Twice a week Adam Bryant interviews CEOs from a myriad of companies, large and small, across the industry spectrum, for his Corner Office feature in The New York Times.

As with anyone who spends time talking with CEOs about staying competitive the constant theme he’s found boils down to one word—culture.

Now Bryant has distilled the knowledge and insights gathered from hundreds of interviews into a new book, “Quick and Nimble: Lessons From Leading C.E.O.’s on How to Create a Culture of Innovation”

The six key tenets identified should come as no surprise,

• A Simple Plan
• Rules of the Road (corporate values)
• A Little Respect (embedded in the culture)
• It’s About the Team (performance and accountability, trustworthiness and dependability)
• Adult Conversations (frank discussions to work through disagreements and misunderstandings)
• The Hazards of Email (ease of misunderstanding)

Not new and certainly not rocket science, but worth reading (at the very least read the article).

Good information to help you improve nimbleness and innovation in your own organization.

And a great gift if you happen to work for bosses who don’t see the point.

Flickr image credit: Joanna Lee Osborn

Lot’s of talk about creating a culture of innovation, but often that’s all it is—talk.

The most important factor in a culture of innovation is the ability to fail.

India’s Tata is a leader in creating a culture of innovation and Sunil Sinha, an executive in Tata Quality Management Services, discussed its approach recently at Harvard.

Sinha described a culture of innovation at Tata that includes employee-awards programs for both successful and unsuccessful ideas. What’s important, Sinha said, is that employees feel comfortable in bringing forward ideas, even ones that don’t pan out, and that they feel they work in a place that values fresh thinking.

The innovation culture has produced several notable products, he said. One is a water purification system that costs just $20 and produces enough water to keep a family of four supplied for more than a year.

Not only that, but in 6 short years, from the time its CEO publicly mentioned the idea in 2003, Tata Motors produced a $2500 car for sale in developing worlds; it’s a small, two-cylinder car that gets 55 miles per gallon and meets all of India’s vehicle emissions and regulatory requirements.

Done in spite of all the global pundits who said it couldn’t be done.

I speak with managers all the time who talk about their desire to enable a culture of innovation and when it doesn’t happen, whether through laziness, benign neglect, or more active negativity, take no responsibility and place the blame squarely on their people.

A culture of innovation starts not in talk or even actions, but in MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and its willingness to change.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/ and Tata Motors

Innovation is crucial to success, especially in today’s economy, and diversity is crucial to innovation.

But diversity refers to much more than race, creed, or gender.

Juicing creativity and innovation requires a strong diversity of both thought and skills within your organization—homogenizing your workforce dilutes the juice.

Thought Diversity

True mental diversity is about MAP and mental function, not just a race and gender. I’ve known managers whose organizations were mini-UNs with equal numbers of males and females, but they might as well have been cloned from the boss, their thinking was so identical.

There are three main ways to homogenize thought

• Hire all the same types, most often “people like me;”
• scorn/belittle/reject anything that doesn’t conform with your own MAP/ideas/approach; or
• allow others in your organization to do the first two.

As your organization grows more diverse you want to celebrate controversy, encourage disagreement, and enable discussions—all within a civilized framework that debates the merits of ideas, not individuals.

Skills Diversity

Skills homogeny is just as detrimental to innovation. As with MAP, people tend to gravitate towards people whose skills are within their or their group’s comfort zone; worse, managers may be unaware of the full range of skills available within the group.

The fix for skills homogeny is far simpler, since it requires awareness and mechanical action, rather than changes in MAP.

Use this three-step process to better identify and access your group’s skills

1. Skills survey: Have each person in your group create a complete list of all their skills, not just the ones they’re using in their current job, but also those from previous positions and companies, as well as skills they’ve developed outside of work. Have them rate each skill 1-5 (five being the strongest) based on their expertise. (I’ve yet to see a manager do this who wasn’t surprised at the results.)
2. Skills set matrix: Using a spreadsheet, create a matrix of the information.
3. Repeat and update: go through the entire process and update the matrix twice a year; add every new hire’s info immediately.

Be sure to consult the matrix every time you develop a new position or replace someone, whether through promotion or attrition.

Knowing all this gives you tremendous staffing flexibility. For example, you may have someone in your group who’s developed the needed skills on a new project and would be thrilled to move to the it. Then, using the matrix, you can design the new position to fill other skill gaps, both current and future.

The end result is a well-rounded organization of people inspired to learn new skills, because they know that they won’t be relegated to a rut just because “that’s what they’ve always done.”

Viva La Difference is the rallying cry for the anti-homogenizing movement.

(For more on how to diversify click here, here and here.)

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Image credit: ZedBee|Zoë Power on flickr

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

I was reminded of this post Friday when KG shared some thoughts about leadership. The standard saying, “there is no ‘I’ in team” is all too true, but changing a lowercase ‘i’ to uppercase can often alter a word’s meaning substantially.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

If you truly want a culture of innovation, then you also need to create a culture of leadership.

Last week I commented that if the ‘i’ in leadership is capitalized it changes leadership to leadershIt.

Whereas leadership can be a great motivator, leadershIt is a guaranteed demotivator.

Visions and other leadership functions done with an eye to self-aggrandizement aren’t likely to resonate whether done by positional leaders, leaders in the instance or those who aspire.

Last year I wrote

Because initiative and leadership are synonymous, leadership needs to be pushed out of the corner office and spread throughout the organization; doing so will encourage growth, creativity and innovation.

If leadership is the fertilizer then culture is the water, without which nothing will grow, and people are the seeds from which ideas come.

By spreading leadership evenly through out your company garden and watering regularly, leaving no unfertilized or dry patches in which a seed will be stunted or die, you assure yourself a bountiful harvest that will be the envy of your competitors.

