Level Seven's Innovation Challenge

There is a lot that has been written about developing creativity and innovation skills and whilst it was a while now since undertaking my doctorate research I thought it would be fun to undertake some practical personal research.  So I have decided to undertake some ‘Action Research’ and report back my findings.

The following provides me with a simple structure and focus for my research:

http://thinksimplenow.com/creativity/7-habits-of-highly-innovative-people/

My plan is to adopt a new habit each week and report on my reflections and any insights at the end of each week.  I will summarise my views in the New Year.  So, this is my focus for the next 7 weeks:

Week 1 - Persistence

Week 2 - Remove self limiting inhibitions

Week 3 - Take risks and make mistakes

Week 4 - Escape

Week 5 - Write things down

Week 6 - Find patterns and create combinations

Week 7 – Curiosity

If anyone wants to join me in this challenge and share their outcomes each week, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Gill Stevens

Who's the Talent?

It seems as if everyone is talking about talent in the workplace. A multitude of surveys, articles, conferences and workshops expound the importance of recognising, retaining, motivating and developing talent in organisations. We’re not knocking this – after all talent development is Level Seven’s raison d’être.  There is a danger, however, that yet another word in the HR lexicon is being dropped randomly into conversations about employees without carefully considering the meaning and appropriateness of the word. In so doing the term and all associated strategies and initiatives could be in danger of becoming devalued.

So what do we mean by the word talent? Should the word be used to describe the entire employee population and all related HR activity? There is something ethically attractive about acknowledging that everyone in an organisation has talent to be nurtured and developed according to their performance objectives. However, does such use dilute the value of the term? Is the term more strategically valuable if it is focused explicitly upon a specific pool of employees who are exceptional in relation to some technical proficiency or competence that supports the achievement of organisational goals?  Current challenges of where to invest often limited employee development resources can compound this dilemma and can become a strong determinant of resultant talent development strategy. Whilst it could be argued that an all encompassing definition of talent provides an equitable basis for investing limited L & D budgets, there is also a credible argument that supports differentiation in order to ensure the necessary investment in those high potential groups that are crucial for ensuring ongoing and future delivery of organisational performance objectives. How then do you ensure the continuing engagement and performance of those outside of the differentiated talent pool?

Let us know what you think?

(Have a look at the theories and research gathered by Silzer and Dowell in their book ‘Strategy Driven Talent Management: A Leadership Imperative’ at http://bit.ly/vBh6y2)

What does innovation mean to you?

In a straw poll among a small, mixed population of our corporate client colleagues, we asked, “what does innovation mean to you in the context of your day-to-day work?”  Here’s a summary of the more interesting comments:

Not a lot, it’s down to the marketing department.

Our R&D department look after that sort of thing.

We have a suggestion box we’ve nicknamed the ‘Black Hole’.

It’s one of our corporate values but personally it doesn’t affect what I do daily.

Innovation, just another management fad isn’t it?

Clearly there are different ways of looking at innovation and where responsibility for innovating lies.  Level Seven’s approach to innovation is that it is a mindset and attitude.  A sentiment echoed by others and the MD of BSkyB in his presentation at last year’s IOD Annual Conference.

Some industries take the innovation agenda a lot more seriously as it is often at the core of what they do, for example, IT is an industry continually looking for innovations. 

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/how-master-innovators-play-by-different-rules/9482

Some principles borrowed from their quest include:

·         Keep focused (whatever pressures you may be facing)

·         Keep to a plan but build in flexibility

·         Do your research and have a deep understanding about your situation

·         Look to the future rather than the past (i.e. what do we want to achieve rather than what did we do before)

Arguably, these principles could apply across any sector and any discipline and we attempt to reinforce this message wherever and whenever appropriate.

Our innovation diagnostic, the LID, aims to help leaders get to grips with how they can foster this spirit within themselves, their team and more widely within the organisation. 

http://www.level7live.com/lid.html

So, what does innovation mean to you?  Let us have your comments.

Gill Stevens

Director

Warming up the Organisation Through Talent Development

The recent Hay Group ressearch into workplace climate in European countries resonated with us at Level Seven, particularly at this time of the year when the UK weather slips into its cooler autumnal phase. We really like the warm metaphor used by Hay in relation to the impact that a leader can have on their team and ultimately their organisation’s performance.   The findings of the research highlight the leadership styles that support a positive and collaborative workplace climate and validate our key foci in developing leadership talent in organisations, i.e. the development of affiliative, democratic and coaching behaviours.  

