The Leaders Role in Innovation
The Leaders Role in Innovation
Innovation requires birth. The bringing to life of an idea.
The birth of anything requires the necessary fertilization and the right environment for growth, until birth takes place. This applies to the birth of animals or mankind as well as the birth of plants. It is not any different for buildings, bridges, or any type of structure built. In every case fertilization is the starting point followed by an environment where the embryo can grow and develop.
What we call innovation is not a system or a process. It is not something that some people do and it is not a job. In fact we only recognize innovation when it has been achieved.
So what is it that an organization needs to achieve innovation? In simple terms it needs the right people that allow fertile thoughts and ideas to be generated. It needs an environment where the fertile thoughts can grow and take form and where they can finally be born and come to life.
The trouble is that we have been encouraging people to conform for so many years that we have perfected the habit. We hire people that will conform, we train people to conform and we develop systems and processes that ensure everyone conforms on as consistently as possible. We also train managers to conform as well, in fact we insist that managers manage the systems and processes to ensure everything and everyone conforms.
Yet we live in an age where we require innovation and see the necessity of having an innovative company. A survey of business leaders carried out in 2007 showed that a staggering 98% believe that innovation is important but less than 30% take any active involvement in making it happen.
Innovation requires leadership. Firstly, the leader needs to understand their role. Secondly, the people need to understand their role, and finally, the environment needs to be able to respond to innovation.
The role of the Leader
The role of the leader is pivotal. The leader is involved from fertilization through to the ongoing environment needed to sustain innovation. The leader sets the tone, ensures that people are aware of the strategic importance of innovation and makes it part of the focus of the organization.
Surveys of business leaders show that the majority of time is spent on forecasts, processes and problem solving than planning and promoting innovation. Less that 10% have innovation as an item on the Board’s agenda and only 12% mention it in briefings or have it as part of the vision or values of the organization.
If the leaders at the top are not committed to, and demonstrating their commitment to, innovation in the organization, then it will not be taken seriously. What ever is important at the top is what is focused on at the lower levels. In other words if the focus at Board level is on the numbers, saving costs and the sales, then the people are focused on the numbers, sales figures and saving money. People will not focus on things that are not going to be recognized by the boss!
Whilst all these figures are important and are not to be undervalued, it makes the point that if the leadership are not placing innovation up there alongside sales, costs and other important aspects of the business, then it is not surprising that innovation is not given the credibility or the focus needed. The surprising thing is; for many businesses, if innovation was high on the agenda, it would assist sales, reduce costs and create opportunities.
The leaders have the responsibility to set innovation as being an important aspect of the business strategy. To do this the following need to be considered:
Personal and collective commitment from the CEO and Board
The CEO and Board members need to personally, as individuals, see the value of innovation. It starts from within and needs to be a personal belief; that innovation is important to the development of the business. After the personal commitment, there needs to be collective agreement of the importance and the emphasis that will be placed on it. This sets the stage.
Commitment evident in business plan, strategy, vision or values
If there is a collective agreement to innovation, it should be part of the planning and review process. Looking for new ideas, possible areas for improvement and new opportunities needs to be planned and emphasised in anything that sets the direction for the business.
Review of progress at meetings
Having incorporated it into a plan, it needs to be reviewed and measured. It could be a line item on the Board meetings or part of the review process. It may be on performance reviews and departments or managers should be expected to report progress.
Communication of the above down the organization
Once commitment and planning is in place, the message needs to be communicated. Everyone in the organization needs to understand the emphasis and how it will be achieved. Most importantly, they need to know how they can contribute.
Managers and Leaders at all levels understand the emphasis and are expected to report on progress
Managers and leaders in the organization need to understand the commitment above and be personally committed to innovation as well. Being required to report progress is one way of ensuring they understand the importance.
People and innovation
Our definition of innovation used words such as “invention”, “creation” or “improvements”. All of these require people to generate ideas or notice possibilities. Ideas come from people.
Fertilization is more like a chain of events than a single, isolated phenomenon. Indeed, interruption of any step in the chain will almost certainly cause fertilization failure. The fertilization comes about because people come together and discuss or express thoughts and ideas. The chain begins with discussion and listening, which sparks ideas, utilizes peoples thoughts and memories and allows the ideas to form, change and reform.
So the fertilization that will ultimately give birth to an innovative idea, requires people to think, question, discuss, challenge and generally challenge or seek opportunities for new developments or improvements on existing developments.
People need to appreciate this and understand how they can impact by their thinking and their discussions. Without a realization that they can impact in some way, they are unlikely to consider it their job. Research shows that most people think that innovation is someone else’s responsibility. When asked who was responsible for innovation in their organization, typical answers ranged from marketing or research and development through to management.
Everyone needs to understand their responsibility and the impact it can make on the business. People need to understand the commitment above them and the level of emphasis that is being placed on innovation. People must be able to recognize the channels open to them if they are to participate.
An organization needs to ensure that there are the right people capable of embracing innovation. This means that it needs to be considered as part of the recruitment process, integral to learning and development and included in any performance reviews.
