1. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
& INNOVATION
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 1

2. LEADING OR MANAGING INNOVATION
• Most often, managing is about drawing boundaries and applying rules.
However
• Leading is about giving an open travel VISA for innovation. It’s about
boundaries-free practice.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 2

3. • Innovation is not kind of directing staff to the same direction, but
is a case of providing the appropriate environment for innovation.
(Lee-Mortimer, 1995)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 3

4. Similarly,
• Building an innovative, learning organization requires a leadership
more than management.
(Swieringa & Wierdsma, 1992)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 4

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP
• “Good leadership is a critical success factor for any organization”.
(Swieringa & Wierdsma, 1992, p. 82)
• “The primary task of leadership is to direct attention”.
(Goleman, 2013, p. 52)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 5

6. VISIONARY LEADER
• An effective leader who is able to transform the ideas into a behaviour.
(Cribbin, 1972)
• An effective leader has the ability to make thoughts something is touchable.
(Bennis, 1989)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 6

7. FROM VISION TO CULTURE
• “visioning is dynamic and collaborative”.
(Acona et al., 2007, p. 97)
• This dynamics and collaboration leads to:
Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 7

8. WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?
• Culture is a collection of shared values, ethics and learned behaviour.
(Cribbin, 1972)
• “Culture is the operating system that brings to life the underlying core values
of an organization”.
(Achua & Lussier, 2010, p.324)
• “Culture is the way work is done around here”.
(Kubica & LaForest , 2013, p.15)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 8

9. THE IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION CULTURE
• “Culture is critical driver”.
• Culture is a similar to a glue who strongly stick the organization’s strategy to
staff and customers.
• Strong culture able to attract and keep the talented people.
(Kubica & LaForest , 2013)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 9

10. On the other hand:
• Unfit culture is a BIG ENEMY of innovation.
• Weak culture creates an internal conflict, lack of communication, gossiping
and manipulation.
(Achua & Lussier, 2010)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 10

11. WHY CULTURE IS CRITICAL?
Cultureuntouchable uncontrollable
immeasurable
Inevitable
existence
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 11

12. It’s just like a hidden department attached to
the organization structure
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 12

13. HOW TO BUILD A CULTURE OF
INNOVATION?
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 13

14. Indeed:
The visionary leader is a KEY FACTOR.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 14

15. • Before any thing, there should be a deep belief in the leader’s mind:
I’m not a “Great Man” leader.
I’m an “Incomplete” leader.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 15

16. “No leader is perfect. The best ones don’t try to be-they
concentrate on honing their strengths and find others who
can make up for their limitations”.
(Ancona et al., 2007)
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 16

17. NECESSARY CAPABILITIES
Incomplete
Leader
Sense
making
Relating
Visioning
inventing
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 17

18. THE VISIONARY LEADER ROLE
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 18

19. Common
Purpose
Mutual
Engagement
Shared
Values
consensus
belonging
collaboration
learning
Bold
ambition
trust
responsibility
influence
respect
Psychological
safety
Less
tension
Less
conflict
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 19

20. TOXIC CULTURE
Toxic
Culture
Blurred
vision
Fears
Blaming
game
Grouping
Disconnected
leadership
Non
transparency
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 20

21. GOOGLE INNOVATION SECRET
• Google published in September 2015, a research about the reasons behind its
high performance team.
• About 37000 staff members (6000 directors&managers, 31000 employees).
• It took 2 years to conclude the findings.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 21

22. WHAT THEY FOUND?
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 22

23. MOST MOTIVES FACTORS
Source: World Economic Forum Website
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 23

24. The most important factor that has been
pushing the team towards innovation is
Psychological Safety
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 24

25. WHY YOUR EMPLOYEES DON’T INNOVTE?
• A global survey has been done in companies from US, Canada, UK, Germany,
and India.
• Nearly 3500 were surveyed.
• The survey published in an article in Harvard Business Review in February
2016.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 25

26. DISTURBING CONCLUSION
“Most employees believe that management does not
inspire them to do great work — or give them the
opportunity to do so”.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 26

27. • Encourage and underscore employees who have done innovative work.
• Spend time visiting employees, walk around and talk one-to-one to explore
their ideas.
• Ask yourself how much of the necessary resources have been devoted to
trigger innovation throughout the organization.
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 27

28. REFERENCES
Cribbin, J. (1972) Effective managerial leadership. New York: Amacom.
Kubica, T. & LaForest, S. (2013) Organizational gravity. Leadership Excellence, 30(8), pp. 15-15.
Ancona, D. , Malone, T. , Orlikowski, W. & Senge, P. (2007) In praise of the incomplete leader. Harvard Business Review, 85(2), pp. 92-100.
Achua, C. & Lussier, R. (2010) Effective leadership. 4th edn. Stamford, Connecticut: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Bennis, W. (1989) Why leaders can't lead. Training & Development Journal, 43(4), pp. 35-39.
Goleman, D. (2013) The focused leader: how effective executives direct their own-and their organizations'-attention. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), pp. 50-60.
Hill, L. (2016). Is this what it takes to be an innovative leader? [online]: World Economic Forum. Available from http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/is-this-what-it-takes-to-be-an-innovative-
leader?utm_content=buffer50127&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer/ [Accessed: 28/2/2016]
Lee-Mortimer, A. (1995) Managing innovation and risk. World Class Design to Manufacture, 2(5), pp. 38-42.
Sturt, D & Rogers, J. (2016). A Global Survey Explains Why Your Employees Don't Innovate .[Online]: Harvard Business Review. Available from https://hbr.org/2016/02/why-your-employees-dont-
innovate/ [Accessed: 28/2/2016]
Swieringa, J. & Wierdsma, A. (1992) Becoming a learning organization: beyond the learning curve. Wokingham: Addison-Wesley.
Thomson, S. (2015). Google’s surprising discovery about effective teams [Online]: World Economic Forum. Available from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/googles-surprising-discovery-about-
effective-teams/?utm_content=buffer5f37a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer/ [accessed: 10/2/2016].
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 28

29. THANK YOU
Organizational Culture & Innovation Ammar Elhussein 29