Leading Those Who Don't Want To Follow

by Mike Myatt

When you reach a fork in the road with those you lead, what do you do? Leading those inclined to follow is significantly less of a challenge than leading those who don't want to be led. Anyone who has ever been in a leadership position has had to deal with the inevitable tough relationship that causes more than its fair share of brain damage. At some point in time we've all been involved (directly or indirectly, willingly and unwillingly) in the coporate politics of turf-wars, empire building, silo-centric ignorance, title inflated ego and arrogance, and the list goes on...

Regardless of the politics in play, it is a leader's responsibility to effectively lead not only those that agree with their position, but they must also lead those that hold dissenting opinions.

There are always those who choose to oppose or undermine authority, but that in and of itself does not remove the obligation of a leader to fulfill his or her duty. While likeability is a great asset to possess as a leader, it is not essential. It is however essential that you command the respect of those you lead. Respect is earned by honoring commitments and doing the right thing regardless of opinion, sentiment, or influence. It is through right acts, good decisions, and honest communication that you earn respect and maintain rapport even with those who are not necessarily your greatest supporters.

A key point to consider when things don't seem to be going as smoothly as you would like is that different perspectives, competing agendas, and opposing positions can sometimes present the opportunity for growth and enlightenment. If differing opinions are looked at as an opportunity as opposed to a set-back then I believe positive steps can be taken. What I like to refer as "positional gaps" are best closed by listening to both sides, finding common ground and then letting the principle of doing the right thing guide the process. When you develop the skill to transform negative conflict into creative tension then you will begin to command respect even from those who don't agree with your positions.

It is absolutely possible to build very productive relationships with even the most adversarial of individuals. Regardless of a person's original intent, opinion or position, the key to closing a positional gap is simply a matter of finding common ground in order to establish rapport. Moreover, building rapport is easily achieved assuming your motivations for doing so are sincere. I have always found that rapport is quickly developed when you listen, care, and attempt to help people succeed. By way of contrast it is difficult to build rapport if you are driven by an agenda that is not in alignment with the other party.

While building and maintaining rapport with people with whom you disagree is certainly more challenging, many of the same rules expressed in my comments above still apply. I have found that often times conflict resolution simply just requires more intense focus on understanding the needs, wants and desires of the other party. If opposing views are worth the time and energy to debate, then they are worth a legitimate effort to gain alignment on perspective and resolution on position. However this will rarely happen if lines of communication do not remain open. Candid, effective communication is best maintained through a mutual respect and rapport.

In an attempt to resolve any conflict, the first step is to identify and isolate the specific areas of difference being debated. The sad fact is that many business people are absolutists in that they only see things in terms of rights and wrongs. Thinking in terms of "my way" is right and therefore "other ways" are wrong is the basis for polarizing any relationship, which quickly results in converting discussions into power struggles. However when a situation can be seen through the lens of difference, and a position is simply a matter of opinion not a totalitarian statement of fact, then cooperation and compromise is possible. Identifying and understanding differences allows people (regardless of title) to shift their position through compromise and negotiation while maintaining respect and rapport. The following perspectives if kept top of mind will help in identifying and bridging positional gaps:

• Respect leads to acceptance.


• Accepting a person where they are, creates an bond of trust.


• Trust, leads to a willingness to be open to:


• New opportunities


• New collaborations


• New strategies


• New ideas


• New products

While I like to think that I have earned the respect of the majority of those I have led over the years, I am not so naive to think that that all have liked or supported my positions. That being said, I have nonetheless had to lead them as well. I have been able to accomplish this by adhering to the following principles:


1. Hit conflict head-on. You can only resolve problems by proactively seeking to do so.


2. Always attempt to understand others motivations prior to weighing-in on an issue.


3. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and follow-through on your commitments.


4. Never be swayed by consensus, rather be guided by doing the right thing.


5. Know that no person is universally right or universally liked, and become at peace with that.


6. Regardless of whether or not perspectives and opinions differ, a position of respect must be adhered to and maintained. Respect is at the core of building business relationships. It is the foundation that supports high performance teams, partnerships, superior and subordinate relationships, and peer-to-peer relationships. Respecting the right to differ while being productive is a concept that all successful executives and entrepreneurs master.

Don't miss an article - Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Continuous Innovation group!





