Today’s leaders are growing more and more concerned that their companies, divisions or departments are lacking innovation. However, they need to look no further than the mirror to understand the reason why.  Leading the market through innovation is a strategy; whether or not a company achieves that strategy is determined by its culture; leaders both set and sustain culture. Hence, if you are leader, innovation is yours if you want it.

Innovation > Strategy > Leader > Culture > Innovation

How can I be so sure that leadership is the primary factor affecting culture and therefore innovation? It is not just because I have read about Steve Jobs and Jack Welch. No, the more personally significant answer is because I have witnessed single leaders invoke profound and ubiquitous influence on the cultures of very large corporations. In fact, I had a unique experience that created such significant awareness for me that I decided to focus on leadership development in my career.

It happened at a retirement dinner for a former boss of mine at a reputable Canadian Investment Bank. He invited me (and I agreed under much duress, I might add!) to sit at the table with “all of the old CEOs” – there were four. As the dinner conversation unfolded and as each “Old CEO” spoke, I had an epiphany. I had worked for the bank under each CEO and as their personalities and perspectives unfolded over dinner, I realized that our culture and way of doing business had emulated each of their styles and personalities when they were in power.  

Once we realize the significant impact leaders have on those around them as de facto role models, the next step is to understand what conscious and successful leaders do to lead innovation. In my experience innovative leaders share some characteristics with each other - and with Steve Jobs:

• A vision for a better future; a quest, if you will, to better serve the market
• An ability to listen – particularly to strategic thinkers and other thought leaders, whose ideas might be seem to be outside “the norm”
• An ability to leverage their team to share the vision, shape direction and align (or is a better word “liberate”?) the company, division or department to create that future and better solutions

In the April HBR, Alex Pentland, an MIT researcher, reports the findings of his study on “The New Science of Building Great Teams”. Bottom line is that communication skills we once labeled as “soft skills” have been scientifically proven to dramatically improve the performance of teams. Fortunately - especially for those who previously dismissed these “girlie” characteristics of active listening and inclusion - these important skills can be learned. Researchers also found that 90 -95% of what we learn we do so by observing others and adopting the behaviour ourselves.

Thus leaders seeking to lead a culture of innovation can influence best by role modelling effective communication, seeking and then listening to new thoughts and ideas while engaging their entire team in doing the same. Innovation is yours, if you want it.

Corner Office Episode #9, Complexity Series - How To Build More Effective Customer Relationships Part 1? is a wrap! Thank you to all who tuned in during the live broadcast.

Resources:
- Capitalizing on Complexity - IBM Global CEO Study
- Are You A CEO Capitalising On Customer Relationships?

[From left to right:] Brenda Higuchi, VP Strategy & Analytics, Aimia Inc., Jean Letourneau, CEO of SBVCG Inc., Susan Radojevic, President, The Peregrine Agency and Host of Corner Office and Debra Pickfield, Principal of THiNKSPOT on the set of #COLive Ep. 9 How To Build More Effective Customer Relationships? at Kingbridge Conference Centre and Institute.

Brenda, Debra, Susan, and Jean have all offered to answer your post-show discussion questions. Please feel free to join in the conversation by posting your questions or providing us with feedback.

Partners and Sponsors of this Episode:

This show was broadcast live on-location at Kingbridge Conference Centre and Institute.

The first issue of Susan Radojevic's column in M+IT Magazine was released earlier this month! This exciting new feature encourages diverse thinking by offering a different perspective in the community. You can download the PDF of this article here or by clicking on the image below. You can also have a look at Susan Radojevic other written work on our Articles page.

 

 Susan boldly states that, "the meetings and events community has a tendency to develop tunnel vision." Do you agree or disagree? You can read the article here and join in the discussion in the comments!

Please join me in welcoming Shirley Knight, Principal of Shirley M. Knight & Associates as a regular Blog Contributor. Shirley will appear in this space twice a month sharing insight on organizational culture, women in business and Canada on the world stage.

Shirley is a former executive who helps leaders plan, structure and create a culture for growth. In addition to her own deep understanding about culture and its effect on performance, she has also formed alliances with leading edge thinkers whose models help executives accelerate team strategic thinking, uncover opportunity and engage the company – regardless of past culture – in monetizing new ideas.

