Innovation is hard work

Most of us would like to be more innovative right? More creative, better at improvising, ingenious and inventive. Not many people seem to strive for unimaginative or traditional any more. And a good thing too.

In the consulting and facilitating work that I do, often clients ask for an innovative approach. Sometimes this just means - we want all the good stuff, but delivered really cheaply! At other times they really do want some of the principles of leadership (and I do believe that leadership does have enduring principles) delivered in a way that will jazz the principles up and make them more accessible and memorable to a jaded audience.

Clearly I prefer one approach over the other. But what I enjoy most of all, is when an organisation wants to actually work on becoming more innovative.

My view is that there has been tons of rubbish written and said about innovation - hopefully this blog doesn't add to that virtual pile. Too often I hear things like:

• That's the job of the creative types.
• We don't have time to be innovative.
• We're going to wait until the creative juices start flowing.
• We're not smart enough to think of the 'next big thing'.
  

While those approaches may be partially valid some of the time, I am firmly of the belief that all of us can be more innovative by working at it. When time is critical, that should be a warning signal to us that innovation could be the factor that makes the critical difference. We can often do something to turn on the tap to get the juices flowing. Last, but by no means least, small and incremental innovations often do lead to the 'next big thing'.

Dr Lauchlan Mackinnon, an Australian researcher and consultant, has developed a useful model for thinking about how innovation works. I like it because it builds on the approach of Jules Henri Poincare, a French mathematician, theoretical physicist and philosopher.

Mackinnon describes four stages of innovation - although in practical terms they may be more iterative than sequential. Mackinnon's four phases are:

• Conscious Activity: The hard work part. Writing down ideas, consciously thinking, calculating, researching, seeking opinions.
  
• Internalisation: Let the challenge go. If the conscious activity phase is associative, this phase is much more unconscious and disassociative.
  
• Stimulus of the New: Don't wait for the light to go off from the first two phases, do something to stimulate the current. Read a book not related to the topic. Talk to someone on the bus about it. Re-transcribe all your ideas in some different way using a mind map, a fishbone diagram etc.
  
• Validation: Check that it will work, and get it ready for implementation.

Sure, it would be great if we could just sit back and wait for the insight to hit us. That does work ... some of the time. But what can we do to give our imaginations and our creative juices some assistance?

I summary - we can work, and work hard on being innovative.

What a neighbour

A couple of weeks ago one of our neighbours died. Bill lived one street away from us and he was an extraordinary guy.

Bill must have been 80 or so, and he was an immensely popular piece of our neighbourhood fabric. Every weekday morning and afternoon - rain, hail or shine - Bill would sit at his front gate with his small dog in his lap and greet everyone that walked past. His timing was based on when the young children who lived in the neighbourhood would be walking to and from their local primary school. Bill and his pooch would happily greet them, have a bit of a chat, wish them well and then see them all again later that afternoon.

Whenever Bill missed a day of saying g'day, you knew something was wrong. It happened once last year. He missed a day or two and when he re-emerged there was no dog. Sadly his dog had died. But only a week or so later Bill and a new pup were back at the front gate and the world was back to normal again.

But a month or so ago I was walking home along Bill's street. It was just after 3pm and there was a huge crowd of children with some mums and dads milling on the footpath. From a 100 metres away I couldn't work out what was going on, but my rapid pace had to slow as I weaved my way amongst prams, trikes and assorted small people.

An icecream van ("Mr Whippy" in the local parlance) was parked on the street and the kids were queuing to get an icecream. I thought to myself: "If it was my kids, I'd dodge the crowds and take them somewhere else".

I didn't think much more about it until the following morning - a Saturday - when my wife and I took our dog for a walk. There was a cardboard sign in Bill's front yard letting everyone know that Bill had passed away earlier in the week.

It became clear then. All the children I had seen the previous day queuing for an iceacream from the van were lining up out the front of Bill's house. Bill's dying wish was that every child who had walked past his house should get a free icecream. What a way to be remembered.

How will you be remembered?

The Ibis and Change

As I ran through a park in Sydney last weekend on a training run, I spotted an Ibis standing on the edge of garbage bin. I had run about 25 km at this stage, so I figured that this would a great spot to have a stretch.

As I re-limbered my tired legs, I watched as the Ibis used its curved beak to lift out rubbish from the bin and drop it to the ground. What struck me was how adept this particular bird was at levering the tops off take-away food containers and the like, so that it could get at the contents.

I'm no ornithologist, but I'm also pretty sure that the diet of an Ibis doesn't generally include hamburgers, Beef and Blackbean or Red Bull.

Maybe it was the exercise endorphins that were coursing through my veins, but as I continued my running journey back across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and home, I thought about people and organisations that are like the Ibis.

What???

Long legged with curvy beaks?

Well, not really. But I do often see people and organisations that have not really adapted to new situations completely. They have made a few minor adjustments - the fiddling around the edges - but they haven't really committed to a change and made the almost evolutionary adjustments needed.

What do I mean?