---


Mike Myatt, is a Top CEO Coach, author of "Leadership Matters...The CEO Survival Manual", and Managing Director of N2Growth.

10 Simple Ways to Stay Connected

by Matt Heinz

No matter what you do for a living, an active network is critical to your current and future success. That said, it's very easy to ignore the often simple, tactical things you can do to keep your network engaged and growing.

Here's a list of ten things to consider doing daily. If ten is too much to start (although this list should take all of 15-20 minutes if you stay focused), start with just 2-4 and expand from there. Each piece incrementally will help, and you'll be surprised how quickly your investment comes back in the way of opportunities, introductions and more.

1. Email three people you haven't spoken with in some time, just to catch up
   
2. Scan your LinkedIn home page for profile updates, and comment back on 2-3 that are particularly interesting to you
   
3. Use Gist.com to see what your contacts have done, read or published recently
   
4. Send one hand-written thank you or congratulations note to someone
   
5. Return one phone call or email from a sales rep. Make it short, but return the connection. You'd be surprised how often these turn into something more valuable than the pitch.
   
6. Give someone an unsolicited recommendation in LinkedIn
   
7. Scan your blog RSS feed, and forward 1-3 articles to people you think will find them interesting or valuable
   
8. Invite someone to lunch today. You have to eat anyway. If they say no, they're happy you asked. If they say yes, you get a valuable chance to reconnect.
   
9. Thank someone for the hard work they did yesterday, and copy their manager if sent via email
   
10. Send an unsolicited email to someone you've always wanted to meet, asking for a quick phone call or coffee. Do this daily, and I guarantee your response rate will be better than zero.

What would you add to this list?


Enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Continuous Innovation group!

---

Matt Heinz is principal at Heinz Marketing, a sales & marketing consulting firm helping businesses increase customers and revenue. Contact Matt at matt@heinzmarketing.com or visit www.heinzmarketing.com.

Elevating HR to Drive Innovation

by Rowan Gibson

It's every employee's nightmare in recessionary times: finding a "pink slip" in the pay envelope, or getting a fateful phone call from HR. Over five million workers in America have had that gut-wrenching experience since the economy hit a wall in 2007. And this year the global layoff tsunami will claim millions more jobs worldwide. So I imagine that, right now, a lot of HR Directors are feeling about as popular as bird flu. But they need to take heart. Even in the midst of the worst economic woes for several decades, a new day is dawning for Human Resources. It's the day that HR finally gets the strategic recognition it deserves; the day that HR steps up from a mundane back-office function to play a center stage role.

My friend, Dave Ulrich, professor of business at the University of Michigan, has long argued that HR leaders should assume a more vital, strategic role inside their companies. Rather than merely busying themselves with everyday stuff like policies, payroll, and picnics, Ulrich says that HR professionals should be striving to build and strengthen the unique set of organizational capabilities that give a company its competitive advantage. In essence, that means developing a particular mix of resources, processes and values that makes it hard for rivals to match what the company does.

Sounds good in theory. But before the HR department starts packing boxes and moving upstairs, we should first give some serious thought to exactly which organizational capabilities today's companies should be building. Let's face it, most traditional forms of competitiveness - cost, service, technology, distribution, manufacturing, product design - can now be quite easily copied. Sure, these variables may still provide a company with a temporary head start, but over time they no longer offer the basis for a sustainable competitive advantage. So what do we have left? The answer, in a word, is radical innovation. As my colleague Gary Hamel puts it in "The Future of Management":


"In a world where strategy life cycles are shrinking, innovation is the only way a company can renew its lease on success."


What we're finding out in today's value-based economy is that radical, game-changing innovation is literally the only strategic weapon we have left, in the sense that it's the only capability that can create value for customers in a way that is difficult for competitors to imitate.

That's why innovation is now such a major strategic priority for every company on earth, not to mention national and even regional governments. But it's also where the real problem starts. Because, until now, very few organizations in either the private or the public sector have managed to turn innovation from a buzzword into a core competence - a wall-to-wall, top-to-bottom enterprise capability. Most of them wouldn’t even know where to start - or, indeed, how to sequence - the capability-building process.

