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What Role Does Leadership Play in Innovation? — Every Great Show Needs Great Directors & Producers!

I recently posted about the “Creative Geniuses” that are found throughout organizations. Again, each of us carries creativity within us. Some of us may need coaxing in order for our creativity to reemerge. For all, a certain amount of support and structures are needed in order for our ideas to manifest.

In the recent "Leader as Conductor," post, I outlined some specific ways that managers can foster innovation in organizations. But in what capacities? In his terrific white paper, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” Langdon Morris of InnovationLabs outlines two other essential types of roles necessary to create an innovative culture: “Innovation Champions” and “Innovation Leaders.”

Innovation Champions: They support innovation by helping creative people overcome the obstacles that otherwise inevitably impede their innovation efforts.

Innovation Leaders: They define firms’ expectations and policies to favor innovation.

Working in partnership, these two distinct role models set the stage for creating the environment to grow, direct, and apply the creative genius within an organization. As Mr. Morris writes, “The genius of firms like Apple, Cisco, and Toyota… [is that] their leaders seem to have found a way to standardize the process of innovation.”

INNOVATION CHAMPIONS build the practical means for effective innovation by:

“Finding creative thinkers and encouraging them [often through coaching and mentoring] to think and work in new ways” or to "seek new experiences that spark new ideas;“ and
“They create a regular operations context in which sharing and developing new ideas is the norm.”

Champions might have any title in the organization, from that of senior manager to front line operations staff. Regardless of title, they “provide the bridge between the strategic directives of senior managers and the day-to-day focus of front line workers.”

“Hewlett Packard’s MBWA (mgt.-by-walking-around) was a great innovation champion technique for learning about innovation efforts and supporting them.”

Innovation champions “are usually persistent networkers… [who] know what’s going on many levels.” They know who has the skills, talents, and resources; who needs what; what’s not working, and what can be done to move the process forward.

In his best-seller book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell outlines three roles he sees as key to the success of ideas taking hold in organizations. As Mr. Morris sees it, all three of these mantles are embodied in effective innovation champions:

Mavens who have deep knowledge that they are keen to share.
Salesmen who like to influence others to take action.
Connectors who have strong relationships with many people.

Collaboration & Trust:
Champions forge collaboration and trust while also helping to develop infrastructures that support innovation. This includes creating environments that allow for the face-to-face partnering that is indispensable. “They build collaboration, and they build the trust upon which effective collaboration occurs. Innovation is a collaborative endeavor… There is little innovation without collaboration, and there is no collaboration without trust.”

All the World's a Stage…
My undergraduate degree was in theater (Go, University of Detroit!). As one whose right brain is well developed and who naturally thinks in terms of connections and similarities, I'll share how I see the roles of champions and leaders in terms of the parts they would play in artistic productions, as in theater or film.

I envision the role of champions as similar to that of theater or film directors. Collaboratively honing the production vision, they take the various tools and perimeters; the scripts and story-lines; the stage/sets, budgets, and timelines given to them by the producers; the talents, experience, strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of the actors, design and crews — and they orchestrate all of these.

Sometimes, depending on the size and budget of the production, the role of director is shared and divided among various people who serve as executive director, art director, assistant director, etc. Similarly, there is (or should be) more than one champion within an organization.

Champions and directors work with "the talent" to create a shared, organic vision and then to manifest it. While keeping their focus on the progress of the various production teams, they also work closely with the individuals. They coach the actors to explore and hone their roles and to interact in the most effective ways with the other cast members. They work similarly with the design and set crews.

Key to the success of many directors is that they develop trusting relationships with the various individual artists in order to bring out the best in their talents, while building the collaboration and high trust that is needed for great ensemble productions and (what is called in the non-theater world) high-functioning teams.

Enter the other indispensable player…
INNOVATION LEADERS influence the core structures and the basic operations of an organization in order to support innovation. Such core structures include:

The design of the organization
Policies and underlying principles – “The Rules of the Game”
Metrics and rewards.

In keeping with my theater arts metaphor, I think of innovation leaders as the "producers." Without a producer’s backing, there will be no show. Producers don't have to be particularly creative themselves, and they don't need to be involved in a hands-on manner. Nonetheless, they either "set the stage," or else they sabotage the production by the resources they provide (or fail to) and the perimeters they establish. Some leaders are creative themselves and will be involved artistically, just as some producers are. (Examples of top leaders with a hands-on approach: Immelt at GE and Iger at Disney, who has helped to design games himself.)

Given that innovation needs to be treated as a strategic concern, “innovation leaders are typically, though not exclusively, senior managers” who have the authority to make key decisions, related to questions such as:

Do budgets include a line item such as “investment in innovation”?
Are there seed funds to invest in promising new ideas, or teams of people to manage ideas that do not fit inside existing business units?
— If not, then innovation isn’t likely to happen.

In his book, Permanent Innovation, Mr. Morris asserts, “There is no innovation without leadership… Top managers can be powerful champions of innovation, or dark clouds of suppression…. They [need to] work diligently to eliminate the many obstacles that otherwise impede or even crush both creativity and innovation.”