I'm pretty sure that if you were going to design a bird (or any animal) to scavenge from left over human food, it wouldn't really look like the Ibis. This is not to say that the Ibis isn't reasonably effective at what I saw this one bird doing. Indeed, you could suggest that fishing trash from a bin is much easier than fishing worms, fish and other small creatures from shallow water that the Ibis regularly needs to do.

And that's just the point. Often we stop as individuals and organisations when we have made some of the adjustments necessary to be a little more effective and perhaps marginally more efficient. But is that enough? How would we look if we could start from scratch in designing our work or our lives? Would be different? Would we be better?

Are you an Ibis?

The paradoxes of leadership

Last Friday afternoon I was driving from Sydney to Canberra to visit my mother. I've always found road trips to be great opportunities for thinking and reflection, and on this particular trip I was doing some thinking about a presentation to a client organisation for this week. As I sifted through different ways to present some information, my mind kept pulling me back to the inherent contradictions and paradoxical nature of what it is to be a leader. Consider something like - To lead, one must first follow. I know, I know ... it's almost like haiku poetry!

It's almost a cliche or a truism when we say that we live and work in a world of complexity, ambiguity, contradiction and paradox. But even if it is a cliche, that makes it no less valid.

And here are some of the leadership paradoxes that I scribbled down in my notebook while taking a coffee break ...

Loose & Tight, Work & Play, Lead & Follow, Captain & Coach, Create & Conform, Clarity & Ambiguity, Competence & Commitment, Responsibility & Accountability, Centralised & Devolved, Structured & Unstructured, Innovate & Conform, Rational & Instinctive, Direct & Allow, Inspire & Coax, Teach & Learn, Results & Team, Individual & Team, Change & Consolidate, Conventional & Revolutionary, Doubt & Possibility, Experience & Naivety, Intellect & Emotion, Active & Passive, Like & Respect, Unity & Diversity, Clear & Fuzzy, External & Internal, Culture & Structure, Revolution & Evolution, Rigid & Flexible, Cause & Profit, Shareholder & Stakeholder, Objective & Subjective, Reflection & Action, Certainty & Doubt, Loyalty & Dissent, Honesty & Sensitivity, Passion & Professionalism, Long term & Short term, Decisive & Patient, Risk & Reward, Plan & Evolve, Conservative & Adventurous, Diversity & Homogeneity, Confidence & Humility, Competitive & Supportive, Classical & Rock and Roll, Thinking & Feeling, Me & Us, Now & Later, Egoism & Altruism, Responsibility & Entitlement, Private & Public.

Phew ...

I know that's a long list. But if you have just skimmed over it, go back and read through it again slowly.

Because one of the things that I have learned in more than 20 years of leadership experience, is that a critical job of leaders, at all levels, is being able to balance the seemingly dichotomous nature of paradoxes like those in my list.

But the complication is that you are rarely just reconciling one at a time. The very real complexity is that you must be able to comprehend and synthesise a range of these paradoxes for every task that you undertake, with every team in which you lead or work, and ... just to add some further challenge ... you need to be constantly adjusting your response to these paradoxes over time - because nothing stands still.

So what? How can we do this as leaders?

Daniel Goleman provides us with one useful model in his summary of six leadership styles. (If you haven't read his book written with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee entitled Primal Leadership: Learning to lead with Emotional Intelligence, you should.)

Goleman's six styles - Visonary, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting and Commanding leadership - suggest a range of approaches that can be taken, depending on the time, the task and the team. Leaders need to be able to utilise the appropriate style for the situation and their team. But more than that, they need to be able to comprehend one final paradox.

So what is the final leadership paradox?

Not only do leaders need to adapt their style, but a truly effective leader must also be able to recognise when the time comes for them to relinquish the leadership role and hand the reigns over to someone else. It's our haiku again - Leaders must also be followers.

New Year's Resolutions - Don't Do It!

Well it's that time again, and I hope that, for all of you that celebrate Christmas, you have had a terrific time ... perhaps even that Santa has been kind to you!

But as we settle into that post-Christmas period that (in Australia at least) seems to involve post-Christmas Sales, watching sport on TV or live, and visits to the beach, many of us are girding our loins for what lies just around the corner in the New Year.

You know how it works. With a nice buzz about you on New Year's Eve from a taste of sparkling wine or three, we tumble into that cliched thinking of what our New Year's resolutions will be.

DON'T DO IT!

I know that I am a big fan of goal-setting, but for 2008 why don't we try a slightly different approach?

Instead of setting yourself some outrageous goal in a time of befuddled thinking, try instead to think back on all your successes in 2007.

That's right. As you sip that celebratory beverage and wait for the fireworks to explode into the night sky, do some celebrating of your own. List all of your great moments from 2007 and take a moment to savour them, celebrate them and even toast them.

Why would you want to do this?

Simply because most people (an overwhelming percentage) are their own best and worst critics.

Don't believe me? Think back now on all the times you have chastised or castigated yourself for some failing over the past year. That time when you didn't deliver the best result at work you could ... when you slacked off in a workout ... when you put off some chore or task ... when you said the wrong thing to your partner/friend/parent etc.

