Leadership - three most important ingredient

There are tons of books on leadership.  The self-leadership development has become an industry by itself.  But the basic components are simple and have withstand the test of time

Vision
Integrity
Courage
Energy

Yes!  I call it the VICE principle of leadership!

the innovation strategy on a pyramid

There are so many books and articles on innovation.  Some of them describe a strategy that is completely in conflict to others.

For example: during brain storm, is it really better to have to criticism? Some say yes and the new research says no.

For example: a team that has high mutual trust is more innovative?  Actually now.  Some mistrust and tension seems to make people more innovative.  But complete antagonism will almost minimize innovation.  So where should we be?

My proposal Tao's pyramid of innovation is to follow the Bloom's taxonomy or  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, put the innovation in a clear structure so we can have difference strategy for difference level of innovation.  Just like we have to deploy very difference skills to fulfill the different type of needs in the hierarchy.

The pyramid of innovation

Level 7 - major strategic, out-of-box direction (new enterprise)
Level 6 - major strategy that break or make a company (major product line)
Level 5
....
Level 1 - minor change of procedure in existing practice

Leading Innovative Teams - first draft

Innovation is the current buzzword, but it is as ancient as life.  All living organism exists today because they innovate better than their competitors.  Since the human being now is at the top of the biological innovation on earth, many of us tend to like to control our environment  making them structured, predictable, streamlined, under complete planning and control.  And often it leads to disasters, such as the now defunct communism.

To be innovative, we need to be more flexible, to open the boarders, to be interdisciplinary, to allow ambiguity, to seek not only efficiency but also novelty, to encourage serendipity.  We often want to protect our own turf, make everything under our control, have a clear boundary so we can tell "us" from "others".  It is comforting to do so, but it will not lead to innovation and progress.

The most innovative environment is at the edge of two ecologies, called edge effects, exist not only in biology but also arts, sciences and technology.

There is a reason why universities in the U.S. is the most innovative organization in the world.  It stressed on interdiscipline, e.g. the GE system, it allow free flow of ideas, it values questions and verification, it protects freedom to explore, it rewards sharing, it downplays hierarchy, it treat learning, teaching, generating, perserving knowledge as the highest value.

Idea: "What if the entire society is more like a university"

How to Lead an Innovative Team - first draft

How to Lead an Innovative Team

The importance of innovation to a company

Innovation is the live blood of modern corporations.  In the past, authority, capital, natural resource, efficiency, or monopoly can keep a company prosperous for generations. Today, if a company stopss innovation, it will disappear in a short period time.  There are numerous examples: WoolWorth, 3Com, SUN, SAAB, Digital, Kodak, Silicon Graphics, etc.  Innovation, defined as the process of generating, selecting and implanting new ideas to useful products, make or break a company, especially in high-tech industry.

The challenges of leading innovative teams

Today, new products might be started with one single individual, but a successful innovation requires a highly effective team.  How to manage such team, keep their innovative juice flowing, but keep the project aligned with the corporate vision, keep the cost under control, a manager has to be skillful and well versed in best management practice. Over 80 percent of executives surveyed believe innovation is important for their companies’ future success, but less than 30 percent are satisfied with their current level of innovation. This is referred as the “innovation gap.”  Leading innovation can be especially hard for former successful engineers and professionals which excel in carefully following standard operating procedure and focus on his/her individual achievements.  Since most our students are from professional backgrounds, it is particularly important for you to learn and practice skills leading innovative teams.

Five secretes of leading innovative teams

Mangers directly influence whether a team is innovative or not.  They set and communicate the strategic direction, allocate resource, incentivize desirable behavior and hire the team members.  Innovation will not happen unless the management provides it with sustained tangible and intangible support. 

While there are copious advises on the web on this subject, from my own experience and research, I summary them into the following five strategies:

1.     Create a clear and flexible vision

People need vision to work hard.  A team needs vision to work effectively together. It is difficult to just tell the team members that “think outside of the box”, or “sky is the limit”, and expect them to produce something coherent.  A team or a company need a vision, clear and flexible, for example, Google’s vision is “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, Amazon’s vision is “to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” Our vision is “to educate the next generation of globally connected, ethical, effective high-tech leaders.” With a clear and flexible goal, team know where is apply their innovative ideas.

