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Making Innovation Inevitable - Good Morning Belgravia!
Friday, 14 May 2010
Category:
Leadership
Gooood Morning Belgravia!
Picture the scene: a room at the IPA in Belgravia, about thirty managers seated waiting for a presentation to start. The speaker greets the group and receives the sort of polite muted ‘”good morning” you would expect. “I am American,” he replies, “I will need more than that”. And then he bellows into the room “GOOD MORNING!" The crowd breaks into a cheery laughter and responds more enthusiastically. As the laughter subsided, Laszlo Gyorffy, President of the Enterprise Development Group in Silicon Valley, began his presentation-a sparkling insight into how to create a culture of innovation at work.
“Innovation is a country’s competitive edge; unless you have an abundance of natural resources innovation is all you’ve got.” This is the message that echoes throughout the presentation. And the beauty of innovation, Laszlo says, is that it is teachable.
There is a distinction between managers and leaders. Leaders are the ones who create the optimal conditions for innovation which is what the presentation is all about. The role of leaders is to inspire and create a culture of innovation.
Block the monkey
To demonstrate that his ideas work, Laszlo peppers his presentation with an array of examples. From the revamping of BBC Radio One, to improving efficiency of car manufacturing and understanding unruly monkeys.
The monkey story goes like this: In a cage full of monkeys a banana hangs from the ceiling. The only way to get to it is to climb a short flight of stairs in the centre of the cage. The catch is that as soon as one of the monkeys starts climbing the stairs jets of water spray the entire cage. Predictably, the next time a monkey tries to go for the top banana the others block the way. Soon none of the monkeys even attempt to reach the delicious prize. The moral of the story is clear-an obstructive culture can easily entrench itself in an organisation and block the path to innovative thinking.
The role of the leader is to break down those barriers by creating a culture where people are allowed to experiment and fail, where it is OK to bring ideas to the table and try them out. "You have to define the sandbox in which all your employees can play", Laszlo says, "make them inspired".
At this point a number of participants expressed the very realistic point that it was fine and good to talk about ideas in principle. But, how do you bring those ideas back to a work place mired in office politics and resistance?
Small things that count
Here Laszlo really shines. Using a series of examples he shows how successful leaders managed to find small ways to get staff thinking creatively. In one case, in order to find new ways of approaching customers, each member of the team was asked to take photos of customers using the product. The photos were then put on the wall in the office and slowly but surely a dialogue began. Soon a common language emerged in the team, kick-starting the process. Such simple steps made you think: yes, I can see how that would work for me.
When it comes to innovation, leaders can be classified in two ways, above the line and below the line. Laszlo puts up a slide that is divided by big red horizontal line. It is as simple as that. Leaders above the line free innovation, they encourage it and support those who come up with ideas, those below the line freeze it.
For more blogs about the event click here.
For more information on this session or partnership more generally, please contact Louise Shevlane by email lshevlane@theworkfoundation.com or on 020 7976 3503.
Gideon Benari