When Shirley and I met we both recognized that we were on the same journey – to help corporate leaders pilot radical innovations to break the mold of existing business models and traditional leadership practices.

I look forward to tapping into Shirley’s wisdom by leaving a comment and hope you will too!

Susan Radojevic, President
The Peregrine Agency

Since the year 2000, we have been in what experts are now calling “the Creativity Age”, where technology, information and ease of global connections are accelerating the creation of new ideas at a record pace. Change like this can only mean one thing – opportunity! To seize this opportunity and gain the most value will take leadership, vision and courage. And therein lies the challenge.

William Deresiewicz wrote in his 2010 speech Solitude and Leadership,

"We have a crisis in leadership because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under another generation of leaders, made us complacent; for too long we have been training leaders who know how to keep the routine going”.

Although he was speaking to Americans, the same thought applies directly to Canadians. We have all grown up in a management culture that has been created in and for another time; a management culture that sustains “operational excellence” versus the messy, but now essential, generation of innovation.

What is culture? 

Culture is a clear set of values and norms that actively guide the way a company operates with its employees, suppliers, clients and the community. It is “the way we do things around here” – how businesses or products are launched; what happens when someone makes a mistake; how does information flow; who gets promoted and why; what are the consequences for disagreeing with senior management; how are meetings conducted? Culture is amorphous, ubiquitous and often unspoken.

In creating and executing a new and viable future for a company, corporate culture can be either a great asset and a serious liability – or both! During a period of change at Ford, every manager had a sign in their office that warned “Don’t let culture eat your strategy” because if not understood, it will.

For this reason, leaders who want their company to be sustainable (or, dare to dream, leading the market!) in this dynamic age, need to be consciously competent about identifying two critical factors:

1. The elements of culture needed to reach your desired future
2. The elements of the current culture that will either facilitate or impede that success

For example, if your future lies in innovation, your compensation structure should NOT be bonus-centred. If the current culture excels in superior client relationships (a clear strength), expect innovation with immediate and direct client advantage versus “six sigma” efficiency ideas.

There are many ways a culture can be assessed ranging from hiring a consulting firm to just “asking around”. The point is that it needs to be consciously understood, managed and most likely tweaked to affect change. If leaders cannot do this, it is virtually a law of physics that culture will sustain itself and block a changed future.

Last night I attended a presentation where a Steam Whistle Brewery executive explained, in detail, the aspects of their culture that made them successful and what the leadership does to ensure the cultural underpinnings sustain competitive advantage. Every leader could and should be able to do just that!

The leader’s role in creating culture will be a topic for the next blog.

When I was 16 years old my history teacher, Mrs. Scroggie asked me if I had a dream list. What’s a dream list I asked? A list of 101 things you are going to do on your life journey said Mrs. Scroggie. Now Mrs. Scroggie was someone I looked up to. But at that moment I thought she had lost her mind. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to go out with Jamie or Michael on Saturday and here she wanted me to think about the rest of my life!

A few months later, a few weeks before my birthday, I found myself writing my first 101 Dream List.

At the top of my list was meet Donny Osmond. Other dreams included: buy white platform shoes; visit all four corners of the world and space to see what else is out there; and next to dream #67, I wrote start a company.

I met Donny Osmond when he literally fell in my lap. I wore my white platform shoes almost every day that summer. By my 44^th year, of my life journey, I had visited all four corners of the world. While I haven’t made it to space yet, space travel is more possible today than it was when I wrote my first dream list.

On April 2^nd, 1990 Peregrine Incentives Inc. was born, a full service incentive house. Along the way we added destination management services to our product services line. In 1998 we evolved from a full service event management company to an event alignment consultancy to align ‘why we exist’ with the changing business landscape. In 2003 we changed our name to The Peregrine Agency. And in 2006 we sold our event management division to start a new journey. To help corporate leaders leverage their organization's event portfolio investment and pilot radical innovation to break the mold of existing business models and traditional leadership practices.

Today we celebrate 22 years of being in business!

I often think if my life journey would have turned out this way had Mrs. Scroggie not asked if I had a ‘dream list’.

I still have a dream list. And every birthday I check dreams off and add new dreams to the list. And when I start to feel like my life is living me instead of me living me my life, I pull out my dream list. It reminds me that life is a journey and not a destination.

So... do you have a dream list?

Happy travels all!