Recruitment
When seeking to recruit, innovation needs to be part of the criteria being looked for. In some areas of the business, this may be more important than in other areas. However, there needs to be a basic level that applies to any job and the organization needs to define that so that recruitment covers it rather than recruiting someone and then having a problem because they don’t fit one of the fundamental focuses of the organization.
Learning and Development
The development activities in an organization need to reflect the innovation being encouraged. This applies to delivery as much as content. Learning and development should be innovative and meeting the needs of the individuals. Equally, the content should be up to date and allow for exploring application or usage within the business.
Performance Reviews
Any form of review should include an evaluation of how forthcoming the individual has been with innovations and/or their ability to respond to innovations and support them.
The Environment
Fertilization takes place because the people are there and because the environment is right. The environment is also a key ingredient because if the environment is hostile, then the atmosphere is not conducive to fertilization happening.
The environment is the culture in the organization that surrounds the people and the leadership. A big part of the environment is the ability for the idea to find a place to grow and live. Two people discussing a better way of doing something have to be able to share that idea with someone who can either make it happen or explain why it can’t. The majority of ideas in an organization never find an environment that is conducive to being able to grow. In fact it dies a needless death for this simple reason.
Once the leadership is committed and people are aware of the focus, the environment requires simple things to be in place.
The opportunity to link together
Discussion, which allows thoughts to flow and ideas to be explored, should not be left to chance. Time should be provided or mechanisms in place to ensure that people have the opportunity to have discussion. In an age of social networking, this is taking place outside businesses and needs to be captured within the business as well.
A receptive ear
This means a place where ideas are allowed to grow. The organization provides the means for ideas to be passed on to the right place where they can be evaluated for opportunity. Suggestion boxes are not effective because it looses the interaction and impetus that takes the ideas to the next level.
Feedback
Once an idea has germinated and found fertile soil, the atmosphere is enhanced when feedback is given, not only to the initiators of the ideas, but also to the organization as a whole. Feedback is the water that makes the idea grow and also encourages the next thought, which produces the next idea.
Recognition and celebration
Recognition and celebration creates the perpetual cycle. It feeds back into the environment a desire to generate more ideas, more opportunities and more possibilities. It spreads the news that this works and this is fun.
Conclusion
Random acts of innovation are only demonstrations that the potential is there but the births are likely to be rare and in most cases troublesome as people object to change.
An innovative organization will be led from the top, have people committed to it and an environment where it happens as an inevitable consequence. It starts with leadership and can also be capped by leadership.
The Leaders Role in Innovation - To learn more about this author, visit Paul Bridle's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Innovation is defined as “invention” or “creation”, “the process of making improvements by introducing something new”. It can be the development of something new or a new way of doing something. Either way it is about “new”.
Innovation requires birth. The bringing to life of an idea.
The birth of anything requires the necessary fertilization and the right environment for growth, until birth takes place. This applies to the birth of animals or mankind as well as the birth of plants. It is not any different for buildings, bridges, or any type of structure built. In every case fertilization is the starting point followed by an environment where the embryo can grow and develop.
What we call innovation is not a system or a process. It is not something that some people do and it is not a job. In fact we only recognize innovation when it has been achieved.
So what is it that an organization needs to achieve innovation? In simple terms it needs the right people that allow fertile thoughts and ideas to be generated. It needs an environment where the fertile thoughts can grow and take form and where they can finally be born and come to life.
The trouble is that we have been encouraging people to conform for so many years that we have perfected the habit. We hire people that will conform, we train people to conform and we develop systems and processes that ensure everyone conforms on as consistently as possible. We also train managers to conform as well, in fact we insist that managers manage the systems and processes to ensure everything and everyone conforms.
Yet we live in an age where we require innovation and see the necessity of having an innovative company. A survey of business leaders carried out in 2007 showed that a staggering 98% believe that innovation is important but less than 30% take any active involvement in making it happen.
Innovation requires leadership. Firstly, the leader needs to understand their role. Secondly, the people need to understand their role, and finally, the environment needs to be able to respond to innovation.
The role of the Leader
The role of the leader is pivotal. The leader is involved from fertilization through to the ongoing environment needed to sustain innovation. The leader sets the tone, ensures that people are aware of the strategic importance of innovation and makes it part of the focus of the organization.
Surveys of business leaders show that the majority of time is spent on forecasts, processes and problem solving than planning and promoting innovation. Less that 10% have innovation as an item on the Board’s agenda and only 12% mention it in briefings or have it as part of the vision or values of the organization.
If the leaders at the top are not committed to, and demonstrating their commitment to, innovation in the organization, then it will not be taken seriously. What ever is important at the top is what is focused on at the lower levels. In other words if the focus at Board level is on the numbers, saving costs and the sales, then the people are focused on the numbers, sales figures and saving money. People will not focus on things that are not going to be recognized by the boss!
Whilst all these figures are important and are not to be undervalued, it makes the point that if the leadership are not placing innovation up there alongside sales, costs and other important aspects of the business, then it is not surprising that innovation is not given the credibility or the focus needed. The surprising thing is; for many businesses, if innovation was high on the agenda, it would assist sales, reduce costs and create opportunities.