Chances are that on each of these occasions when you were thinking about what didn't go so well, you spent a fair amount of time critically analysing yourself - and in most cases, this is probably a good thing. It's what hopefully prevents us from screwing the same things up again sometime in the future.

But the real issue is how often do we spend patting ourselves on the back? The research suggests not much time at all.

So go on. This New Year's Eve, toast those successes - little and large - from 2007. The time for setting goals will come soon enough. Bring the New Year in with a some well-earned celebrating.

Jazz and Leadership

I've been to two great concerts at the The Basement in Sydney in the last month. I've seen the Australian Jazz star James Morrison play with his quartet, and last Saturday night I went to a special Frank Sinatra show where we had a Big Band and four singers all belting out some great tunes. And it got me to thinking about how jazz music relates to leadership.

I've always been a big jazz fan, and I find that I am thinking more about the broader concepts of leadership as my life progresses. Now linking leadership and jazz is not new. Indeed, about 15 years ago or so I bought and read Max Depree's Leadership Jazz

But as I was sitting and listening to James Morrison, foot tapping away, one of the connections that fired for me, was how conceptually we often talk about the need for some things to be loose, and others tight.

For example, when we set ourselves or our organisation different goals to achieve, we will have some goals - generally the simple and short term ones - that can be very accurately defined, measured and targeted. But we will probably also have some goals that seem to defy a definition in the same way. At best we might be able to describe how they will look or feel when we get there. But they are kind of fuzzy.

These two categories of goals are good examples of some things that are tight and loose. They aren't good or bad because, in truth, we need both. But what is important for our loose goals is that we have some sense of where we are heading in all this fuzziness - and an organisation's vision or its culture may provide the necessary tightness that allows the looseness!

Let's have a think about how jazz music might shed some light on this.

Perhaps the strongest differentiator of jazz music from other musical forms is its improvisation component. When I was sitting back listening to the James Morrison quartet rip, swing and bop their way through their two sets, often the highlights were the solos performed by Morrison on the trumpet, trombone or piano; by his brother on the drums; by the bassist or the guitarist.

The point is that they didn't just make it up as they went along. Each performer's improvisation had to fit the structure of the tune in which it appeared. It had to be in the right key, the right tempo and, perhaps most importantly, it had to add that special something that had never been done before.

In that sense, the improvisation in jazz music is the loose part. But the loose part can't survive without the tight bit - the rest of the tune of which it is a component.

Jazz musicians get it. They know that they can't all improvise at the same time - that would be chaos, and it would sound like crap. While there may be a band leader, in a very real and practical sense, they all take it in turns to lead when they improvise. And while one member of the jazz team is center stage, the rest of the team are in the background providing the harmony and the rhythm.

If we think about it, it's not a bad way for all of our teams to work and to be led. At different times it will make sense for different people to take the lead. Sometimes - and more and more frequently - someone will have to improvise. But being able to do something that is totally new and improvisational is often best supported with the tightness provided by the rest of the team sticking to the tune.

Does your work team have jazz?

Picasso, practice and leadership

I've just returned from a fabulous holiday to ... guess where?

Apart from the obvious enjoyment that one gets from holidaying in exotic locations - quaffing croissants, fine French wine and massacring local languages - one of the real pleasures of holidays for me is the chance to put my mind in a more neutral mode and to discover new things.

There are many things to discover in France, and I was able to do more than my fair share. But one particular discovery still sticks in my mind. It was the visit my wife and I enjoyed to the Musee Picasso in Paris.

I would be the first to admit that I am not much of an art buff, but when you do visit Paris, it's hard not to be taken in by the Louvre, the Pompidou centre etc. But the Picasso museum, for me, meant a whole lot more.

There's been lots written and said about Pablo Picasso, but most of us probably just know scraps about his most famous works like Guernica, or his relationships with the many women in his life.

But what was most interesting to me, was seeing his many, many sketchbooks that were on display at the Musee. Throughout these sketch books, and also on many pieces of scrap paper and cardboard, are literally thousands of his practice drawings and studies. As you move from room to room in the Musee, you can sense how Picasso developed his interests, his focus and his skills. He could paint and draw in a natural way, but clearly that was not enough for him - he was attracted to some different artistic challenge. So over his 91 years, Picasso continued to develop his skills and his interests. (Want to see more?)

So how does the art of Pablo Picasso relate to leadership?

To me, the key link is how even the naturally gifted work on their skills to get even better. No one would dispute that Picasso was a naturally talented painter, sketch artist and sculptor. But his natural talent was not enough. He continued to work on his skills throughout his life. He experimented with different media, styles, models and approaches. And by doing this, he transformed the style of painting and sculpting that was popular at the time.

How often do we sit down and fill a sketch book with our ideas?

How often do we look at a situation, and then "paint" it dozens of different ways?

How often do we try a new style, a new medium or a new model?

The big question is, what can Pablo Picasso teach us about how to approach our leadership art?