LDRLB | Archive | August 2012

The Power of Surprise

Soren Kaplan — August 29, 2012

Why do most leaders avoid uncertainty? Why do organizations hate surprises? Why is predictability and control the unquestioned holy grail of management?

Every management book on Amazon with the word “surprise” in its title is about how to prevent the phenomenon. But could we be overlooking an essential and critical ingredient of breakthrough leadership and innovation? Unpredictable events and surprises – both positive and negative – are a natural part of life. So why are we resisting them in business?

In my recent TEDxTalk, I discussed how anyone can use “The Power of Surprise” to break through in whatever they’re doing – and sheds light on this somewhat esoteric concept in a simple, practical way through examples from business, nonprofits and education. Take a look, you just might find a surprise.

Soren Kaplan is the author of Leapfrogging and a speaker, educator, and managing principal at InnovationPoint, where he teaches leaders how to create business breakthroughs.

In Innovation innovation, kaplan, leapfrogging, surprise

Good Leaders Tell Good Stories

David Burkus — August 27, 2012

There’s a growing body or research examining the effects of corporate stories and storytelling. The implications seem to be that a part of effective, charismatic leadership involves telling a story that connects with followers and advances a shared vision. To that end, Paul Smith has recently put together a solid guide to telling better stories in the corporate environment. Smith’s book Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire offers a peak into companies from a variety of sectors who are using storytelling to their advantage.

Besides touching on nearly 20 years of research and literature on storytelling, Smith makes his point more personal by telling stories (ironic I know) from senior executives and multinational companies like Disney, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart to demonstrate how they’re using storytelling to inspire innovation and empower their people.

Storytelling is an ancient art. We’re hard-wired to receive information through the stories we tell to each other. To that end, Lead with a Story offers a useable formula and great examples for structuring the stories you want need to tell.

In Leadership book review, burkus, Leadership, storytelling

Why Free Time Frees Innovation

David Burkus — August 24, 2012

Business books and management gurus have long sung the praises of giving employees free time to tinker on projects they initiate. The idea seems to have begun with 3M, who allowed employees to spend 15 percent for their workweek focused on projects that were unrelated to their normal work. More recently, Google upped the percentage to 20 percent of the workweek. Many other tech companies seem to have followed suit, some changing the formula a bit to establish dedicated “hack weeks” or “FedEx days” where all employees shed their normal projects and tinker with ideas that are inherently interesting to them. For companies that use such programs, innovation seems to increase. 3M points to legendary products such as the Post-It note as proof of its effectiveness. Google can hold up Gmail, Google News and AdSense as vital products birthed in 20 percent time.

The programs work. But why?

Despite their public successes, few efforts have been made to study these programs and uncover the reasoning behind why they work. To that end, my friend and co-author Gary Oster and I have recently published a paper exploring just that. Our paper explores what we call “Noncommissioned Work” (a term borrowed from Daniel Pink) and attempts to offer an explanation for why such programs yield innovative ideas.

We offer three propositions:

Noncommissioned work offers autonomy. Evidence indicates that employees are more motivated to work on projects and more creative in their work when they’re given freedom to set their schedule and structure their tasks. During periods of noncommissioned work, individuals are free to do just that.

Noncommissioned work reduces incentive salience. While a final conclusion is up for debate, there is a strong line of research supporting the concept that extrinsic rewards such as bonuses and prizes actually decrease the creativity of the intended individual. During periods of noncommissioned work, incentive compensation becomes an afterthought since the project at hand isn’t sanctioned by the organization (at least not yet).

Noncommissioned work increases risk-taking. At its heart, innovation requires risk-taking. Studies of employees in R&D labs reveal that those with more willingness to take risks experience greater creative gains. Periods of noncommissioned work offer a safe environment for risk-taking by employees that frees them to fully exercise their creativity.

Noncommissioned work appears to be a viable option for many leaders looking to enhance the creativity of their people without making large-scale changes to their organizations. They can begin experimenting with what we label “transient noncommissioned work,” offering employees a certain day or week on the calendar to tinker and be creative. If these experiments prove fruitful, they can consider expanding to “persistent noncommissioned work,” where employees have freedom over a portion of their calendar.

Noncommissioned work programs work. Perhaps now we know why.

Read the full paper in the Journal of Strategic Leadership.

David Burkus is the editor of LDRLB. He writes, speaks, and serves on the faculty of management at Oral Roberts University’s College of Business.

In Innovation 20 percent time, 3M, Atlassian, autonomy, burkus, creativity, Google, innovation, risk, willingness to take risks

At LDRLB (@LDRLB), we draw much of our content from the research and writings of the world’s top professors. Most are from business schools, others from a variety of fields relevant to leading organizations. These professors consistently build upon the body of knowledge and further the goal of evidence-based leadership. We thought it’d be worthwhile to share with you the people we learn the most from. Below you’ll find who we feel are the top professors on twitter, broken into lists around leadership, innovation, and strategy.

