Why ‘can do’ is a ‘must do’ for innovation to flourish

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Let’s be honest with ourselves; So much of our lives are beyond our control. The era when we are born. The families of which we are a member. The geography of where our home resides. And yet, despite the thousands of details of our life that are beyond our control, every moment of every day, we are presented with a choice, an endless question.  How do we choose to respond to the factors in our lives that are within our control?

Just as within our own lives, there is so much out of our control within the spaces where we “double, double, toil and trouble.” The market’s response to our product or service. How our competitors choose to act, and the impact those actions have on our own organization’s efforts. The costs of the inputs required to manufacture our product or provide our service. In these instances too, we are presented with a choice, an endless question. What is the work ethic we choose to embrace in our daily work activities? Do we make the choice to bring a positive or negative work ethic to our job?

Mike Rowe, Mr. Dirty Jobs himself, understands the value of a positive work ethic. “Work ethic is important.” Rowe clarifies, “because unlike intelligence, athleticism, charisma or any other natural attribute, it’s a choice.” One choice that Mike Rowe makes, besides purchasing a high-quality, high-power hand soap, is to embrace fostering a positive work ethic as a power skill that is important to master.

What is a positive work ethic?

In this series’ 2023 article “Regaining a Positive Work Ethic,” I highlighted a September 2022 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article in which Tutti Taygerly, executive leadership coach and founder of Taygerly Labs, described a person’s work ethic to be a “set of moral principles, values and attitudes around how to act at work.”

In that HBR article, Taygerly described four essential components of a good work ethic:

• Reliability and dependability. Do you meet deadlines? Do you follow up when you say you will follow up? Do you act appropriately in meetings and other business settings?
• Productivity. Can you manage your priorities and deliver positive results consistently?
• Ownership and autonomy. Do you know when to show initiative? Are you willing to learn from feedback and recognize opportunities for growth?

Collaboration and team support. Do you support your team members when asked or when you see them in need of help? Do you effectively work with others in your organization to achieve shared goals?

If you spend a moment contemplating the components of a positive work ethic, the series of choices within our control become apparent.  Do I choose to put the work in to find the answer I promised to share with a colleague in the time I told them by which I would respond? Did I meet the deadline for the task I was assigned? Did I respond to the feedback I received from my supervisor with a desire to improve or a desire to deflect? These choices we make, they are responsible for defining and demonstrating to others what we consider our work ethic to be.

The impact a positive work ethic has on innovation

Another expert in dirty jobs, in this case the messiness of interpersonal relationships, can start to shed some light on the impact of a positive work ethic and its impact on innovation.  Chicago newspaper legend Ann Landers once said, “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.”

Innovations at their core are opportunities to approach an old problem with a new solution. While the spark of an innovation can come from one individual mind, it is the hands of many taking ownership over their value-add that turn a unique, new solution into a viable product or service. For innovation to flourish in an organization, each team has to feel appreciated by its leadership in bringing its unique expertise toward a shared goal.

Fostering innovation by empowering employees to live in joy

A 2021 article in a series titled “Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research” explores “the way employees’ innovative work behavior contributes to organizational innovativeness.” The authors discuss “how innovative work behavior can be influenced by person(al) organization(al) fit and intrinsic motivation.”

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Personal organizational fit is when an employee’s personal values align with those of the organization for which they work. We work best toward a shared goal, take ownership in our efforts and collaborate with our colleagues when the organization we work for reflects back to us similar personal values. If your organization believes that a hot dog is a sandwich, and you believe that it isn’t, it is going to be difficult to build alignment around other (less) important areas.

Intrinsic motivation is about tasks that an employee performs that are inherently satisfying or enjoyable. If you believe the enduring and unanswerable question about whether a hot dog is or is not a sandwich is a debate you love to talk about (and your spouse is definitely not completely done hearing you talk about), then organizations that give you an opportunity to talk about it create an ideal environment to empower employees to adopt a positive work ethic.

When your workforce shares the same personal values as your organization, and your organization aligns required tasks with the intrinsic motivation of the people that make up your workforce, those people can focus the work ethic on innovation.  When personal and organizational values are misaligned, your workforce will have to direct a lot of their work ethic to managing that misalignment, not managing to invent your organization’s next big thing.

Encouraging a positive work ethic enables success

The most recent edition of the Journal of Innovation & Knowledge included a research article that explored the impact of positive work value ethics on innovation across a range of small- and medium-sized enterprises across Asia to help fill in research gaps around this topic, which is mainly studied in organizations in the West.  The article early on outlines the importance of studying this topic.

“In today's competitive marketplaces, innovation is a critical component determining organizational success,” the authors write. “The scientific evidence indeed argues that innovation is a significant attribute that assists small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in remaining competitive in the global marketplace.”

The article goes on to define four areas where research has borne out the importance of innovation to the success of SMEs. They highlight the following research outcomes from various studies:

• SMEs that invest in innovation-oriented technology create competitive advantages, leading to improved market share and sales growth.
• Changing market conditions often force smaller ventures to pivot or reinvent their businesses through new technology or unique value propositions.
• Organizations of all sizes that are aware of the benefits of stimulating continuous innovation seek ways to engage in constant innovation to sustain and sharpen their competitive advantages. 
• A large body of evidence shows that SMEs, especially younger ones, are increasingly significant contributors to innovation by introducing new products and adapting existing products to customer needs.

To drive the kind of innovation the authors describe as integral to success, their own research outlines key components to foster a positive work ethic in an organization’s workforce.

• Improve the training abilities among managers to effectively influence employees. This will help to build a stronger culture and instill organizational values among employees.
• Build trust and support through shared work ethics between leaders and employees. This two-way relationship is beneficial in meeting the company’s vision and mission statements.
• Develop a strategic plan to improve the company's relationship with its employees and raise human capital, as well as a plan to advance the skills of leadership to promote and act on this relationship-building.
• Focus on the long-term benefits of developing and implementing action plans to advance workplace innovation.

As Jerry West, noted innovator in the business of basketball, once said, "You need lofty goals. Then cement it with a great work ethic.” What the researchers, and Jerry, are trying to tell us, is that goals to differentiate yourself in the marketplace through innovation is a critical decision to make in order to stay competitive. But you have to back that goal up with a positive work ethic, from the top down and across the enterprise, in order to deliver on your shared mission to innovate your way to success.

Bearing the fruit of a positive work ethic

The Serenity Prayer teaches us to serenely accept what we cannot change, courageously change what we can, and be wise in our perception of the difference between the two. Changing what we can is an embrace of choice, a selection of self-determination rather than a surrender to self-defeat. For organizations seeking success through innovation, make the choice to respect the unique talents each of your team members bring to your processes. For individuals seeking to drive innovation, make the choice to bring a positive work ethic and intrinsic motivation toward solution to your efforts to earn your daily bread. Your choices will ultimately bear fruit and multiply success for your customers, your colleagues and the community. 

Adam Bazer, MPD, is senior director of thought product development at the American Society for Health Care Engineering.