In developing future leaders we bring talented people together from across organisational boundaries: improving interpersonal understanding encourages tolerance and respect which in turn supports an affiliative and democratic culture. Working on strategically focused business projects in multi functional teams helps develop ways of working that break down silos and improve organisational knowledge and relationships. Encouraging and developing the skills of coaching amongst peers and talent sponsors helps embed a developmental environment beyond formal learning into the wider organisational culture thereby supporting high levels of business performance.  Supporting organisations in the development of their talent demonstrates clearly to us that focusing on these key leadership behaviours can be very powerful in moving from cool to warmer organisational climates whatever the time of year.

http://www.personneltoday.com/pages/hay-group-job-climate-map/

Creative Leadership

Linking our two core interests together, creativity and leadership, we came across these thoughts on the role of creativity and the challenges of leaders in organisations.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1764044/ken-robinson-on-the-principles-of-creative-leadership

Evidence from a longitudinal study run over 10 years, found that teams who were run by project leaders with creative characteristics made 13 times more money for their company than those teams run by less creative leaders, a compelling argument that supports the notion that creativity and innovation are indeed areas for personal and organisational development.

We are about to launch the LID™ a new diagnostic tool that allows leaders of teams doing innovation type work to get some structured feedback on where they should focus their energy to help channel the creative energy of their team appropriately.  http://www.level7live.com/home

We are interested to hear from organisations who would be interested in contributing to our norm database http://www.level7live.com/contact

Gill Stevens

Director

Key Driver for Talent Development Programme

How to think and act differently

If you asked us to state the key driver for our talent development programme, Putting Your Talent to Work, we would say it is to encourage leaders to think, feel and act differently about the challenges they face in the workplace.

I recently worked with a group of senior executives who talked about the need for diversity of thought in the workplace and the need to encourage it, however, their actions and behaviour were at odds with what they were saying, not an uncommon challenge for leadership development interventions.  There is much research to support the argument that developing the capacity to think in a balanced way, using both intuition and logic appropriately differentiates successful leaders from average leaders.

In a recent study conducted by Kahneman, Lovallo and Sibony they refer to intuitive thinking and rational thinking as System One and System two thinking.  Their evidence suggests that when problem-solving and decision-making, particularly when weighing up recommendations that you are being asked to endorse, it is important to be aware of your cognitive biases. http://hbr.org/2011/06/the-big-idea-before-you-make-that-big-decision/ar/3

Below is a summary of 12 questions you can ask yourself when faced with having to approve a recommendation or decision made by others which requires your support or approval. (Kahneman et al, 2011)

1.        Is there any reason to suspect motivated errors or errors driven by the self-interest of the team?

2.       Have the people making the recommendation fallen in love with it?  (Minimising the risks and exaggerating the benefits)

3.       Were there dissenting opinions within the recommending team (Avoid groupthink)

4.       Could the diagnosis of the situation be overly influenced by salient analogies (Repeating success from past experiences but avoiding whether these experiences are relevant to this instance)

5.       Have credible alternatives been considered (Are there more options on the table?)

6.       If making the decision in 1 year from now what information would you want and can you get it now?

7.       Do you know where the numbers came from (credibility of data)

8.       Is there a halo effect?  Is the ‘story’ simpler and more coherent than it really is?

9.       Are the people making the recommendation overly attached to past decisions?

10.   Is the base case overly optimistic?

11.   Is the worst case bad enough?

12.   Is the recommending team overly cautious?

For more info about Putting Your Talent to Work, contact us at www.level7live.com

How important is environment to creative thinking?

Many will agree that it is difficult to turn our creative thinking capacity on and off like a tap and to some extent preparation of certain factors will help or hinder the output of any creative thinking activities.  Recently, I have had cause to reflect on the factors that both help and hinder our creative output, in particular how we think and feel about problems that require a creative approach and particularly the role that the environment plays.  Indeed the research we have conducted that underpins the development of our ‘Leading Innovation Diagnostic’ (LID) questionnaire suggests that environment plays a key role.

An example of where environment made a positive contribution was when Dorothy and I were recently returning from a client meeting and our journey home proved to be very fruitful in developing some new ideas worth exploring about the future of our business.  We reflected on what we had achieved and how we had done this.  We concluded that our physical and metaphorical journeys were somehow intrinsically linked.  Personally, I have come to know that I have a lot of my best ideas when I am driving in my car.  I put this down to the principle of allowing the conscious mind to get on with attending to the routine actions of driving whilst allowing the unconscious mind to get to work on idea development. 

An example of where environment proved to be a negative factor in creative output was when we delivered a client workshop that had a creative element to it.  The room facilities that had been booked were small for the size of group, cramped, had little natural light and the seats were uncomfortable.  It became evident that people had trouble concentrating on the task in hand and were becoming irritable about minor things. 

My doctoral research on creative problem-solving highlighted the fact that environment plays a critical role when engaged in creative thinking.  Many of the managers who participated in my research reported that they often had their best ideas when engaged in doing something different, such as working out in the gym, going for a swim, skiing down a mountain or just listening to music.

In conclusion then, it would be worth taking some time to identify what types of environment are conducive to your creative thinking activities, personally and for any team that you lead and ensure you make adequate time and resources available.  In the following video the presenter is talking about the link between creative thinking and play and of course, environment is a contributory factor in enabling these two notions to work together.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector?blend=1&ob=5#p/search/0/RjwUn-aA0VY

Gill Stevens

Director

Level Seven (UK) Ltd