How do you approach organisational development? Is it imposed as a top-down highly defined structure or is it delivered as an intrinsic part of a culture which seeks to deliver solutions through innovation? I admit that these are two polar ends of a sliding scale but your answer could indicate your organisation’s current level of innovation maturity as well as your progress towards moving from a controlled industrialised culture towards one of innovation.

In our book, ‘Building a culture of innovation’, we commented that there are three types of business in this world; “those which failed to survive the recession, those which survived but have either plateaued or are in slow decline and those which will create the future.” With the recession well and truly in the past there has been some discussion as to whether we should add a fourth category, those businesses which have started up in the last few years. However, those who have survived the tricky second year can generally be categorised as disruptors who have happily entered the category of future creators, or others which are busy repeating the sins of the past and which will therefore eventually side from view.

But there is another category of business, one which has understood the need to move away from business as usual but as yet has not taken those vital first steps. Those businesses will generally sit within the 79% which see innovation as a top three priority (BCG 2015) but also number themselves among the 42% agreed that innovation is something they talk about rather than do (PA Consulting).

So why are they holding back? What is stopping them from moving to adopt a strategy and organisational design which supports innovation, or to put it another way what is stopping them from building a culture of innovation which will deliver strong and strategic organisational development? In truth there are many reasons including lack of resources, a risk averse culture or even a lack of understanding about the benefits which innovation can bring but at heart the failure sits with the leadership. Sadly, the recent Wazoku everyday innovation report revealed that only 32% of workers saw the board taking the lead in driving innovation.

Why should you bother? Why should leaders take the steps which will remove the organisational barriers to innovation and start thinking strategically about innovation and organisational development. Well let’s go back to those companies which I mentioned earlier, those which will create the future.

These Next Generation Organisations focus on intelligence, collaboration and adaptability in order to deliver new business models and differentiated experiences. So they seek to move away from pure statistics and towards a real and deep understanding of customer drivers; they are open to collaborate with anyone from suppliers to customers and from research institutes to competitor organisations in order to create solutions; and they are geared up to adapt and disrupt the market in order to shape and lead it.

According to the Wazoku report 85% say improving customer experience and making cost savings could be achieved through innovation whilst a BCG report revealed that fast innovators get new products to market quickly and generate more sales from them (at least 30% of revenue). So the rewards are there for those who are prepared to shape the organisational strategy up and deliver strong OD through innovation.

So my challenge to leaders is this: are you really serious about delivering success through strong organisational development? If you are then it is more than time for you to confront and overcome those barriers to change and deliver a strategy which will enable your business to reap the rewards of becoming a Next Generation innovative organisation.