The Innovative Leader; How to Inspire Your Team and Drive (PDF)

How to inspire your team and drive creativity PAUL SLOANE “Sloane delivers rocket fuel for the business brain” Bill Penn, CEO, Sparx Group The INNOVATIVE LEADER “Innovation is a key characteristic of great leaders…Paul’s book provides practical tips to help anyone in their quest to develop their creative muscles.” Mark Durrant, Communications Director, EMEA, Motorola “Guaranteed to make you think differently, challenge the way you and your team work and produce results. Read it end to end and you should be ready to make your fortune!” Geoff Dodds, Head of Brand Strategy, Lloyds of London All leaders understand the importance of creativity and innovation to the future of their organizations. But what are the secrets that successful leaders use to really drive innovation? The Innovative Leader will help you to transform the creative capabilities and innovative performance of your business. It contains examples, advice, guidance, and a wealth of invaluable tools you can put to use immediately to help you to: • encourage your team to analyse problems and generate ideas; • implement innovation processes; • build a creative culture; • develop creativity in yourself and your team. With examples from Virgin, Google, IBM, Toyota, 3M, Disney and WPP, The Innovative Leader will help you to transform your team into innovation warriors, and turn your organization into a powerhouse of invention and entrepreneurial achievement. Paul Sloane founded the consultancy Destination Innovation (www.destination-innovation.com). He was a top salesman with IBM, UK, Managing Director of Ashton-Tate, Vice President International for MathSoft Inc and CEO of Monactive. Clients for his presentations and workshops include American Express, BT, HP, Lloyds of London, Microsoft, Motorola, Orange, Reckitt Benckiser, Shell and 3M. He is the author of The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills, also published by Kogan Page. Kogan Page 120 Pentonville Road London N1 9JN United Kingdom www.kogan-page.co.uk Kogan Page US 525 South 4th Street, #241 Philadelphia PA 19147 USA £9.99 US$00.00 Business and Management PAUL SLOANE The INNOVATIVE LEADER ISBN-10: 0-7494-5001-0 ISBN-10: 978-0-7494-5001-4 Innovative leader 2/4/07 11:38 Page 1  The INNOVATIVE LEADER Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page i  Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page ii  How to inspire your team and drive creativity PAUL SLOANE The INNOVATIVE LEADER London and Philadelphia Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page iii  Publisher’s note Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author. First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2007 by Kogan Page Limited Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or crit- icism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses: 120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241 London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147 United Kingdom USA www.kogan-page.co.uk © Paul Sloane, 2007 The right of Paul Sloane to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN-10 0 7494 5001 0 ISBN-13 978 0 7494 5001 4 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sloane, Paul, 1950- The innovative leader : how to inspire your team and drive creativity / Paul Sloane. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-7494-5001-4 ISBN-10: 0-7494-5001-0 1. Creative ability in business. 2. Creative ability in business--Case studies. 3. Leadership. I. Title. HD53.S567 2007 658.4’092--dc22 2007001971 Typeset by Jean Cussons Typesetting, Diss, Norfolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by Creative Print and Design (Wales), Ebbw Vale Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page iv  Contents About the author x Introduction 1 Section 1: Leading innovation 3 1. Have a vision for change 5 2. Issue a declaration of innovation 7 3. Set drastic expectations 8 4. Fight the fear of change 9 5. Tell stories 11 6. Set goals for innovation 13 7. Get rid of the cynics 15 8. Throw down a challenge 16 9. Encourage dissent 17 10. Be an arsonist and a fire fighter 19 11. Think like a venture capitalist 20 12. Break down internal barriers 22 13. Destroy the hierarchy 24 14. Have your best people working on innovation 26 15. Be passionate 28 Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page v  Section 2: Problem analysis 31 1. Diagnose the current situation 33 2. Analyse problems 35 3. Ask ‘Why, Why?‘ 36 4. Use Six Serving Men 38 5. Redefine the problem 40 6. Ask ‘What business are we in?‘ 42 Section 3: Generating ideas 45 1. Have a suggestions scheme 47 2. Run ideas events 49 3. Allow line manager bypass 50 4. Plan your brainstorm meetings 51 5. Brainstorm meetings – generate great ideas 55 6. Brainstorm meetings – evaluate the ideas 57 7. Juice up your brainstorm meetings 59 8. Bring in unrelated experts 61 9. Use a facilitator 63 10. Break the rules 64 11. Define your ideal competitor 66 12. Try weird combinations 67 13. Go for quantity 70 14. Try a different environment 72 15. Conceive a different business model 74 16. Ask ‘Who killed our business?‘ 76 17. Look for new ways to reach the customer 78 18. Anticipate the wave 80 19. Innovate by subtraction 81 vi Contents Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page vi  20. Look for the solution within the problem 83 21. Ask ‘What if…?