As I have written before in this column, making innovation a systemic organizational capability is a complex and multifaceted challenge. It simply cannot be solved with some Band-Aid or silver bullet. Instead, it requires deep and enduring changes to leadership focus, performance metrics, organization charts, management processes, IT systems, training programs, incentive and reward structures, cultural environment and values. All of these elements need to come together and mutually reinforce each other as a system in order to institutionalize innovation. Otherwise, a company's efforts to make "all-the-time, everywhere" innovation happen will be doomed.

What companies need is not merely a pro-innovation mindset, or better brainstorming techniques, or "hot teams". The challenge is not about quickly coming up with a few new products or services to get the sales curve moving upward. It's about making innovation a new organizational way of life; something that permeates everything a company does, in every corner of its business, every single day. It's about infusing the entire lifeblood of an organization with the tools, skills, methods and processes of radical innovation.

That's the true imperative for rethinking the role of Human Resources. As soon as we recognize the strategic value and the immense organizational transition that's involved in building a corporate-wide innovation capability, HR automatically moves to center stage.

Who else but HR leaders would be capable of turning a company's strategic intent with regard to innovation into tangible everyday action? Who else could make the necessary changes to executive roles and goals, political infrastructures, recruitment strategy, broad-based training, performance appraisals, awards and incentives, employee contribution and commitment, value systems, and so on? Who else could build and foster the cultural and constitutional conditions - such as a discretionary time allowance for innovation projects, maximum diversity in the composition of innovation teams, and rampant connection and conversation across the organization - that serve as catalysts for breakthrough innovation? Who else could ensure that each employee understands the link between his or her own performance (as well as compensation) and the attainment of the company's innovation strategy? In short, who else but HR leaders could create a company where everyone, everywhere, is responsible for innovation every day—whether as an innovator, mentor, manager, or team member?

The sad reality is that too many CEOs overlook HR's potential in this regard. They still think of HR solely in terms of regulatory compliance, hiring and firing, employee comfort, compensation and benefits. Notably, Jack Welch, illustrious ex-CEO of GE and arguably one of the greatest corporate leaders of our times, sees things differently. In a recent column in BusinessWeek, he writes that "every CEO should elevate his head of HR to the same stature as the CFO." I couldn't agree more. It's time for HR to step up to the plate and take on the strategic role of innovation capability builder.

---

Rowan Gibson is widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on enterprise innovation. He is co-author of the bestseller "Innovation to the Core" and a much in-demand public speaker around the globe. On Twitter he is @RowanGibson.

Innovation Perspectives - Hidden Human Dimensions

This is the ninth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'What is the most dangerous current misconception in innovation?'. Now, here is Paul Hobcraft's perspective:

by Paul Hobcraft

Why do so many of us get fixated on new technologies, discoveries, inventions, the process, the structures, even the art of creativity within innovation? Certainly each of these have their important contributing part to play in building a coherency for innovation, but the ingredient that tops them all and often forgotten or assigned as the afterthought is people. People making innovation work, all the rest are the enablers to help them.

The Australian Business Foundation published a report earlier this year- the Hidden Human Dimensions of Innovation (http://www.abfoundation.com.au/research_knowledge) and in part of a speech given by its Chief Executive, Narelle Kennedy at an Innovation 2009 conference where she spoke of this people factor. Let me quote as her comments are really powerful and help encourage people to conceive that innovation is more of a social process first, and not a technical one so often a misconception of many.

• "People are innovation's active ingredient, the catalyst that turns novelty into real benefits for economies and communities. Benefits like jobs, wealth, productivity and life-changing progress"


• "The role of people in innovation is a fact that remains hidden in plain sight. It is axiomatic - everyone says it and believes it, but few understand anything at all about the human factors in innovation"


• "It is the pivotal role of people as innovation carriers - their networks, collaborations, knowledge flows, interactions and tacit knowledge - and how innovation itself is a potent competitive force that drives productivity"


• "People who innovate together capitalise on their tacit knowledge and informal know-how and on past strategic investments to "navigate the white-water risks" of innovation more successfully than their competitors."


• "It is tacit knowledge, accumulated experience and learning by doing result in a highly valuable intangible asset that boosts the innovation odds"


• "(It is people who) form a community of practice with a clear intangible asset value in the form of intellectual capital and human capital"


• "(People rely) on long term and sustained investments in strategic capacity-building and continuity of interpersonal innovation networks and gains in value by sharing and usage".

