Innovation in Greece?
From mid July, my family and I will be situated mainly on Kythera, Greece for a period of 6 months. Since Kythera is located only 40 minutes by plane from Athens regular trips to see clients and partners while away is not a problem.
Everybody knows Greece as a great place for vacation. Simple pleasures like sunny weather, picturesque villages, delicious food at reasonable prices and a seemingly endless coastline attract visitors worldwide. But what does Greece have to offer when it comes to business?
It is no secret that the economy isn’t doing so well and The European Commission even predicts a greek recession this year. So what can be done to change things?
Together with the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) the Kokkalis Foundation has pointed out three main factors responsible for Greece’s innovation underperformance: 1) venture capital creation, 2) legal framework and business start up requirements, 3) the relationships between the university and industry. In order to support and guide investors who show interest to the greek market Invest in Greece was founded in 2008. It is the official Investment Promotion Agency of Greece that promotes and facilitates private investment and support and it does so free of charge. They have initiated networks, services and events in order to attract investors over the next years. It seems like Greece is getting around to create the framework for innovation but do they have the potential to develop an actual innovation culture? I’m excited to get a closer view on the greek market and see for myself where the potential lies.
The impact of a positive mindset
Positive Psychology is a term you hear more and more often in connection with employee performance and optimizing work environment. The term refers to how can improve your motivation and performance through your changing your attitude in certain situations. The fact that management behavior have a big impact on the work environment in teams and organizations, has encouraged several companies to introduce their managers to positive psycology.
Together with our network partner Strandgaard & Co we facilitated a workshop for a group of managers from Lundbeck on how to use positive psychology to change unfavorable habits in their teams and support creative and positive thinking. Through theory and practical exercises, we supplied them with knowledge and tools for becoming more aware and alert in their management roles: How to identify and develop personal strategies for flow and energy in daily work situations and to positively affect their surroundings.
We’ve all experienced to feel stressed and drained of energy after a workday. We tend to blame it on the boss, the difficult clients or the daily traffic jam. However, little changes can have big effects. Meeting your colleagues with a positive attitude and optimism instead of stress and short answers creates a very different energy at your work place. We all make these choises many times a day, when we interact with other people. Some situations may be more challenging to change into something positive than others. But in the end it is our own choise, if today’s budget meeting is going to be a dread or a unique possibility to talk about opportunities and (positive) change.
Here is a good little exercise for you: For one day, try to be aware of and focus on things that make you happy, organize your space and devote some time to activities you enjoy. Alone or with collegues. What fosters “A good work day” for you? We think we could all need a new perspective these days
Innovative summer plans
Sunbathing at one of the many lakes in and around Berlin or gaining new knowledge and meeting innovative people for refreshing input and inspiration? If you feel more attracted to the second option, we suggest you join us at the summer camp at Berlin University of the Arts*
Many organisations are challenged by the rapid changes of today’s market and the increasingly high expactations of their stakeholders. To continiously generate and implement new ideas and market opportunities gives you a head start to your competitiors. Most managers are aware of this fact but are challenged in their everyday lifes because of structural and cultural boundaries.
For the Berlin University of the Arts Pia Betton and Prof. Peter Friedrich Stephan facilitate a three day seminar where Radical Innovation – design of concepts, processes and systems, ethnographic field work and cognitive design are on the agenda. Through talks, workshops and coaching you will gain new insight in how to embrace change. You will be introduced to methods and tools that can help you overcome organisational obstacles and actively and efficiently work with innovation in your organisation.
*Read more about the seminar here or contact Berlin University of the Arts for more information!
Three main obstructions for innovation
Organisations spend a lot of time and energy talking about innovation. Often they focus all of their energy on developing strategies and action plans for innovation or developing new ways to beat the competition.
Rarely are the discussions at the top level in organisations about the obvious obstructions to innovation. In the following, I will identify the three biggest and most frequent obstructions and give advice on how to overcome them.
1. Limiting assumptions
“Nobody knows our customers better than our account managers.”
“No analysis can give us more knowledge about our market that we already have.”
Innovation begins with asking questions. Often we forget to ask questions because we are experts within our area and have built up a clear picture of the situation we are in. Our questions are often driven by our assumptions – they keep us from asking the right questions.
The first steps towards a realistic picture of the market is to build your research upon objective, concrete knowledge about the market.
2. Old-fashioned structures
“Innovation is something they work with in the marketing department.”
“It is the responsibility of Sales and Marketing department to know about client needs – my focus as a product developer is to develop products.”
Due to rising complexity in the value chain, many industries have lost the ability to work cross-functionally and to see new possibilities within the planned strategies. The motivation to try out new things and to get out of the comfort zone where you might fail is being ruined by result-orientated bonus systems and pre-defined goals.
I believe that a focus on cross-functional idea development in organisations and positive attention around the employees who dare to ask challenging questions will improve the ability to innovate and motivate innovative thinking in organisations.
3. A narrow definition of innovation
“We increase our focus on innovation by increasing the budgets of R&D.”
Reducing innovation to being only innovation in product development means missing out on many other important innovation possibilities in the value chain. Innovation can be made within areas like HR, suppliers, partners, logistics, communication, etc. By establishing innovation as a positive value in the entire organisation, you will strengthen the company’s future ability to innovate at many levels.