tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29204095044486057722024-03-12T21:01:57.496-07:00KnowledgeworksVictor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-52854422073496937792012-12-22T00:12:00.000-08:002012-12-22T00:12:25.825-08:00Understanding The Art of Innovation Leadership<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QwzhbpXnQa4/UNVquLEWxsI/AAAAAAAAAFs/n953pen955k/s1600/iStock_000015458676XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QwzhbpXnQa4/UNVquLEWxsI/AAAAAAAAAFs/n953pen955k/s320/iStock_000015458676XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Innovation
Leadership is an art because it involves understanding and managing 4
behavioural dimensions which have, until recently, remained hidden. Whilst we
are probably familiar with Sun Tzu’s and Marcus Aurelius’s maxims on the
importance of self-knowledge, the psychology of Innovation Leadership has not
been available in a practical form that could help leaders and organisations,
until now when we need it.<br /><br /><strong>Blind Drivers of
Innovation</strong><br />Understanding innovation leadership is a bit like driving
a car. At present, most organisations manage their psychology of innovation like
drivers of cars who happen to be blind. It is possible to become relatively
successful at leading an organisation through the medium of traditional
performance measures. These are much like the cues that a blind driver uses to
stay in the correct lane on the motorway. By listening to the sound cues of
irregular bumping of tyres over cat’s eyes on one side of the car, and the
screeching noise of the other side of the car grinding along the side of the
oncoming traffic or stationary vehicles or building, a crude form of progress
can be managed; even if getting onto and off the motorway is problemmatic. Every
year, there are stories of blind drivers in remote rural areas (usually with a
child or drunk giving instructions from the passenger seat) being chased and
halted by astounded traffic police. It clearly can be done, and is being done,
more or less: but does it make sense? And is it acceptable?<br /><br />Not being in
control of your own innovation leadership behaviour as a leader, is like leading
your team or organization as though it is a car that you choose to drive with
your eyes closed. Most people have no idea what their innovation leadership
profile is. They are in effect, blind leaders of innovation. We are probably all
familiar with the idea that it is not what leaders say, but how leaders actually
behave that has the most impact on organisations, and that it is their behaviour
that sends the strongest messages and provides the most powerful cues as to what
defines successful performance in the organisation.<br /><br />The key to successful
leadership of innovation begins with understanding<br /><br />• The 4 Innovation
Leadership Behaviours (ILB),<br />• The limitations of where you are now (in terms
of your actual ILB profile)<br />• The nature of the challenge (in terms of your
preferred ILB profile), and<br />• Being hungry enough to want to change, to take
control, to do something about it.<br /><br />For some leaders, the idea of
developing an understanding of their own ILB profiles (actual and preferred) can
be intimidating, much as primitive tribes were afraid that photography would
steal their souls, or that to study and seek to understand the behavioural
patterns might destroy the power of a secret formula by exposing it. But as they
say at the Royal Air Force’s Parachute Training School: “Knowledge Dispels
Fear”. And this knowledge is essential, and if you have it then it becomes
possible to ask yourself:<br /><br />1.What will it take to move out of efficiency
strategies into effectiveness strategies?<br />2. What can I contribute to making
this organisation more successful?<br />3. What kind of innovation leadership
should I be working on?<br />4. How can I develop myself to make a difference, and
become more effective?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 4 Innovation Leadership Behaviours
(ILBs)</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For innovation to occur in an organization, you need a mix of
at least 4 generic types of Innovating Leadership Behaviours – Creators,
Translators, Stabilisors and Navigators. When planned for, encouraged and
balanced correctly they can promote and deliver continuous
innovation.<br /><br />They are:<br /><br /><em>Creators</em> - Who provide the source
of new, disruptive ideas.<br /><em>Translators</em> - Who connect new ideas to new
opportunities.<br /><em>Stabilisors</em> - Who build quality delivery systems for
products and services.<br /><em>Navigators</em> - Who anticipate what’s coming,
know when to get in, when to get out, and how to manage it.<br /><br />The 4
Innovating Leadership Behaviours are extreme stereotypes and usually (but not
always) I find that leaders’ profiles have proportions of all four in their own
characteristic “portfolio” depending on the limitations of their experience,
work environment and their natural work preferences. </span></span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Understanding the implications of leaders' ILB
patterns is a powerful source of information on the limitations of the existing
strategy and what is going to be required to move out of efficiency and survival
into effectiveness and growth, in difficult times.</span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Look Forward: Next Blog</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my next blog I will explain how the ILBs (CTSN) differ in terms of their focus and contextual awareness.</span>
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Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-51590115293523899392012-12-08T06:22:00.001-08:002012-12-08T06:22:55.050-08:00Overcoming Innovation Blindness in 15 Minutes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o8AxPFN713U/UMNMtTbR1LI/AAAAAAAAAFY/nWqq3jxU1W0/s1600/UKTech50+2Nov12.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o8AxPFN713U/UMNMtTbR1LI/AAAAAAAAAFY/nWqq3jxU1W0/s320/UKTech50+2Nov12.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Here's a link to a <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/video/UKtech50-Victor-Newman-SILK" target="_blank">presentation</a> I gave at Computer Weekly's UKtech50 awards on 22nd November. <br />
<br />
Essentially, I explained that whilst innovation processes are useful, innovative people are essential. <br />
<br />
I introduced the idea that a complete social, innovation-ecology involves Creators, Translators, Stabilisors and Navigators interacting to deliver continuous innovation. I emphasised the importance of working out what's missing in yourself, and the importance of getting the right people on your "innovation bus" in order to simplify your innovation journey.Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-73648627615035670512012-11-23T07:51:00.001-08:002012-11-23T10:35:02.933-08:00How To Spot A Zombie Organization<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-59YF3HKVtlM/UK-aYg5wq6I/AAAAAAAAAEw/WM7mHxhgaZM/s1600/Sean+of+the+Dead.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-59YF3HKVtlM/UK-aYg5wq6I/AAAAAAAAAEw/WM7mHxhgaZM/s200/Sean+of+the+Dead.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With the current proliferation of Zombie movies, it’s probably
timely to consider what useful messages are hidden within Zombie movies as a
cultural art-form and what we can usefully transfer into the way we lead and
manage organizations.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To start with, what do we know about Zombies? Firstly their
shared characteristic is that they are only marginally alive which means that
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">a) their movement is always clumsy, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">b) they are always hungry for fresh human
flesh and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">c) they are unable to work things out for themselves (like how to
open doors and drive cars).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">These characteristics also apply to “Zombie Organizations”.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Zombie Organizations are clumsy because they pay no
attention to their context. They are always stunned when the environment
changes, the value of their current products, services and business models
suddenly declines and the customer goes somewhere else, or a new high-value
customer appears. Their response to change is always clumsy and tends to
preserve political structures, value architectures and social narratives that
justify their Zombie behaviours<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at the
expense of the front-line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Zombie Organisations are always hungry for “talent”, invest
money in what they believe are talented people and are always surprised when
the talented turn out to more ambitious than talented, the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>good people leave and the supposedly
“untalented” become increasingly disengaged. Their hunger for customers means
that they will preserve high-volume, low margin commodity services and
transactions at the expense of niche products which indicate the future forms
that value will take.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Zombie Organisations are perpetually surprised by crises
which in retrospect were highly predictable. Their failure to be curious, to revisit
their Purpose, and to think systemically means that they purchase solutions
which institutionalise their problems or tend to make them worse. A classic
example is the consumption of engagement survey methodologies which lead to
even more paternalistic attitudes by leaders who were originally recruited on
the basis of their submissive/ deferential behaviour, who are then told to push
the engagement survey dials by “aping” leadership behaviours that contradict
traditional Zombie management culture. Another classic failure is the tendency
to apply lean thinking to making current transactions more efficient when they
are already obsolete.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first step to recovery (as with all forms of physical and cultural addiction) is to accept that your
organisation may be a Zombie Organisation (ZO) with Zombie Leaders and Zombie followers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Further options include helping the Zombie Organisation to
self-destruct or to isolate the dominant Zombie culture within its own
organisation and then watch it fall apart. This can be done by pretending to be
a Zombie yourself and exaggerating Zombie characteristics within the
organisation (the equivalent of trapping them in a bus that goes over a cliff
through offering them some live flesh to consume and then jumping out before it
goes over a cliff). In other words, give them more of what they want, but use
it to separate them from the parts of the organization that can be saved.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A less destructive and entertaining approach is to introduce
the idea of the “Zombie Organization” and its characteristics and point out
Zombie behaviours in meetings at work. This could include clumsy un-coordinated
walking (with shaky asynchronous hand and leg movements) following others into
meetings, wide-eyed unblinking staring combined with salivation from the corner
of the mouth, mutterings of “flesh, must have more flesh” and an inability to
manage the door handle to exit the room at the end of meetings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A more systemic approach could include writing a white paper to back up legislation against ZOs or at least the management of their worst excesses; and the setting up a formal "Journal of Zombie Organizational Studies" (J4S-ZORGS) with peer-reviewed papers and a prestigious editorial board to explore the field of ZO studies. Unfortunately, this may have the effect of institutionalising the problem instead of solving it and encouraging the manufacture of specialist language that makes the topic inaccessible.</span></div>
Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-81721473547342721992012-11-10T08:49:00.000-08:002012-11-10T08:49:39.312-08:00Tune Out, Turn Off: Disengage or Engage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fsCRXWyaS40/UJ6EtwQZD4I/AAAAAAAAAEc/UfjcTLilrls/s1600/WP_000029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fsCRXWyaS40/UJ6EtwQZD4I/AAAAAAAAAEc/UfjcTLilrls/s200/WP_000029.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a consistently-reported high level of disengagement
linked to leadership in the workplace that manufactures both passively and
actively-disengaged people. The level of disengagement is often quoted at up to
a staggering 80% of the workforce</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">[i]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.
