Innovation = Survival
Use creative leadership to solve wicked problems
Innovation isn't a luxury. In today's turbulent business environment, innovation is about survival.
Small businesses and entrepreneurs are pivoting to serve new customers as they lose others. Companies operating in stagnant markets are pursuing new turf, changing strategies and offering different products and services. Everyone is re-thinking budgets, priorities, opportunities and challenges. Some smart moves will be obvious or straightforward; the rest require creative leadership.
Management by analysis is useful only to a point, according to CCL's David Horth. "Analytical processes separate problems and opportunities, break things into simpler parts and are really effective when the situation is stable or when the challenge is difficult but not complex. When information and resources for solving a problem exist somewhere and where there can be a small, limited number of right answers, management by analysis is what organizations need," Horth explains.
In contrast, complex challenges or "wicked problems" are situations or contexts that do not have prescribed approaches or solutions. Traditional management, analysis, argument and persuasion won't get the group or organization closer to solving the problem or facing the challenge in an effective way. But through creative leadership—which is about the synthesis of information and ideas-a picture of both the problem and the possible solutions becomes clearer.
"Complex challenges are the messy, sprawling situations that many organizations and communities find themselves in today," says Horth. "These problems are critical and pressing; they demand quick and decisive action. But at the same time, they are so complex, we can't just dive in. Because the organization, team or individual does not know how to act, there is a need to slow down, reflect and approach the situation in an unconventional way."
In the early 1990s, Horth and his colleagues at CCL began studying the leadership processes that produce innovation. Through research and in-depth client work, they identified six skills that allow people to better process complex information.
Paying attention is the "master competency." To go beyond traditional analytical or business thinking, leaders need to use multiple modes of perception to see a situation more fully and accurately and open the door for new approaches and solutions. Paying attention begins with slowing down, temporarily, in order to be more deliberate in grasping the situation. The other skills personalizing, imaging, serious play, collaborative inquiry and crafting.
In addition to understanding and developing the creative competencies, leaders who need to rely on innovation need to build and sustain an environment that supports exploration. Creative leaders foster a tolerance for ambiguity and an understanding of change. They also seek ways to engage employees in work for which they have a passion, an innate interest. "Studies have shown that 20 percent to 68 percent of an organization's ability to innovate has to do with leadership. If things are going right in terms of creativity, then leadership is doing something right," Horth says.
To start thinking about the role you can play in encouraging innovation at work, Horth suggests asking yourself the following questions:
- What are you doing when you are at your most creative as a leader?
- What do you do when someone comes to you with a new idea?
- What should your group or organization change or do differently? Does this mandate for change explicitly or implicitly call for innovation?
- What encourages creativity and what impedes creativity in your group or organization?
This article is adapted from Unleashing Effective Innovation: The Power of Creative Leadership, a CCL webinar presented by author and innovation expert David M. Horth. Listen to the full hour and access Horth's presentation materials by ordering the webinar.
You may also be interested in an upcoming webinar: Organizational Innovation: Making it Happen in Your Company. The live webinar will be held May 6, 2009 1-2 p.m. (ET) and will be presented by CCL's David M. Horth and Dan Buchner, vice president of Organizational Innovation, Continuum Boston. It will also be offered "on-demand" after May 6.
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