My friend Otto Siegel (www.geniuscompanies.com)
is a nationally known expert on genius and
innovative thinking, and author of Yes You
Are a Genius Whether You Know It or Not.
During a recent catchup session, he asked me:
"What is the ONE challenge that you hear from
CEO's over and over again?" My response was:
"How to make innovative thinking real.
Virtually every leader knows that his/her
company must evolve in new areas to succeed
in this "new normal" economy. CEOs
acknowledge the benefits of innovative
thinking on creating a vision and then
executing it with new products and services.
But then reality sets in regarding how to
teach very intelligent but risk-averse
leaders and managers to fundamentally change
their thinking habits to accelerate execution
and results. After all, most companies have a
culture of minimizing exposure and mistakes,
and a focus on cost control and efficiency.
How does a leader maintain a focus on those
areas and create an environment with
innovative thinking? YOU PROBABLY CAN'T!"
New Normal Requires Innovative Thinking
Often I find that executive teams do not have
a member who brings innovative thinking as a
natural attribute. Executives are often
strong in strategic thinking, control, cost
control, efficiency, financial planning and
the like, but often are light in innovative
skills. MRG, one of the leading providers of
360 degree leadership assessment tools (www.mrg.com)
defines innovative as, "Feeling comfortable
in fast-changing environments; being willing
to take risks and to consider new and
untested approaches."
Promoting Innovation and Creativity
Otto commented to me that, "Innovation and
creativity are the competitive edge of each
company. Leaders inspire innovation and
creativity in their employees by leveraging
their talents and strengths. They learn how
to ask powerful questions and inspire top
performance. They encourage their team to be
creative and to go beyond the existing norm.
They evaluate and implement new ideas with a
common sense approach, while benefiting from
open communication and the diversity of each
individual team member."
Finally, in a culture that inspires and
promotes innovative thinking (and action!),
how leaders deal with failures is critical.
Innovative thinking means taking risks that
may not turn out with solid ROIs or even
sustainability. If a company's culture is
that mistakes are not tolerated, leaders and
managers will quickly learn that the rewards
from successful innovation may not be
significant or frequent enough to outweigh
the penalties for failure, thus killing the
desired behavior and culture. Great leaders
promote "intelligent risk" and celebrate
failure.
A recent story about Google recounted a Vice
President in discussion with one of the
founders. At the end of the conversation, she
haltingly changed subjects and admitted that
a new initiative she had started would not
materialize, and would cost the company
several million dollars. Expecting a very
strong reaction, she was floored when the
founder congratulated her on the failure,
because (sic) if they weren't making those
kind of errors they wouldn't be trying to
innovate enough.
How are you teaching and promoting innovative
thinking in your company?
Otto Siegel www.geniuscompanies.com
MRG www.mrg.com
Best regards,
Jim Alampi
Alampi & Associates LLC
phone:
248.349.6045
