Company culture and innovation can help build a successful business
Leaders have recognised that a company’s competitive position depends on their capacity for constant transformation. As such, organisations are continuously asking themselves one question, “how can we become more innovative?” The concept of innovation may be a simple one, but the process of driving innovation can be complex.
We understand that employees play a fundamental part in an innovation culture, which in turn is enabled by the trust relationship between employees and their leaders. High-trust relationships create opportunities for sharing ideas that help fuel innovation.
Leaders must develop a systematic, continuous and effective way of capturing employee ideas. To this end, embracing the right technological platforms for ideation can be an important part of an overall innovation strategy. An ideas exchange that connects leaders and employees can have a greater and more immediate impact.
Strive to create a space of safety for your employees to ideate: how they respond to negative feedback can be a notable factor in limiting innovation. Do not create an environment of shame, blame and punishment, rather encourage openness and honesty and promote open dialogue that allows the sharing of ideas. The latter are reinforcing behaviours that are necessary for evolving an innovative culture.
Remember that “teamwork makes the dream work”, and a company’s culture needs to embrace cross-functional collaboration. Studies show that the connection that people have to their colleagues and the sense of oneness is a key cultural differentiator.
By focusing on aspects of your culture, driving innovation can become one of your company’s competitive advantages.
Africa’s variety of cultures and different backgrounds inform our rainbow Heritage, but nothing brings us together like sports and a lekker braai day.
But what is the history behind Heritage Day, September 24th (formerly known as Shaka day). It was a day commemorating the Zulu King Shaka who was known for uniting the Zulu clan and forming the Zulu nation. Every year, South Africans would gather at his grave to honour him. In 1995 a request for the day to be confirmed as an official holiday was rejected. After receiving pushback from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), it was decided that the day was needed and would be known as ‘‘Heritage Day.’’
Since then, South Africans have celebrated the day by wearing their traditional clothes, embracing different cultures, and the one language that we all speak, the braai.
