Transcript Sealed Air Workshop - University of the Pacific

Innovation Leadership Training
Day Five
Innovation Leader Attributes
February 20, 2009
All materials © NetCentrics 2008 unless otherwise noted
Welcome
• In this section of the innovation training we’ll
examine the steps necessary to build a culture
that encourages innovation
What We Want to Accomplish
Goals for this section
• Our goal this section
– Examine and discuss the key criteria for successful
innovation leaders
– Understand how to build those skills
Key Points
• Innovation requires, more than any other
initiative, clear leadership
– The culture, risks and uncertainties will stifle or
block innovation
• Innovation leaders are like everyone else, only
more so
– Strong leaders have most of the skills
– Shift from execution to exploration
Six key attributes
• We’ve found that strong innovation leaders at
any level have these attributes
– Vision
– Commitment
– Fearlessness
– Comfort with ambiguity
– Desire for change
– Communication
Looking over the horizon
Vision
• When we speak of vision we mean the ability
to identify opportunities before other
individuals or groups do
• These opportunities are in line with university
strategies and capabilities
• Vision extends beyond the horizon in existing
markets and segments, and to new markets
and segments as well
What influences vision
• Ability to look beyond the day to day aspects
of the “day job”
• Getting information and insights outside of
the typical channels
• Interacting with a wide range of individuals on
a regular basis
• Having a “future market orientation”
Gaining Vision
• Obtain clarity around Pacific’s strategy and
department strategy and goals
• Identify opportunities and goals 3 to 5 years out
• Examine trends, customer insights and emerging
opportunities
• Stay vigilant, looking for the next new opportunity
• Requires spending time looking “over the horizon” on
a regular basis
Chicken or Pig?
Commitment
• Innovation leaders are committed to their
vision and understand how to accomplish
these difficult tasks
• They understand that they may “swim
upstream” but stick with their innovation
insights and goals when the culture works
against them
Gaining commitment
• You need the ability to “sell” your vision to
your management team and to your coworkers
• Demonstrate your own commitment to the
success of the innovation. What time and
resources are you committing?
• You’ll need to demonstrate your commitment
to the effort in the face of existing culture
A winner who constantly failed
What would you call a guy who failed to get a hit almost 60%
of the time?
Fearless
• Innovation leaders make mistakes but don’t
live in fear of the consequences
• They follow the logic of the ideas even when
that means impacting an existing business
• They understand that the failure of one idea
does not dictate the success or failure of the
innovation process
Becoming “fearless”
• It’s a mindset. The difference between the
Army and the Marines?
– What’s not forbidden is permitted
– What’s not permitted is forbidden
• Demonstrate that some failures lead to new
insights and successes
• Live another day – demonstrate that one
failure doesn’t end the innovation program
High Anxiety
Innovation
Comfort with ambiguity
• Much of the work in an innovation initiative or
program is not clearly defined
– Often there are many tradeoffs
– The working processes aren’t defined
– The outcomes or goals are unclear
• Individuals who can work within these
concepts – in an ambiguous environment –
and succeed make great innovation leaders
Working in the gray areas
• There’s simply no easy way to make
everything related to innovation as “black and
white” as people prefer
• There’s too much change and too much risk
and too little history or experience
• Innovation leaders have a much greater
tolerance for working in ambiguity
Creating discomfort
• Additionally, as an innovation leader you may
need to make people “uncomfortable” – to
get them out of their comfort zone to think in
new ways
• It’s too easy to fall back on existing
perspectives and frameworks. As a leader you
may need to move people into the gray areas
for innovation to happen.
Constant Change
• The only constant is change, continuing
change, inevitable change, that is the
dominant factor in society today. No sensible
decision can be made any longer without
taking into account not only the world as it is,
but the world as it will be.
— Isaac Asimov
Desire for change
• Innovation requires finding the new need and
translating that need into new services or
business models
• Innovators have to constantly change,
constantly discover new trends and new
opportunities
• Innovators must be constantly dissatisfied
with the status quo
What did you say?
Communication
• Innovators have to communicate their goals
and expectations clearly and consistently to
bring others aboard
• This work can’t be done in isolation and
others must be able to understand the work,
the expectations and potential outcomes in
order to participate effectively.
Improving communication
• Innovation often requires more
communication than you might expect, due to
– New methods and processes
– New goals
– Increased risks and uncertainties
• You can fail to undercommunicate, but it will
be difficult to overcommunicate
What other resources can you tap?
• Probably the most important resource is
human resources / talent management
– They determine how people are compensated
– They work with the business units or business
functions to determine how people are evaluated
– They have access to training programs
– They can schedule programs like “lunch and learn”
to bring innovators together across the
organization
Grooming others
• As an innovation leader, you are aware of
others who have similar skills and traits
• Begin to recruit them and provide them with
training and opportunities to use innovation
tools and techniques
• Build an expectation that innovation is a core
skill set and train your team accordingly
Walk the Talk
• As an innovation leader, it’s important that
you are actively participating in innovation
programs and use innovation tools and
techniques consistently
• Seek to use the tools and techniques we’ve
described in every project, every initiative
• Highlight opportunities for innovation –
brainstorms, idea campaigns, great new ideas
• Seek opportunities for innovation
Key Takeaways
• Innovation leadership requires all the skills of
good leadership in your organization, plus
– Excellent communication skills
– The ability to take risks, fail and recover
– The ability to challenge existing structures,
channels and closely held assumptions
– A strong, compelling vision of what “could be”
Questions?