The role of HR in creating innovative organisations

'Charting the Territory for HR' a workshop on the role of HR in creating innovative organisations

20 May 2011, Innovation for Growth Project, Lancaster University Management School

Speakers:  Prof. Paul Sparrow, Centre for Performance-led HR, David McNerney, Executive Director of HR, Sellafield Ltd.

This was the first in a series of workshops exploring the people aspects of innovation.  It was a fascinating introduction into the macro and micro factors that need to be considered in attempting to construct innovative organisations.  The starting point is that innovation is a 'people-centric' issue.  Macro elements discussed included the requirement to move away from traditional business models, to consider different organisational structures and to 'institutionalise' innovation within a company.  Micro factors included training of leaders, creating climates to support innovation and recruiting (and supporting) innovative people.

Some interesting dilemmas facing organisations seeking to become innovative.  For example, organisations that have honed themselves to perfection/optimal efficiency may also be insufficiently flexible to cope with unforeseen, step-changes in the trading environment.  (Consider the current recession or the effect on the auto-trade and computer chip industries as a result of the tsunami in Japan).  Organisations seeking to increase their level of innovation have to find a balance between creativity and control, cost and risk (and the associated difficulties in managing an increasingly complex organisation), managing the conflict between pursuing innovation and other strategic imperatives, and effective resource allocation (innovation inevitably comes with a degree of failure).

Six business models for innovation were discussed briefly, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.  Delegates were invited to think about ways of remodelling their product offering.  This was linked to the idea of 'product service innovation'; the notion of product is changing from one of design and functionality to one where the consumer assesses it in terms of the access it gives to other services and technologies.  Consider the iPhone, for example.  It is well designed (aesthetically pleasing) has good functionality (and reliability) but also is a platform for other designers to distribute 'apps'.  The phrase, 'the democratisation of innovation' was used to describe how new technologies are changing the face of innovation from 'closed' to 'open' approaches.  (Read Chesburgh's book, 'Open Innovation' if you want to find out more).

At the micro level, some interesting research by Fiona Patterson was used to show that traditionally desirable personality traits such as 'agreableness' and 'conscientiousness' may not actually be high scoring traits in innovative people and as a consequence, organisations may be deselecting innovators by default.  Changing recruitment policies and adopting different development approaches for innovators may be necessary.  That implies organisations need to develop flexibility for managing diversity too.

A really fascinating workshop, and I haven't really done it justice here, but it provided real food for thought.  It was a challenge to HR professionals, in particular those who communicate the psychological contract to employees.  While the current narrative is a plea for trust and engagement, we were asked to be more honest in recognising the heightened levels of risk and uncertainty for employees and the need to drive for greater flexibility.  You can download a copy of the white paper, 'The Innovation Imperative:  Charting the Territory for HR' from the Centre for Performance-Led HR's website:

http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/research/centres/hr/WhitePapers/

There are three other workshops in this series:

1.  A HR strategy for Innovation (8th June 2011)
2.  Leading for Innovation  (15th June 2011)
3.  Innovative People  (22nd June 2011)

Contact ifg@lancaster.ac.uk for further details.  If you decide to attend, put up a summary on this blog.  Let's get the world inventing!

Miles