Where I do feel Narelle Kennedy nicely sums up is a much needed re-think for innovation for it to really work and be valued for what it can truly offer comes from this statement:


"drawing on knowledge and creativity to add value in products and processes is an expansive view of innovation - new things or ways of working; knowledge and creativity; add value; products and processes - it is a dynamic view"


Everything else today that does not place people in the centre of the innovation equation offers a dangerous misconception about innovation and why it should work. It is our people that make it happen and we need to make innovation the social process it needs to be.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'What is the most dangerous current misconception in innovation?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

---

Paul Hobcraft runs Agility Innovation, an advisory business that stimulates sound innovation practice, researches topics that relate to innovation for the future, as well as aligning innovation to organizations core capabilities.

Arguing for Innovation - Patrick Lencioni

by Andrea Meyer

Point: Teams that create the best innovations know how to disagree about ideas without interpreting the disagreement as a personal affront.

Story: "I feel good when I see that engineering, advertising and manufacturing are really surfacing and talking about their differences," said the VP of Technology at a successful $100 million firm. "It's my job to keep the dialectic alive."

When we see companies moving swiftly, anticipating changes in the marketplace and developing new products or services to meet the change, we're tempted to think of the company as moving in harmonious agreement toward that new product or service.

But the surprising fact is that companies that innovate the fastest are actually those that invite debate over ideas. It's not a destructive conflict, but an airing of different views on a topic. Whereas conflict based on personality differences is destructive, healthy conflict focuses on refining a proposed idea. Healthy conflict gets a team out of group-think. It tests and challenges assumptions. Team members share different points of view. As Patrick Lencioni, speaking at the 2009 World Business Forum said, "productive debate over issues is good for a team." Disagreeing on issues make things uncomfortable but it builds clarity. "If you don't have conflict on a team, you don't get commitment," Lencioni said. "If people don't weigh in, they won't buy in." When team members challenge assumptions and point out the flaws of an idea, they improve the idea; the end result is a more robust idea.

To ensure that the conflict stays at the level of idea, not personal attack, Lencioni advises using a team assessment. Using an instrument like Myers-Briggs, team members learn their own communication styles and the styles of others. Knowing each other's personality style helps avoid personal conflict. If you know that Joe is generally quiet or that Jane always bulldozes in, you're less likely to take offense at what is actually that person's communication style.

Action:

• Don't suppress or circumvent conflict - the best ideas are forged during the "working out" of such conflicts.


• Give the team an assessment tool like Myers-Briggs to help member understand each other's styles communication styles, strengths and weaknesses


• Encourage healthy debate. Peter Drucker recounted how Alfred P. Sloan, legendary CEO of GM, handled this:

"Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here," Sloan said. After everyone around the table nodded affirmatively, Sloan continued: "Then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about."

---

Author of more than 450 company case studies and contributor to 28 books, Andrea Meyer writes & ghostwrites about innovation, IT and strategy for clients like MIT, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., and Forrester Research. Follow her at www.workingknowledge.com/blog and twitter.com/AndreaMeyer.

How many years of experience do you have?

by Mike Brown

Several years ago, an HR professional passed along a piece of wisdom warranting consideration by anyone who works: Lots of people claim twenty years experience, when what they really have is one year of experience, twenty times over.

Since that conversation, I've used her statement to gauge my career:

• What new skills, capabilities, and accomplishments have I demonstrated in the past year?


• Based on near term potential, what opportunities exist to gain new experience in the coming year?


• What can I do specifically this year to increase the likelihood I'll be developing additional valuable skills?

Ask yourself those same questions. If it looks like you've posted several years of the same experience, you owe it to yourself to take deliberate steps and correct the situation. Potential solutions?

• Work to redesign your job - formally or informally


• Step forward for new and different work assignments


• Figure out ways you'll increase your learning


• Volunteer for associations and specific roles to help grow your experience

If you haven't done this self-assessment, do it now and get to work making sure your next twelve months are materially new and different.

---

Mike Brown is an award-winning marketer and strategist with extensive experience in research, strategy, branding, and sponsorship marketing. He's a frequent keynote presenter on innovation and authors Brainzooming!