But this problem is not restricted to the UK or USA it is a worldwide
phenomenon. Leadership is routinely stated as one of the major sources of disengagement.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A quick look at Gallup’s 12 Questions on
engagement show how most questions can be directly or indirectly related to
leadership. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since 1997 the Gallup Organization has surveyed
approximately 3 million employees in three hundred thousand work units within
corporations. This survey consists of 12 questions which measure employee
engagement on a five-point scale indicating weak to strong agreement. Analyses
of survey results show that those companies with high Q12 scores experience
lower turnover, higher sales growth, better productivity, better customer
loyalty and other manifestations of superior performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q1. Do you know what is expected
of you at work?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q2. Do you have the materials and
equipment you need to do your work right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q3. At work, do you have the
opportunity to do what you do best every day?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q4. In the last seven days, have
you received recognition or praise for doing good work?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q5. Does your supervisor, or
someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q6. Is there someone at work who
encourages your development?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q7. At work, do your opinions
seem to count?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q8. Does the mission/purpose of
your company make you feel your job is important?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q9. Are your associates (fellow
employees) committed to doing quality work?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q10. Do you have a best friend at
work?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q11. In the last six months, has
someone at work talked to you about your progress?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Q12. In the last year, have you
had opportunities at work to learn and grow?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Gallup Engagement Index slots people into one of three
categories:</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">• Engaged employees who work with
passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation
and move the organization forward.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">• Not-Engaged employees who are
essentially “checked out.” They may be in the building but they are
sleepwalking through their workday. They are putting in time, but going through
the motions with low enough energy or passion in their work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">• Actively Disengaged employees
who aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness in
their relationships with their colleagues. These workers undermine what their
engaged co-workers accomplish every day through virtual sabotage. They would
rather be somewhere else, even if they can’t think of an alternative.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Results of the survey vary from country to country,
organisation to organisation, age, education and gender. The results have
ranged from 70% to 80% in disengaged employees over nearly a decade. Here are
the results from Gallup Employee last year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Gallup Engagement Index in the US shows
that the current trends remained relatively stable throughout 2011: </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Engaged = 29%</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">B.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not engaged = 52%</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">C.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Actively disengaged = 19%</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Summary</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What you will notice is that the population of A (29%) is
probably carrying the remaining population of B & C (71%) on their backs. An obvious
conclusion is that MF Leaders need to focus on reducing the B & C
population ratio and converting significant populations into A-type Engaged
workers if the business is to grow and innovate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">[i]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">
Blacksmith, N., Harter, J. (2012) Majority of American Workers Not Engaged In
Their Jobs - Highly educated and middle-aged employees among the least likely
to be engaged. </span><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/Majority-American-Workers-Not-Engaged-Jobs"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/Majority-American-Workers-Not-Engaged-Jobs</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-75584217046102654022012-11-10T02:44:00.000-08:002012-11-10T08:26:03.760-08:00It's People Who Innovate, Not Processes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LgFY5d0pkQ8/UJ5_skkR8wI/AAAAAAAAAEM/JY3GlESC4qo/s1600/fatfish4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LgFY5d0pkQ8/UJ5_skkR8wI/AAAAAAAAAEM/JY3GlESC4qo/s320/fatfish4.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: arial;">
We either innovate or we die. We broadly accept this dictum. But what do we choose to do about it? And on reflection, do our choices make real sense?
<br />
<br /><strong>First Story</strong>
<br />
<br />A few years ago, I was working with the consulting arm of a national healthcare system on the issue of the low rate of adoption of innovations developed at centres for excellence into local practice. I have always been intrigued by the joined issues of the psychology of incompetence and the form that resistance to change can take, often known as Not-Invented-Here (NIH) culture.
<br />
<br />I ran an exercise involving both local practitioners and government consultants, and we came up with some powerful and interesting lessons for accelerating adoption of innovations. Being a big fan of the rule of 3 (the idea that if you can identify the top 3 issues and resolve these, then the remainder will probably take care of themselves), I facilitated the exercise to identify the 3 most powerful influencers of local adoption of innovations:
<br />
<br />1. Use the language of the people who are going to implement the innovation, don’t use MBA language. Consultant language has a tendency to alienate user audiences and trigger powerful NIH behaviours. If you can, employ a typical “user” of the solution who has strong links with the audience that you want to influence, and who expresses themselves authentically.
<br />
<br />2. Demonstrate the real results gained to show it’s worth doing: ideally, try to show benefits not only to the customer, but also to the user who makes the innovation happen.
<br />
<br />3. Recruit people who think innovating is part of everyday work. Try to employ people who want to innovate, or at the very least make it clear that work is going to involve a continual interest in improving and changing performance.
<br />
<br />On reflection, the lessons can be reduced to 3 words: language, benefits and perhaps they are all about the psychology of innovation.
<br />
<br /><strong>Second Story</strong>
<br />
<br />At the beginning of 2008, I was working with the Heads of Innovation of 2 businesses which had recently been acquired. I was facilitating a series of discussions about the future shape and direction of innovation strategy in the newly-merged organisation. On the surface, these Heads of Innovation were complying, but in reality they were stressed, and naturally jockeying for dominance and succession or for golden exits. The official outcome was going to be their agreed strategy for doubling turnover through innovation within 3 years. After 2 sessions together, I found that they were playing the old scientist game of questioning me in detail about the legitimacy of the facilitation techniques I was employing, instead of focusing on the issue. Once I had resolved this, I found that we moved onto a technical discussion of stage gate innovation processes (where you segment your invention to innovation process into defined stages, and apply rules that determine progression beyond each stage). The game they wanted to play here, was to pretend that having an integrated, and shared approach to stage-gate definition and decision-making would solve the problem of innovation to drive an aggressive growth target. When I began to pressure them on the issue of innovation talent, and demolished the assumption that scientific ambition was the same thing, it became clear that creative individuals were largely marginalised and isolated within a scientific bureaucracy that was under-performing.
<br />
<br />They wanted to avoid the fact that when it came down to people, they didn’t have the right people to deliver the kind of innovation to drive growth that the new organisation required. And that they didn’t think that it was important. Life would go on (they hoped) much as before.
<br />
<br /><strong>Summary</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Both these consulting exercises (first and second stories) had a profound effect on my thinking. I have always been a “process” man. I have developed and facilitated the co-creation of innovation processes, applied lean thinking both within and outside the automotive industry, implemented business process redesign, and even taught process leadership as a technique for making processes work within organisations. But I couldn’t avoid the obvious conclusion over time, that
<br />
<br />1. Whilst processes are useful as a means of focusing attention and reducing the need to relearn the obvious, they cannot be a substitute for understanding the psychology of innovation.
<br />2. Whilst history has shown us examples where innovative people with deficient processes have found a way to succeed, there are few examples of mediocre people succeeding because they had great processes.</span>
Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-74510312166734909672012-10-22T08:02:00.001-07:002012-10-22T08:03:10.208-07:00Innovation Blindness
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9L9bBKVH-pA/UIVeaKRrlnI/AAAAAAAAAD8/TZEzvKaZVE0/s1600/blindfold+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9L9bBKVH-pA/UIVeaKRrlnI/AAAAAAAAAD8/TZEzvKaZVE0/s320/blindfold+(2).jpg" width="212" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the weird things about innovation is the way practitioners
find themselves focusing on what appear to be the essential components of innovation,
in other words: innovation processes and stage gate decision making meetings. Ironically,
they are worrying about the furniture of innovation and not the innovation behaviours
that make it possible. It’s another example of how managers tend to work on
doing things right even when they are focusing on the wrong things, instead of
doing the right thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You can have the wrong people in the room with the best
innovation processes and stage gate decision making tools: and you probably will
fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you can have the great people
in the room with mediocre tools: and they will somehow find a way to succeed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Understanding innovation leadership is a bit like driving a
car. At present, most organisations manage their psychology of innovation like
drivers of cars who happen to be blind. It is possible to become relatively
successful at leading an organisation through the medium of traditional
performance measures. These are much like the cues that a blind driver uses to
stay in the correct lane on the motorway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By listening to the sound cues of irregular bumping of tyres over cat’s
eyes on one side of the car, and the screeching noise of the other side of the
car grinding along the side of the oncoming traffic or stationary vehicles or
building, a crude form of progress can be managed; even if getting onto and off
the motorway is problemmatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
year, there are stories of blind drivers in remote rural areas (usually with a drunk
giving instructions from the back seat) being chased and halted by astounded
traffic police.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It clearly can be done, and
is being done, more or less: but does it make sense? And is it acceptable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Innovation processes are useful, but <a href="http://www.blurb.co.uk/search/site_search?search=The+Innovator%27s+got+to+do+it&filter=all&commit=Search" target="_blank">innovative </a>people are
essential.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not being in control of your own innovation leadership behaviour
as a leader, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">is like leading your team
or organization as though it is a car that you choose to drive with your eyes <u>closed</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most people have no idea what their
innovation leadership profile is. They are in effect, blind leaders of innovation.
