FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
October 5, 2006
The Biggest Mind-Flip in Business Today
There is nothing more powerful in business than a truly original idea -- a distinctive point of view that redefines an industry, a breakthrough design that transforms a product category. In an era of hyper-competition and non-stop innovation, the one sustainable form of market leadership is thought leadership -- generating better ideas and making smarter adjustments than the competition.
So where do great ideas come from? The traditional answer is the stuff of entrepreneurial folklore, the creation myth of the creative process. Big ideas come from big thinkers: the eccentric genius, the inspired founder, the visionary CEO. Business history is filled with tales of breakthroughs fueled by unique imagination and individual determination. In this old model of innovation, the leader did the thinking, rank-and-file employees did the executing. If you were in charge, you were the “smartest person in the room.”
But what happens when rivals become so numerous, when markets become so unpredictable, when technologies move so quickly, that no individual leader, no matter how inspired, can possibly think of everything? Then it becomes necessary to invent a new model of innovation. Today, one of the defining responsibilities of leadership is to attract the best ideas from the most people—to master a world in which "nobody is as smart as everybody."
This is, I believe, the most important leadership mind-flip in business today. According to Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, the computer-book publisher, and an evangelist for open-source innovation, creativity is no longer about which companies have the most visionary executives, but who has the most compelling "architecture of participation." That is, which companies make it easy, interesting and rewarding for a wide range of contributors to offer ideas, solve problems and improve products? Ultimately, he argues, the companies that are most likely to dominate their business are the ones most adept at harnessing the collective intelligence of everyone with whom they do business.
Leaders who embrace this new mindset ask different questions of themselves than other leaders. Questions such as: Can I exude personal strength, even charisma, along with intellectual humility? Am I the kind of person with whom other smart people want to work and contribute ideas? Can I conduct myself as openly and transparently as the participants in my project?
Find the right answers to those questions, and you’re likely find yourself at the center of exciting innovations -- many of them from contributors whom you’ve never met.
William C. Taylor co-founded Fast Company. His book Mavericks at Work:
Posted by William C. Taylor at October 5, 2006 12:00 PM | Category: innovation + creativity |
6 Comments
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Please see the usual trend.Mavericks are no doubt there.But normally many people with innovative thnking do not get proper notice.
Many people go unnoticed.
Tim O'Reilly's "Architecture of Innovation" is beyond truism. We practice it at my firm (ThoughtOffice), but that's expected of a company focused on Innovation Tools.
The real heroes?
Look to folks like David McInnis, Founder and CEO of PRWeb, and Danny McCall of TalentSphere.
These are folks who create environments where "not invented here" syndrome has no place in their dialogue.
McInnis has lead the online PR distribution industry since he founded it in 1997. And he didn't own the industry through deep-pocketed VC funds, but through applied business and technology vision. And when he hired a CIO, he didn't hire the guy with the deep degree. He grabbed the person who could quickly find solutions and help PRWeb implement opportunities more elegantly than anyone else. (P.S. Every company in the online PR industry has "innovated" by copying PRWeb in some fashion. You'd think those other firms, those with deep pockets, would have won. Not so. Visionary innovation runs much deeper, faster and better than money can buy).
Danny hired a team that could think with their hearts as well as their heads. TalentSphere taps the greatness inside of potential, current and past employees, and creates an optimization process that improves performance. How? By focusing on people. Provide your team with the tools to find and utilize their greatest talents, get a high-performing company.
That's unlimited real-time innovation.
The real question: how do you rid companies founded by creative entrepreneurs of "not invented by ME" syndrome?
Give everyone the opportunity to innovate at the highest levels, freely, and enjoy the process. Give 'em credit for their contributions. Give them the tools to drive process, and you'll find profit. We call it Fun, Fame & Fortune. And I assure you, it works.
Best of Success to you,
Mark Alan Effinger
ThoughtOffice
Tim O'Reilly's "Architecture of Innovation" is beyond truism. We practice it at my firm (ThoughtOffice), but that's expected of a company focused on Innovation Tools.
The real heroes?
Look to folks like David McInnis, Founder and CEO of PRWeb, and Danny McCall of TalentSphere.
These are folks who create environments where "not invented here" syndrome has no place in their dialogue.
McInnis has lead the online PR distribution industry since he founded it in 1997. And he didn't own the industry through deep-pocketed VC funds, but through applied business and technology vision. And when he hired a CIO, he didn't hire the guy with the deep degree. He grabbed the person who could quickly find solutions and help PRWeb implement opportunities more elegantly than anyone else. (P.S. Every company in the online PR industry has "innovated" by copying PRWeb in some fashion. You'd think those other firms, those with deep pockets, would have won. Not so. Visionary innovation runs much deeper, faster and better than money can buy).
Danny hired a team that could think with their hearts as well as their heads. TalentSphere taps the greatness inside of potential, current and past employees, and creates an optimization process that improves performance. How? By focusing on people. Provide your team with the tools to find and utilize their greatest talents, get a high-performing company.
That's unlimited real-time innovation.
The real question: how do you rid companies founded by creative entrepreneurs of "not invented by ME" syndrome?
Give everyone the opportunity to innovate at the highest levels, freely, and enjoy the process. Give 'em credit for their contributions. Give them the tools to drive process, and you'll find profit. We call it Fun, Fame & Fortune. And I assure you, it works.
Best of Success to you,
Mark Alan Effinger
ThoughtOffice
Tim O'Reilly's "Architecture of Innovation" is beyond truism. We practice it at my firm (ThoughtOffice), but that's expected of a company focused on Innovation Tools.
The real heroes?
Look to folks like David McInnis, Founder and CEO of PRWeb, and Danny McCall of TalentSphere.
These are folks who create environments where "not invented here" syndrome has no place in their dialogue.
McInnis has lead the online PR distribution industry since he founded it in 1997. And he didn't own the industry through deep-pocketed VC funds, but through applied business and technology vision. And when he hired a CIO, he didn't hire the guy with the deep degree. He grabbed the person who could quickly find solutions and help PRWeb implement opportunities more elegantly than anyone else. (P.S. Every company in the online PR industry has "innovated" by copying PRWeb in some fashion. You'd think those other firms, those with deep pockets, would have won. Not so. Visionary innovation runs much deeper, faster and better than money can buy).
Danny hired a team that could think with their hearts as well as their heads. TalentSphere taps the greatness inside of potential, current and past employees, and creates an optimization process that improves performance. How? By focusing on people. Provide your team with the tools to find and utilize their greatest talents, get a high-performing company.
That's innovation in real-life.
The real question now: how do you rid companies founded by creative entrepreneurs of "not invented by ME" syndrome?
Give everyone the opportunity to innovate at the highest levels, freely, and enjoy the process. Give 'em credit for their contributions. Give them the tools to drive process, and you'll find profit. We call it Fun, Fame & Fortune. And I assure you, it works.
Best of Success to you,
Mark Alan Effinger
ThoughtOffice.com
Collective intelligence is a cool concept, though it's expensive and difficult to manage. It's great in theory of course, and perhaps essential in some fields - we're increasing the richness and depth of the experience base from which we can draw insights, recognise patterns and transfer competencies. Leaders move from being the idea generators to the concept developers and transfer facilitators... in a sense up the 'value chain' of idea development and generation.