Innovation Culture & Organizational Design Flashcards

What is 'psychological safety' as described by Amy Edmondson, and why is it critical for innovation culture?

Answer: A shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking and speaking up without fear of punishment

Psychological safety, coined by Amy Edmondson, is the shared belief that team members can take interpersonal risks—sharing ideas or admitting mistakes—without fear of punishment, which is foundational to creative risk-taking.

Which organizational structure is most associated with enabling innovation by reducing bureaucracy and increasing employee autonomy?

Answer: Flat or network-based structure that minimizes hierarchical layers

Flat or network-based organizational structures minimize hierarchical layers and approval chains, giving employees greater autonomy to experiment and collaborate, which fosters innovation.

The concept of an 'ambidextrous organization' refers to a company's ability to:

Answer: Balance both exploratory innovation and the exploitation of existing operational capabilities

An ambidextrous organization simultaneously pursues exploration (discovering new opportunities) and exploitation (optimizing existing operations), balancing short-term performance with long-term innovation.

What is the primary purpose of a 'skunkworks' project in organizational design?

Answer: To create a small, autonomous team working outside normal organizational constraints on advanced projects

A skunkworks project is a small, loosely structured group working with relative autonomy on advanced or secret projects, free from the bureaucracy that can stifle innovation in larger organizations.

Which of the following best describes a 'culture of experimentation' in innovative organizations?

Answer: An environment where small, fast tests are encouraged and failures are treated as learning opportunities

A culture of experimentation encourages frequent, low-cost tests with rapid feedback loops, treating failures as valuable data that improves future decisions rather than as punishable events.

How does 'innovation theater' harm organizational culture?

Answer: By creating the appearance of innovation activity without producing meaningful outcomes, which fosters employee cynicism

Innovation theater refers to performative activities that signal innovation without producing real outcomes, ultimately leading to employee cynicism and disengagement from genuine innovation efforts.

What does 'T-shaped' talent refer to in the context of building innovation-oriented teams?

Answer: Team members with deep expertise in one area combined with broad knowledge across multiple disciplines

T-shaped professionals have deep vertical expertise in one specialty combined with broad horizontal knowledge across multiple domains, enabling effective cross-functional collaboration essential for innovation.

Which of the following is a key characteristic of a 'learning organization' as defined by Peter Senge?

Answer: An organization that continuously transforms itself by facilitating learning and systems thinking at all levels

Peter Senge's 'learning organization' continuously expands its capacity to create results by facilitating individual and collective learning, systems thinking, and shared vision at all levels.

A corporate 'innovation lab' or 'accelerator' is best described as:

Answer: A dedicated organizational unit designed to rapidly develop and test new business ideas outside normal corporate processes

Innovation labs and corporate accelerators create a protected space with dedicated resources and reduced bureaucracy to rapidly develop and validate new ideas that might struggle within normal corporate structures.

What does the '70-20-10' innovation investment model prescribe?

Answer: Dedicating 70% of innovation resources to core business, 20% to adjacent opportunities, and 10% to transformational innovation

The 70-20-10 model, popularized by Google, allocates innovation resources across core (70%), adjacent (20%), and transformational (10%) initiatives, balancing risk while ensuring exploration of breakthrough opportunities.

What is the primary function of a 'Chief Innovation Officer' (CINO) role in an organization?

Answer: To champion innovation strategy, culture, and processes across the entire organization

A Chief Innovation Officer champions building innovation capabilities, aligning innovation strategy with business goals, breaking down cultural barriers, and ensuring innovation processes and resources are effective organization-wide.

Which of the following best describes 'reverse innovation' as defined by Vijay Govindarajan?

Answer: Developing low-cost innovations in emerging markets first, then adapting them for developed markets

Reverse innovation, coined by Vijay Govindarajan, describes innovations first developed for and in emerging markets that are subsequently sold in or adapted for developed markets at competitive price points.

How does organizational culture most directly inhibit innovation?

Answer: Through entrenched norms, risk aversion, and 'not invented here' syndrome that resist new ideas and external inputs

Cultural barriers like 'not invented here' syndrome, fear of failure, excessive risk aversion, and entrenched hierarchical norms are the most common and powerful inhibitors of innovation in established organizations.

What is a 'community of practice' (CoP) and how does it support innovation culture?

Answer: A voluntary group of people sharing a concern or passion who improve their practice through ongoing peer interaction

Communities of practice, defined by Etienne Wenger, are voluntary groups that share knowledge and learn from each other through ongoing informal interaction, accelerating innovation knowledge diffusion across organizations.

What does the 'exploration vs. exploitation' tension describe in innovation management, as articulated by James March?

Answer: The organizational challenge of simultaneously pursuing new opportunities and optimizing existing capabilities

The exploration-exploitation tension, articulated by James March, describes the fundamental organizational challenge of balancing search for new knowledge and opportunities (exploration) with efficient use of existing assets and capabilities (exploitation).

Which cultural attribute is most consistently associated with high-performing innovative organizations?

Answer: High tolerance for ambiguity, willingness to challenge assumptions, and celebration of learning from failure

Innovative organizations cultivate tolerance for ambiguity, encourage challenging assumptions, and normalize learning from failure, creating an environment where employees feel empowered to take creative risks.

What is 'design thinking' as an organizational capability that extends beyond product development?

Answer: A human-centered problem-solving mindset and process applicable across all organizational functions and challenges

Design thinking extends beyond product design as a broadly applicable human-centered problem-solving approach that organizations can apply to business model challenges, process improvements, customer experience, and strategy.

How do poorly designed incentive systems most commonly suppress innovation culture?

Answer: By rewarding short-term results and penalizing risk-taking, discouraging the experimentation innovation requires

Incentive systems that reward only short-term results, penalize failures, or measure activity over outcomes discourage the risk-taking, experimentation, and long-term thinking that innovation fundamentally requires.

What is a 'Stage-Gate' process and what is its primary critique from an innovation culture perspective?

Answer: A structured product development framework with approval checkpoints, criticized for slowing innovation and rewarding political savvy over experimentation

Stage-Gate is a product development framework with decision checkpoints between phases; critics argue it slows learning cycles, encourages projects to be packaged for approval rather than truth, and penalizes adaptive exploration.

What role does diversity and inclusion play in fostering innovation culture, according to research?

Answer: Diverse teams with varied perspectives, backgrounds, and cognitive styles generate more creative solutions and avoid groupthink

Research consistently shows that diverse teams—in gender, ethnicity, cognitive style, and experience—produce more innovative solutions by bringing varied perspectives that challenge groupthink and surface novel approaches.