We are probably all familiar with the idea that it is not what leaders say, but
how leaders actually behave that has the most impact on organisations, and that
it is their behaviour that sends the strongest messages and provides the most
powerful cues as to what defines successful performance in the organisation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-40127834001653157832012-09-09T08:34:00.000-07:002012-09-09T08:34:06.806-07:00Creative Silence [Brainstorming 2.0]
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<h1 style="background: rgb(79, 129, 189); margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent1;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">IF GROUP PROBLEM-SOLVING IS LESS PRODUCTIVE THAN THAT OF INDIVIDUALS, HOW CAN ONE GET THE BEST OF BOTH (INDIVIDUAL & GROUP) WORLDS COMBINING BREADTH & DEPTH OF IDEAS?</span></span></span></h1>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have found that generating large
numbers of ideas doesn't imply a larger number of potential nuggets. The
free-association aspect of traditional brainstorming is often more useful as a
means of mapping the preoccupations and thinking-styles of a group than in
generating useful ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
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<h2 style="background: rgb(219, 229, 241); margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent1; mso-background-themetint: 51;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">THE DANGER OF THE FIRST IDEA<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another difficulty is that the first
idea voiced in traditional brainstorming, may prove to be the last. I have
noticed that extended stress-gaps in teams, combined with a high need to
produce an output, can lead to the generation of ideas long before the team has
agreed and formally defined the problem. Such teams are easily led astray by
the first idea. It is as though the first idea dominates or "shapes"
everything that follows to develop an inadvertent “groupthink”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The need to work on something, often
anything, can mean that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>idea voiced, slants or influences the
expectations of the group and can misdirect all the ideas that follow. The team
embellishes the initial idea, producing variations and investing in this
direction until, much too late, it realises that this area is rather
unproductive but feels unwilling to abandon work that has involved so much
emotion, time and effort.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<h2 style="background: rgb(219, 229, 241); margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent1; mso-background-themetint: 51;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">IDEA-VETTING<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ideas can be vetted
inadvertently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have seen facilitators
scribbling ideas down onto flipcharts as the team shouted them out in
traditional brainstorming style and noticed their unconscious vetting of ideas
that they disliked by not writing them down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When asked subsequently why they missed these ideas and ultimately
switched those individuals off from any further positive contributions, they simply
said that they had not heard the ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When revisited on video, the excluded
ideas sounded just as loud as the other "acceptable" ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<h3 style="margin: 15pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #243f60;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">CREATIVE SILENCE<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h3>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The solution to overcome this type of
"groupthink" is to introduce a new discipline to traditional
brainstorming, by asking individuals to "kick-off" the process of
generating solutions or ideas by doing it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">individually,
and in silence</i> and recording their ideas on Post-Its.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This "Creative Silence"
approach leads to a significant improvement in quality and diversity of ideas.
The resulting ideas are collected by asking individuals to contribute their
ideas in threes, and without comment, working round the team until all the
ideas are represented. This also encourages individuals to listen to each
others' ideas to avoid presenting the same idea again.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I find Post-Its for individuals a
very useful way of accelerating this process. I have no investments in the
manufacturers, nor do I (as yet) receive a retainer for making this suggestion!
Remember: One idea per Post-It, write all ideas with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">same</i> colour flipchart-pen, to disguise the ownership of ideas and
reduce status-awareness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A minor point to remember is that
ideas may need to be expressed in more than just a single word on a Post-It in
order to mean something to other team-members.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<div style="border: 1pt solid black; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: currentColor; margin: 10pt 0cm; mso-border-alt: solid black 1.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creative Silence Brainstorming - 5
Basic<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rules<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>1<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Two Minutes Creative Silence (at
least)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>2<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One idea per Post-It<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>3<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Same colour pen<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>4<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Share 3 ideas at a time, going
round the group<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>5<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Remove duplicates, build on
triggers, seek combination and improvement<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: currentColor; margin: 10pt 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-border-alt: solid black 1.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm; tab-stops: -72.0pt; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Encourage individuals to introduce
their Post-Its in their own words, without comment from the team beyond
checking their understanding of the necessarily abbreviated content of each
Post-It as it is put on display. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whilst this is happening, encourage
individuals to respond to what they see, using them as triggers to generate
further ideas (another wave) or lead to grouping the ideas into families,
identifying gaps and only then introducing another wave through another phase
of Creative Silence, and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If used correctly, this tool will
help you and your team to effectively generate useful solution in a relatively
short period of time. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Its success
however, depends upon your process discipline!</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em></em></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">[Extract from: “The First Discipline: Process Leadership for Problem Solving Teams”, Victor Newman, 2010, http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2606757]<o:p></o:p></span></span></o:p></span></span><br />
Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-28299254928650666032012-08-16T02:20:00.000-07:002012-11-10T02:43:50.215-08:00Why Mind Fitness is Essential in Uncertain Times<br />
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<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where
are we now? <o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All economies and businesses go through cycles of decay and
rebirth. This means that the natural tendency to plug away at doing the same
stuff in the hope that the familiar old reality will return, whilst comforting,
is ultimately futile. The old rules don’t quite work the way they used to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Part of the problem of the recession is that the nature of business
decay has been disguised by artificial and unsustainable levels of government
borrowing that created an artificial boom in growth that has become seen as a
normal state.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Innovate
or Die<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The current economic climate is unpredictable because
cash-rich businesses are holding on to their money and not investing it,
because they cannot predict where the market will go next and how low customer
demand may fall. And yet we know that the old trick of manufacturing products
or delivering services that people actually want to buy still works under most
conditions: the long-delayed but welcome success of the British Automotive
industry says it all, JLR is having problems meeting global demand. Apple is
having dip in analyst expectations because its customers are not buying the
current iPhone because they know that the replacement will be available in
November. What marvellous challenges to have to face in a global recession!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Do
the Right Thing<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There’s a great quote from Warren Bennis to the effect that:
“Managers are people who do things right. [whilst] Leaders are people who do
the right thing”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Under stress, organisations and individuals tend to do 2
dangerous things: firstly they focus on hygiene behaviours (tidying or focusing
on cosmetic issues – hence “re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic”) that
comfort with familiarity instead of coming to terms with the new
situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This tidying behaviour under
pressure often takes the form of ensuring that “things are done right” are done
properly even when they are not solving the real problem that needs to be
addressed. The second dangerous behaviour is the tendency to work on solving
the problem they are already familiar with, which is usually not the problem
that needs working on.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How
Mad Do You Have To Get Before You Want To Change?<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 10pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is an old definition of insanity as “doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting different results” attributed to
Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, and Rita Mae Brown. How much insanity can we
afford?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mind Fit is about learning to face your current reality and
deliberately changing your thinking approach in order to succeed, by learning
to pay attention to new variables that determine success in a changed situation
or a situation you want to change by changing your performance. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Just as Lean Thinking was a response to the 1973 Oil Crisis, a
systemic methodology that focused on waste reduction by identifying forms of
waste that were an accepted cost in the automotive industry and eliminating
them, Mind Fit is about recognising forms of behavioural waste in your current
situation, confronting them and reducing them drastically to release energy to
innovate. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mind Fit awareness is the equivalent of an athlete learning
to change the self-imposed rules of performance by removing an invisible
rucksack full of rocks that a careless coach made them wear, and learning to
run faster, different races without it. Mind Fit is about giving yourself the
freedom to innovate personally, in your relationships, and in your organisation.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor rgb(79, 129, 189); border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #4F81BD .75pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent1; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">
<h5 style="margin: 15pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As
Ghandi said: be the change you wish to see in others.</span></span></span></h5>
<h5 style="margin: 15pt 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.mindfitltd.com/mind-fit-programmes/">http://www.mindfitltd.com/mind-fit-programmes/</a></h5>
</div>
Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-69409966980888773142012-07-04T02:40:00.001-07:002012-11-10T08:27:16.832-08:00LEADERSHIP BEYOND LEAN - FOR INNOVATION & GROWTH<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To paraphrase an old quote, insanity is
the expectation that old approaches will still work when the context you are
operating in has changed. If managers are supposed to do things right, and leaders to do the right
thing, then a recession deepens the requirement to support today’s strategy, whilst
crafting its innovative replacement. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BwRjLizqzko/T_QN4hq0z1I/AAAAAAAAACM/p63jvkskK6A/s1600/j0385553.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BwRjLizqzko/T_QN4hq0z1I/AAAAAAAAACM/p63jvkskK6A/s200/j0385553.jpg" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what do you do in the interim before
the new, “effective” strategy is operating? Just as the 1973 oil embargo forced
the adoption of lean thinking in the Japanese automotive industry, we need to
adopt a fundamentally different approach to forms of waste that we may not at
first be able to see or even characterize by creating new, dynamic way of
thinking about the most valuable resource that organisations possess – their
people. It is ultimately through people that growth will come.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’ve all heard of Not-Invented-Here, and
I have written elsewhere about “sticky” organizations and how closed Relational
Capital protects the status quo, but understanding the problem is not the same
as solving it. Ordinary people are like athletes in that both have all the
innate assets needed to become innovative and succeed, but few dare to
systematically realise this potential by developing a form of mental fitness
that reduces expensive defensive, paternalistic leadership and its partner
incompetence, in order to liberate new, hidden capability to innovate and grow.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Throwing money at the recession will not
solve the problem. Telling the banks to lend money just begs the question of
what exactly are they going to invest in, within a recession? So what is
required in order to be worth investing in?<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Current Recession Context & Innovation Credo<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Growth in a recession will come from different and better use of current
resources to innovate, chiefly through our people and their talents. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Champions are the product of the ability to
focus and control their own minds and fears to deliver outstanding behaviours combined
with a conscious use of technique under difficult circumstances.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Successful leaders in difficult times are
able to lead themselves and also influence the behaviours of those around them.
