by John Brooker | Feb 19, 2012 | Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 51 The key role of a creative leader is to inspire others. To inspire others we can express ourselves, alternatively our tacit behaviour may inspire more. “Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation not intimidation” William Arthur Wood (An earthenware manufacturer) Who has quietly inspired you recently? You may have seen a story (click here if you haven’t) about Buster Martin, a man who celebrated his 100th birthday at work, having worked almost every day of his life since the age of ten. There’s an inspiration for others. Or you may have seen the deeply uninspiring leadership debate in the UK Government (Please click here to read it). These and recent events in my life led me to reflect on the whole issue of inspiration. Riding my bike around my favourite lake, letting my mind ramble, I concluded that to inspire others (to encourage people into greater efforts or greater enthusiasm or creativity) is the crux of creative leadership, something which appears to be sadly lacking in much of the world’s political leadership. How might we inspire others? What do you think? It’s not difficult to recognise two ways; one is to be expressive, using inspiring words, (e.g. Henry V to his men at Harfleur courtesy of Shakespeare, , or Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech titled “I Have a Dream”). The other is through behaviour, e.g. the expressive behaviour of the football team captain, inspiring his team by fighting for every ball, his energy infecting others. As I rode I decided that words can only truly inspire if one has...
by John Brooker | Feb 17, 2012 | Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 49 If we consider how change will affect people in detail, we are likely to avoid their resistance… “The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled.” Cicero 55 BC When creating transformation, how might you make it easier for people? Imagine you are roused by the sound of somebody rifling through your dustbin. You tell them politely to “clear off” and they retort that their actions are legal, they are a council official investigating if you have mixed a plastic bottle in with the garden waste. You return to bed, sure that you are having an Orwellian nightmare. Welcome to my local Council’s world. Recently, they informed us that we must now recycle all waste and separate it in to three bins. If we contaminate a bin with the wrong material it could result in a fine of £1000. I empathise with the recycling cause and the reason for the change (the cost and environmental impact of dumping waste) but this was a classic example of poor change management. Three symptoms are: They gave one week’s notice of the change They didn’t gear up to take questions about the change, so the local media gleefully reported complaints from householders who, like my wife, waited forever when telephoning the council The only permissible recyclable food waste bags (sole distributor, the Public Library!) are not available until three weeks after the scheme’s introduction We have found it awkward to implement the recycling mandate. I waste five minutes sorting the rubbish to...
by John Brooker | Feb 16, 2012 | Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 48 We should reward those people who take risks in their career as well as those who take a more conventional route “Do we give the people we hire an enriching mix of experiences?” James A. Christiansen in “Building the Innovative Organisation” Do you encourage people to take on risky projects or job? Do you reward them? Like many people in England, I sat on the edge of my seat on Saturday evening as English players lined up to take penalties in the World Cup match against Portugal. My brain told me they were going to lose but my heart hoped and the adrenaline pumped. Portugal missed and the noise in our house was deafening (my son has a very high pitched scream that would bring down a cruise missile) but England missed three and we were very sad. Whilst out running this morning, I reflected on those penalty takers and wondered if the guys who take the penalties get a bonus for risking the wrath of a sizable part of the English nation. I wondered too if organisations reward adequately those people who take risks in their career. Let’s illustrate this with a couple of examples: a. A manager, after three successful years in his job, is bored and senior management allow him to set up a new department in a field in which he has no experience but lots of enthusiasm and ideas. At his pay review six months later, his boss tells him that “his performance hasn’t quite met objectives so his salary award will be average.” Our manager thinks “I...
by John Brooker | Feb 15, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 47 A blame culture is a fast way to dampen innovation and leads to a “no risk” environment. If we can learn from mistakes rather than seek someone to blame, we will have a much healthier culture … “It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone’s fault. If it was Us, what did that make Me? After all, I’m one of Us. I must be. I’ve certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.” Terry Pratchett, author in “Jingo How can you reduce the impact of a blame culture that stifles innovation? On Tuesday night I attended an Open University MBA Alumni evening. Jo Salter the speaker, was the first woman fast jet pilot in the RAF and she had some entertaining stories about her time in the service. She recounted one tale of inadvertently detonating some explosive charges on her Tornado by accidentally turning a switch the wrong way whilst preoccupied with her checks. To make matters worse, the ground crew were working on the aircraft when they detonated (the charges, not the ground crew). This was a potentially dangerous accident and something that she might easily have covered up (“it’s an unserviceable switch, Chief”) instead of admitting her mistake to the ground crew. However, it is one thing to tell the ground crew, quite another to reveal it to...
by John Brooker | Feb 14, 2012 | Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 46 It is difficult to drive innovation in some organisational cultures but there are ways to achieve it. “If something is too hard to do, then it’s not worth doing. You just stick that guitar in the closet next to your shortwave radio, your karate outfit and your unicycle and we’ll go inside and watch TV.” Matt Groening, cartoonist. The Simpsons How can you make innovation happen in cultures where it struggles to thrive? The Netherlands is very flat. Trust me; I have just spent a few days cycling round the “green heart” of Holland. It is very flat, very windy and a cyclist’s paradise. There are cycle tracks and cycle signposts all over, in towns and country. Where you have to use roads they put large cycle lanes down each side so the cars have to squeeze through in single formation. Everything appears geared (no pun intended) to the cyclist. Everywhere you look there are cycle racks, commuter cycle parks at the station and two storey cycle parks in Amsterdam. All full. Schoolteachers cycle past us, leading groups of children on bikes. Old ladies do their shopping on their bikes. Cycling is part of the culture. Whilst fighting a blustery headwind, I compared the Dutch infrastructure to Britain. Yes, we have spent (charity) money on a national cycle network, which is great if you want a cycling holiday but still leaves dangerous roads if you want to commute or go to the shops. We spend money on cycle lanes too; we have one near our house. It runs for 100 metres down...
by John Brooker | Feb 13, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 45 Warm laughter typically identifies an idea worth exploring and explore you should. “You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.” Lyrics, Bynum and Bowling, sung by Kenny Roger Are you exploring the right ideas in your idea generation sessions? Here is another hotel story, this time from Rwanda, home of many gorilla tribes, where I facilitated a course last week. On Wednesday morning I swam in a lovely pool, the tiles fetchingly specked with white where the blue paint had flaked off. Refreshed, I returned to my room to find the shower running at five drips per minute. Frustrated, I turned to the bath and realised there was no shower attachment but a good head of water in the tap. I hate baths so, stymied, I decided to wash my hair under the tap. In the bath I realised that the tap, sited half a metre from one end of the bath, only extended a couple of centimetres from the bath side. My frustration grew. I shampooed my hair and tried to rinse it by cupping water in my hands and pouring it over, but the water being soft, my hair wouldn’t rinse. Frustration at danger levels, I squashed my head against the bath under the tap and rinsed one side. But to rinse the other I had to contort my body in the short end of the bath. Then I saw my arms and the soles of my feet were covered in blue paint from the pool. I imagined my children seeing me squeezed into one end of the bath, head...