The leaders have the responsibility to set innovation as being an important aspect of the business strategy. To do this the following need to be considered:
Personal and collective commitment from the CEO and Board
The CEO and Board members need to personally, as individuals, see the value of innovation. It starts from within and needs to be a personal belief; that innovation is important to the development of the business. After the personal commitment, there needs to be collective agreement of the importance and the emphasis that will be placed on it. This sets the stage.
Commitment evident in business plan, strategy, vision or values
If there is a collective agreement to innovation, it should be part of the planning and review process. Looking for new ideas, possible areas for improvement and new opportunities needs to be planned and emphasised in anything that sets the direction for the business.
Review of progress at meetings
Having incorporated it into a plan, it needs to be reviewed and measured. It could be a line item on the Board meetings or part of the review process. It may be on performance reviews and departments or managers should be expected to report progress.
Communication of the above down the organization
Once commitment and planning is in place, the message needs to be communicated. Everyone in the organization needs to understand the emphasis and how it will be achieved. Most importantly, they need to know how they can contribute.
Managers and Leaders at all levels understand the emphasis and are expected to report on progress
Managers and leaders in the organization need to understand the commitment above and be personally committed to innovation as well. Being required to report progress is one way of ensuring they understand the importance.
People and innovation
Our definition of innovation used words such as “invention”, “creation” or “improvements”. All of these require people to generate ideas or notice possibilities. Ideas come from people.
Fertilization is more like a chain of events than a single, isolated phenomenon. Indeed, interruption of any step in the chain will almost certainly cause fertilization failure. The fertilization comes about because people come together and discuss or express thoughts and ideas. The chain begins with discussion and listening, which sparks ideas, utilizes peoples thoughts and memories and allows the ideas to form, change and reform.
So the fertilization that will ultimately give birth to an innovative idea, requires people to think, question, discuss, challenge and generally challenge or seek opportunities for new developments or improvements on existing developments.
People need to appreciate this and understand how they can impact by their thinking and their discussions. Without a realization that they can impact in some way, they are unlikely to consider it their job. Research shows that most people think that innovation is someone else’s responsibility. When asked who was responsible for innovation in their organization, typical answers ranged from marketing or research and development through to management.
Everyone needs to understand their responsibility and the impact it can make on the business. People need to understand the commitment above them and the level of emphasis that is being placed on innovation. People must be able to recognize the channels open to them if they are to participate.
An organization needs to ensure that there are the right people capable of embracing innovation. This means that it needs to be considered as part of the recruitment process, integral to learning and development and included in any performance reviews.
Recruitment
When seeking to recruit, innovation needs to be part of the criteria being looked for. In some areas of the business, this may be more important than in other areas. However, there needs to be a basic level that applies to any job and the organization needs to define that so that recruitment covers it rather than recruiting someone and then having a problem because they don’t fit one of the fundamental focuses of the organization.
Learning and Development
The development activities in an organization need to reflect the innovation being encouraged. This applies to delivery as much as content. Learning and development should be innovative and meeting the needs of the individuals. Equally, the content should be up to date and allow for exploring application or usage within the business.
Performance Reviews
Any form of review should include an evaluation of how forthcoming the individual has been with innovations and/or their ability to respond to innovations and support them.
The Environment
Fertilization takes place because the people are there and because the environment is right. The environment is also a key ingredient because if the environment is hostile, then the atmosphere is not conducive to fertilization happening.
The environment is the culture in the organization that surrounds the people and the leadership. A big part of the environment is the ability for the idea to find a place to grow and live. Two people discussing a better way of doing something have to be able to share that idea with someone who can either make it happen or explain why it can’t. The majority of ideas in an organization never find an environment that is conducive to being able to grow. In fact it dies a needless death for this simple reason.
Once the leadership is committed and people are aware of the focus, the environment requires simple things to be in place.
The opportunity to link together
Discussion, which allows thoughts to flow and ideas to be explored, should not be left to chance. Time should be provided or mechanisms in place to ensure that people have the opportunity to have discussion. In an age of social networking, this is taking place outside businesses and needs to be captured within the business as well.
A receptive ear
This means a place where ideas are allowed to grow. The organization provides the means for ideas to be passed on to the right place where they can be evaluated for opportunity. Suggestion boxes are not effective because it looses the interaction and impetus that takes the ideas to the next level.
Feedback
Once an idea has germinated and found fertile soil, the atmosphere is enhanced when feedback is given, not only to the initiators of the ideas, but also to the organization as a whole. Feedback is the water that makes the idea grow and also encourages the next thought, which produces the next idea.
Recognition and celebration
Recognition and celebration creates the perpetual cycle. It feeds back into the environment a desire to generate more ideas, more opportunities and more possibilities. It spreads the news that this works and this is fun.
Conclusion
Random acts of innovation are only demonstrations that the potential is there but the births are likely to be rare and in most cases troublesome as people object to change.
An innovative organization will be led from the top, have people committed to it and an environment where it happens as an inevitable consequence. It starts with leadership and can also be capped by leadership.
The Leaders Role in Innovation - To learn more about this author, visit Paul Bridle's Website.
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