In a small pub in the highlands of Scotland, a group of fishermen gathered one afternoon to swap tales over a round of ale. One of them stretched his arms apart to show the big one that got away. At that very point, a server walked past carrying a tray of full ale glasses. The […]
Read post »Like the weather, many leaders talk about agility and innovation, but few managers do much about it. Unlike the weather, there’s a great deal managers can do about building agile and innovative cultures. Innovation and organization learning often falls into the same trap as strategic planning, economic forecasting, and change management. There is no orderly […]
Read post »Are your own people your biggest barrier to higher innovation and agility? That’s what research from Great Place to Work found in a study of 792 companies totaling about 500,000 employees. In their study, Innovation by All, Great Place to Work concluded organizations with high-trust cultures involve and engage many more employees than most organizations […]
Read post »In his article on “Crafting Strategy,” McGill University professor and management author, Henry Mintzberg, provides a good example of innovation and organizational learning in high-performing, agile organizations: “Out in the field, a salesman visits a customer. The product isn’t quite right, and together they work out some modifications. The salesman returns to his company […]
Read post »Are your own people your biggest barrier to higher innovation and agility? That’s what recent research from Great Place to Work found in a study of 792 companies totaling about 500,000 employees. In this new study, Innovation by All, Great Place to Work concluded organizations with high-trust cultures involve and engage many more employees than […]
Read post »Decades ago, in a Harvard Business Review article, “How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead,” the founder and CEO of a food company made this connection between learning and agility, “Learning is change, and I keep learning and relearning that change is and needs to be continuous… change is the real job of every […]
Read post »Innovation clearly sets organizations apart. It’s key to inventing our future. But how do you cultivate innovation in leaders and teams?
Watch webinar »Decades ago pioneering leadership researcher and author, Warren Bennis, declared, “The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive.” The future is here. Disruptive innovation is destroying and creating whole new industries at a blistering pace. Before experts have finished declaring that something can’t be done or won’t […]
Read post »George Bernard Shaw, the highly creative Irish playwright (he wrote more than 60 plays and won a Nobel Prize in Literature), and founder of the London School of Economics, George Bernard Shaw once declared, “Some people see things as they are and say ‘why?’ I dream things that never were, and say ‘Why not’? Seeing […]
Read post »Examples from history illustrate the importance of seeing the potential of new ideas.
Read article »Customer-focused organizations build internal communication processes around the valuable players that deal directly with the public.
Read article »Key characteristic of learning leaders; they refuse to be trapped by "conventional wisdom" or what others say is or isn't possible. Highly effective leaders go against the odds – or just ignore them.
Read article »Strategy is an interactive process focusing on improvement and implementation, but beware of common strategic planning traps.
Read article »When we don't know how we're doing we can't improve. Failing to periodically review and assess is one of the major reasons so many improvement efforts lose their way.
Read article »A great fictional story, illustrating a major problem we encounter again and again in our work with individuals, teams, and organizations trying to move to higher levels of performance. It's the problem of balancing the speed and pace of daily life or operations, with periodically stepping back to make sure we're heading in the right direction.
Read article »A good change champion is passionate about their cause or change. We can't harness or manage champions. Often we're best to point them in the right direction and get out of the way. Then sponsor and protect them from the bureaucracy when they need it.
Read article »Strong leaders who are effective coaches know the value of reflection and renewal. They periodically pull themselves and their teams back from daily work in operations to work on themselves.
Read article »The innovation paradox: Random, chaotic, and unpredictable innovations need a stable management system and process to nurture the growth and development of "lucky breaks."
Read article »If we want more experimentation and learning on our teams or organizations, we must establish an atmosphere that builds self-confidence and trust.
Read article »We need to manage the paradox of paying close attention to closing today's customer and partner performance gaps while we explore, search, and create tomorrow's new markets, customers, and partners.
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