</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The problem for leaders is how to get more and different outcomes for
less, by understanding how to develop and apply a form of mental and
behavioural fitness to manage their own attention in order to change behaviours
and expectations, more. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the strategic imperatives that
Clive Woodward brought to British Athletics (and he knows he will never be
forgiven for doing it) was to focus investment on athletes in events where they
were likely to win a medal. Successful growth in a recession requires a similar
approach to mental fitness to enable innovation and growth. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>On 19th September 2012, Graham Williams and I will be presenting a showcase workshop on this topic, entitled "Mind Fit - To Innovate for Business Growth" at the University of Greenwich's Hamilton House in Greenwich. Details to follow.</em></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-29633978398680439222012-03-29T05:23:00.000-07:002012-03-29T05:23:26.469-07:00The Real Need for Autistic Board Members to Avoid Excessive Risk-Taking<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The past few weeks have featured several articles replaying the old sex-war narrative around capitalism, on the line that a more balanced representation of women in the boardroom would have reduced risk-taking behaviour that led to the financial crash.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Times’s Business Section, yesterday (Wednesday 28<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> March) suggested that this is a naïve, simplistic view, referencing Bundesbank research which suggested that “women board members were more likely to take risks with a bank’s finances than their male counterparts”. Swimming against the traditional sex-war narrative, the report concluded that “women determine corporate governance of banks significantly and are <u>not</u> marginalised by a male-dominated board culture”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interestingly, it was noted that risky behaviour was generally increased by the lower age of board members, but that PhD-holders brought greater stability.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reading Michael Lewis’s brilliant “The Big Short” on the epidemic of stupidity that drove the sub-prime disaster, a key feature of those who could see what was about to happen was their shared relative autism. That is, they all shared elements of autistic behaviour common to innovative people, as one of the key protagonists discovered when his son was diagnosed with Aspergers’s syndrome, for which the typical behaviours included a lack of:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ability to read non-verbal behaviours and eye-contact.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interest in developing peer relationships and interest in socialising with other people.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Allied with a strong tendency to:<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Find computers and the internet appealing because they avoid 1 & 2 above, </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Have hobbies and interests which are often solitary, idiosyncratic and dominate their time and conversations.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What made Dr. Michael Burry unusual was that “only someone who has Asperger’s would read a subprime mortgate bond prospectus [and understand what was actually going on]”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In conclusion, I would suggest that we need a new model for rationality when it comes to decision-making in financial institutions (and others). We need to include people who are asocial enough to apply logic in the face of social groupthink pressure to conform, and empower them to ask the real, systemic questions that the group is avoiding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-43171999003590511702012-01-23T05:16:00.000-08:002012-08-29T03:38:51.522-07:00Practical Innovation Leadership - 20th September 2012<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">A Flash Innovation Workshop with Victor Newman and Simon Evans, <span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Innovoflow Ltd.<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-INKy34zNp30/Tx1b1V1QOPI/AAAAAAAAAB0/XHr0tvq4658/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-INKy34zNp30/Tx1b1V1QOPI/AAAAAAAAAB0/XHr0tvq4658/s320/Picture1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Developing Responsive Fast-Twitch Muscle Training for Rugby! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Date: 20th September 2012</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> @ <a href="http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/travel/hamilton-house">Hamilton House</a>, University of Greenwich </span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Timing</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">: 0900-1700</span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Overview<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Innovation Agility combines flexible thinking about your innovation process, the willingness to exploit the full range of options outside current products, services and business models, plus the ability to learn rapidly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Agile Innovation Leadership skills are especially valuable in turbulent markets and for developing Open Innovation strategies to work with great ideas from both inside or outside the company, and also for going to market with external partners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This workshop provides a model (through simulation) to help innovation leaders to develop agile thinking and the necessary decision making ability to operate successfully and meet the needs of the emergent, post-recession world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Content</span></b><b><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">A warm-up task to stimulate innovative thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Current challenges and problems with innovation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Use of simulations to accelerate innovation learning.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Introducing the concepts of the “Innovation Eco-System” the “Idea lifecycle” and “Agile Innovation leadership”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discussion.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Learning from experience - using simulation components to illustrate examples of failed innovation initiatives and how they could have been rescued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Participants illustrate their experiences using the simulation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Constructing an optimal innovation ecosystem with constrained resources.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Reverse Innovation Thinking: Identifying barriers to innovation and harvesting experience to develop antidotes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Who is the custodian of the eco-system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discussion<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Summing up, review and take-aways.</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Learning Objectives</span></b></div>
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<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To understand that innovation is at the core of all businesses<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To understand the nature of an idea and how it survives<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To take the broad view of innovation and ensure that ideas have the best chance of generating real value – it’s not just about coming up with ideas<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To recognise that innovation must be “part of the day job”<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To treat the innovation eco-system as something that requires feeding, watering and nurturing in order to be successful<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(Most importantly!) recognise that innovation is not a free lunch -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you must invest many different types of resource<o:p></o:p></span></li>
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<b><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Who should attend</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All SMEs or entrepreneurs who care about developing innovation agility in a turbulent environment, who realise that new ideas sometimes need new ways of thinking and working, to turn them into practical products, services and business models. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Benefits to you and your business</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Acquire a new and practical way of discussing and thinking openly about the way you innovate in your organisation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Discover how to design and test a comprehensive innovation eco-system to ensure ideas are supported throughout their whole lifecycle to generate maximum value<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">An opportunity to share experiences of successful or failed innovation approaches and how to learn from them <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Have an enjoyable learning day, much of which can be taken back to your business<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To start to build a relationship with the Centre for Entrerprise & Innovation which could lead to other opportunities<o:p></o:p></span>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-29983846313697228872011-11-02T09:21:00.000-07:002011-11-03T13:22:04.874-07:00How do you sell innovation to current business leaders?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GTjNLIDgnJI/TrL3zJzklfI/AAAAAAAAABs/gaMKLjLC-tk/s1600/fat-squirrel-620_1916459i%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GTjNLIDgnJI/TrL3zJzklfI/AAAAAAAAABs/gaMKLjLC-tk/s320/fat-squirrel-620_1916459i%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are in an interesting situation. Businesses that could be investing in innovation are holding onto their cash and waiting to see how the global economy plays out. That’s one explanation. I have another.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s an old consulting joke that goes like this: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Question - How many consultants does it take to change a light-bulb? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Answer - The number of consultants is immaterial, the key issue is that the light-bulb has got to want to change!<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s unpack the current context:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what have we got? <o:p></o:p></span></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> POLITICIANS: Who borrowed irresponsibly to create artificial economic growth & buy elections through unsustainable public service expansion and vanity projects.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BUSINESS LEADERS: Who successfully rode artificial growth-curves but don’t know how to grow businesses in a recession.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ORGANISATIONS: With Products/ Services & Business Models at the wrong end of the S cash-curve, who are betting their pensions and bonuses on product extensions.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we have even got CONSULTANTS who can see the need to move out of EFFICIENCY strategies and into EFFECTIVENESS strategies but cannot package a new paradigm & don’t know how to sell it to current leaders, but we either innovate or we die and we cannot borrow our way into growth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We can sell transactional efficiency, product optimisation process consulting BUT we know that having the right people with the right psychology will make a lot of the KPI architecture completely irrelevant. Unfortunately at the top, we have people (probably not really leaders in the true sense) who can play political games in a growth phase, but who may not be the right people to grow the business in the current environment through innovation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So how can we sell change in order to innovate to people who don’t understand what it means?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could possibly begin with the linguistic trick that launched Lean Thinking. The word “lean” was powerful because of the implication that those who didn’t adopt it were fat (organisations). We need a similar linguistic trick that carries a hidden insult for non-consumers to act as a Trojan Horse to begin a literally vital, viral makeover.<o:p></o:p></span>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-50947388823353455712011-06-21T09:09:00.000-07:002011-06-21T09:09:19.082-07:00Creativity, Projects, Project Leadership and Project ManagersSpencer Holmes interviews me on Youtube, discussing creative thinking, project leadership and managers. An introduction to the 30/70 rule as a means of aligning specialists behind a project.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aigg1rMwZ8&feature=youtube_gdata_player" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aigg1rMwZ8&feature=youtube_gdata_player</a>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-26127760741443679762011-06-06T08:50:00.000-07:002011-06-07T01:34:58.907-07:00Toxic Efficiency: How to Kill Your Organization by Making Efficiency Your God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2EeDKOFrQs/Te3iXDM-dMI/AAAAAAAAABo/1BtJ3YvONJQ/s1600/Montparnasse+G+du+Nord+accident.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y2EeDKOFrQs/Te3iXDM-dMI/AAAAAAAAABo/1BtJ3YvONJQ/s1600/Montparnasse+G+du+Nord+accident.bmp" /></a></div>Back in the 90s, I read an interesting book about fighting power by a retired US Colonel (Trevor N, Dupuy) much of which I disagreed with, where he established that the German Wehrmacht had by April 1945, quadrupled the fighting power of their infantry battalions in comparison with their capability in June 1940, this in spite of virtually halving the manpower on an infantry battalion down from 800 to approximately 400 men. What the author didn’t discuss was the futility of such developments, since the war was already lost and this kind of fighting power was irrelevant. <br />
