InnovationCreation

I want to provide a perspective on change and innovation, as a follow up to the post Innovation leadership model.

One of the companies I have been working with on creating an innovation environment has kicked off an innovation game plan with an innovation assessment, a several day work shop, and then the formation of several teams to tackle some innovation projects.

While they have been happy with the kick start of their innovation efforts, they have not been satisfied with the initial innovation project teams' progress. "They have money, each team has a manager, and still they are not going anywhere" said my contact person. When I asked further, the issue seems to be one of being dragged back to doing execution of things of their "day" job.

This as the "97%" trap; all their main time (97% of their time) of the project team members in the organization is about execution. While the project teams all believe the innovation projects are important to move forward, their management and senior leadership agree with the projects' need/importance, and they have money(!), the need to get "things done now" creeps back in. Habit of the past is strong!

The project team members are being pulled: they continue to get the message "execution first, get products today finished and work on the innovation project in addition" (implied: in your "free time") => leadership is talking the talk but not walking the talk (either not enough walk or they are doing the walk in a way that is not being recognized by the staff).

I want to chat with you about the leadership model: How does one implement what is advocated in the leadership model? What can help move management and leadership from the walk to the talk?

Interestingly, I am reading Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life that talks about this very thing. The book's topic is: to really change requires one to relate to the people (build a new relationship with the staff), repeat (learn, practice, and master), and then reframe thru practice and learning, reframe the point of view and / or approach to create a new way to operate.

Labels: book, innovation, innovation tool, model, social science, thinking

I am working on recommendations for a client on innovation leadership models. I have been thinking about this for a couple weeks and have developed the following guides:

• The model has to be dirt simple to understand.
• The model is for people and about people so the model actions must take that into account.
• Like all models, it will not be perfect. The more resolution (detail) the model must have the harder it will be to change and adapt.
• The model should have no more than seven items. Why? Seven is a magic number in human cognition. The ability to recall and process information seems to be bound by a limit of 7 (+- 2).

With those parameters in mind here is my draft leadership model (7 (+1)):

1. Be positive, smile, and have fun. Smile, its infectious. See Social Experiment.
2. Build and share ideas. Get ideas out to people, have conversations about them, refine and adjust. Fail faster. Try and learn, try and learn, try and learn. If you are going to be innovative, you are going to fail. Then share and celebrate those failures. Repeat.
   
3. Become more visible. Get on the ground with the people doing the work and developing ideas.
4. Recognize and reward peoples' actions and behavior.
5. Learn about and practice innovation.
6. Look. Listen. Learn. Observe your customers (Don't survey them. Don't watch your competitors. Don't focus group them.). Tap your employees (People that work with you have ideas and ability to act; engage them). Ask questions.
   
7. Be Firm, Fair, and Consistent (used to be "Be steady, consistent, and methodical"). There is no magic bullet, no quick fix, no magic moment so don't create a 'crisis', an 'event', or a 'program'.

While this is at 7 items, some of the items have multiple concepts within them. Can this model be simple (simple=short, easy to consume, not complex) yet not be formulaic? Just doing these seven things, by themselves, will not make innovation happen. There are some complex people stuff in several items.

Here are some research papers and white papers that provide (deeper) thoughts on leadership and innovation.

• The Ten Faces of Innovation, by Tom Kelley.
  
• The Power of Ordinary Practices, chat with Teresa M. Amabile
  
• The Way of the Innovation Leader, from New and Improved
• Building Innovative Teams, from New and Improved
• Good to Great article in Fast Company, by Jim Collins
• Thoughts from Susan Lucia Annunzio, author of Contagious Success
• The Business of Innovation, CNBC series.
• Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. From All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum.
• Five different types of thinking to jolt creativity, by Chris Penn, co-founder of PodCamp.
  

Labels: create, creativity, innovation, leadership, manage, model