The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. As I look back over my career leading innovation teams and organizations, I wish someone had sat me down and shared some of the core fundamentals to innovation leadership. These "hacks" are part of my core rules that I attempt to follow. I'm not perfect and still stumble […]

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. As I look back over my career leading innovation teams and organizations, I wish someone had sat me down and shared some of the core fundamentals to innovation leadership.

These “hacks” are part of my core rules that I attempt to follow. I'm not perfect and still stumble but when I look back at the keys to my career, these hacks/actions were key.

5 Innovation Leadership Hacks

#1 – Create A Foundation of Integrity and Transparency: Integrity is foundational to me. Success for an innovation leader depends on trust and that is built on integrity. Without it, you can't convince people to take on the hardest task they've ever done. Recall what you felt when a boss or coworker was dishonest with you. It was hard to trust them — and even harder to follow them.  Don't forget about transparency. Transparency is the “verify” side of integrity. Its what keeps you from going off the rails on the integrity. Hard to be sneaky in the bright light of being transparent. Make integrity and transparency part of your innovation culture.

#2 – Create a Sense of Mission: When you are creating an organization that will need to fight the innovation antibodies, you need to make the task a mission. You need to be able to answer the question, “why will this be the most important thing I've ever done?”. One way to word this mission is to frame it as a BHAG (Bold Harry Audacious Goal). Don't give them the “how” but instead create the mission by defining the “what” and “why”. Leave it to your innovators to innovate.

#3 – Be Clear with the Priorities and Objectives: Make sure to set clear innovation objectives. Innovation is already incredibly hard without the confusion of ambiguous fuzzy objectives. Once the objectives are set, show your team how you will prioritize tasks against achieving the objectives. I personally use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize what's urgent and important. I also have created a personal set of priorities that I use to keep myself on track on what is important. I call it the “5 F's” — faith, family, friends, fitness and finance.

#4: Let Others be the Hero: Don't let your ego stumble your innovation leadership efforts. Innovation is a team sport and therefore any success in because of the team – and in spite of your leadership. We all struggle with this. We would like to think that the success comes from the leader but it doesn't. Share the spotlight. Highlight the work of the team. Your role is to help your team succeed — not to get that next promotion, the next raise — the next bonus. Trust me — that will all come. Don't get distracted.

#5: Hire the Radicals: One of my secrets to the success my teams have had is because of the recruiting and nurturing of radicals. These are the people who others will reject. They challenge the organization to think and act differently. These are the people who will make you uncomfortable as a leader. These radicals require protection as the innovation antibodies will be especially focused on them. Why do I think they are so important? They are the fuel to your innovation efforts.

I'm sure I can come up with more hacks but these are the ones that I consider fundamental when it comes to being an innovation leader.

Are there ones that you've developed over the years? What are they and why?

Show Links:

* Leaders in Innovation: How They’re Creating Cultures of Creativity

During a recent mentoring session with a Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) of a major multi-national company, the executive expressed a private fear. He attributes his past success as "being lucky" .. "being in the right place at the right time". His fear is someone would find out that "he wasn't that good" and this his […]

During a recent mentoring session with a Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) of a major multi-national company, the executive expressed a private fear. He attributes his past success as “being lucky” .. “being in the right place at the right time”. His fear is someone would find out that “he wasn't that good” and this his “fraud” would be reveled. He was suffering from impostor syndrome and it was impacting his ability to innovate.

What is impostor syndrome?

What you may find interesting is that most everyone suffers from impostor syndrome at some point in their lives. I have struggled with it myself.

Those who are working in the innovation and creative roles are more likely to suffer from impostor syndrome. Why? Because innovation and creativity are thought of as “gifts”. They have come to believe the lie that says your creativity is not the result of you but a gift you were given.

Which is bogus.

Creativity is a skill — a skill you can learn — a skill you can practice and a skill you can become proficient at.

But to realize your full creative ability, you need to get over the impostor syndrome. How?

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Here are four (4) steps I used with the executive during the mentoring session:

Step 1: Acknowledge that others see your success: Collect notes, emails, messages, etc that others have sent you congratulating you on your success. Review them and acknowledge that others see you as successful. I have collected all the email people have sent me that were note of acknowledgement, success and of thanks.

Step 2: Practice positive affirmation: Write out a set of daily affirmations that you will then say out loud as you begin each day. Why? It will counteract our natural process of negastive talk. As humans, we use any criticism (from others or of ourselves) to justify why we aren't that good. My creating a set of positive affirmations, we can change the perspective of ourselves.