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But the futility of focusing on transactional efficiency is often hidden in organisational cultures which prefer to work on solving problems that they can solve, that reinforce the collaboration of existing power and resourcing structures, instead of focusing on the problem whose resolution will lead to systematic change that will demolish current accumulated reserves of Relational Capital, whose new shape is unpredictable.<br />
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A few years later, I found myself facilitating the leadership of an automotive assembly plant on their strategic rationale for achieving the appropriate level of lean-ness as being the means of ensuring that they would be a natural site for the assembly of future models from their Japanese partners. I realized that there was something wrong with this as a viable strategy, but couldn’t put it into words. <br />
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Subsequently, I led an exercise in reverse-assembly of a 4WD vehicle in order to discover how to simplify the current assembly process. This was useful in that it led to the simplification of the assembly process by focusing on pre-assembly of modular components (so we could appear to reduce the man-hours involved in assembly), a significant reduction in the variety of fixing devices, and the final realisation that the 4WD vehicle needed to be redesigned and light-weighted (since it was really based on a heavy truck sub-frame and suspension system). We constructed a new prototype vehicle with significant benefits and showed it to our Japanese partner. The outcome was unexpected. I was asked to formally apologize to our Japanese CEO. As he drily put it: we do the innovation, you just assemble the product. At that point, I realized the danger of focusing on efficiency: it can mean that you lose the ability to invent new products, yourself.<br />
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In 2000, I was headhunted from Cranfield University to become Pfizer’s Chief Learning Officer, setting up a corporate university, organising governance, metrics and a system of barefoot practitioners. I realised that if I wanted to be successful in my own terms I had to connect closely with the strategy (developing a system of Strategic Learning Plans that answered the question of what do you need to be good at to deliver the strategy?, and what do you need to learn to provide the capability required?). I worked on improving the learning process for drug project teams whose lifecycle can take 8-10 years and involve considerable member rotation meaning that teams can unlearn as fast as they learnt. This lead to the invention of the Baton Passing technique with some significant improvements in time and cost-saving and reduction in attrition or failure.<br />
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Then in 2003 I suddenly woke up. I noticed that acquisitions were not delivering and it wasn’t down to the costs of integration. I realised that there was no point in optimising a strategy that would never deliver the shareholder returns required in the long run, at a time when innovation productivity in the pharmaceutical industry had been flat-lining since 1981. We needed a new strategy. So I began leading skunkworks projects to harvest lost Intellectual Property in Pfizer and build awareness of the fractured nature of the current investment strategy and its limitations. But it was too late. Naturally, leadership (like all pharmaceutical businesses) told itself to cut costs and began the dreary ritual of down-sizing and attempting to learn how to operate efficiently, but like the Wehrmacht, they missed the strategic point of inflection, in other words, that all strategies have a lifecycle, but that when you focus primarily upon efficiency without a balanced, ambidextrous approach that includes effectiveness, you are doomed.<br />
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<strong>Key Learning Point for Leaders: try to balance transactional efficiency strategies with systemic effectiveness strategies!</strong>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-14593829770458491092011-03-08T08:56:00.000-08:002012-01-18T13:10:46.051-08:00Rediscovering the Lost Art of Strategic Knowledge Management in Business AdministrationAll strategies are knowledge strategies - in the sense that your strategy is the product of a series of conscious or unconscious knowledge choices. <br />
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Sometimes it can be helpful to go back to basics. Strategic knowledge management is taught in business administration courses, like the ones profiled on this <a href="http://www.onlinembaprograms.org/">MBA degree</a> site. However, when professionals enter the fast-paced environment of the real business world, they sometimes leave the fundamental tools and lessons of school behind them."<br />
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A few years ago, I was consulting at a senior level in a business where every year more money was being pumped into product development and yet the number of products getting to market was static. Reviewing the data within a variant on the porter Competitive Advantage matrix (price and product differentiation) was leading us into a 2nd-best trap of minor differentiation because low risk had become the name of the game. Similarly, productivity was being affected by dangerous, institutionalised assumptions that the minute survival ratio of successful products to prototypes and high attrition (failure) ratio required a necessarily large population of prototypes to work from to grow the business. <br />
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This low survival rate of successful prototypes was demonstrated to be another example of groups within the organisation exploiting and corrupting measurement systems over time (in other words if you want lots of prototypes that don’t work and will pay for them, we will provide them for you). However, the failing business model and associated strategy required a more indirect approach to open up and articulate the underlying and often tacit knowledge it was based upon which was clearly not working.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2JV3ujhOr0w/TXZfF5w-P1I/AAAAAAAAABg/J3vD9J_ojoU/s1600/Arrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2JV3ujhOr0w/TXZfF5w-P1I/AAAAAAAAABg/J3vD9J_ojoU/s200/Arrow.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
I noticed that although we had a lot of data about the situation, we never discussed the emergent strategy or tested the knowledge it was based upon. Although we talked about innovation, people seemed to think they were already doing it. Whenever I asked to see the organisation’s “innovation process”, they kept pointing at the New Product Development process (sometimes called the pipeline). The first problem was that we were committed to a default strategy that we never discussed and it was killing us; and the second problem was that people thought that the NPD or product pipeline WAS the innovation process, and thus it was impossible to question the business model or the potential for creating new value services around the old core products. <br />
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No-one was willing to directly question the business model that involved spending so much to deliver less. I decided to take another approach, and lead a disguised strategic conversation exercise through metaphor, based upon the 9-dot problem. <br />
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You know the one where you are asked to connect 9 dots in a box arrangement of 3 lines of 3 dots, using only 4 continuous straight lines. Usually what happens is that you try and try to solve this problem and it’s only when someone shows you the “arrowhead” pattern that extends the lines outside of the box that you realise that you sometimes have to step outside the box to understand the problem and see a solution. Working within the current emergent strategy was a bit like trying to solve the problem by staying within the box with similar emotional frustrations - in that it didn’t matter what you did with your resources, you still couldn’t solve the problem with current thinking. Having made the connection with the strategy, the next step was to invite people to connect the 9 dots using just 3 consecutive straight lines. After initial astonishment and disbelief, people would ask whether they could break the rules and in effect began to question their own constraining assumptions. We then transferred this thinking to our emergent strategy to ask ourselves: just what were the constraining assumptions? We then applied “reality checks”. Were these constraining assumptions still true, did they still constrain us? In every session, with a bit of preparation, the same 6 constraining assumptions that made up the organisation’s success formula would appear and we would demolish or modify them in the light of new knowledge and market changes. The outcome was a populated matrix or portfolio of new strategies that defined new freedoms to innovate in the language of the organisation. The scariest moment was presenting this to the head of new product development when he said: “you know, I only ever get to think like this on my own, late at night…”<br />
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There is a big difference between being efficient and effective. All strategies are knowledge strategies. Make sure that the knowledge you use to build your strategic choices is still current. Thinking outside of the box involves being a stranger to the familiarity of your own organisation. Knowledge is like fruit, the highest value is only realised when you connect the timing of the fruit ripening to the moment of the customer’s hunger. Don’t keep selling old fruit to people who aren’t hungry. Make sure your strategy is based on fresh knowledge, and that any old knowledge that remains within your emergent strategy is still edible and not past its sell-by date.<br />
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<b>Implications</b>:<br />
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1. How long has the current strategy got left?<br />
2. How good is the knowledge you are paying attention to?<br />
3. What is the knowledge you are deliberately ignoring, and why?Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-46981444942591741362011-02-07T04:15:00.000-08:002011-02-07T04:15:04.077-08:00Innovation is a Political Act - DiscussInnovation is about doing new things and learning to do old things in new ways to create new value. We need to understand why organisations become “sticky” under innovation pressure and the forms that this “stickiness” takes when innovators are trying to introduce new approaches to create new value through organisations.<br />
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• A culture is a by-product of a technology stabilization process, it is composed of the problem-solving experiences and processes involved in turning an invention into an innovation. All cultures are relatively “sticky” in the sense that they resist pressures to change.<br />
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• Strong cultures continually evolve new behaviours to block change, to maintain social stability and power structures based upon existing patterns and accumulated reserves of mutual Relational Capital.<br />
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• The greater the mutual Relational Capital in the network, the “stickier” the organisation. The stickier an organisation, the more pronounced its tendency to focus on the problems it can solve, rather than the problem it needs to solve (as a means of avoiding renegotiating existing stocks of Relational Capital).<br />
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Relational Capital is the social “capital” you build through establishing positive impressions and trusting relationships with key colleagues, stakeholders and potential internal customers, through trading and being able to bank favours at crucial times in the lifecycle of the business and personal careers. It explains the tendency within major corporations and political parties to appoint that “safe pair of hands” who turns out to be a dangerous idiot (unable to recognise that the context has changed, old customers want new things and new customers have emerged) instead of appointing the innovator who wants to move the strategy in a new direction, to change the rules and create new value. That “safe pair of hands” is usually the manager who is owed the most in Relation Capital transactions, the value of which would disappear if the technology and direction of the business changed and made the existing transactions void. <br />
