The deliberate leadership choice that kickstarts innovation performance.
It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.
W Edwards Deming
The most important differentiator between great innovators and ‘normal’ organisations seems too simple to be true: choosing.
Amazon, 3M, Tesla, Nike, Google, Gore, Netflix and Pixar aren't innovation giants by accident. They made a deliberate choice to pursue a particular performance state, created some values and metrics to cement that choice, and then went on the journey.
Most companies won't do that. Why not?
I was recently working with a group of senior leaders inside a global telecommunications company. During one of the conversations about leading innovation, a group member shouted out, ‘Leading means knowing.’ What he meant was ‘always knowing the right answer’. Many nodded in agreement.
Innovation performance is often a function of a leader's need to know. We won't venture very far with disruptive ideas if the boundaries of our knowledge also mark the perimeter lines of our exploration.
This is dangerous stuff. A leadership team's collective competence can inadvertently become a major constraint on future prosperity. If we're never prepared to explore unfamiliar territory, innovation will only ever be incremental. And whilst a level incremental innovation is necessary, ...
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