In the innovation space, too much focus is placed on methods, not enough on mindset. Tools are the methodologies, mindset is the habits. One of my colleagues recently told me he’s learned about mentality, not processes, in the time he’s spent working with me. He’s right! I can give you the methods, but they don’t matter if you don’t have the habits.
To inspire and drive innovation business leaders and entrepreneurs need to be, not just collaborative, radically collaborative. But before you embrace “radical collaboration”, you have to understand and put in practice habits that lead towards it.
Expertise is valuable. To be successful, you want to be seen as an expert. Being an experts validates your worth, and provides a sense of certainty. In terms of innovation, expertise leads to incrementalism; or sustaining innovation.
“I give you permission to slap me in the face if I’m micromanaging you.” I told my colleagues recently.
in Innovation, Leadership
I saw this tweet from Whitney Johnson on how she handles failure and made me reflect on how I’ve evolved. Below is my answer:
in Innovation, Leadership
Innovation is a code word for leadership. Yet innovation is not business as usual; it requires a different mindset: a growth mindset. You have to be comfortable with ambiguity, putting yourself and your organization un uncomfortable positions, having a point of view and pursuing it with conviction.
One of Amazon’s core values is customer obsession, it’s a keystone that holds together everything they do. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, 2017 Letter to Amazon Shareholders outlines four key principles that he believes are critical to keeping his company, any company, relevant, competitive and dominant.