Flying the kite of innovation

Leaders want to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to innovation (or eat their cake and have it too, if you want to go with the Unabomber’s version). They want bold innovation, but preferably on a tight timeline. Purists would argue that path breaking innovation does not follow a timeline. Many ground breaking innovations in the 1900s such as transistors, UNIX and C, computer networking etc. that laid the foundation for the digital revolution were outcomes of long term thinking and research that eventually led to technological breakthroughs. While most of it was funded by Governments who generally have an appetite for such innovation, some germinated in corporate settings such as Bell Labs and Xerox PARC.

Such environments with stable funding and long term thinking may be elusive today, but we still have a lot of opportunity to create the right environment for innovation. How do we nurture such innovation in the present day and what is the role of leaders?

Let it go, Elsa

Anyone who has flown a kite successfully knows that reaching new heights requires a skilful balance between letting go and pulling back, to eventually soar high. You need to let the string loose and give it a healthy push to let the wind carry the kite higher into the sky. As a leader, you need to give innovation teams the freedom initially to go broad, explore new frontiers, without being saddled by constraints such as timeline, real life applications, or business benefit. It takes time to let go of old ideas to make room for new ones. Sometimes, you will see the kite yee-yaw sideways, not just go straight up. Teams need to take risks, experiment with new approaches, being open to feedback and criticism. Sometimes, they will also crash land and you have to start all over again. Teams may have to go through this agony of abandoning their current approach and starting afresh. However, a well designed kite with the right support will eventually find some footing.

Pullin’ Back the Reins

Is that it - you just let loose and the magic happens? Certainly not. Let the kite on its own for too long, it may veer off course, become unstable and crash. Just as it starts soaring, you have to pull the string back to maintain control. As the kite flies higher, wind conditions can cause it to change direction or even lose altitude. By pulling back on the string, you can help the kite gain altitude by making it more aerodynamic and generating lift, and maintain the tension in the line to maintain control and steer it in the direction you want it to go. Counter intuitively, pulling on the string will help the kite climb higher into the sky.

Similarly, nurturing innovation requires leaders to pull back and assess whether the new ideas and direction the team is taking are aligned with your strategy and business goals. Not in the emotionally charged way k.d. lang portrays in her track, but in a structured, objective, and customer backed manner. For instance, a brilliant idea that serves a customer segment that is not aligned with the company strategy is a great idea for a different organization, not yours. You may need to help the team make some tough decisions on when to pivot, or give them the confidence to stay the course because they may be on to something big. By doing so, you sharpen their thinking, get them into a better shape that sets them up for success, a success we never imagined.

To soar, we must yield; to ascend, we must pull back

A skilled kite pilot instinctively knows how to find this balance (when and how much) between letting it go and pulling it back. Just like kite-flying, finding the right balance between letting go and pulling back is essential for nurturing innovation. Leaders need to perfect this balance. Being open to new experiences and ideas, but also having a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you want to get there. Knowing when to trust the team’s instincts even when you don’t see any tangible customer or business outcomes and when to nudge or steer towards a different direction.

Where are your thoughts on flying the kite of innovation?

[Disclaimer: I used AI (not the LinkedIn “Rewrite with AI”) to help fly this kite… er, write this post. Particularly the image that took a LOT of trial and error on DALL-E. Interestingly, LLMs struggle putting up a simple word like INNOVATION on an image!]