative future. Stay tuned!
1 In March 2024, Miro conducted a survey of 7,180 information workers and 1,802 decision makers, all of whom were full-time employees at enterprise companies. Respondents were from seven markets (Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and US) and included a variety of industries.
2 In August 2024, Miro conducted a survey of 1,500 information workers and 1,500 decision makers, all of whom were full-time employees at enterprise companies. Respondents were from seven markets (Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and US) and included a variety of industries.
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Credit: Original article published here.