A culture of innovation

Governments are quick to recognize the significance of innovation driven processes for their economies and hence, naturally, their competitiveness and leverage internationally.

Innovation is increasingly finding its way into the formulation of national direction; guiding budget and institutional development with the objective of ‘shifting’ towards innovative thought processes and economies.

Singapore is a good example of an innovation and R&D focused strategy. The country’s Economic Development Board positions itself as a ‘home for innovation’ (as well as talent and business). The Board states that it works towards encouraging ‘solution’ based research partnerships between Singapore’s public and private sector.

More recently the UAE has also announced its own National Innovation Strategy towards the end of 2014, launching an initiative as well and proclaiming 2015 as the ‘Year of Innovation’.

Nationalizing Innovation

The success of a national strategy lies equally with the public’s adoption and engagement as much as it does with the institutions of the public sector and the formulation of public policy. 

Hence in the pursuit of a national strategy based on innovation, just like any other national strategy, the public’s perceived ownership of the said strategy is vital. In order to encourage and incentivize innovation and R&D in the identified vital sectors, the nation’s public would need to be conditioned into accepting ‘innovation’ as a way of life. This is particularly true as innovation is not a goal on its own, but rather a tool towards the development of triggers that improve the standard of living. (Such triggers could include economic development, improving healthcare services, enriching the education experience and so forth).

A culture for innovation: the Arab culture predisposition

The ability to innovate is a skill, a mindset that can be developed.  In a recent HBR article, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic points us in the direction of research that confirms that creativity can in fact be developed in an individual,  considering the component that ‘ genetics’ plays is at 10% when it comes to creative variability.

The science supports the argument that an individual can indeed be taught how to innovate.

However the ability and the success of teaching a new skill set is also largely dependent on the receiver’s openness and willingness to learn.

To develop a culture that encourages, adopts and fosters innovation will require an investment in understanding the value system the current culture ecosystem celebrates. It is crucial to address culture when it comes to perpetuating innovation as a ‘way of thinking’, as culture can either drive or hinder the success of investing in R&D, new infrastructure, legislation and so forth.

A look at the values held by Arab culture has found predispositions that could actually hinder the ability to innovate.

The following value traits have been identified for Arab culture (1):

1. high in uncertainty avoidance
2. low in individualism
3. high in social stratification
4. high in masculinity

To illustrate the role cultural values can have on the willingness and ability to innovate, it will be useful to look at how it impacts the functioning of an individual within a professional environment.

Research has emphasized the role collectivism and high power distance plays in the formation of work behavior, in which an Arab employee will seek to belong to a group within the work environment (i.e. collectivism) and will also have a preference for a clearly identified manager/leader (i.e. high power distance) (2) ; thus conforming to the values acquired through the stages of socialization. Innovation is hindered by the latter manifestation of the value of power distance, in which Arab employees are skeptical of innovation and lean towards maintaining current processes of the group’s leader (3).

Innovation requires a certain level of risk taking, with a tolerance for ambiguity and failure as well.  The challenge in perpetuating an acceptance for risk taking in an Arabic society would find itself in addressing the tendency of risk aversion. What this means is that fear of failure is a significant component of an  Arab society’s framework, mainly because of the significance of the value of ‘saving face’ with society at large. Hence a treasured value that is seen as a positive approach to life, ‘saving face’, could actually hinder innovative processes.

The UAE national innovation strategy for example has correctly and clearly identified culture as one of the 4 main ‘pillars’ that will be addressed and invested in through education as a tool, with a decided focus on STEM subjects.

Changing years of aggregated and learned values and norms is not easy, especially as they tend to be an integral part of the society. A possible approach could be ‘redefining’ the existing values in a manner that would allow the adoption of innovation thinking skills.

Intellectual Property (IP) would be a good example to illustrate this point.  To allow and encourage new ideas and innovative practice, nations need to ensure the protection of ideas through appropriate legislation and intellectual property laws. This also means that the value of respecting IP will need to be developed. Respect for Intellectual Property, raw ideas and patents inclusive, is fundamental as it promotes healthy competition and ensures that de-motivation does not occur as a result of ‘ideas being stolen’. 

While Arabic culture values honesty, social norms do not always respect IP, if for example we look at the normality of downloading streaming content from unofficial sources.  Working on aligning the respect of IP with that of the value of honesty could capitalize on a positive cultural value that would play an important role in allowing for successful innovation. You would have to make it ‘uncool’ to ‘take’ someone else’s patents, ideas and IP.

At its core, innovation succeeds because it sets out at identifying areas, products or services that require change and can hence be better consumed by people, thereby improving people’s lives. The ability to monitor surroundings and think of the potential for improving lives for the greater good is a trigger for innovation. Developing culture and values in a manner that would facilitate ,rather than hinder, innovation is key to any approach towards encouraging innovation. The development of values and the mindset highlighted above into people’s schema and outlook will augment the innovative thinking process, and the move towards achieving the goals of a national innovation strategy.