Leadership

Bill George	Professor, Harvard Business School	@Bill_George
Gianpiero Petriglieri	Associate Professor, INSEAD	@gpetriglieri
Bret Simmons	Professor, University of Nevada-Reno	@drbret
Karl Moore	Professor, McGill University	@profkjmoore
Gautum Mukunda	Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School	@gmukunda
Lukas Neville	Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba	@lukasneville
Michael Roberto	Professor, Bryant University	@michaelaroberto
Stew Freidman	Professor, The Wharton School	@stewfriedman
David Thomas	Dean, Georgetown University	@ProfThomas
Morten Hansen	Professor, UC Berkeley and INSEAD	@GreatbyChoiceMH
Rob Kaplen	Professor, Harvard Business School	@RobSKaplan
Francesca Gino	Associate Professor, Harvard Business School	@francescagino
Jeffrey Pfeffer	Professor, Stanford University	@JeffreyPfeffer
Schon Beechler	Professor, INSEAD	@ProfBeechler
Michael Tushman	Professor, Harvard Business School	@MichaelTushman

Innovation

Richard Florida	Professor, Rotman School of Management	@Richard_Florida
Clayton Christensen	Professor, Harvard Business School	@claychristensen
Alf Rehn	Chair, Åbo Akademi University	@alfrehn
Karim R. Lakhani	Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School	@klakhani
Bob Sutton	Professor, Stanford University	@work_matters
Tina Selig	Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program	@tseelig
Tim Kastelle	Professor, University of Queensland	@timkastelle
Gary Hamel	Professor, London Business School	@profhamel
Diego Rodriguez	Professor, Stanford d.school	@metacool
Teresa Amabile	Professor, Harvard Business School	@TeresaAmabile
Philip Auesrwald	Associate Professor, George Mason University	@auerswald
Tom Eisenmann	Professor, Harvard Business School	@teisenmann
Max McKeown	Researcher, Warwick Business School	@maxmckeown
Brad Staats	Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill	@brstaats
Dave Owens	Professor, Vanderbilt University	@daveowens

Strategy

Michael Porter	Professor, Harvard Business School	@MichaelEPorter
Rita McGrath	Professor, Columbia Business School	@rgmcgrath
Sheen S. Levine	Professor, Columbia	@sslevine
Cynthia Montgomery	Professor, Harvard Business School	@leadstrategy
Mislek Piskorski	Associate Professor, Harvard Business School	@mpiskorski
Kevin Boudreau	Professor, Londen Business School	@KevinJBoudreau
Freek Vermeulen	Associate Professor, Londen Business School	@Freek_Vermeulen
Teppo Felin	Associate Professor, Brigham Young University	@teppofelin
Dan Elfenbein	Professor, Washington University in St. Louis	@OrgStratProf
Sydney Finkelstein	Professor, Tuck School of Management	@sydfinkelstein
Peter G. Klein	Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia	@petergklein
Michael Ryall	Professor, Rotman School of Management	@MDRyall
Laurence Capron	Professor, INSEAD	@LaurenceCapron
Frank T. Rothaermel	Professor, Georgia Tech University	@ftrStrategy
Fabrizio Ferrao	Professor, IESE Business School	@f_ferrao

If you’re wondering about order, we opted to use Klout scores in lieu of follower count in the hopes that it rewarded professors who focus their influence on smaller fields as much as the top thought leaders. This list was compiled primarily by another professor, David Burkus (@davidburkus).

Three Ways to Make Your Leadership Relevant

David Burkus — August 20, 2012

This is a guest post from John Baldoni. John is an internationally recognized leadership consultant, coach, author and speaker. This excerpt is adapted from his newest book, The Leader’s Pocket Guide.

PURPOSEFUL LEADERSHIP DEPENDS UPON RELEVANCY and connection. Leaders can consider three factors: context, circumstance, and consequence.

Leaders need to be flexible and apply a leadership style that fits the situation, as posited by author and organizational theorist Paul Hersey. Here are some guidelines:

1. Figure out the context. Executives need to know the backstory, that is, what happened before they arrived on the scene. Sometimes it requires digging and asking lots of questions. For leaders of long tenure, knowing the context is second nature. They live it every day. Knowledge of the situation and its context sets the stage for what the leader does next.

2. Circumstance-the current situation-determines your degree of involvement. Crisis calls for bold actions. For example, if a new marketing program fails to generate sufficient awareness, the chief marketing officer should handle the situation. If multiple marketing initiatives fail, the CEO needs to find a solution quickly. He or she should take charge and find a new senior marketing executive.

3. Consequence is what happens when a leader acts. With apologies to Sir Isaac Newton, not every leadership action has an equal and opposite reaction. Very often a CEO decision is designed to turn the enterprise around or keep it on course; a frontline manager’s decisions are the equivalent of trimming the sails. A CEO who makes too many decisions not only creates lots of activity, specifically churn; he also determines the authority of other senior leaders.

Considering context, circumstance, and consequence is a good way to determine how involved to be and what style to employ.

In Leadership baldoni, context, Leadership, purpose

Archives For August 2012