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This explains the tendency to optimise existing products, services and business models instead of moving into the territory of creating genuinely new value by focusing on becoming effective. If you hold a big account of Relational Capital, would you want to give it up? This also explains the 60-70% failure rate of systemic change programmes. When you change organisations, you make all current existing Relational Capital void.<br />
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We need to unpack the nature of this Relational Capital, explore and understand the forms it takes, and the conditions under which it be both open and closed, positive and negative. In other words: whether it can be positive and open (when you have an “open” approach to constructing Relational Capital that is inclusive) and whether a closed approach is always negative and defensive, a conscious option or merely a social reflex that we can influence by working with leaders and persuading them of the benefits of consciously managing their approach to Relational Capital.<br />
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<b>I will develop these ideas and this topic at Henley KM Forum Conference on 17th February 2011 (1345-1515 in the TK Conference Room).<br />
</b>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-50897353642176649092010-10-21T05:13:00.000-07:002010-10-21T05:15:28.461-07:00Green Door and Elephants“Green Door" is a 1956 song whose lyrics describe a green door, behind which "a happy crowd" play piano, smoke and "laugh a lot", from which the singer is excluded.<br />
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We are probably aware of the social phenomenon in organisations and teams when people refuse to talk about the “Elephant-In-The-Room” or the big issue that needs to be resolved, avoidance of which helps to maintain an artificial social stability as people perform intellectual and linguistic feats of avoidance in order not to begin the dangerous process of facing current reality and questioning the legitimacy of power and existing Relational Capital whose leadership is leading down an obvious path to failure.<br />
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I want to propose a technique “ITR – In-The-Room” for innovators who are trying implement successful improvement strategies, based upon recent experiences of working with innovation practitioners to construct generic Practice Maps of what is actually required to be successful in their roles and what really works.<br />
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I recently used the Baton Passing technique to facilitate the construction of a Practice Map based on current experience from over 20 organisations and over 30 practitioners, which was revisited and drastically rewritten at a subsequent session. Whilst the structure of the knowledge was interesting and valuable, populating what turned out to be a 5-Step generic process model, each step breaking down into Lesson Themes, each supported by individual Lessons using a robust structured template, I noticed 2 phenomena which exposed emergent Elephants-In-The-Room for innovation practitioners.<br />
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1. Once the Practice Map existed, it became possible for practitioners to ask each other very specific questions: in other words, it became possible for them to identify the shape and size of the unknowns (or new Elephants) that they need to convert into personal knowledge for use in order to survive.<br />
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2. There was a giant but invisible issue that ran across and through the Practice Map: an issue that I call “ITR”.<br />
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It was only once we got to a level of “granularity” that came from being able to see a practical Practice Map, that a major conversational theme emerged (perhaps the biggest Elephant-In-The-Room for people trying to do their kind of job): their political marginality as mere instruments and not participants in delivering new value. <br />
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It became clear that their biggest problem was convincing the Board (or the body that inhabits “The Room” where the real decisions get made) that they were delivering enough value or savings to justify their continued existence. But this was difficult if you couldn’t access the meeting or “Room” where the real strategy (not just the metrics or broad goals) was discussed, because your political marginality made it difficult to acquire Relational Capital with the Board members to let you enter this “Room”. <br />
This is similar to the experience of Quality Directors in R&D organisations, where they realise that unless they can get into the high-level strategy meetings, their lives will be dedicated to tidying up wasteful strategies that they could have influenced at birth and focused on delivering value.<br />
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At the moment, ITR has 3 key stages:<br />
<b>A. How to Find and Understand The Room </b>(where is it, what’s in it: locating it, finding out who’s in it, what do they care about/ their agenda, and who could be persuaded to introduce you?)<br />
<b>B. How to Fit in The Room </b>(constructing your activity to meet their agenda, using their language to demonstrate that you are a key player in delivering their goals and bonuses, getting yourself invited)<br />
<b>C. How to Enter The Room and Get Invited Back </b>(identifying players who you can help, working with them 1:1 outside The Room; learning about the ongoing agenda and making contact with the agenda-holder to invite you back again).Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-68814463278422411092010-06-29T09:18:00.000-07:002010-06-29T09:18:54.278-07:00Lessons for Innovation Practitioners (3): C. Get Close to the Strategy, Help them to Know What they Really Want, and the Linguistic TorpedoOne of the problems of being a change specialist lies in the temptation of going out and harvesting the Low-Hanging-Fruit. This appears to be a good thing at the time, but when you have harvested the LHFs, and applied local and tactical solutions: you will inevitably get faced with the tough, systemic issues that no-one wants to address because they are about the decay of the core technology that everyone has learnt to stabilise, and its replacement. And those with the most Relationship Capital to maintain and lose in acquiring a new technology and riding it, must fight for efficiency and destroy the arrival of alternative strategies with the potential to deliver new effective value in the market and a new cohort of leaders who will establish their own more recent, and more highly-valued currency of Relationship Capital.<br />
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The difficulty of working with customers is that often they don’t and cannot know what they want until they see it, or they hear themselves saying it out loud. There’s a great story about Professor Martin Elliott and his hole-in-the-heart team at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (Greaves, W., “Ferrari Pit Stop Saves Alexander’s Life”. Daily Telegraph, 29 August 2006). It was only after years of attempting to apply lean techniques to their procedures, and benchmarking with the aerospace industry (which was seen as sufficiently high status), and after a “particularly bad day at the office” that Martin Elliott and his colleague Dr. Allen Goldman sat slumped in front of the television, accidentally watching a motor racing grand prix, that the two of them simultaneously became aware of the similarities between the handover disciplines from surgery to intensive care and what was going on in the pit of a formula one racing team. <br />
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In effect, lean thinking (in their current frame of mind or context) could only take them so far. They needed a systemic shift that moved them from focusing on efficiency to becoming effective: in other words, they needed to change the mental rules behind the way they expected to do business if they were going to innovate.<br />
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So how do you get the CEO to want something they don’t know they need, to want something new and different which would devalue all existing stocks of shared Relationship Capital? The trick involves three items: proximity, questioning and language. In other words, to get close to the strategy, ask the right personal question about ambition and legacy, and to infect the organisation with the language of the future. <br />
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Strategic proximity can begin by offering to facilitate tactical chunks of the strategy, or to lead warm-up sessions to widen the scope of thinking about the future – without asking to be involved in the deliberations of the core team. Once they feel comfortable with you, Relationship Capital will be established and you can get closer to facilitating the strategic discussion itself. <br />
Once you have done this, you can begin “Asking the Right Question” which involves extending your facilitation approach into discussions in confidence with the CEO or senior leader to help them craft what they want to achieve in terms of their legacy to the organisation. Hopefully this isn’t a new building or a statue! <br />
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Part of the above process, the third leg of the stool is what I call the “Linguistic Torpedo”. Until people in the organisation have the language to describe the problem or to name the solution to the problem that everyone sees, they find it difficult to act. Linguistic Torpedo is where you specify a problem and its solution in non-bullshit characteristic language, naming them and introducing them to at least 5 key meetings with people you want to influence, and saying it at least 3 times in each meeting. You may have to muddy authorship in these meetings, suggesting that you have heard people in the organisation using these terms. This requires patience, but within 6-9 months you may hear your idea coming back to you (like the boom of torpedo hitting the target and coming back to the submarine hunter, magnified by power of water to carry sound). If you do it right, people will not remember you as the source and will honestly believe that they have invented the terms. <br />
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<b>Final Warning</b><br />
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Obviously the key to being a great change specialist lies in being ambidextrous: developing the ability to feed today’s ravening numbers “beast” whilst also helping leaders and potential leaders to dream new dreams, able to facilitate thinking and change around both efficiency and effectiveness. <br />
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We need to develop both capabilities, but these require consciously managing your behaviour and interactions to grow Relationship Capital, the ability to renegotiate robustly as circumstances shift, and a willingness to serve when it comes to “seeding” and influencing the strategic conversation about the future of the organisation, and the new technologies, products, services and business models required in a world where the S-curve around knowledge lifecycles is becoming increasingly compressed and in need of replacements.Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-66929311403498322742010-05-23T08:35:00.000-07:002010-05-23T08:36:51.324-07:00Lessons for Innovation Practitioners (2): The Deal is the Deal: Always RenegotiateIn Luc Besson’s excellent first “Transporter” movie, the hero (played by Jason Statham) has 3 rules. The first two apply to your situation: 1) The deal is the deal; 2) Never open the package. <br />
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However, for the Change Specialist or Innovation Practitioner, these “rules” need a slight modification:<br />
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1) Only the latest deal is the deal. Keep the deal fresh and documented.<br />
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2) Always open the package. Make sure you know what’s in the deal and what’s changed.<br />
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The optimal moment for making yourself effective and managing the power of other peoples’ accumulated Relationship Capital and their need to devalue any that you may develop, is the moment when you are appointed and when you have the opportunity to negotiate “the deal” around those elements that must be managed in order for you to deliver your best to the organisation. <br />
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Fundamentally, this involves objectifying the ambition of the organisation out of the context that drove your appointment, by defining the key “chunks” of your programme in terms of time, resources and political backing required in order to deliver. This needs to be documented in some form of Memorandum of Understanding with the CEO, and other functional heads. In reality, we all know that customers change their minds, stuff happens, reality shifts and ambitions shrink and expand. The key thing to remember is that when the Deal you have drawn up with the Organisation can no longer be operationalised: then you must renegotiate the Deal and all the detail involved. <br />
