What your scan shows, and why you can trust it
Your leaders see one company. Your teams appear to work in another.
That gap is where innovation stalls. This page shows what the scan looks at, what you learn from it, and what it leaves out.
Six dimensions of an innovation culture
Six dimensions define the culture to innovate at your workplace. Together, they shape whether new ideas survive.
Aspiration
Do we know what we are trying to achieve?
Whether people can say which direction the organization is aiming for.
When Aspiration is low, nobody can say what the organization wants to change.
Permission
Can people try ideas without asking for approval?
The mandate and room people have to act on a new idea, and how free they feel to use it.
When Permission is low, ideas wait a long time for approval.
Capability
Do people have the skill and the time?
The skills, the time, and the means to turn an idea into something real.
When Capability is low, good intentions die at the question of how.
Connection
Do ideas travel between teams?
How well people build on each other's ideas, across teams and with partners, instead of working in silos.
When Connection is low, teams work alone and repeat each other's work.
Courage
Is it safe to share bold ideas?
The confidence to be creative: to suggest an idea that may sound silly, without holding back.
When Courage is low, people play it safe and hide failures.
Urgency
Does anyone here feel change is urgent?
How strongly people feel the need to change, watch the competition and explore new markets and opportunities.
When Urgency is low, change only comes when it is forced on us.
Everyone sees a different part of the picture
Leaders, managers and employees each see a different part of your organization.
So each of them answers their own questions, about what they see and do every day.
Partners and customers can take part too. They show how your organization looks from outside.
Asked of leaders:“I want to be asked before anyone spends money on an unproven idea.”
Asked of employees:“When I see a better way to do something, I can just try it.”
Where views differ, patterns appear
Every organization naturally develops blind spots, misalignments, and misunderstandings over time that limit or stall performance.
Often, these issues can be traced back to differing perspectives between roles on the exact same topic.
We have identified several recurring patterns that specifically stall or block innovation.
Our scan detects whether these patterns are present in your organization.
How certain is each pattern?
Each pattern carries a confidence level. It rises as the same gap shows up in the answers from more roles.
- ConfirmedThree or more roles' answers show the same gap.
- ProbableTwo roles' answers show the same gap.
- IndicativeOne role's answers show the gap.
Some patterns reach Confirmed only with answers from partners and customers. Others need a leader to agree at the start to be compared.
It does not judge people. It measures how your organization works, not how anyone performs.
It does not let AI or anyone's opinion decide a score. The same answers give the same scores, in every organization.
It does not rate the innovation techniques or software you use. It looks at the culture around them.
Seven bodies of work sit behind the questions.
Creative Confidence · Tom and David Kelley
Everyone is creative, not only the "creative types". Many people stop showing it, out of fear of being judged. That confidence can be rebuilt.
Creative climate · Göran Ekvall
Ekvall found that a workplace's climate decides whether ideas grow, not talent alone. Challenge, freedom, trust, open debate and room for risk make the difference.
Psychological safety · Amy Edmondson
In Edmondson's studies of hospital teams, the best teams reported more mistakes, not fewer. Their members felt safe to speak up. Our questions on speaking up and taking risks build on her team survey.
Absorptive capacity · Wesley Cohen and Daniel Levinthal
An organization can only use outside knowledge it is able to recognize and take in. That ability grows with what it already knows, and how well its people connect.
The Innovator's DNA · Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen
Innovators share five habits: associating, questioning, observing, networking and experimenting. Associating, connecting ideas from different fields, ties the other four together.
Three Horizons · Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley and David White
Healthy growth needs work on three time frames at once: today's business, what emerges next, and options for the future.
Ten Types of Innovation · Larry Keeley and Doblin
Innovation is far more than a new product. Doblin's ten types run from the profit model and processes to service, brand and customer engagement.
The scan draws on that work, but is not validated by it. The questions, the scoring and the cut-offs are ours.