Step 3: Failure doesn't make you a fake: The best athletes have a high failure rate. Why should you be any different? Failure is a part of the innovation game and should never be viewed as a negative. Failure is proof you are trying. How do you get over them? Share you failures. In Silicon Valley, organizations now host FailCon‘s in an attempt to help people acknowledge that failures are not bad — and to move on. Hold your own personal FailCon.

Step 4: Take action: The impostor syndrome is a concept that cannot survive against action. Go and be creative. Go and create the next great innovation. By stepping out and taking action, you are telling yourself that yes your are creative and that your are not a fraud.

If you let the impostor syndrome go on and not challenge it, it can be debilitating. So challenge it and don't look back.

One final word of advice, when you experience that next piece of criticism about your work, you may fall back into the impostor syndrome. Don't. Criticism is part of the game when it comes to creativity and innovation. Get up and try again — and never give up. The world needs innovators like you to create that next game-changing innovation.

 

Show Notes/Links:

* Is the fear of failure killing your creativity and hindering your success?

* FailCon 

*

I came across a recent article where the Managing Director of Accenture Digital made the bold claim that large companies cannot do innovation. More accurately, Narry Singh said, ".. Corporate innovation does not work." He goes on to claim that innovation at large companies do not work because ".. the firms are too slow to move – […]

I came across a recent article where the Managing Director of Accenture Digital made the bold claim that large companies cannot do innovation. More accurately, Narry Singh said, “.. Corporate innovation does not work.” He goes on to claim that innovation at large companies do not work because “.. the firms are too slow to move – to change their work practices.” Do you think  large companies can be successful at innovation?

His answer to this challenge? Work with start-ups. Sounds like a once-size-fits-all type of strategy.

I flat out disagree.

I created and ran the Innovation Program Office (IPO) at HP for 8 years where that team launched +20 new products across HP's global footprint.

Large companies can be successful at innovation with the right structure, the right culture and an understanding of how to apply to laws of innovation to them.

Here are the first six (6) steps large companies should take to be successful at innovation.

Step 1: Innovation Team Leadership

The innovation team needs a leader and you need to find that person. Some will say that you should go outside. I would encourage you to look internally first. In my experience, you have someone in the organization who can be a great leader. They are just hidden in large organizations.

Step 2: Recruit The Innovation Team

Be on the look out for people to join the team. I look for passion. I can teach the business and technical skills but I cannot teach passion. But not just passion — but passion that is executed upon. Taking recruiting for the innovation team seriously. Its the difference between success and failure.

Step 3: Innovation Governance

Be careful how you setup governance around project approval. Innovation anti-bodies will come out in droves if they think they can control the effort by being part of the approval process. In my current role as a CEO, I use governance as a way to grant approval rather than a way to exert control. For example, every employee no matter your role gets $1,000/year to work on an idea. Each team in the organization can spend up to $50,000/year on idea(s) without needing approval. The innovation leaders can approve work on any idea up to $250,000 without needing leadership/executive approval.

Step 4: Go Outside For Ideas

All organizations big and small need to recognize that they are not the only source for great ideas. Great innovation teams go outside to find ideas that they can use as a spark for new products and services. Some outside sources for ideas include: University research, co-innovation, startup/vc's, ecosystem innovation and government funded grants.

Step 5: Stay Stealth

Once you have your innovation team is up and moving, stay hidden – go stealth. Innovation antibodies can't attack what they don't see. The hardest part of managing a high performing team is to get the team to not talk about the great work they are doing.  Everyone likes to get recognition and credit for the work they do. You can't stay stealth forever — but be deliberate when you crack open the door and let others see what you are doing.

Step 6: Create a New Funding Model For Innovation

Typical company funding model is built around the annual budget cycle.  That's fine for the normal operations of a business but innovation doesn't operate on an annual time frame. To enable innovation, you need to create a funding approach that is not contained to budget approval activities.

Innovation is all about change. The need to change includes you and your career, the organizations you are a part of and even the governments that serve us. This change requires us to be in a constant state of being uncomfortable. This weeks guest on the show is Gretchen McClain. I met Gretchen back in […]

Innovation is all about change. The need to change includes you and your career, the organizations you are a part of and even the governments that serve us. This change requires us to be in a constant state of being uncomfortable.

This weeks guest on the show is Gretchen McClain. I met Gretchen back in 1998 when she was the Chief Director for the International Space Station program for NASA. She started her career as a mechanical engineer, went on to oversea a key project for NASA and then goes on to become a stand-out leader in the commercial industry.

Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

During the show we discussed:

* What inspired her to become an engineer.

* The role of a support network, in her case – parents and siblings, towards her becoming an engineer.

* Her experience in an internship that set the foundation.

* How she get hired at NASA.

* What was it like to land a position where the mission had such global impact.