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Failure to renegotiate when circumstances change, on the assumption that everyone after all, was in the same meeting and has a shared understanding of the new circumstances that delayed your programme or reprioritised investment, is dangerous and naive. Someone, at board level will exploit that curious collective amnesia and groupthink of top teams and degrade your growing Relationship Capital by pointing out that you have failed, the whisper will grow to become fact. So being right in retrospect, is not a defence.Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-83564541316860406772010-04-24T07:55:00.000-07:002010-04-24T08:03:54.820-07:00Giving It Away To Win: From Power Push to Viral Pull<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the core contradictions at the heart of change management is the idea that for a new idea to be successful, leaders must sign up to the proposed change. The problem is, how can you be committed to a form of change that you have never experienced and which will devalue your carefully-acquired Relationship Capital?</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s important to recognise the viral element of successful change management. Sometimes, as with products, it’s a good idea to be a fast-follower who can exploit the pioneer’s market creation. One of the most dangerous things that can happen to an organisation is when a CEO takes a long flight and gets time to think without distractions, or is invited to speak at a conference and gets infected with a new idea for changing or improving a business’s performance. What happens next probably explains the 70% failure rate of first-wave systemic change methodologies, and is a further demonstration of what happens when a change-agent tries to pretend that they can be effective without building Relationship Capital:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Someone has a “vision” for an improved business, and hires a change Practitioner “who’s done it before”. This Practitioner thinks they have a mandate for change, but it’s merely an understanding that will flex when circumstances change.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Practitioner builds a “Machine” to deliver the change, which turns into a new function (aping current organisational behaviour, in order to survive among the competing functions) and becomes an overhead. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Machine starts constructing metrics to look good and attacks the Low-Hanging-Fruit (LHF) to justify the investment; the Machine’s purpose mutates into feeding itself, looking for good stories of its work among the functions (which alienates the functions by suggesting that it was all down to the Machine); it becomes disconnected from the business.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Business gets pestered by Machine consultants who keep arriving to do stuff and distracting its people. The Business functions begin to question having to pay for feeding a Machine that’s increasingly seen as disconnected from the Business, and leaders start blocking any moves away from LHF into systemic change. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Machine creates its own efficiency numbers to demonstrate activity and apparent benefits. Business functions gang up on the Machine, or a crisis occurs and the Machine is closed down, or quietly dies a death. Things go very quiet.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then (after an interval of time, with luck) an Internal Business Visionary rooted in the real world of the Business functions starts it up again BUT at a lower level within their own function. This internal visionary has learnt from the failure of the Machine that fed itself to death, that change has to be business-focussed and initiated and should not try to ape the clothing and behaviour of the Business functions.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The change lessons could turn out to be:</strong></span><br />
<ol><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let someone else fail and then follow them, or work with someone who really wants to do it. It’s not about doing it TO the business, but for the Business to do it TO and FOR ITSELF.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you build a change Machine to compete with the Business functions, they will have to destroy you at some point.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Practitioner who succeeds in the long term will give away their practice and focus on maintaining a Centre of Excellence and the development of thought-leadership, learning to act as a guide, and not as a Machine builder or driver.</span></li>
</ol>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-44242103609733736882010-03-29T10:12:00.000-07:002010-03-29T10:36:25.668-07:00The Pace of Innovation Leadership<span style="font-family: arial;">At last a Knowledge and Innovation Management Book in the military context.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
I must recommend Mark Urban’s recent book “Task Force Black” (‘The Explosive True Story of The SAS and the Secret War in Iraq’: Little, Brown; 2010). What appears to be another book about the war in Iraq, is actually a book about Strategic Knowledge Management and a leading practitioner.<br />
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What is fascinating about Urban’s account of the Special Air Service contribution to the “hidden” war against Al-Qaeda and related insurgent groups are the innovations around knowledge management that Stan McChrystal wove together, which have potential for establishing and maintaining innovation leadership within a volatile global market.<br />
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It is the integration of surveillance technologies, elite teams, and information management to change the pace of decision-making that is noteworthy. Major-General Stan McChrystal realised that it would take a military social network to defeat a cultural insurgent network, and consciously accelerated the pace of data-gathering and interpretation, cutting out the traditional siloed, and layered, “Chinese Whispers” migration of intelligence aggregation, analysis and synthesis through creating his own intelligence network, with its own media in the form of intranet spaces to display it in, that could be accessed and interpreted by participants in real time.<br />
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Fundamentally, McChrysal consciously took Boyd’s OODA loop philosophy out of its traditional air combat context (Boyd’s fighter-pilot proposition being that in order to win in air combat, the first combatant with a superior pace to their Observe-Orient- Decide- Act cycle, is the winner), connected it with energy and applied it hunting down insurgent cells, to roll up structured networks faster than they could respond, and thus “win” or at least destroy the opposition’s ability to dictate the pace of the war.</span><strong><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">Implications</span></strong><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
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If we simplify innovation thinking to at least 3 basic thinking rules: move, test, and break; then McChrystal and his disciples have added a fourth element to demonstrate that so-called “asymmetric” networked warfare can be defeated, as long as military leadership has the courage and energy to<br />
1.<strong>Move</strong>: consciously changing perspective –to empathise, to think like an insurgent, understand where and how they are being manufactured, as well as their victims;<br />
2.<strong>Test</strong>: explore current assumptions around purpose, context and rationale for yourself and the insurgent, remodelling these to work with better assumptions, deliberately discarding obsolete thinking and structures; and finally:<br />
3.<strong>Break</strong>: consciously game-breaking or changing the rules to create new opportunities, recognising when to flex your rules of engagement, when and at what pace to change the rules of the current game, in order to win.<br />
4.<strong>Up the Pace</strong>: use 1-3 to change the <em>quality</em> of thinking and decision making whilst accelerating the <em>pace</em> of decision-making, so that the opposition cannot compete with you. </span>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-12103285075905599052010-02-18T10:09:00.000-08:002010-02-18T10:56:18.934-08:00Sticky Organisations and How They Make Smart People Stupid<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Y531P-hHCuA/S32MVDYukXI/AAAAAAAAABI/GCjMJu8dBrk/s1600-h/RelCap+Labyrinth2.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 213px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439658218247590258" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Y531P-hHCuA/S32MVDYukXI/AAAAAAAAABI/GCjMJu8dBrk/s320/RelCap+Labyrinth2.png" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The thrill of being headhunted to a senior role in a successful and knowledge-intensive corporate on the basis of expertise is only balanced by the downside of finding yourself trapped in a cycle of ritualised meetings, unable to influence the strategic direction of the organisation that paid the recruiter so well to recruit you. In such a situation, several options become available: </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><ol><li>Lie back and enjoy the management cycle of activity (like pedalling a static exercise bike with minimal resistance). </li><li>Get upset about the fact you have become a corporate adornment, that you can’t influence the strategy, become cynical and constructively dismiss yourself, or </li><li>Try to understand the situation, and do something about it. </li></ol><p>Let me explain the relationship between a “sticky” organisation and Relationship Capital. <ul><li>All cultures are relatively “sticky” in the sense that they resist pressures to change. </li><br /><li>A culture is a by-product of a technology stabilization process, it is composed of the problem-solving experiences and processes involved in turning an invention into an innovation. </li><br /><li>Strong cultures continually evolve new behaviours to block change, to maintain social stability and power structures based upon existing patterns and accumulated reserves of mutual Relationship Capital.<br /></li><li>The greater the mutual Relationship Capital in the network, the “stickier” the organisation.</li></ul><p>Relationship Capital is the social “capital” you build through establishing positive impressions and trusting relationships with key colleagues, stakeholders and potential internal customers, through trading and being able to bank favours at crucial times in the lifecycle of the business and personal careers. It explains the tendency within major corporations and political parties to appoint that “safe pair of hands” who turns out to be a dangerous idiot instead of the innovator who wants to move the strategy in a new direction, to change the rules. That “safe pair of hands” is usually the manager who is owed the most in Relation Capital transactions, the value of which would disappear if the technology and direction of the business changed and made the existing transactions void.<br />This explains the tendency to optimise existing products, services and business models instead of moving into the territory of creating genuinely new value by focusing on becoming effective. If you hold a big account of Relationship Capital, would you want to give it up? This also explains the 60-70% failure rate of systemic change programmes. When you change organisations, you make existing Relationship Capital void. </p><p>The message is: If you are a subject-matter expert or even a thought-leader, you cannot put your knowledge to work within a “sticky” organisation unless you can rapidly develop Relationship Capital. Without Relationship Capital, you will not be invited to the “right” meetings where you can make a contribution based upon your hard-won expertise.</p><p>The personal strategy that applies, involves enduring a rite of passage in meetings, negotiating deeper stages of trust, where your behaviour must be positive without appearing to threaten existing knowledge power and established Relationship Capital in the room. These will involve working your way through a sequence of meetings, demonstrating your respect for existing Relationship Capital, meetings where provocations to your expertise will be offered but to which you must not react.<br /></p><strong></strong><br /><strong>Simplified Relationship Capital Building Labyrinth Sequence</strong><br /><br />Level 1 Meeting: Wrong Problem / Wrong Method<br />Level 2 Meeting: Right Problem / Wrong Method<br />Level 3 Meeting: Wrong Problem / Right Method, and finally<br />Level 4 Meeting: Right Problem / Right Method<br /><br /><strong>The Expert’s Journey to Effectiveness</strong><br /><br />Ideally, an expert would be allowed into a meeting level 4 meeting from the start. In reality, the expert goes through a rite of passage (1, 2, 3 level meeting types) to socialise them, test their “right stuff” and their willingness to respect the primacy of existing, dominant (but often decaying) knowledge forms and their established Relationship Capital. Once you have developed high Relationship Capital, you will get invited to the real meetings that determine survival. It may take 18 months of self-control and sticking to the rules.<br />This explains why genuine “out-of-the-box” or even “no-box” thinking needs leadership sanction or a major crisis of survival that wipes out the bankability of existing Relationship Capital.<br /><p><strong>The Rules</strong><br /></p><br /><ol><li>Respect existing Relationship Capital, find out who has the most banked and whose is most at risk. </li><br /><li>Don’t preach using your Craft Knowledge to define the problem or appropriate solution or techniques. </li><br /><li>Use their language to define the problem they want to work on: don’t be surprised if they want to solve the wrong problem. Help them to do the wrong thing, better. </li><br /><li>Don’t explain where an enabling technique comes from, pretend to invent it on the spur of the moment. </li><br /><li>Try to use local contextual examples rather than using comparative case studies of external practice. </li><br /><li>Be patient and control your body language.