‘ 86 22. Pass the parcel 87 23. Look for a distant relation 89 24. Idealize the answer 91 25. Be careful what and how you reject 93 26. Wear Six Thinking Hats 94 Section 4: Implementing innovation processes 97 1. Allocate time and resources for innovation 99 2. Give everyone two jobs 100 3. Identify the need for replacement 101 4. Borrow with pride 102 5. Train for innovation 105 6. Measure progress 106 7. Broadcast success 107 8. Reward success 108 9. Track the astonishing 110 10. Be cool or outsource cool 111 11. Collaborate 113 12. Observe customers 115 13. Co-create 117 14. Create a community 119 15. Crowdsource 121 16. Gate the process 122 17. Appoint innovation champions 124 18. Run an innovation incubator 125 19. Employ an ideas searcher 127 Contents vii Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page vii  20. Streamline your approval process 128 21. Kill the losers 129 22. Build prototypes 130 23. Implement 132 24. Overcome customer resistance 134 Section 5: Building a creative culture 137 1. Don’t tell, ask 139 2. Praise the innovators 141 3. Focus on what went right 142 4. Make it fun 144 5. Welcome failure 146 6. Fear success 149 7. Set puzzles 150 8. Use the right language 152 9. Make your own products obsolete 154 10. Trust 155 11. Empower employees 156 Section 6: Personal creativity 159 1. Check assumptions 161 2. Ask questions 163 3. Move out of your comfort zone 165 4. Simplify things 167 5. Look at things from a different angle 169 6. Trust your intuition 171 7. Incubate 173 8. Don’t take the first answer 174 9. Develop your personal creativity 175 viii Contents Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page viii  10. Become an evangelist 177 11. Simplify your life 179 12. Be disconnected 180 13. Visualize with mind maps 181 14. Keep fit 182 15. Be lucky 183 Conclusion 185 References and further reading 187 Puzzle answers 189 Index 191 Contents ix Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page ix  Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page x  About the author Author and speaker on creative problem solving and lateral leadership Paul Sloane is an entertaining, thought-provoking, motivational speaker and a recognized expert on innovation, lateral thinking and leadership. He is the author of 17 books on lateral puzzles, creative problem solving and lateral leader- ship. Over 2 million copies of his books have been sold. He was described in the Independent as the ‘King of lateral thinking puzzles’. He is the founder of Destination-Innovation (www.destination- innovation.com), a consultancy that helps organizations improve innovation. He facilitates meetings, leads workshops and gives after-dinner talks and keynote addresses. His talks offer a unique blend of puzzling challenges, humour and hard-hitting business messages. His workshops provide practical techniques to improve leadership and innovation. Clients include AA, American Express, ARM, BT, Cendant, DWP, HMRC, Home Office, Lloyds of London, OGC, Shell and 3M. Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page xi  Paul took a first in Engineering at Cambridge. He joined IBM, where he came top of Sales School. He was part of the team that launched the IBM PC in the UK. He went on to be MD of the database leaders Ashton-Tate. He became VP International for MathSoft Inc. and CEO of Monactive Ltd. In his book The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills (2003), also published by Kogan Page, Paul explains how you can use the principles of lateral leadership to inspire your people to achieve breakthrough solutions and radical innovations. His articles on innovation and leadership have appeared in leading business publications. His inspirational talks on innovation, creative thinking and leadership, described as ‘rocket fuel for the busi- ness brain’, have proved popular with conference audiences in Europe, the United States, South Africa and Asia. xii About the author Innovative Leader Prelims:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:14 Page xii  Introduction The need for innovation is well understood. It is now common- place for leaders to stress the critical importance of creativity and innovation to the future of their organizations. Managers who believed that just doing the same things faster or cheaper would be sufficient for success (or even survival) now acknowledge that this approach is quite insufficient. If you keep doing the same things then competitors will overtake you. They will take your customers away from you in all sorts of inventive ways. In the government sector it is recognised that spending more money on problems is not enough. The demands are growing so fast that doing more of the same is no answer. New ways of doing things have to be found. New products, services, methods and partnerships are needed. But this recognition leads to a host of questions. What sort of person is an innovative leader? What can the leader do? As a leader, how can you transform your people from cubicle dwellers into innovation warriors? Where can the ideas come from to fuel the supply of innovation? How can you turn your complacent organization into a powerhouse of invention and entrepreneurial achievement? Where will you find the time and resources to try new things when you are so busy running the current model? What can be done to overcome a culture that is risk averse? How can you replace a culture of comfortable incre- mental progress into one of hungry adventure? Innovative Leader 1-196:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:29 Page 1  This book was written to address these kinds of issues – and not in some grand theoretical framework but in the form of prac- tical tips and methods that can be put into immediate effect. It is aimed at the person who wants to turn themselves and their team into commanders of creativity and maestros of innovation. There is advice for leaders to help them change their organiza- tions, for managers who are charged with making innovation happen and for individuals who want to be more creative. It is based on experiences and insights gained in working with business leaders and in running innovation workshops across the world. It is designed to be read in bite-sized chunks – easily digestible for busy executives who want to start a revolution in their business. This is no easy task, but help is at hand. Start biting and start the revolution. 2 The innovative leader Innovative Leader 1-196:The Innovative Leader 3/4/07 15:29 Page 2