Some other Barriers to Innovation

Fear:
The single biggest reason why most organisations and individuals do not achieve their full potential is the fear
of failure. There are no guarantees that any new idea will work. We must accept failing is an important part of
learning, development and progress.

Lack of leadership:
Innovation must be led from the top. Often, trustees, chief executives and directors do not support or are not in
agreement as to the strategic importance of innovation as a business driver and what it would look like for their
organisation.

Short term thinking:

Under the pressure to deliver return quickly we conduct inadequate research and rush processes, leading to
failure, the idea being ditched and innovation being perceived as not working.

Lack of collaboration:
Internal budgeting and structures don’t always facilitate collaboration between teams. Individual income targets
mean people fight over budgets and are reluctant to ‘share’ donors, even if the return for the organisation could
be potentially higher if teams worked together.

No time:
There is an understandable focus on the fundraising here and now. However, if we don’t start to make time to take a more
long-term view and develop and test new ways to generate income, charities will struggle to survive.

Lack of focus:
If an organisation is not clear on where to focus, it can easily spend time on activity that won’t make a difference. It’s easy
to become distracted by new products and new technology, but if it isn’t helping you achieve your mission then you
should not be investing time and resource in it.

Lots of ideas, no delivery to market:

Having ideas is not a problem for most organisations, but having relevant ideas and progressing them can be incredibly
hard.

No clear process:
A process is critical to filter and drive ideas forward, yet only 32% of those surveyed have a clear process in place
for innovation.

Lack of urgency:
According to Mark Butcher;
“People focus on the here and now ␣ the immediate problems they face to get through the current financial
year. The time to think about innovation is tomorrow.”
There are 5 barriers to Innovation with calculated percentage of respondents:

1. Politics/Turf Wars/No Alignment (55.1% of Respondents)

2. Cultural Issues (45.3% of Respondents)

3. Inability to Act on Signals (41.6% of Respondents)

4. Lack of Budget (40.8% of Respondents)

5. Lack of Strategy, Vision (35.6% of Respondents)

There are some other obstacles that need to be addressed to stablish a sustainable culture of innovation:

• Lack of a shared vision, purpose and/or strategy

• Short-term thinking/focus

• Lack of time, resources or staff

• Lack of “spec time” to develop new ideas and opportunities

• Lack of ownership by senior leaders

• Leadership expects payoff sooner than is realistic

• Lack of a systematic innovation process

• Management incentives are not structured to reward innovation

• No reward and recognition programs

• Belief that innovation is inherently risky

• Internal process focus rather than external customer focus

• Inadequate understanding of customers

• Unwillingness to acknowledge and learn from past “failures”

• Micromanagement

• Risk aversion

• Absence of user-friendly idea management processes

• Lack of skillful brainstorm facilitation

• No creative thinking training