https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicemann/2018/04/08/how-nike-could-transform-its-bro-culture
Long-time Nike CEO Mark Parker has kept the iconic sportswear brand stocked with design talent, he’s encouraged environmental sustainability in new products and, along the way, has become one of the highest paid CEOs in the world. Now, following the recent announcement in March that several very prominent male executives are leaving Nike because of allegations of inappropriate behavior, Parker faces a once-in-a-career opportunity: Reinventing the brand's culture for the next generation of success.
This doesn't mean starting from zero and tearing down what is in many ways a remarkable company. Instead, Parker can succeed by using Nike's existing strengths to transform a pro-bro environment into a culture where the best ideas win. Here's how:
- Start with what Nike is doing right
Nike's brand is synonymous with innovation. The company invests heavily in a corporate team of more than 1000 employees dedicated to innovation. But perhaps more important is Nike's well-known innovation accelerator, which has an organizational approach unique for a company of its size and scale.
The typical corporate innovation brainstorming session goes something like this: Everyone is encouraged to put all their ideas in front of the room. People are told that there are no bad ideas. The group then votes on its favorite ideas with sticky dots or a group discussion. When the session ends, the result is maybe five to ten new ideas to be researched further with real data. So while there may be no bad ideas, all the other, potentially good ideas from the session are usually forgotten.
Nike's innovation process is not as reliant as some others on groupthink and consensus. Noah Murphy-Reinhertz, a designer and sustainability leader who works at the heart of the innovation accelerator, explains that Nike’s approach to innovation is an extension of its core business. Designers go out and talk to athletes to see what is working with prototype products at every stage of the process. Nike is programmed to create products for exceptional athletes who succeed because of individual perseverance.
Likewise, the company allows anyone on the innovation team to persevere individually. Employees can pursue a new idea even if everyone else on the team pooh-poohs it. Designers are even encouraged to try again if their idea is not initially met with enthusiasm. In short, Nike’s ability to innovate emanates not from a huge R in fact, they support each other.
One of the added benefits of investing in more effective leadership practices is that it would introduce more disciplined behaviors to Nike’s leadership, so individuals would be less easily influenced by gender and racial biases, and inappropriate behaviors that don’t belong in the workplace would be better kept in check.
When leaders treat people fairly and consistently, according to job role and a clear set of priorities and performance metrics, it also reduces the risk of falling into the habit of treating people according to the leader’s subjective feelings about employees. This also empowers employees to act on the accountabilities of their role, rather than having some people feeling very empowered by their relationships with leaders, while others wait around for approval and permission.
When an organization is optimally designed for innovation, it means that good ideas can surface from anyone and circulate rapidly from any given point in the organization. People are then empowered to investigate new ideas and give voice to them. Then, when a good idea develops legs, a network of connection points will already have been established, both across different groups and up and down different levels of the company.
If Nike does all these things, it will be well-positioned to become a next-generation leader.