Leadership &

Innovation

Kenneth M. Slaw, PhD

April 4, 2009
Workshop for Perinatal Practice Strategies
Disclosure

I have no relevant financial

relationships with the
manufacturers of any
commercial products and/or
providers of commercial
services discussed in this CME
activity.
Objectives

 Discuss the importance of innovation

& innovative thinking
 Discuss the role of leaders in creating
an innovative environment
 Discuss strategies for implementing
innovative ideas
Agenda

 Leadership & Innovation

– Innovation Defined
– Innovation as a Leadership Competency
 The IDEO Approach
 Making Innovation Practical
 Innovation and Change
 Wrap-Up
The Innovation
“Experience”
 Think of a time when you were caught
up in, or deeply effected by, an
innovation that occurred at work,
home, play, school…
 Briefly describe the innovation and
how it changed your life in some way.
 What is Innovation?
Dictionary Says:

 The art of introducing something new or

different
 Starting something for the first time
 Note :
– There is no mention of having been successful!
– It is the ART of introducing…
What is Creativity?
Dictionary Says:
 Ability to transcend traditional ideas
and create meaningful new ideas,
forms, methods, interpretations
 Ability and power to create
 Note:
– There is no mention of having been
successful!
– It is the POWER to TRANSCEND…
 Why Are Innovation and
Creativity Important?
 Think of your work environment. Is there
a culture of innovation?
 Hospitals and Doctor’s Offices are not
known for being innovative…how can we
move them to be more innovative?
 Why doesn’t more innovation happen?
Innovative Thinking
is a Leadership
Competency
 Challenging the Process
– Experiment/Take Risk/Try different solutions
 Innovative approaches to problem solving
 Ability to “think outside the box”, to go beyond the
conventional
 Modeling the Way and Enabling Others
– Ability to champion innovation and encourage
new ideas from employees
So How Innovative A Leader
Are You?
Target Description
Levels
1. Open to New Ideas: Is open-minded when presented with a new
perspective, and will not automatically dismiss new ideas. Will accept other
solutions when conventional methodology does not work.
2. Questions Conventional Methodology: Questions and challenges the quality
of conventional work methodology. Is prepared to try out different solutions. Is
prepared to take the unorthodox approach.
3. Thinks Laterally: Generates varied solutions to problems. Thinks laterally
(“outside the box”) to identify new solutions. Will consider the radical or
unconventional. Is prepared to look beyond the data for solutions. Is innovative
and creative when generating solutions.
4. Is Agile in Response to Change: Anticipates and responds to external
change. Is flexible when faced with external constraints, and adapts
methodology and ideas quickly to immediate or anticipated changes in the
external environment.
5. Champions Innovative Thinking: Encourages new ideas from employees.
Generates and maintains a creative environment amongst the team. Genuinely
values and champions innovation.
 Where You Are/
Where You Need to Be
INSTRUCTIONS

Using the defintions provided:

1. Place a “BLUE” dot on the chart indicating where you placed your “C”.
2. Place a “GREEN” dot on the chart indicating where you placed your “F”.

Is Open Champions
to New Innovative
Ideas Thinking
The Deep Dive
One Company’s Secret Weapon
for Innovation

1999 ABC News. Nightline

IDEO Debrief
 Focused project/Desired outcome
 No Hierarchy
 Listen to those who disagree with you
 Gather experts outside your profession/myriad
perspectives
 Leave your desk and get out in the field
 You need some wild and crazy ideas!!
 After a period of creative “chaos”, refocus
 Playful work environment
 Try things-ask forgiveness later
 Fail often to succeed sooner
 Take finished product back out to field for feedback
 10 Rules For Innovators
1. The great idea is only Chapter 1
2. Sources of organizational memory are powerful-They must be
overcome
3. Large, established organizations will beat start-ups if they invest
in innovation
4. Strategic experiments always face critical unknowns
5. Once the innovation takes off its infrastructure must be built from
scratch
6. Managing tensions between existing and new is job # 1 for Senior
Leadership
7. Existing and new require separate planning processes
8. Innovation requires organizational learning-Interests, influences,
competition, politics, disrupt learning
9. Hold new innovations accountable for learning, not results, for
the first few years
10. Organizations that master strategic “forgetting”, internal
“borrowing” and “learning” are positioned for breakthrough
strategic innovation
2005 V. Govindarajan, C. Trimble. 10 rules for
strategic innovators; Harvard Business School Press
Making Innovation
Practical
 Organizational Climate
– You become your environment
 Color
 Humor
 Art
 Music
 Play
 Messaging
 Establish “creative space’
– Setting aside time, physical and mental space
 Warren Buffet
– Delegate
– Read and think every day
– Reduce meetings to the bare necessity
– Make reports results oriented, not process oriented
Some Quick Exercises to
Prime That Brain
 Alien Expedition
 Word Patterns
Making Innovation
Practical

 Innovation is conceived at the

“intersections” of work and life-Go fishing at
the intersections!
– Networked process of idea sharing and
collaboration involving myriad contributors
– Healthy disregard for the impossible married to
understanding of constraints
– Harvesting ideas from other industries, fields,
backgrounds to create “idea intersections”
– Use technology to share broadly
Making Innovation
Practical
 Venture Capital Fund-Dollars set aside
to test, experiment, create
 “Innovation Agenda” to take to your
Board
 Well understood process for
developing, discovering, and
implementing ideas
 Prime the brain with short creative
exercises before problem solving
Innovation IS Change…

 PLA Change Model

– The Case
– The Vision
– The Skills
– The Incentives
– The Resources
– The Action Plan
 Managing Complex
Change
Action
Vision Skills Incentives Resources Status Quo
Plan

Case for Action

Skills Incentives Resources Confusion
Change Plan

Case for Action

Vision Incentives Resources Anxiety
Change Plan

Case for Action Gradual

Vision Skills Resources
Change Plan Change

Case for Action

Vision Skills Incentives Frustration
Change Plan

Case for False

Vision Skills Incentives Resources
Change Starts

Enabling Action
Shared Need Vision Skills Incentives Change
Systems Plan
 “If you’re not failing every
now and again, this is a sign
you’re not doing anything
innovative.”
-- Woody Allen
Leadership & Innovation
References
 Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers
Want, Curtis R Carlson and William W. Wilmot, Crown
Business, 2006.
 Innovation By Design, Gerard H Gaynor, AMACOM, 2002.
 Payback: Reaping The Rewards of Innovation, James P
Andrew & Harold L Sirkin, Harvard Business School Press,
2007.
 Great Leadership Ideas, A Soundview Exclusive Report,
Soundview Executive Book Summaries, 2006.
 Management Competency Dictionary, Saskatchewan Public
Service, 1998.
 The Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom Kelley and Jonathan
Littman, Currency/Doubleday, 2005.
 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators, Vijay Govindarajan and
Chris Trimble, Harvard Business School Press.