Adapt to thrive

We are well aware of the cautionary tales of high profile, successful businesses, that spectacularly crashed because they failed to innovate: 

• Blockbuster failed to see the future of home delivery DVDs and streaming services, staking too much belief in their brand and customer behaviours remaining the same. 

• Blackberry, once a market leader in mobile phones, missed the future possibilities of the touchscreen because they were too focused on protecting and maintaining what they already had. 

• Kodak, once a household name, missed the digital revolution and excluded itself from the market. 

There are plenty more examples out there. Leaders would do well to familiarise themselves with some of these stories – learning from the errors of others is a far more efficient and less painful way to learn.

And yet, human nature can quickly and easily dismiss these opportunities to learn. Leaders can be: 

• Over optimistic by thinking ‘that will never happen to us.’ 

• Overconfident by thinking ‘I won’t allow that to happen to my business.’ 

• Lazy by thinking ‘that’s unlikely to happen in my tenure, the next CEO can sort that out.’ 

• Fearful by thinking ‘we’ve got a good thing going here, let’s not rock the boat.’ 

All of these attitudes and beliefs kill innovation. 

Innovation is a common theme in our conversations with leaders. For many, innovation has become an accepted and necessary aspect of day-to-day business. This is understandable given the speed of change, the pace of technological developments and other world events that profoundly impact our whole lives. 

Innovation brings challenges, leaving leaders feeling anything from excitement to frustration. Leaders commonly talk about not having the resources that they require - be that time, money or people, so adding in innovation brings a real tension where leaders recognise they need to innovate to survive but struggle to meet the demands of the day to day. 

Why is it so complicated? 

Innovation isn't something that just happens; it takes intentionality. This is where some leaders struggle. 

Here are three barriers to innovation and thoughts to help combat them: 

• Perfectionism kills creativity and innovation. Perfectionism is fear-driven and it restricts our thinking. Ditch perfectionism! 

• The myth of not enough time. Can you change where the resources in an organisation are focused? Maybe there are some tasks that can be automated to create more capacity, maybe there are unnecessary tasks that can be stopped altogether. There are almost certainly meetings that are too long and not purposeful.  

• A culture of blame. When failures are punished rather than viewed as opportunities to learn, people stop taking risks and sharing ideas. Leaders would do well to redefine failure. It is widely accepted that Thomas Edison did just that by saying he had not failed but instead ‘found 10,000 ways that won't work.’ 

As a leader, part of your role is to create the conditions for innovation. Some of the skills and mindsets that will help you to do this are: 

• Knowing and communicating that you don’t have all the answers. 

• Seeking out diverse views and perspectives, bring them together in a room to encourage collaboration. 

• Having a tolerance for risk and failure. 

• Demonstrating authenticity and trustworthiness – say what you mean and mean what you say. 

• Creating a culture that values continuous learning and curiosity. 

• Practising horizon-thinking, looking beyond your tenure. 

• Creating space to increase your own mental capacity and that of your people. 

What are you already doing that encourages innovation within your organisation?

What are you going to try to do differently?