Virginia Martinez Posing
The Innovation Mindset
by Virginia Martinez
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or most of my career, CEOs and executives have been asking me the same question: “How do we become more innovative?”

My answer is always the same: you need a culture that reinforces psychological safety.

Do you want to guess how many executives expect that answer? Not many. Even fewer want to hear it. They expect me to talk about concrete things like activities and processes, not soft things like culture.

I’m quite lucky that my clients see me as an innovation expert. I worked with some of the most celebrated professors at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business designing innovation courses for executives. Then I spent five years at IDEO, a global innovation consultancy, where I leveraged design thinking to create innovative talent solutions and advised clients on how to create more innovative cultures.

So it makes sense that they’d see me as an innovation expert. But here’s my little secret: I’m really a people, culture and belonging expert. And it is through that expertise that I help teams and organizations become more innovative.

Executives are essentially asking how to shift their outcomes and impact in a different or new direction.
To be fair, it’s not always about being more innovative. Sometimes I’m asked to help them become more adaptive, nimble, collaborative, customer-centered or creative.

But when you boil it down, it is all the same request. Executives are essentially asking how to shift their outcomes and impact in a different or new direction.

Of course, it would be easy enough for me to recommend the processes and actions they need to take to achieve those outcomes and impact. But the part that isn’t always apparent at first is that in order to successfully execute on the processes and actions, there first needs to be a shift in beliefs, behaviors and mindsets among employees.

How to become more innovative chart
For any shifts to happen, there also needs to be a foundation of psychological safety. And I assure them, if they ignore this foundation for too long, things will crumble.

Like clockwork, it is at this point in the conversation that a CEO tells me they have culture covered, because Human Resources sends out an annual engagement survey. And they ask that we refocus on innovation.

The inability to see innovation and culture as related—and more specifically the “engagement survey” response—used to exasperate me. I would have to suppress my eye roll and deep sigh. However, thanks to my friend Kara Kirby of Insights Leadership Group, I have learned to reframe this rebuttal to my advantage.

Inspire, Empower, Enable Graphic
You see, many engagement and culture surveys use something called the SCARF model as the framework for their questions and scoring. What it measures is psychological safety. SCARF stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness. These are the five social domains where humans can feel either rewarded or threatened.

The SCARF model was introduced to the world by neuroscientist Dr. David Rock in 2008, and it essentially says that when humans perceive their safety is being threatened, their brain tells them to go into survival mode. Makes sense. However, our brain reacts the same way regardless of whether the threat impacts our physical safety or psychological safety. Meaning the perceived threats we experience in social settings—like work—can send us into survival mode.

To help translate the SCARF model of psychological safety into innovation focus areas for leaders, I ask a set of questions.

For any shifts to happen, there also needs to be a foundation of psychological safety. And I assure them, if they ignore this foundation for too long, things will crumble.
The inability to see innovation and culture as related…used to exasperate me.
Virginia Martinez On a Laptop
The inability to see innovation and culture as related…used to exasperate me.
1. Whose ideas and perspectives are most valued at the organization?
If it’s a select few or select groups, there is likely a low sense of Innovation Status. Employees may feel like they are not appreciated for their ideas and are less likely to come forward with them.

2. Have you set a clear purpose for the organization, one that inspires people to come to work and provides them an inner compass?
If the answer is no, that creates a low sense of Innovation Certainty. Don’t be surprised when employees do not meet expectations; it’s because they are unaware of any.

3. Are your teams empowered to explore new ideas and test them out?
Do they have a small budget they can use for innovation projects, or do they need to fill out a bunch of forms for approval? Teams with low Innovation Autonomy usually feel like there are a lot of politics, bureaucracy, and red tape in the way of being creative.

4. Do folks feel safe throwing out an idea or challenging the status quo?
Are a diversity of backgrounds and perspective celebrated? Do employees fear being ostracized or shut down for their “wild idea”? Are they excluded from meetings because they have a different skill set? Low Innovation Relatedness impacts the comfort level people feel sharing their ideas or perspectives to improve on the ideas of others.

5. If someone wants to experiment with an idea or prototype a new solution, is there a clear process to follow?
Is it safe to fail, or are only some people allowed to make mistakes? Is there clear decision-making criteria used to decide which ideas move forward? Does the criteria apply to everyone, or do some people get away with going over budget and breaking policies? Low Innovation Fairness makes people feel excluded and therefore less likely to participate in innovation activities.

Organizations that do not prioritize psychological safety will have a workforce in survival mode, functioning from a place of fear.
Virginia Martinez holding a marker
The answers and discussion around these questions inform the Innovation Focus areas, and tell me what behaviors and mindsets need to shift in order to successfully practice and execute new innovation processes and activities. From there I can provide more targeted guidance and support for clients on their path to becoming more innovative.

I challenge any executive to pull out their most recent engagement survey data and swap out the word “engagement” for “innovation.” Organizations that do not prioritize psychological safety will have a workforce in survival mode, functioning from a place of fear. They are more likely to withhold or shoot down new ideas. This prohibits innovation.

Organizations that provide a sense of psychological safety are the ones that thrive, because employees understand the direction the company is headed, feel comfortable sharing ideas, are empowered to try new things and are eager to collaborate. These are all things that lead to innovation.

Virginia Martinez headshot
Virginia Martinez studied at Boston College, receiving a degree in English studies and communication studies. Her career ranges across talent, people and culture. Her superpower is that she can quickly identify the superpowers in others, and can unlock their creative and innovative potential.

Martinez created Tenth House Consulting as a way to combine her passion for creating more purpose-led and people-centered organizations with her expertise in design thinking and innovation processes.

Prior to starting her own practice, Martinez was with IDEO, where she partnered with organizations to introduce, practice and scale new innovation capabilities at their organization. At the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, she customized professional development programming for innovative leaders.

tenthhouse.work

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Virginia Martinez studied at Boston College, receiving a degree in English studies and communication studies. Her career ranges across talent, people and culture. Her superpower is that she can quickly identify the superpowers in others, and can unlock their creative and innovative potential.

Martinez created Tenth House Consulting as a way to combine her passion for creating more purpose-led and people-centered organizations with her expertise in design thinking and innovation processes.

Prior to starting her own practice, Martinez was with IDEO, where she partnered with organizations to introduce, practice and scale new innovation capabilities at their organization. At the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, she customized professional development programming for innovative leaders.

tenthhouse.work

Linkedin Instagram