do_matic

Leading Innovation: What great bosses do

(Image and hunger courtesy of Esther17's photostream and Creative Commons.)

Bob asked what great bosses do to encourage innovation. It was an excuse for me to look back and see if I could synthesize some perspectives on that as well. I think many of these ideas and thoughts are very similar to what he communicated, but I think there are some new ones in there too. It's all a bit circular as I'm sure I'm influenced not only by my own experience, but also Bob's and others thinking.

Share Direction, Give Permission, Provide Support. Commit.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/05/leading-innovation.html

Understand the range of outcomes. Seek the one you want.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/08/growth-and-innovation-what-are-you-commiting-to.html
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/04/small-to-learn-and-big-to-win.html
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/06/fundamentally-different.html

Give teams an excuse to be wrong.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/05/seven-chances.html

Focus on feelings as much as actions.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/05/how-does-it-feel-to-innovate.html

Get out from behind your desk.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/10/innovation-measure-time-since-last-contact-tlc.html
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/07/innovation-measure-time-to-first-feedback-tff.html

Stretch while paying close attention to where, why and how things snap.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/10/innovation-elasticity-or-why-things-get-killed.html

Be interested in being wrong.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/11/innovation-loves-mistakes.html

Have a purpose.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/06/whats-your-purpose.html

If everyone agrees, go back to the drawing board.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/05/whats-the-role-of-consensus-in-growth-innovation-and-design.html

Understand how to encourage and channel and develop intuition.
http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/09/intuition-innovation-collaboration-and-credibility.html

Don't mitigate risk. Mitigate the cost of failure.

To get it right, be interested in being wrong

Mrs. F was my first grade teacher. She was wonderful. At the start of first grade, she handed out those big, thick pencils - the ones without erasers. I asked Mrs. F why our pencils didn't have erasers. She said, "so you'll take your time and do things right the first time." Though I love her still, I think Mrs. F had the right pencils but the wrong message.

To do new things - things that are delightfully better and fundamentally different - you have to be really, really interested in putting things out there and being wrong; making mistakes and loving it.

I meet lots of folks in my work: designers, innovators and business people. It's a rare person that's confident enough to have their ideas critiqued. Even more seldom is the person that seeks feedback on an idea after it has been delivered. If you get it wrong, it sucks. If you got it wrong and it's your only shot, it really sucks. We confuse critique of an idea with a critique of us. I've certainly felt that way.

Great designers and innovators see evaluation moments as learning opportunities. They couple confidence with humility and curiosity. Some really amazing designers certainly possess a "never look back" approach. I think that works really well when what you're doing is closer to art.I don't think it works as well for innovation. I find with practice that it gets easier and easier to be wrong - you hate the sting, but you seek it.

So next time you hear something akin to "that's the worst idea I've heard in a long time." Say "Perfect, when did you know it was awful?"

Bob Sutton on Intuition

Bob Sutton has written a nice blog post on intuition versus data-driven decision making.

My view is that intuition and analysis are not opposing perspectives, but tag team partners that, under the best conditions, where hunches are followed and then evaluated with evidence (both quantitative and qualitative, that is another issue, qualitative data are different than intuition, and often better) versus when hunches and ingrained behaviors are mindlessly followed and impervious to clear signs that they are failing.

I'm influenced all the time by Bob's ideas and writing. I love how his thinking on any topic is always so unbelievably deep. Even with all Bob has read and studied, he frames his answer to the student's question in the blog post as only "rough thoughts." To have Bob's rough thoughts!

Adopting and practicing an attitude of wisdom, as Bob calls it and practices, is something I really try and do. Here are some prior, and very naive, thoughts from me on intuition for comparison: http://www.ryanjacoby.com/2009/09/intuition-innovation-collaboration-and-credibility.html