Funny Things That Humans Do

by Kevin Roberts

Biologically speaking, humans are a remarkable, and quirky, species. The New Scientist magazine has published a list of the odd things we do everyday that don't make a lot of sense. With all the scientific advancement, you'd think we know why we do the funny things we do. But why do we create art, or dream, or pick our noses?

Here a list from the magazine of our quirky traits and why they think we do them:

1. Blushing: some think it may help diffuse confrontation or foster intimacy by revealing weakness.


2. Laughter: a 10-year study confounded our reasons for laughing, saying that more laughter is produced by banal comments than jokes.


3. Kissing: not all human societies do it. Theorists say it's associated with memories of breastfeeding and that ancient humans weaned their children by feeding them from their mouths, reinforcing a link between sharing saliva and pleasure.


4. Dreaming: recognized to help us process emotions, but why we see such bizarre visions has not been properly explained.


5. Superstition: it makes no evolutionary sense, and it seems beneficial not to dismiss a lion's rustle in the grass as a gust of wind. Religion taps into this vein.


6. Picking your nose: why do a quarter of teenagers pick and ingest 'nasal detritus' on average four times a day? Maybe it boosts the immune system. Yeah, right.


7. Adolescence: no other species undergoes the dramatic, unpredictable teenage years, which John Hughes portrayed so well in his films. Some say it helps our brain reorganize before adulthood or that it allows experimentation before the responsibility of later years.


8. Altruism: giving things away with no certain reward is odd in evolutionary terms. It may help with group bonding or simply give pleasure.


9. Art: painting, dance, sculpture and music, none of it shows one's mating potential. However, it could also be a tool for spreading knowledge or sharing experience.


10. Body hair: fine hair on the body and thick hair on the genitals is the opposite of what occurs in primates. Explanations include its role in radiating scent, providing warmth or even protecting from chafing.

What would you add to this list? I'd have to add: flying with US air carriers.


Image source: ArtThatFits.com

---

Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

People First, Processes Next, Then Ideas

by Stefan Lindegaard

The chief thing you as an innovation leader must realize is that when it comes to making innovation happen, people matter more than ideas.

Take a moment to think about that. Many innovation initiatives fail miserably because their leaders don't understand this simple fact. In fact, it is actually more important to have A-grade people than it is to have a slew of A-grade ideas because A-grade people can take a B-grade idea - or perhaps even a C-grade idea - and turn it into a successful reality. B-grade people, on the other hand, will struggle with even truly great ideas.

So before you get all fired up about generating a ton of ideas, first figure out how you're going to match those ideas to people who can make things happen.

As you start this work, here's another key point to remember: the skills needed to lead and manage a project within the existing core business - where innovation is likely to be incremental and resources plentiful - are significantly different from the skills needed to overcome the challenges and obstacles that greet almost any new business project - where resources may be hard to come by and the innovation involved may be significant or even radical. You need to staff new business projects with people having a mindset and toolbox that match this different challenge.

I recently coached teams working to create new business ideas with a big potential. The managers more or less thought this was business development as usual - as they usually do with core projects - and they did not understand the dynamics of such new business development or innovation projects. Their biggest mistake was that they attached people without passion for the specific challenge to the idea - you need people who have their heart and skin in the game when it comes to developing innovation projects, especially if it has some kind of radical or breakthrough potential.

You also need different people for the different phases of the innovation process. Just as some entrepreneurs are better at running a company at its very early stage and others are better at helping the business scale once the product is launched, so too are there intrapreneurs who are better suited both in terms of mindset and skills to various phases of the innovation process.

Where to Look

Once you accept the importance of finding not only the right ideas but also the right people - your company's potential intrapreneurs - how do you identify these folks? A few possibilities - from the simple to the more complex - include:

1. Look around you

• One simple way to find the people you need is to look for people who persistently follow up on ideas they have previously put forth. You have scores of employees who submit ideas and expect others to deliver on this. Nothing happens in such cases. But if you can find one person who keeps showing passion and persistence about their one idea, you'll be farther ahead than if you have 600 people who each submitted an idea but who don't really have an interest in doing the hard work required to make their idea real. With one persistent and qualified contributor - and a good idea - things can happen fast.


• Look for people who are persistent about their ideas, people who work on their ideas on their own and who perhaps even gather other people to help work on it. If the idea is good and you have this kind of person to drive it, you have something to build on.

