Innovation – The Missing Competency
Niccolo Machiavelli (2004) said: “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than to initiate a new order of things. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system, and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one.”
Innovation (a new order of things) is a core competency needed by leadership in order to be successful. According to the Lominger International Leadership Architect tools innovation management is defined as “good at bringing the creative ideas of others to market; has good judgment about which creative ideas and suggestions will work; has a sense about managing the creative process of others; can facilitate effective brainstorming; can project how potential ideas may play out in the marketplace”. Tammy Heermann, in her presentation What it Takes to Build a Female Leadership Pipeline defines innovation as the “ability to synthesize various ideas and approaches to an unexpected result”.
This important competency is not new. This behavior has been nurtured throughout history. The development of the wheel, the Roman aqueducts, the telephone, the combustion engine are all examples of innovation that changed the world. Many organizations have also tried to foster innovation. 3M, Apple, IBM have all had a variety of programs to enable their employees to test their theories for new inventions. Think tanks have also been a manner for people to work together to try to solve problems in a new, innovative manner.
However, this approach is still the exception and not an integrated part of most businesses. Historically businesses have rewarded their employees for ‘falling in line’, following the rules. Employees are often ignored and/or rebuked for ‘marching to the beat of a different drummer’ when ‘thinking out of the box’.
Nonetheless the business landscape is changing. Organizations are recognizing that everyone has a responsibility and opportunity to innovate. The challenge is determining how to nurture that competency and to integrate and support those who think differently than the traditional business structure. Creating ‘innovation committees’ is not the solution. Innovation requires different leadership structures and support to be successful.
Leadership Practices that Support Innovation
Innovation is not just genetic according The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer. “Creativity tests reveal that roughly 33% of creativity performance is genetic”. Dyer goes further to reflect that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. noted; “Creativity is connecting things…creative people connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” This is the competency that innovators are able to leverage and that organizations need to foster.
“Studies have shown that 20% to 67% of the variance on measures of the climate for creativity in organizations is directly attributable to leadership behavior. What this means is that leaders must act in ways that promote and support organizational innovation” according to David Magellan Horth and Dan Buchner (2014). Read Innovation Leadership By Horth and Buchner for a deeper understanding of these behaviors. Three that I find valuable are collaborative inquiry, managing change and strategic planning.
Jeff Dyer notes that CEO’s of innovative companies spend 31% of their time seeking out innovative ideas compared to 15% of time for CEO’s in non-innovative companies. These leaders of innovative companies encourage their employees to think differently about their customers and their product.
Conclusion
Innovation at its core is disruptive. As a leader it is critical to ensure that the appropriate tools are in place to foster innovation and to make it safe for employees to generate new ways of solving issues. The culture of innovation has to begin at the top of the organization where senior leaders need to set the example by leveraging discovery, engaging employees at all levels in the discussion, being visible to employees, allowing employees to experiment with their ideas and support the change and transition necessary to implement the ideas.
Leaders need to be accountable to the education and workplace environment to grow their business. An individual leader does not necessarily need to be personally innovative, but they do need to know how to get out of the way of innovation and to allow the innovative ideas to take root.
Passionate Leader, People & Business Builder, Entrepreneur
5 年As I think back to the creative (innovative) moments I’ve experienced, both my own ideas and those novel solutions identified by others, two things stand out – in each instance they were born out of a passion for the work the individual did and most importantly the freedom and support to play. If we think about it, when we are at play, we are free – our minds and hearts and souls are unencumbered by mistakes of the past and the pressures of future unknowns. Instead, when we are at play we are anchored to the present – we are living in the moment freely laughing, sharing, and being our true selves. Experience has shown me that if I can introduce my conscious brain to a particular issue or problem for even 10 minutes and then move onto something else fun and creative, generally within 24-48 hours I can return to the issue with a renewed perspective often with many potential routes to the solution. Certainly not everything at work allows us this opportunity but for me acknowledging the power of play has influenced not only how I approach my work, but how I structure meetings and wherever possible define timelines.