Innovation was a common theme among many of the sessions at the 2014 LIMRA Life Insurane Conference this week in Chicago. One such session was presided over by John Coyle, senior vice president, culture of innovation, at Maddock Douglas; Si Xie, director, Equitable Life of Canada; and Jason Alleyne, consulting actuary.
So how can an insurance company create a culture of innovation?
According to Coyle, there has to be a culture shift. You can't necessarily tell people to change their culture or change their beliefs and values, but you can ask it of employees and cocreate the culture with them.
"The old paradigm of traditional systems — importance of IQ, six sigma, hierarchy, division of labor — are being replaced by creativity and risk-taking, peak performance, collaboration, and complex adaptive systems," Coyle said.
