Different organisations have different structures and with that comes different structures to harness creativity within the organisation. Creativity can either become an ingrained part of the DNA that leads to innovation or it can remain latent and wasted. So how do we make the former happen and more importantly, how do we ensure that creativity turned into innovation, is actually explored commercially through an official yet flexible structure. The cost of wasting innovation is something every organisation should measure and be vary of.

A perfect illustration of this is Xerox. The company actually invented the first graphical user interface (GUI) personal computer, the Alto, at Xerox PARC. The management there had told their researchers to explore, innovate and create the new world of technology. However, the decision makers at head office in New York, failed to see the value in such an invention and therefore, they ignored what could have transformed Xerox into a whole new industry. In the end, a small company called Apple Computer took advantage of the Alto and the Macintosh was born. All this because Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC in 1979. Watch the video above and you can see that with an official yet flexible structure to explore the commercial value of innovation, could have changed everything for Xerox.

There are two key lessons to be learnt in order to create such an official yet flexible structure.

1. Hire expert collaborators.

A organisational structure that hires collaborators who are experts at what they do but are willing to share and be challenged, will allow you to create a communication channel between teams, departments, offices regardless of borders. This is especially important in a vertical organisation, originally designed to have hierarchies and departments who specialise in silos. In a horizontal organisation, the above is the natural order, however, a vertical organisation can begin to transform itself by hiring those expert collaborators. They will spot opportunities and therefore become an innovation funnel on the one hand and at the same time, due to their open channels of communication, take developments directly to the right people more efficiently. With this sort of structure in place, a Xerox PARC situation would not have occurred in the 1970s.

2. The other side of this loop, is measured progress.

For creativity to turn to innovation and for innovation to turn in to a commercial success, every single employee needs to see progress. This does not necessarily mean explaining an idea to the relevant team in the organisation and then seeing it made. Not at all. It’s more subtle than that. The success is firmly determined by regular feedback. If every person involved an idea is provided by structured and timely feedback, then they feel like they are contributing and their creativity means something. When they receive no feedback, they stop creating and that discourages others too.

Of course communication technology has come a long way since the 1970s and so most organisations will have communications systems in place to share ideas, whether that be something as simple as a forum or something more elaborate such as a smart-wiki; however, without the above two key points as the foundation, technology will not harness human emotion and innovation wastage will occur.

What processes do you have in place?