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Chapter 7: Nurture Your Program

As you build your culture of innovation program, you will need to nurture each of the five organizational elements that affect culture to uncover barriers and overcome challenges to progress. Beyond maintaining each play, this effort involves paying specific and careful attention to each element as a whole. Figure F7.1 summarizes how barriers in each area, briefly introduced in Chapter 4, can affect innovation.

OrgBarriers2_Barriers

Figure F7.1: How Barriers Affect Innovation.

Overcoming Leadership Barriers

Research shows that leaders at the highest levels have the greatest influence over whether an organization values innovation. When leaders inhibit or prevent values that support innovative thought from taking root, innovation stops before it even has a chance to start. Below are a few leadership barriers that can impede a culture of innovation's development, as well as plays that can help overcome these barriers.

Barrier: Not Attuned to Innovation
Barrier: Micromanagement
Barrier: Stick to the Status Quo
Barrier: Lack Funding
Barrier: Putting the Employee First

Overcoming Staff Barriers

If staff are not motivated to incorporate new ideas into their daily work, any airport initiative focused on innovation will simply be a nonstarter. Below are a few staff-related barriers that can destroy the possibility for a culture of innovation. Under each one, there are several plays and resources to help you overcome the barrier.

Barrier: Fear of Failure
Barrier: Fear of Retribution
Barrier: Office Politics
Barrier: Resisting Change

Overcoming Strategy & Policy Barriers

When values like pride and perfection appear in an airport's strategies and policies, they oppose the values that support innovation, making it very challenging for new and creative ways of thinking to gain traction. The following strategy and policy barriers can hinder a culture of innovation's development. Under each one, relevant plays and resources are provided to help you overcome the barrier.

Barrier: Lack a Clear Strategic Plan
Barrier: Values Do Not Support Innovation
Barrier: Focused on the Short Term
Barrier: Rigid HR Hiring Procedures
  • Play 15: Drive Innovation into HR Policies and Practices
  • Supplemental Resources
    • Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath (book)
    • Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Chris Fussell (contributor), Tantum Collins (contributor), and David Silverman (contributor) (book)
Barrier: HR Policies Reward Outcomes, Not Process

Overcoming Organizational Structure Barriers

When an airport's organizational structure is opposed to innovation, any major initiatives to drive innovation into the culture will likely crater. Below are some organizational structure barriers that hamper the development of a culture of innovation. Under each one, there are relevant plays and resources to help you overcome the barrier.

Barrier: Bureaucracy
Barrier: Isolating Innovation
Barrier: Inconsistent Innovation Acceptance
Barrier: Not Collaborating
Barrier: No Budget for Innovation

Overcoming Process & Procedure Barriers

The following barriers to processes and procedures can greatly obstruct innovation from flourishing at an airport. Under each one, there are relevant plays and resources to help you overcome the barrier.

Barrier: Lack of Motivating Goals
Barrier: Lack of Time
Barrier: Lack of Training
Barrier: Working in Silos
  • Play 10: Improve Communications
  • Play 24: Collaborate with Internal and External Partners
  • Supplemental Resources
    • Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh (book)
    • Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Chris Fussell (contributor), Tantum Collins (contributor), and David Silverman (contributor) (book)
    • Design Thinking: Business Innovation by Maurício Vianna, Ysmar Vianna, Isabel K. Adler, Brenda Lucena, and Beatriz Russo (book)
Barrier: Lack of Shared Information