Organizations widely agree that innovation is urgent and important. But here’s what’s less clear: how to consistently fuel and foster that innovation.
Through our research, we’ve identified four main building blocks for cultures of innovation, and there are clear strategies that separate organizations that experience repeatable success versus ones where innovation is less frequent.
We’ve already explored how purpose fuels innovation. It improves alignment, shows team members how their contributions impact the bigger picture, and builds a more engaged work environment. Now it’s time to look at the second building block: adaptability.
Adaptability is an organization’s ability to adjust its course and make necessary changes to product and service development — rather than white-knuckling rigid plans and processes. For example, when a team receives new insights about user preferences in the middle of developing a new feature, they’re willing and able to adjust their plans and implement that new information.
Organizations that prioritize adaptability treat every innovation project as a dynamic work-in-progress instead of a static set of tasks and standards. And it’s this attitude that allows them to succeed. Let’s take a closer look at why.
Adaptability supports innovation velocity
When it comes to innovating successfully, the strongest organizations know that a good idea is only part of the puzzle — they also have to bring it to market before the competition. This is why innovation velocity is so crucial: with it, companies can develop and launch the next big thing quickly while also maintaining quality.
Sixty-four-percent of knowledge workers agree that velocity is important because it enables organizations to respond effectively to market shifts and changing customer needs. In fact, workers say it’s the top reason why pace matters.
So, when workers are forced to plod along through bureaucracy and bottlenecks? They’re unable to innovate effectively — and then their progress slows even further. However, particularly in competitive industries, reducing time-to-market is crucial for creating something cutting-edge (instead of playing catch-up).
Unfortunately, it’s an area where organizations struggle. While many companies are quick to applaud their adaptable approach, only 48% of knowledge workers agree that adaptability is both a core value and a consistent behavior at their company. This suggests that their experiences on the ground don’t align with leaders’ intentions, making it an important area for reflection and attention.
Adaptability embraces changing customer and market needs
Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Even when your team is heads-down on a project, broader changes — market shifts, the economic climate, and technology advancements — are happening that may impact your work. Adaptability means being able to roll with them all.
But if your team is saddled with inflexible processes, it’s tough to respond to the dynamic environment. In fact, 44% of global knowledge workers agree that customer and market trends change so fast it’s hard to keep pace.
Rigid ways of working are one of the biggest culprits, with 32% of knowledge workers citing them as the top factor slowing innovation at their company. Workers have no choice but to put their blinders on and abide by the original plan, essentially ignoring internal and external factors that keep changing. Only 50% of knowledge workers agree or strongly agree that their company will stop or change a project mid-development based on testing or research.
This means that, by the time the team pushes their project out into the world, it runs the risk of being immediately outdated and out-of-touch with the current moment.
To be truly innovative, companies need to both recognize and react to broader shifts as they happen. This means adjusting their larger strategies and roadmap, and potentially also making changes mid-project.
Innovation infrastructure: Tools should increase your adaptability, not hinder it
An adaptive culture is key for innovation. But you can’t be adaptive if your tools are inflexible, and our research shows this is an area where there’s significant room for improvement.
In our 2023 global innovation survey, knowledge workers and decision-makers cited technology as a top roadblock to innovation. Additionally, less than half of workers say that their tools help them react and adapt to changing circumstances.
It’s breeding discontentment, with an alarming 91% of employees admitting they’re frustrated with the tech in their workplace for a variety of reasons, including slow speeds and a lack of important features.
And, even if a tool manages to check the basic boxes, it often doesn’t deliver the value the worker actually needs. For example, only 27% of workers say that their tools actively encourage identifying and troubleshooting blockers. That lack of foresight impedes their ability to be flexible, proactive, and forward-thinking.
You can (and should) adjust your culture to prioritize adaptability and encourage more innovation. However, those efforts will come up empty if people are stuck with legacy tools that don’t flex with their changing approaches and priorities.
Want innovation? Inflexibility won’t cut it
Innovation is about pushing the envelope — and you can’t do that while maintaining a tight grip on your long-held approaches, procedures, and standards. Put simply, you can’t create change without embracing it. And that’s exactly why the most innovative teams are the adaptable ones.
1 In August 2024, Miro conducted a survey of 1,500 information workers and 1,500 decision makers, all of whom were full-time employees at enterprise companies. Respondents were from seven markets (Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and US) and included a variety of industries.
