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.
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
- Play 1: Prioritize Innovation
- Play 3: Drive Change
- Play 6: Develop an Innovation Mindset
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Micromanagement
- Play 2: Empower Staff
- Play 8: Support Open Dialogue
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Stick to the Status Quo
- Play 3: Drive Change
- Play 9: Focus on Behaviors that Support Change
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Lack Funding
- Play 4: Seek Affordable Solutions
- Play 6: Develop an Innovation Mindset
- Play 12: Align with Organizational Values that Support Innovation
- Supplemental Resources
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
- Play 6: Develop an Innovation Mindset
- Play 7: Create a Safe Environment
- Supplemental Resources
- “How Does Culture Influence Innovation? A Systematic Literature Review” by Mu Tian, Ping Deng, Yingying Zhang, and Maria Paz Salmador (research publication)
- Demystifying Innovation Culture Efforts by Bob Eckert and Natalie Jenkins (book)
Barrier: Fear of Retribution
- Play 7: Create a Safe Environment
- Play 8: Support Open Dialogue
- Play 10: Improve Communications
- Supplemental Resources
- The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Hal Gregersen, Jeffrey H. Dyer, and Clayton Christensen (book)
- “Accelerate!” by John P. Kotter (article)
Barrier: Office Politics
- Play 1: Prioritize Innovation
- Play 7: Create a Safe Environment
- Supplemental Resources
- “What's Inside the CEO's Innovation Playbook?” by Braden Kelley (article)
- “Becoming a Leader Who Fosters Innovation" by David Magellan Horth and Jonathan Vehar (white paper)
Barrier: Resisting Change
- Play 3: Drive Change
- Play 6: Develop an Innovation Mindset
- Play 9: Focus on Behaviors that Support Change
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Supplemental Resources
- “The Organization of the Future: A New Model for a Faster-Moving World” by John P. Kotter (article)
- “Moving from Best to Better and Better: Business Practice Redesign Is an Untapped Opportunity” by Deloitte Insights (white paper)
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
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Play 12: Align with Organizational Values that Support Innovation
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Values Do Not Support Innovation
- Play 12: Align with Organizational Values that Support Innovation
- Play 13. Focus on the Long Term
- Play 15: Drive Innovation into HR Policies and Practices
- Supplemental Resources
- “How Do Your Employees Feel about Your Innovation Strategies?” by Jessica Day (article)
Barrier: Focused on the Short Term
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Play 13: Focus on the Long Term
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Rigid HR Hiring Procedures
- Play 15: Drive Innovation into HR Policies and Practices
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: HR Policies Reward Outcomes, Not Process
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Play 15: Drive Innovation into HR Policies and Practices
- Supplemental Resources
- Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck-Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen (book)
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace (book)
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
- Play 16: Aligning Organizational Structure to Support Innovation
- Supplemental Resources
- ACRP Synthesis 40: Issues with Airport Organization and Reorganization by Kimberly A. Kenville and James F. Smith (research report)
- “Organizational Culture and Innovation Culture: Exploring the Relationships Between Constructs” by Mohammad Sadegh Sharifirad and Vahid Ataei (research publication)
Barrier: Isolating Innovation
- Play 1: Prioritize Innovation
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Play 17: Effectively Roll Out Structural Changes
- Supplemental Resources
- “The Changing Face of Innovation: Next Challenges for Practice” by the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (article)
Barrier: Inconsistent Innovation Acceptance
- Play 6: Develop an Innovation Mindset
- Play 18: Develop Strategies by Business Function to Overcome Resistance to Change
- Supplemental Resources
- “Distribution, Disruption and Failure: Building a Culture of Innovation in the Canadian Armed Forces” by Major A. McHardy (research publication)
- “The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures” by Gary P. Pisano (article)
Barrier: Not Collaborating
- Play 6: Develop an Innovation Mindset
- Play 18: Develop Strategies by Business Function to Overcome Resistance to Change
- Play 19: Create a Collaborative Work Environment
- Supplemental Resources
- “Moving from Best to Better and Better: Business Practice Redesign Is an Untapped Opportunity” by Deloitte Insights (white paper)
- “The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures” by Gary P. Pisano (article)
Barrier: No Budget for Innovation
- Play 3: Drive Change
- Play 4: Seek Affordable Solutions
- Play 12: Align with Organizational Values that Support Innovation
- Play 20: Emphasizing Organizational Budgets to Support Innovation
- Supplemental Resources
- “C-Suite: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport CEO Candace McGraw” by Valerie Silva (article)
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
- Play 11: Develop a Unifying Strategic Plan
- Play 21: Discover What Motivates Employees
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Lack of Time
- Play 1: Prioritize Innovation
- Play 8: Support Open Dialogue
- Play 22: Structure Time for Speculation
- Supplemental Resources
Barrier: Lack of Training
- Play 19: Create a Collaborative Work Environment
- Play 23: Provide Innovation-Related Learning Experiences
- Supplemental Resources
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
- Play 10: Improve Communications
- Play 25: Focus on Learning by Transferring Knowledge
- Supplemental Resources
