What Is Your Innovation Ethos
Getting ready to make the jump to French Polynesia
We often talk with other sailboats about how they get from one place to another. It’s a regular conversation because, let’s be honest, the reality is far messier than the glossy sailing photos with perfect wind.
In business, we often ignore how we do things in favour of what we do. These overlooked mechanics of how we operate shapes everything from brand messaging to product innovation.
In sailing, we rely on small but powerful rules to guide decision-making in changing conditions. Businesses should take a similar approach, and that’s what we’ll look at today.
Let’s jump into it
Businesses bring in new team members, experts and advisors all the time, but “how we do things” is often unspoken, tribal knowledge passed on inconsistently.
Often onboarding becomes a game of deciphering what’s truly important within an organisation. Why this remains a whispered element of company culture, I’ll never understand.
In sailing, how we sail impacts where we go, how fast we get there and how much we can explore. The same applies to business. Your approach sets your pace of innovation, creativity and execution.
Going through the Panama Canal was a step into innovation history
For instance, building the Panama Canal’s lock system required creative solutions to overcome engineering and geographic challenges. Their approach drove its eventual success.
Innovation works the same way in companies. They can take incremental or aggressive steps, be resourceful or disruptive. There’s no single right way to move forward, just a crucial decision to make.
Not every company moves at the same pace. Comparing innovation approaches without context can be misleading or even discouraging.
A helpful resource
In 2024, BCG’s Innovation Systems Need a Reboot found that while 83% of companies prioritise innovation, only 3% are equipped to turn that ambition into results.
That huge gap separates disruptors from dreamers. The first step is defining what innovation actually looks like for your company. This is what you can do with an Innovation Ethos.
Innovation Ethos Template
Here are five questions to get you started:
- Decision-making pace: Do you prioritise speed or deliberation?
- Risk tolerance: Do you experiment often or wait for proven success?
- Collaboration style: Are ideas developed in silos or cross-functional teams?
- Iteration approach: Do you refine ideas in real time or launch fully baked solutions?
- Success measurement: Do you define innovation by efficiency gains, market impact or long-term transformation?
Your company has an Innovation Ethos, whether you’ve defined it or not. It lives in the day-to-day habits, those unwritten rules and the way your team makes decisions under pressure.
Customers and potential hires pick up on how you operate, whether you say it or not. Innovation isn’t just a process thing. It’s the foundation of your growth and identity.
This clarity around how you innovate doesn’t just align teams. It also shapes your brand. In our next newsletter, we’ll look at what to do next once you have an Innovation Ethos.
Define your innovation approach to work smarter, move faster and communicate clearer
And there’s more
✏️ Join: My good friend Tino is hosting the Possibility Ocean (Virtual) Summit on 18 March. If you love data x oceans, this is for you.
📚 Read: We think innovation has to be disruptive, but the book Beyond Disruption by Mauborgne and Kim proves otherwise.
🎧 Listen: How Leaders Can Encourage Learning by HBR looks at different types of learning leaders.
📍Visit: If you want to dive with hammerheads, sea lions, rays and more, Kicker Rock of San Cristobal, Galapagos is fantastic.