In closing, dear audience…

Hat’s off to those Champions and Leaders who orchestrate creative genius and make the great innovations that move us all forward possible!

(Blog author, on another stage, long ago… )

Click on the link to download a free copy of Langdon Morris' excellent book: Permanent Innovation: The Essential Guide to the Strategies, Principles, and Practices of Successful Innovators

And for his white paper: "Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders"

This week, we'll take a not-so-happy look at the state of affairs in many organizations: underlying blocks to innovation. Gotta look at what’s broke to be able to fix it! Next week, I promise the happier view, looking at solutions and inspiring best practices being used by innovative companies.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Most Innovative Companies” article, “Most businesses operate in ways that are antithetical to innovation. They want stability, predictability, avoidance of risk…” But “innovation is more about managing risk” than avoiding it…” [i] The functions of quality control and Six Sigma are about “control.” “The cultures of most organizations are set up to resist fluctuation and purge deviants,”[ii] known to others as “the innovator’s DNA.”

“But innovation is all about novelty and the unexpected…. innovators upset the apple cart, and move the cheese!” [iv] “In almost every company there are the ‘rebel’ thinkers, people who are always looking for ways to improve things, solve problems, individuals that look to the future, not the present or the past.” [v] Research varies, but reports that 50-90% [vi] of all new product innovations “fail” at even the most successful companies.

Given this predominant modus operandi, most organizations have a lot of work to do so that employees will feel safe enough to openly share their ideas and take risks. A great amount of trust must exist in an environment in order for innovation to take place. Very hierarchical “Win-lose organizations usually are not trusting environments…” [vii] In short, a sense of trust, safety, and partnership are key to innovation which is “a collaborative endeavor… There is little innovation without collaboration, and there is no collaboration without trust.” [viii]

Parallel Organizations: “Skunk Works”:

Some believe that it may be more efficient for large organizations to start satellite entrepreneurial organizations to germinate and develop the innovative ideas, rather than undertaking the significant task of changing the ways and culture of the primary organization. These sub-organizations are often called “skunk works” or “skunkworks”: “groups within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy,” tasked with working on various projects. (Wikipedia) The term "Skunk Works" is a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin, which by some accounts, was responsible for the creation of both the practice and term around 1943.

This model will be explored in an upcoming post, as well. However, I will say that I am highly skeptical about the wisdom of viewing this approach as the panacea. It may be best for some rapid solutions or time-to-market “hits.” However, it does not solve two significant and interrelated problems. By simply handing over creative thinking and innovation to the parallel, more agile “David” structure versus forcing the larger "Goliath" organization to reshape its management practices leaves the same problem in place: the creative ideas and full range of talents of all of its employees continue to be blocked and wasted. “Skunk work” organizations can only do so much. What if the creative genius of everyone within the entire primary organization was cultivated and set to work – what would be possible then?

As the 2010 Boston Consulting Group report recently summarized in this blog pointed out (and other studies concur) – U.S. businesses do not have time to leave the creative thinking to the few. All hands are needed on deck. For the first time since Bloomberg Businessweek began ranking the Most Innovative Companies in 2005, the majority of corporations in the Top 25 are outside the U.S. as new global leaders emerge from Asia.

From My Soapbox…

I believe the primary shifts that need to occur boil down to this: “In many organizations, the real thinking is seen as the purview of a privileged few.”[ix] There’s the rub! From my professional experience, from what I learned in my organizational development master's program, and based on the research I have conducted thus far, innovation and management bottle-necking cannot co-exist. That’s what many of the IBM CEO study innovation leaders were telling their colleagues. “Flatten thy organizations!” Lose, or certainly lessen the hierarchy.

“People are dying to bring their passionate, authentic selves to their jobs. In most cases, their jobs often won’t let them. These people often represent the undervalued intellectual capital in a company. Choke personal creativity, and you choke that organization’s chance to flourish.” [x]

As the saying goes, “A good mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Sadly, most organizations, from corporations to small nonprofits to governmental agencies, are wastelands of brilliant, potentially profitable or otherwise beneficial ideas that were smothered by others before they were allowed to see the light of day.

And on a More Cheerful Note…

In the next post, I’ll share specific practices being utilized by some to create a “thinking organization that encourages discovery and celebrates new ideas and the people who generate them.” And then how they gather, vet, and prototype those ideas. I hope you'll send in suggestions for some of the best practices you've encountered, as well!

[i] “The World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Bloomberg Business Week. (April 24, 2007).

[ii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[iv] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[v] “Fostering an Innovative Company Culture,” EOS Strategies White Paper. (2010).

[vi] “50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation,” Idea Champions puts it at 50-70% and Wikipedia offers the 50-90% figure.

[vii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[viii] Langdon Morris, “Creating the Innovative Culture: Geniuses, Champions, & Leaders,” InnovationLabs. (2007).

[ix] “Fostering an Innovative Company Culture,” EOS Strategies White Paper (2010) attributed to Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D., “Thought Partnerships Build A Company's Thinking Skills.” (2003).

[x] “Fostering an Innovative Company Culture,” EOS Strategies White Paper. (2010).

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What Role Does Leadership Play in Innovation? — Every Great Show Needs Great Directors & Producers!