* Her experience in dealing with government leaders acting as the innovation antibodies.

* The thinking behind inviting other countries to be part of the International Space Station — including Russia and Japan.

* How to deal with silo's to achieve the bigger goal.

* The challenges of transitioning from government to the commercial sector.

* How taking risks (raising your hand and being uncomfortable) is scary but a critical step to career success.

* Asking for help is not a sign of weakness or failure.

* The fear of failure will hold you back.

Three Pieces of Advice to College Students

* Believe in yourself: Empower yourself to take risks and to risk failure. Surround yourself with people who can help you achieve the success you desire. Declare the success you want.

* Lead with a power vision: Create a common/shared inspiration that your teams can support and want to be a part of.

* Stay in the “rookie mode”: Never forget what it was like when you first started your career and never loose the tension. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

About Gretchen McClain:

Gretchen W. McClain is an accomplished business leader who thrives on energizing organizations and building businesses by enhancing innovation and developing exceptional leadership talent. With more than 25 years of global experience in both Fortune 500 corporations and government service, including serving as founding CEO of an S&P 500 global water technology company, Xylem Inc., and NASA’s Chief Director of the International Space Station, McClain brings extensive business, developmental, strategic and technical expertise. Her distinctive leadership approach – focused on helping companies break down internal barriers to identify new ways to create value and integrate technologies – enables organizations to unlock growth and gain critical competitive advantage.

McClain serves as a Board of Director for publicly traded companies: AMETEK, Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation, and Boart Longyear Limited, and a private family owned business, J.M. Huber Corporation and serves as an Advisor to EPIC Ventures. Through her consulting practice, GWMcClain Advisory Services, she provides leadership and business services to executives, frequently working with start-up businesses and private equity firms.

McClain is also a thought leader and speaker on connecting your work to your higher purpose, becoming a stand-out leader,

It's hard to believe that it was 12 years ago when I released the first episode of Killer Innovations in to the wild. Its been a wild ride. What I find especially interesting is how has innovation changed over the last 12 years. The original motivation for the show came from my mentor, Bob Davis. […]

It's hard to believe that it was 12 years ago when I released the first episode of Killer Innovations in to the wild. Its been a wild ride. What I find especially interesting is how has innovation changed over the last 12 years.

The original motivation for the show came from my mentor, Bob Davis. Early in my career, Bob put me through his for a executive boot camp which had me rotate through the organization — sales, marketing, engineering, finance, IT and customer support.

It was that experience that laid the foundation for me to be more than just a creator of products — but to see and understand how an organization and teams come together to achieve success in the innovation game.

Later in my career, I asked Bob how I could pay him back for the impact he had on my career. He laughed. He said that I couldn't pay it back but instead I needed to find ways to pay it forward. Thus the idea for the podcast was born.

Bob also introduced me to Earl Nightingale whose tapes and training materials were part of the “Bob Davis boot camp”. The original podcast were modeled after Earl's monthly audio magazine, Insight. You can listen to some old episodes of Insight on Spotify.

Through the years of the podcast, we've experimented with different formats, segments, topics and guests. We were and are constantly innovating a show about innovation.

How has innovation changed?

Innovation has gone through a lot of changes over the 12 years of the show. Such as:

* In 2005, no one talked about innovation. It wasn't a “thing”. Now days, its the buzzword everyone wants to use.

* When we started, there were few who called themselves “innovation consultants”. In 2017, you can't go to an event/conference and not run into a crowd of innovation consultants.

* Back at the launch, the title “Chief Innovation Officer” was rarely used. Now organizations consider appointing a CINO as a status symbol.

* In the early days, tools to help innovation team succeed where non-existent. Thankfully, we are well supported with great tools from a wide range of vendors.

What does the future role of innovation look like?

As I've said many time, innovation and creativity are a critical skill that everyone should have in order to succeed.

A recent study has predicted that 47% of all jobs are at risk of being eliminated to automation (artificial intelligence/AI, machine learning, robots, etc). This job elimination will start to accelerate around 2020.

Some are under the false impression that their job could never be eliminated. Any job that is based on the knowledge/information economy is at risk including Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers. If you can learn the knoweldge to be successful, so can a robot.

In the future, success will depend on your ability to create “ideas” that others (including AI and the robots) will “do”.

Are you ready to compete and win in the innovation economy?

What's next for the Killer Innovations in Season 13?

With the strong belief that innovation and creativity are a critical skill, I am committed to helping you win in the emerging innovation economy.

How am I going to help you win?

* Podcast/Radio Shows: I hope to still being doing the show for another 20 years. In addition, we've formed The Innovators Network and are bringing together other sh...