Leading Innovation 

GrowthWorks Inc.

    18893 86th Place North  n  Maple Grove, MN 55331  USA  n  (763) 420-5685    info@growthworksinc.com 

Leading Innovation -- Creating Workplaces Where People Excel So Organizations Thrive

By Brian McDermott & Gerry Sexton

Table of Contents

1 The Art of Innovative Leadership  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9       A critical, simple concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Open the gates for creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Relationships and involvement are critical ingredients  . . . . . . . 13    The LOOP Leadership Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14     The elusive “simple” answer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Three hopes for leading innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2 Innovate or Disintegrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Innovation and market value  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Innovation and competitive advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Innovation, the S-curve, and white spaces  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 What’s in innovation for you?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3 The Mental Breakdown of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Creativity vs. innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Monumental, incremental, and elemental innovation .. . . . . . . . 28    The never-ending and imperfect quest for innovation . . . . . . . . . 29

4 The Power of Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31   Ten leadership strategies for building commitment  . . . . . . . . . 34

5 Communicating Vision and Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36   How to communicate for connection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Keeping it simple ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Priority Assessment Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Communicating with personal commitment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Caring and sharing.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The T.O.P. Model of Creativity. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Talent Assessment Tool.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51 Invisible assets of self-directed performers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Lifeline Alignment Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  56

7 Myths and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59  Four myths of innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Change readiness – a major obstacle to innovation . . . . . . . . . 65 Preparing people for change  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Force Field Analysis Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68       A simple test for change readiness  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69  How to uncover obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71   The Q-12 Tool  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76  How to use obstacles to drive innovation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77    The Personal Change-Readiness Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Overcoming the change obstacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

8 Foundations of an Innovative Work Environment . . . . . . 82 Systemic obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Three tools for razing obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86   The costs of misguided management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

9 The Power of Mindset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93 Alternate Uses Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  95 Creating volunteers, not victims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  97 Nurturing optimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Turning gripes into goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Finding the expert within . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

10 Innovation Styles and Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Visioning, modifying, exploring, and experimenting . . . . . . . . . 102 Adaptor or innovator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Whole brain theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 104 Diffusion of innovation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106   Mix and match styles for greatest innovation impact . . . . . . . . 107 Innovation Style Assessment Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

11 Creativity Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Improv thinking .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Improv practice activities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Lateral Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Lateral Thinking exercises  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117  The Five-Hows Solutions Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

12 The Culture and Strategy of Innovation  . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Seven strategies for implementing innovation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123  The S.E.L.V.E.S. Thinking Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

13 Decision-Making and Prioritization Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 134  Five guidelines for turning ideas into action .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Prioritizing and evaluating ideas  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Affinity Grouping Tool.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Multi-Voting Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Deciding on ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Simple Paired Comparison Tool .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Weighted Paired Comparison Tool  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Screening Tool  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Effort-Impact Tool  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Risk Analysis Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Championing and selling ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Committing to action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

14 Destination Innovation?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151  The payoffs of creating an innovative workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Final hopes and recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Index  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

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GREAT REVIEWS!

“Guided by a deep belief that all people are uniquely talented and wise, this brilliant work is a must for anyone who recognizes that innovation is the sine qua non of successful business and indeed of successful living. Full of information and insight, it shouldn't be missed.”

 Ken Blanchard, Co-author of The One-Minute Manager and The Secret: What Great Leaders Know – And Do

“A gem of a text that takes a strikingly different position about how to make innovation happen.”

  Leonard Schlesinger, Vice Chairman and COO, Limited Brands, and Former Harvard Business School Professor