Innovation is highly valued by every organization, but too many are unhappy with the results. At a time when the need to manage change and complexity is more critical than ever, leaders recognize that making their organizations more innovative is one of the most important factors to their future success.

With the majority of leaders believing that innovation is key for the future success of their organizations, innovating must be made a priority. ASTD Research, in collaboration with subject matter expert Claude Legrand, examine innovation in organizations exclusively from the point of view of T&D in the report Building an Innovative Organization: The Role of Training and Development.  

The Study looks at the responses of 396 T&D professionals across all industries and organization sizes from a survey administered in September of 2013. Most survey respondents (74 percent) work in T&D, and the majority of participants consider their organizations to be successful or very successful and a leader (84 percent). The top reporting industries were: manufacturing (11 percent), healthcare and social assistance (9 percent), finance and insurance (8 percent), and management consulting services (including HRD consulting) (8 percent). Due to so many organizations reporting as successful, this may bias or skew some of the other answers to the questions regarding innovation and leadership.

For the purpose of this Study, innovation is defined as new and implemented ideas that create value in everything you do and how you do it. This is applicable to the whole organization, not only research and development or new products departments, and can include products, services, customer experiences, business models, or processes.

An organization’s success is defined based on the how the following statement is answered: “Your organization is considered by the market as”: “very successful and a leader,” “successful,” “an average performer,” “a below average performer,” or “in trouble” (with the last three options combined for analysis purposes).

Key findings of this Study include:

• Ninety-eight (98) percent of respondents say that innovation is “important” or “very important” for the future success of their organizations.

• Only 14 percent said their organizations were “very effective” at innovation and only 24 percent said they were more innovative than their competitors.

• The majority of respondents felt their organizations were “very innovative” or “innovative.”

• The majority of respondents felt that their organizations were innovative to some or a large extent, and even more so, their T&D department.

• There is a direct correlation between successful and innovative organizations.

Building an Innovative Organization: The Role of Training and Development also explores how the T&D community supports its organization’s innovation process, along with how it teaches innovative thinking and innovation management skills. It offers a unique perspective as one of the first studies to examine innovation in organizations solely from the point of view of T&D.

The objectives of this Study included learning how key drivers of innovation are measured, the type of programs requested by business partners, and the programs organizations offer.  And the findings can be very powerful tools for T&D leadership to be ready for an environment where there is an increasing demand for innovation.

Organizations cannot expect to be innovative and successful unless stakeholders at each level acquire the knowledge and learn the practical skills and behaviors necessary to make their organizations more innovative. Unless T&D takes ownership of the issues and works with the leadership team to create knowledge and skills, the goal so many executives say is critical to their future success will remain unattainable.