Innovative organizations cannot sustain their achievements without fresh ideas and new approaches that are often brought in by new hires. Companies that foster innovation need not just highly skilled workforce; they need highly engaged employees – people who love to work there, who are motivated to be creative, and whose personal values fit well the organizational culture. Finding the “right” people for the organization is a challenge that goes through all stages of a recruitment process. However, if the initial step of generating applicants fails to bring these “right” people into the mix, the whole hiring process may prove fruitless.
It’s time to stop treating our creative thinkers like kooky grown-up children and start respecting the deep practice and education they bring to their work. It’s time to become one of them.
The deepest organizational learning occurs when the status quo is held up to constant questioning. Organizations seeking greater innovation capacity should abandon their expert stance and instead, adopt a questioning-and-discovery oriented point of view, in which nothing is accepted at face value, and healthy skepticism is the norm.