Control behaviour is a big threat against innovation in large companies. You might have a visionary CEO but it does not help if the rest of the executive team and even more important managers are unable to deviate from control behaviour and micro management processes that might have kept the company successful for a long time.

Of course, you still need control and processes to run the business, but you need to make sure these organisational forces do not work against the development of an innovative culture in which you do not talk about innovation; you become innovative and you let it become part of your corporate DNA.

This is a very difficult task. You could start out by wondering whether your company have a problem with control behaviour that hinders innovation. I suggest you look out for control behaviour issues when…

… managers keep sticking their nose into new business development projects asking about net present value and the forecasted turnover and revenue for 2017 and requiring the use of standard reporting forms. People who work with innovation and new business development need a high degree of autonomy to explore new ways of taking technologies or ideas to market. It should be the responsibility of the executive team to observe whether this autonomy is in place and fix it, if not.

…your company does not establish a customer insight process because “we already know what the customers need and we have done this for many years”. This often prevails in a culture where you have a strong technology base and a culture with signs of the “not invented here” syndrome as this is often driven by control processes. Try to work towards a “reapplied with pride” culture and involve external stakeholders in the innovation process starting with customers and partners.

…your company does not have job rotation or similar programs that allow people to develop new skills and break out of perceptions. It provides a sense of control for companies to be able to label their employees and put them in boxes with certain qualifications. However, it takes a lot of effort to break such perception which hinders the mobility of the employees and makes it difficult for them to seek new challenges within the company.

…your company have silos and no systems that let employees network and work across the silos.  Often incentive and performance measurements programs for managers need to change in order to be able to develop an innovative culture that nurtures the whole of a company rather than departments.

…cover my ass is more important than clock speed. It is a bit edgy, but there are control freaks, who turn every corner on every decision to such a degree that it begins to look like cover my ass. The good news is that you build an organisation that makes no mistakes. Hey, wait a minute… Is that not the biggest mistake of all? You want a corporate culture in which the employees dare to plunge into deep water and occasionally make a mistake in the search for success. Remember that failure is the mother of success.

You could also add that companies should work on control behaviour when the organisation fails to understand the forces of informal leaders and what roles they can play in developing a more innovative culture. I am sure you can add other reasons for letting go of control and I look forward to hearing your take on this.