2.     Build and support an innovative culture

Companies’ operations usually focus on precision, efficiency, planning, and risk avoidance. Yet most these great values of operation excellence often hinder innovation.  To be successful in innovation, the manager should let the entire organization know that innovation is encouraged, trying new approach is be celebrated, failure is acceptable as learning experience.   The senior managers should know that innovation more than often are generated by younger, in-experienced members, so the manager’s role in innovation should be support, monitor, mentor, but probably not drive it or lead it.  The executive should regularly and clearly praise the innovative projects.

3.     Provide and promote innovative support

Having a Culture of innovation is crucial to start the innovation process, but it is not sufficient to complete the circle.  Innovative company allocate tangible resource to support innovation.  Many companies, including Google, let all employee spend 20% of their time on any projects that support the company vision.   They set up separate innovation or “intrepreneur” funds, allow any department to proposal new ventures. They let small teams to work on innovation separate from their typical location and avoid standard accounting and efficiency and stand operating procedures. Many company include innovation as part of their executive development curriculum.

4.     Attract and keep innovators

While anyone and learn to be more innovation, there are people that have innate capability and drive to be innovative.  These people, usually in their twenties or early thirties, seek company that allow them to have certain level of autonomy even the financial compensation might not be the highest.  They are looking for organization where innovation, learning, diverse ideas and flexibility are valued above efficiency. They flock to metropolitans that support rich social connections.  That is why many fortune 500 companies set up R&D center, filled with fresh college graduates, in major cities away from their head quarters. 

5.     Empower the innovation team

Once an innovative project is formally selected, a diverse, closely nit, mutually trusted, dedicated team is required to implement.  The innovation team should be running similar to a start-up, allowed to change ideas, work flexible hours, explore new markets, revise team-members roles, establish strategic alliance.  They should have do-or-die and strong team spirit.  Their accountability should be reviewed on a start-up venture basis, not from an established operation point of view.  When IMB started the PC project, they empowered the 12 people team fully, sent then as far away as Florida so they won’t be bounded by establish corporate rules.

Why it is important to US

We not only teaches innovation and discuss innovation in many of the courses.  We also practice the innovation strategies. It is import to our students and graduates to learn and practice these strategies also, even while they are still studying for their degree. To be a high-tech leader, is to be a leader of innovation.

Let people know how to be a STAR

Many new employees don't know how to be a star perfomer in your company.  Often they bring their "good student" thinking to the job.  They think if they are smart, following orders, work hard, they are doing their best for the company.  Unfortunately a company is team, not just collection of good students. 
You should encourage them to
- seek responsibility beyond job description.
- make effort that benefits the team
- stick to and idea to the completion
- willing to take some risks

Innovation "frontier"

Most organizations can't innovate.  Controlled by "policy", "union contract", "GAAP" or "handbook", practices are fronzen, any changes are treated as problems.  Innovation, I concluded, happens at the interaction of stable and chaos, I call "innovation frontier".  It is what Victor Huang called "Rainforest", it is what Clayton Christensen called at "disruptive technology".  It is an environment that new ideas happened, nurtured, tried, evaluated, quickly and freely.  If the new ideas flys, it will move within the frontier and become part of the stable market place, it the new ideas does not fly, it will be quickly killed so the resources: finance, space, talents, can be re-cycled efficiently.

It is why universities is central to any sustaining innovative community, because of its core design, new ideas, new students, are essential.  Old ideas, old graduates quickly disappears.  Human beings, especially older ones, (sorry, old folks like myself), tend to seek stability over changes, tend to push the organizations toward the stable, or even frigid state, in the hope to keep things as they are.   In the effort, innovations are slowed or worse, killed.

How to maintain the "innovation frontier" in an organization or company?  Well, wait till my book "The Tao of Innovation"

What followers are looking for

Direction
Trust
Hope