Creating Organisational Fluidity in R&D Units

At a recent meeting in one of my network groups for innovation leaders, Steen Lindby, VP Group R&D at Rockwool presented his organizational re-design of a 60-people R&D group.

Some of the key objectives were to get more flexibility between resources and activities and to increase the delegation of responsibility in order to get better outcomes.

It was a great presentation and I – as well as the other participants – especially liked the below “ideas” that Steen used to develop the re-design. The work of Gary Hamel was an inspiration for this.

• Empowerment by less management, but keeping discipline and focus
• The spirit of community binds us together rather than an organisational hierarchy 
• Enlarging sense of purpose, that merits extra ordinary contributions
• Enrolled every one as an innovator
• Making time and space for innovation, even though everyone is working flat out
• Creation of a steady flow of strategic options within next generation technology
• Acceleration of reallocation of resources between ongoing projects and new ideas

This sounds like an environment we all would like to create and work in. Nice wording, Steen!