Innovation culture: Pursuing creative thinking

“Hire good people and leave them alone” was the motto that former 3M CEO William McKnight applied to the recruitment process, starting in the 1950s. The company best-known for inventing the Post-it Note still follows this rule of thumb, which helps ensure success. That does not mean, however, that the company leaves associates to fend for themselves. “For more than 60 years we have qualified values around driving innovation and giving responsibility and authority to people,” explains Jörg Dederichs.

The company culture at 3M is a breeding ground for innovation and success. For over 25 years, the American company has consistently ranked among the top five most innovative firms in the world. Important preconditions for an innovation-friendly climate are sufficient freedom and the willingness to take risks. These are safeguarded by measures such as a “15 percent rule,” which stipulates that every 3M associate from the Research & Development Department can use 15 percent of their working time for projects that they themselves think are interesting, important, and likely to succeed. Creative thinking and courageous decision-making are explicitly encouraged.

This includes a healthy failure culture: “It’s very important that you allow failures and mistakes to be maken, because that’s a learning for an organization, and the organization will benefit from that,” says Dederichs. Mistakes don’t have to be bad as long as you share the lessons learned. “Inspiring the culture where you allow mistakes to be made, that is driving innovation because that gives freedom and authority to people.”

3M also focuses on strength-oriented leadership. It is quite common for associates to be sent off to training sessions to iron out their weaknesses. 3M takes a different approach by encouraging them to develop their strengths instead. Executives also take part in associate development, as Dederichs explains. “We call that ‘leaders teaching leaders,’ because nobody else can teach and educate and share their experience better than senior leaders of the company.” In this way, the ‘McKnight Principles’ are passed on from each generation to the next.

For the 3M expert, digitalization, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) are crucial for development and innovation: “It will allow us to get much more insight in the process, understanding costumer needs, understanding unknown needs that costumers have, so that will give us an entirely new perspective very early in the development process,” he says. The IoT is important for the future of any company dealing with B2B. According to Dederichs, it will serve as a significant driver of change by reshaping business models, altering interactions with companies, and modifying the products and services available to customers.