2. Internal business plan competition

• A much more formalized way to identify potential intrapreneurs is through internal business plan competitions similar to those held by leading universities. A well-designed competition accomplishes many things. It helps you identify intrapreneurs, moves ideas with real potential forward, helps participants upgrade their intrapreneurial skills and provides a method for matching these A-grade people with good ideas in the future.

3. Intrapreneur-in-residence program

• Why not adopt the entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) practice that venture capital firms use and create your own intrapreneur-in-residence program? The role of an EIR varies, but typically it involves an individual who wants to start a company. Sometimes the entrepreneur has already spent a great deal of time on an idea that the venture company might invest in upon further development or the EIR acts as a 'partner' and helps the venture capitalist evaluate potential deals where the entrepreneur has a particular expertise.


• An EIR might also spend some time with an existing portfolio company to provide his or her functional expertise. In this scenario, the EIR will sometimes enter the company as a full time executive (typically CEO or some 'C' level role) if the company and the executive feel there is a good fit.

Why not use this model to establish an intrapreneur-in-residence program within your company? This could be an adjunct to a business plan competition. Having identified people with intrapreneurial potential in the competition, you can assign them to the role of intrapreneur-in-residence for a set period of time. The key here is to define what role this individual would have; this should be based on what outcomes you'd like to achieve with such a program.

The approach is especially useful when companies work to develop a new platform of business activities that in the early beginning still consists of many small, early stage projects. You wait to see how this specifically talented intrapreneur should be brought into action and until you decide on a full-time executive role in one of the projects the intrapreneur consults on the many projects.

I hope you share my belief that people matter more than ideas. As a follow-up post to this, I will soon look into idea harvesting and filtering strategies and other techniques to make sure the ideas you generate are on target.

---

Stefan Lindegaard is a speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor who focus on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation.

The Golden Rules of Innovation

Like any other core business process there are some 'rules' of innovation management which will maximise the probability of success. These come under what we call "The 6 Ps":

PLANNING - Innovation must be linked to strategy

• Successful leaders link core business processes to their strategic goals and annual business planning targets, and innovation is no exception. Use a product-market matrix to clarify the extent and direction of your innovation. Without a strategic direction you run the risk of coming up with innovations that run counter to your businesses best interests!

PIPELINE - Maximise your sources of ideas

• Once you have linked innovation to strategy you need to generate ideas for performance improvement - but where do your best ideas come from? Ideas come from any part of your organisation; from Open Innovation to internal brainstorming activities. Whatever the source of the idea, you need an effective process to capture, screen, prioritise and resource your ideas.

PROCESS - Ideas to evaluation to execution

• Once exciting new ideas have been generated, there is nothing more frustrating than seeing them 'fall through the cracks' due to poor implementation. A rigorous approach based on good principles of project and management is required; schedule, sequence of activities and stakeholder management and ROI calculation are all key, as is Risk Management.

PEOPLE - Leaders and Champions

• The most important factor in creating an innovative culture is having leaders with ability and commitment to succeed. Managers must understand what innovation is, how to manage it and how to motivate. It must go further than the Board - every department or team should have an Innovation Champion. This role should be seen as a career enhancing opportunity and rewarded accordingly. Pick your best people.

PLATFORM - Technology as the accelerator

• IT systems are not the starting point for implementing an innovation framework, but they are critical enablers. Without an effective web-based innovation tracking system you cannot manage the ideas pipeline and people properly. Look for a solution that manages the overall innovation process from ideas to implementation, and provides key decision makers with the level of visibility and control they need.

PERFORMANCE - Measure, manage, improve

• Innovation is a business process, like any other. As such it has to be managed. Create a structure that monitors the effectiveness of your innovation process. From monthly or weekly meetings through to team rewards, put in a process. Performance management is the oil that makes Innovation Management happen, so take time to set the right Innovation Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Now is the time for western businesses to embrace Innovation Management as a core business process. Link innovation to your business goals, follow the golden rules and overcome the barriers to innovation, and you stand a very good chance of not only surviving the recession but becoming stronger in the process.


Also by Andy Bruce - Innovating Your Way out of a Recession

---

Andy Bruce is widely acclaimed as an authority in 'Innovation Management', the author of "Fast Track to Success - Innovation", and the Director of two specialist innovation companies: SofTools and Project Leaders International.