Leadership for the 21st Century

Collaborative Innovation Leaders

Once upon a time, around the turn of the 12th Century, all of Britain was in turmoil. Hundreds of knights, some lords and some ladies, laid claim to various parts of the British Isles and their main pastime was fighting each other to gain a little more territory and assert a little more of their power.  

Then along came Arthur! He crafted a round table, took Merlin the futurist as his advisor, convinced the knights to sit equally around the table and play nice with each other. He then ordered them to go find and bring back the Holy Grail, an almost-impossible goal. And then they lived happily ever after.

Fast forward to the 21st Century. The scene in many governments, industrial and academic organizations is very similar. People are in their silos and most of their time is spent defending their budgets and/or trying to get more resources from someone else. There is some innovation, but it is primarily constrained by the belief that it’s a zero-sum game. There is some collaboration, but it is mostly about teaming up to beat the other guy to get more market share.

Then along comes Collaborative Innovation! There is plenty of evidence to show that leaders who use Collaborative Innovation as a leadership style are more successful, are more innovative, are more respected and are more followed than those who don’t. But the norm has been quite the opposite and, like the knights, it’s difficult to change what seems to have worked for several centuries, yet now is the time for leaders who are courageous enough to practice the principles of Collaborative Innovation. And those are the leaders who will live happily ever after.

The principles of Collaborative Innovation are actually very simple and well-known. In one sentence, they are: 

Speak from the heart, 

Listen with a welcoming mind, 

Adapt when it’s needed, 

Be curious about everything, 

Love each other, 

Catalyze the energy.  

Almost every leader has read a leadership book that emphasizes one or two of these principles. The magic is in consistently and constantly using all of the principles.

Speaking from the heart sounds easy, but it takes a lot of courage to always speak the truth and always push back on the untruths. Most leaders want straight talk and integrity to be the norms of their teams. But it is so easy to let the half-truths go by, hold back because it will offend someone or play the party line even when you are not convinced it’s the right thing to do. Collaborative Innovation leaders don’t do that and it’s not easy, but it is worth it.

Listening with a welcoming mind sounds like generous listening. It’s more than that. If you really listen with a welcoming mind, you’re not just polite and attentive. That’s only half of the practice. The very important second part is to actually take in what someone is saying, bounce it around in your head and hopefully incorporate a new idea or possibility into your thinking. You can certainly reject it after that, but not before you give it serious consideration. Generous listening opens the door, but listening with a welcoming mind lets the ideas in.

Adapt when it’s needed (and do it quickly). Collaborative Innovation leaders don’t just wait until a change is so obviously needed before they act. They are alert to the signs for necessary change long before it is obviously the way to go. That takes a lot of attention and a constant questioning of, “are we solving the right problem?” One of Einstein’s great principles is to spend more time defining the problem than in solving it. Collaborative Innovation leaders move their teams to solutions as quickly as possible, and they are always open to adapting as quickly as possible if the current approach is not paying off.

Be curious about everything. Whenever you talk, you hear what you know; whenever you listen, you learn something new. Ask questions, keep your people thinking and talking, be curious about them, their backgrounds, their expertise and their ideas. If your team doesn’t bring diverse and unique perspectives to the discussions, add some others to it or use the vast search networks available to you to bring in new ideas. Collaboration will bring new approaches and possibilities to the needed innovations and the broader the collaboration, the greater the new perspectives. Another one of Einstein’s great principles is that difficult problems can’t be solved from the same point of view from which they were framed. Curiosity is the hallmark of innovative leaders and collaboration gets you many more possibilities and opportunities.

Love each other. Yes, use the word “love”. And yes, love your team and let them know you do. You may not like some of your teammate’s beliefs or ideas, but you should love them because your team is your work family. The Collaborative Innovation Leader knows that he or she can only be successful when their team is successful. What mother or father doesn’t want that for the family that they love? What leader would not want that for his or her team? Love ‘em and let ‘em know that you do.

Catalyze the energy. Leaders come in all sizes and shapes. Some are extroverted and full of energy. Some are introverted and seem quite laid back. Yet the leader is only one person on the team. The key is to have high team energy, whether it’s quiet or noisy, most of the time. The Collaborative Innovation leader’s job, whether it comes easy or not, is to catalyze high energy in the team. There are lots of ways to do this and the leader has to use approaches that fit their style. The leader has to sense the energy level of the team and take whatever actions may be necessary to maintain or build a high energy team. Just like any important and challenging task, both innovation and collaboration require lots of energy. The more the team has, the higher the probability of getting to collaboration and innovation.

As you now know, these principles are not mysteries. We all know how to do most of them but often we are not consistent or persistent in applying them. That’s not surprising with everything else leaders are supposed to do, but it is worth practicing. The more a leader can become facile at applying all of the principles consistently with their team, the more successful they will be. The 21st Century will require collaborative leaders and innovation leaders. Those leaders that utilize, interweave and apply all of the practices of collaboration and innovation will gain tremendously from the synergism. Just like Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Collaborative Innovation leaders are the men and women who will create the breakthroughs that will be so necessary in this century.