What's the relationship between creativity, innovation, change, and leadership?

Creativity: People don't stare at the unknown and wait for the 'aha' moment. They create new things out of old, and turn old things to new activities, services, or products.

Innovation: People apply their creativity as solutions to daily problems. Innovation is not just a step up, but creating new out of nothing.

Change:  People have pragmatic expectations of changes in the organization and are willing to join into uncertainty which is a demonstration of commitment. 

Leadership: The change process is muddier than we all imagine it to be. Even muddier in the layered context of the pandemic. Leadership without doubt, provides a good lever to buffer against resistance and cooptation. 

If your organization is struggling to bring about a transition to better in the pandemic context, keep reiterating and don't stop until you get the culture right.

Without fostering the right culture, creativity, innovation, change, and leadership will remain as idealized concepts. instead of transplanting new values, consider what shared unconscious beliefs are existing and double-dip on it.

Hearts and minds follow emotions, not logic.

There's no paucity of resources in growing under challenging times. Growing, though runs the risk of getting into all sorts of complications.

On-purpose organizations should aim for simplicity, not just in operations but in strategy.

The moment the strategy gets lost in the minds of stakeholders in the organization, confusion and frustration set in. 

I was working for a non-profit organization a few years ago where a grand vision was unveiled only to be reduced to a few doable 'strategic chunks' at the end of the honeymoon phase between the Board and the new managers. No resources and incentives were set in place to fuel the commitment to action. It became one of those 'false starts.'

High on good will, the leaders lost it by failing to bring down the vision into its elegant simplicity, which means showing the first key steps to making it real in the lives of customers and seeing progress through. 

Simplicity is far from failure work and simplistic notions. By working on simplicity, organizations with scarce resources and under-pressure to provide value for less can support their mission with greater clarity and effectiveness. 

People are not necessarily afraid of change. It’s the journey that gets to them, most of the time.

Show them that the future is that good that incentives for switching outweigh the perceived or imagined problems.
 

The talk about sustainability has often been centered around the triple-bottom lines: economic, environmental, and social gains.

For once, let's veer away from this construct to look at what we are doing in training, building up, and strengthening the future of the on-purpose sectors we currently inhabit.

We need to have more people working on the pipeline--- ensuring that a new provocative, insightful, and well-intuited individuals get to the next level of leadership. We have the tools in our disposal to make it happen. With the trifecta of design, data, and technology, the potentials are vast and almost limitless. We have sent humans on the moon. We can do better now than in the last 50 years. 

We need our retirees to act as mentors and guides to show us what we could be working on, lessons learned, and things we can avoid if we are paying more attention to what matters most.

We need more people connecting, bridging, and sense-making our present, immediate future, and long-term futures. This means that there's enough analytics, curation, and regurgitation by everyone for everyone. Yet, we remain lost and sometimes confused, as to where these advances are leading us to and how we can invest in critical infrastructures to bring us to our desired destination. 

For me, sustainable futures is all about building the next generation which is you and me and everyone that is concerned about our societies, our planet, and our economies. We can't rest on our leaders, present and future to tell us what to do and lead us boldly. Strong followership will be growing, enabling leaders to take on a symbolic and muted roles instead. 

We are the strong followers.
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Politicians travelling during the holidays set very bad examples. If they can't heed the directive, then how are we, ordinary mortals can believe these leaders every time they open their mouths and make another directive. 

If your organization says something else, but no one believes it, you are inviting a cognitive dissonance. What you do is far more effective than what is said in the memos or in talk in the cafeteria halls and weekly meetings.

I was once in a meeting where the supervisor once said, "Be thankful that you have a job." This was after hearing what we think about the current state of uncertainty gripping the whole organization in terms of budget cuts, staff lay-offs, and internal conflicts.

​It's like the blind leading the blind. You can't get any assurance or clarity from someone who doesn't and couldn't lead. 

Well, she wasn't able to stay for another term. 

In my work with leaders and executives with on-purpose organizations, I noticed these three issues that arise when leaders do not let go of the need to be 'in control.'


Delegate with power
A leader of a group of leaders must delegate with power or else, giving free rein without the full authority to get the job done becomes a sticking point later on. This is a case of artificial empowerment which benefits no one. 

Those who get 'volun-told' need not be afraid to ask for the full authority, not a training opportunity or a practice assignment. 

Are you still in control while delegating the work to others? Give them the power and authority, give them the broad strokes, and let them create the outcomes that you seek. 


Detach from outcomes
Senior leaders have the habit of putting their heads on their team members' plans and targets and watching them over their shoulders.

Let go of the need to control their outcomes for them. I once had a boss who had to be in one of my meetings to ensure that our objectives are met and the he gets to see things through. Waste of manager time! If you can't ensure, you failed in training, providing capacity, and setting the high tones.  When I see directors sitting in one their staff's presentations or meetings, applying primitive managerial style is insufferable! 

When they face problems, get them back again to their objectives and make it a teaching moment.

 
Honing your own leadership style 

Nowadays, with all the bad content that you need to copy the power nap of so and so, and the 5am work style of this and that is atrocious. 

People are beginning to be confused about leadership style and personal habits. Leadership style is your own sense of leading others, based on your values and strategies at it relates to the needs of your followers and organizational goals. Personal habits are not something that can be applicable to everyone. Take it with a grain of salt. 

Leaders are made, not born. You can be in control of something but not all things in the organization. Learn to trust your team and begin to see real and positive change in the workplace. 

I was walking in the snow with my daughter today. 

She's leading and would want  me to follow her tracks.

When I'm feeling tired, she asked me to push on.

When we get to the top overlooking the yard, she asked me not to look down, whatever happens, or else I might slip.

If I feel am slipping or getting stuck, she would hold my hand and steady me.

She asked me to follow the tracks closely and not to deviate.

She also reminded me not to make my own tracks because she's the bus driver.

She also reassured me that she knows where she's going and that I need to trust her.

When she's doing the loop-to-loop, that means that I have to just go along with the loop.

When it's time to go home, she will lead me home.

She tells me to enjoy and have an adventure. 

​If you have a firm and confident leader like that, there's nothing you can't do!

Cheers!