</span></li></ol> <p><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>I will be talking about this at the Henley KM Forum Conference on 24th February 2010.</strong></span></p>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-25238834014075388832009-12-24T10:48:00.000-08:002009-12-24T11:00:41.753-08:00The Art of Innovation Leadership<span style="font-family:arial;">Innovation Leadership is an art because it involves understanding and managing 4 behavioural dimensions which have, until recently, remained hidden. Whilst we are probably familiar with Sun Tzu’s and Marcus Aurelius’s maxims on the importance of self-knowledge, the psychology of Innovation Leadership has not been available in a practical form that could help leaders and organisations, until now when we need it.<br /><br /><strong>Blind Drivers of Innovation</strong><br />Understanding innovation leadership is a bit like driving a car. At present, most organisations manage their psychology of innovation like drivers of cars who happen to be blind. It is possible to become relatively successful at leading an organisation through the medium of traditional performance measures. These are much like the cues that a blind driver uses to stay in the correct lane on the motorway. By listening to the sound cues of irregular bumping of tyres over cat’s eyes on one side of the car, and the screeching noise of the other side of the car grinding along the side of the oncoming traffic or stationary vehicles or building, a crude form of progress can be managed; even if getting onto and off the motorway is problemmatic. Every year, there are stories of blind drivers in remote rural areas (usually with a child or drunk giving instructions from the passenger seat) being chased and halted by astounded traffic police. It clearly can be done, and is being done, more or less: but does it make sense? And is it acceptable?<br /><br />Not being in control of your own innovation leadership behaviour as a leader, is like leading your team or organization as though it is a car that you choose to drive with your eyes closed. Most people have no idea what their innovation leadership profile is. They are in effect, blind leaders of innovation. We are probably all familiar with the idea that it is not what leaders say, but how leaders actually behave that has the most impact on organisations, and that it is their behaviour that sends the strongest messages and provides the most powerful cues as to what defines successful performance in the organisation.<br /><br />The key to successful leadership of innovation begins with understanding<br /><br />• The 4 Innovation Leadership Behaviours (ILB),<br />• The limitations of where you are now (in terms of your actual ILB profile)<br />• The nature of the challenge (in terms of your preferred ILB profile), and<br />• Being hungry enough to want to change, to take control, to do something about it.<br /><br />For some leaders, the idea of developing an understanding of their own ILB profiles (actual and preferred) can be intimidating, much as primitive tribes were afraid that photography would steal their souls, or that to study and seek to understand the behavioural patterns might destroy the power of a secret formula by exposing it. But as they say at the Royal Air Force’s Parachute Training School: “Knowledge Dispels Fear”. And this knowledge is essential, and if you have it then it becomes possible to ask yourself:<br /><br />1.What will it take to move out of efficiency strategies into effectiveness strategies?<br />2. What can I contribute to making this organisation more successful?<br />3. What kind of innovation leadership should I be working on?<br />4. How can I develop myself to make a difference, and become more effective?<br /> </span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong><br />The 4 Innovation Leadership Behaviours (ILBs)</strong><br />For innovation to occur in an organization, you need a mix of at least 4 generic types of Innovating Leadership Behaviours – Creators, Translators, Stabilisors and Navigators. When planned for, encouraged and balanced correctly they can promote and deliver continuous innovation.<br /><br />They are:<br /><br /><em>Creators</em> - Who provide the source of new, disruptive ideas.<br /><em>Translators</em> - Who connect new ideas to new opportunities.<br /><em>Stabilisors</em> - Who build quality delivery systems for products and services.<br /><em>Navigators</em> - Who anticipate what’s coming, know when to get in, when to get out, and how to manage it.<br /><br />The 4 Innovating Leadership Behaviours are extreme stereotypes and usually (but not always) I find that leaders’ profiles have proportions of all four in their own characteristic “portfolio” depending on the limitations of their experience, work environment and their natural work preferences. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Understanding the implications of leaders' ILB patterns is a powerful source of information on the limitations of the existing strategy and what is going to be required to move out of efficiency and survival into effectiveness and growth, in difficult times.</span>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-25235886170736944482009-12-02T09:38:00.000-08:002009-12-02T09:45:26.064-08:00Chunking, or The Leader's Rule of 3<span style="font-family:arial;">This innovation leadership tool is about rapidly identifying the vital few issues and obstacles that need to be managed or dealt with, and allocating attention and resources to them.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The “Rule of 3” is an idea I engineered from studying leadership, change and innovation. It’s the product of combining Pareto’s Principle, Williams’ close observation of Field Marshall Montgomery’s characteristic approach to getting things done and Max Atkinson’s research on successful speech-making.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Pareto’s Principle</strong> suggests that 80% of the effects observed in a situation are caused by a mere 20% of the population. His original 1906 observation was that 80% of the wealth in Switzerland was held by only 20% of the population. This has become a quality method for identifying the most powerful variables in a situation which need to be controlled to manage failure.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Field-Marshall Montgomery</strong>: Brigadier Williams serving as Montgomery’s Intelligence Chief </span><a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_edn1" name="_ednref1"><span style="font-family:arial;">[i]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> noticed his preference for 3-part lists as a means of simplifying complex issues and concentrating resources. In Hamilton's biography of Montgomery</span><a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_edn2" name="_ednref2"><span style="font-family:arial;">[ii]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> , he notes that in the last year of WW2 Monty was constantly trying to stop the Americans attacking across a broad front to incur 100,000 casualties instead of concentrating at a few points, feinting at one and then making the main effort at another. As Monty said in a letter after the command performance scandal of the Battle of Bulge: "We have failed to date by trying to do too many things and not giving enough resources to any of them to ensure success..."<br /></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:arial;">Max Atkinson</span></strong><a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_edn3" name="_ednref3"><span style="font-family:arial;">[iii]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> points out the power of leaders simplifying big issues through 3-part focused lists in his analysis of powerful political speeches, particularly their “air of unity or completeness”. It is as though we are programmed to listen more deeply to a 3-part list when we know it is coming, and that audience interruptions tend to occur after 3 points have been stated within a longer list.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Chunking as a Technique (or Identifying and Working on the Vital Few)<br /></strong>This technique is designed to gain a rapid understanding of the vital few issues that need to be managed to be successful. It requires use of the Creative Silence technique to brainstorm all the problems and obstacles involved in delivering the goal.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The goal or the aim must be clearly stated. The team must have had time to immerse themselves in the data involved in the situation.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In preparation a flipchart sheet needs to be prepared with the word “Start” at the top and “Finish” at the bottom, everyone must have pink post-its (for brainstorming issues or obstacles to delivering the goal) and black medium pens to write with. You invite the group to silently brainstorm the issues or obstacles that need to be managed to deliver success. They share these, 3 at a time. You apply CGSM (Common, Ground, Special, Missing) and concentrate the groupings to simplify the themes down to at least 3, with a hidden willingness if necessary to reduce to 2 or expand to 4 or 5, depending on the nature of the challenge. These pink issues or obstacles post-its are then put in an approximate sequence to the left of the vertical arrow connecting “Start” and “Finish”.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Having broken down the issues or obstacles to the vital few (possibly the top 3), then break your team into 3 parts, and allocate 10 minutes for the 3 sub-teams to work concurrently on developing solutions for overcoming the top 3 issues, writing their solutions onto blue post-its and positioning these to the right of the vertical arrow, parallel to issue or obstacle they deal with.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Invite the sub-teams to share these and for the others to add value to their prototype solutions. Identify or vote on the optimal solutions. Use the 3-part list of obstacles and matched solutions in your communication strategy.<br /></span><br /><a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_ednref1" name="_edn1"><span style="font-family:arial;">[i]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Howarth, T.E.B (1985) Monty At Close Quarters, Leo Cooper/ Secker & Warburg: London/ New York, p22.<br /></span><a style="mso-endnote-id: edn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_ednref2" name="_edn2"><span style="font-family:arial;">[ii]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Hamilton, N. (1987) Monty: The Field-Marshall, Vol.3; Hodder & Stoughton, p254.<br /></span><a style="mso-endnote-id: edn3" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2920409504448605772#_ednref3" name="_edn3"><span style="font-family:arial;">[iii]</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> Atkinson</span>, M. (1984) Our Masters’ Voices: The Language and Body Language of Politics, pp57-72.Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2920409504448605772.post-85221462315744766342009-11-09T05:40:00.000-08:002009-11-09T06:09:08.848-08:00Innovation, Passion, Sex, Leadership and Rock'n Roll<span style="font-family:arial;">Peter Cook's recent book: "Sex, Leadership and Rock'n Roll" is a commentary on the importance of combining two key elements of leading innovation (of leading people to do new things and leading them to learn to do old things in a new way), of learning to connect with the stuff of passion (ie. sex and rock and roll) in order to innovate. Obviously business isn't rock'n roll, but there are compatible elements that usefully explain successful, innovating organisations.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Rock'n roll, like business is old and yet it is eternally new whenever a new practitioner comes along with some passion (and a willingness to mine the gold of sexual imagery, or at least romance) who can successfully manipulate a few variables and change the context. David Bowie managed it by taking William Burrough's consciously random cut'n paste manipulation of printed text and visual fashion imagery, with a willingness to adopt an ambiguous sexual persona. And the rest is history, and millions made.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Peter makes some key observations that leaders need to take on board, that discipline and creativity need each other, but that if you don't have ingredient "X" you won't get invited back to the next gig, that if you don't have the passion that lifts others and the ability to "play" in the moment, the passion that helps others to be great in turn, you cannot lead: you can only preside.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">As Ken Olsen said: "Leaders do the right thing, managers do things right". And it takes passion to do the right thing because you are probably going to be seen as behaving unreasonably by people who have no sense of the importance of doing something different, now: before it is too late.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Q&A with Peter Cook: Sex, Leadership and Rock'n Roll: </span><a href="http://dontcompromise.askeurope.com/2009/09/03/humdynger/"><span style="font-family:arial;">http://dontcompromise.askeurope.com/2009/09/03/humdynger/</span></a>Victor Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04701515218080403651noreply@blogger.com0