Two follow-up posts have more on this topic here and here.

This isn’t a new idea, just a new way of phrasing it; Lao Tzu said it best 4000 years ago, “To lead the people walk behind them.”

The one thing that remains constant in all these discussions is that you always have a choice—this time it’s between leadership and leadershIt.

Image credit; Martin Cathrae

Remember Blackberry, better known as the crackberry?

Remember the almost universal predictions of its imminent demise last year?

To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of its death were greatly exaggerated,” and it’s moving towards turning around.

What changed?

The boss and the culture.

When John Chen took over as CEO his workforce was demoralized—no positive news and a constant focus on the problems the company was facing.

And that’s what Chen set out to change.

Instead of a culture focused on challenges, AKA, also known as problems, he crafted a culture of innovation by doing the following (read his post for the details).

• Create a Problem-Solving Culture
• Maintain the Sense of Urgency (As discussed last week.)
• Take Care of your Company like it’s your Home
• Know Thyself
• Empower Employees to Take Risks
• Everyone has a Role

Although Chen is focused on turnarounds, his approach and execution is applicable to any boss who wants a culture that attracts good people, motivates them to become great and retains them because they believe in the vision, as well as enhancing innovation and juicing initiative.

As Chen says at the end of his post,

All in all, a turnaround culture is one that enables everyone to pitch in to get things done. That requires focusing on a goal, and empowering employees to take risks and go the extra mile.

That’s how you win.

Actually, that’s how you win—period.

Anywhere.

Flickr image credit: San Churchill

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

In an interview Robert Herjavec said,

If you can’t inspire the people around you, you are going to fail. If you can’t inspire the people around you, you should go sell real-estate, because that is probably one of the only businesses where you could make a lot of money working completely on your own. But I think if you want to build a great business, you’ve got to bring other people along, and nobody wants to be managed. People want to be led.

His comment reminded me of a post from a few years ago that I believe is worth repeating.

Ducks in a Row: Leadership or LeadershIt?

If you truly want a culture of innovation, then you also need to create a culture of leadership.

Last week I commented that if the ‘i’ in leadership is capitalized it changes leadership to leadershIt.

Whereas leadership can be a great motivator, leadershIt is a guaranteed demotivator.

Visions and other leadership functions done with an eye to self-aggrandizement aren’t likely to resonate whether done by positional leaders, leaders in the instance or those who aspire.

Last year I wrote

Because initiative and leadership are synonymous, leadership needs to be pushed out of the corner office and spread throughout the organization; doing so will encourage growth, creativity and innovation.

If leadership is the fertilizer then culture is the water, without which nothing will grow, and people are the seeds from which ideas come.

By spreading leadership evenly through out your company garden and watering regularly, leaving no unfertilized or dry patches in which a seed will be stunted or die, you assure yourself a bountiful harvest that will be the envy of your competitors. (Two follow-up posts have more on this topic here and here.)

This isn’t a new idea, just a new way of phrasing it; Lao Tzu said it best 4000 years ago, “To lead the people walk behind them.”

The one thing that remains constant in all these discussions is that you always have a choice—this time it’s between leadership and leadershIt.

Image credit: HikingArtist

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Two questions:

1. Are you working to build a culture of innovation in your startup?
2. Do you live the startup mindset of 100 hour weeks, all night hackathons, 24/7 availability and no time for vacations?

If you answered ‘yes’ to both you’re in trouble, because a yes to the second sooner or later will nullify the first.

According to Marc Barros, co-founder and former CEO of Contour, there are five actions you can take to avoid killing off your golden egg, i.e., your culture of innovation.

Here they are, with my caveats (follow the link to read the originals).

1. Offer Unlimited Vacation: while this isn’t always possible, and may not even work, making sure your people, including founders, take real vacations, which means no email, texts or emergencies. They should last a minimum of three days, but a week is much better. And if having you/them gone for that time will really crash and burn the company you have bigger problems than you realize.
2. Let Employees Work Remotely: in addition to working remotely physically whenever possible be sure to provide an environment that promotes mental remoteness. In other words, they don’t have to think/work/act like you to achieve the desired results.
3. Ditch the Meetings: make sure that those you do have are short and productive.
4. Nix Department Goals: goals at all levels—department, team, personal, should always focus on what needs to happen to achieve specific, major, annual company goals (never more than three).
5. Give Plenty of Feedback: just don’t make giving constant feedback an excuse or cover for micromanaging.

One of the biggest actions that Barros doesn’t mention, but is implicit in what he does, is trust.

If bosses don’t believe that their people really do care that the company succeeds and trusts them to make it happen then they will be unable to implement any of this.

In the comments section, Mick Thornton, who worked at Safeco Insurance (definitely large and definitely old-line), talks about the success of the team he was on.

The biggest keys to success for our team was a manager that understood broad goals saying things like “Here’s what we want the end to look like, now go figure it out. Let me know if things start to slide or go south, otherwise work how you want to meet the deliverable.”

Image credit: HikingArtist

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

The last founder who asked me how to build a stronger creative culture seemed to find it naïve and hilarious when I suggested he admit his errors, show some vulnerability and stop trying to convince his team and investors that he was infallible.

And it’s not the first time I’ve gotten that reaction.

So in the interests of helping founders who prefer to act invulnerable and stand on their dignity I thought I’d share the comments of Neil Blumenthal, co-chief executive of Warby Parker.

It’s through vulnerability that human beings create connections. The more vulnerable we can be with one another, the more that we’ll trust one another and the more we’ll be able to collaborate effectively.

How do you create a culture of innovation? The first way is actually asking for innovation. A lot of companies don’t expect or ask their team members to come up with ideas, but we demand it. It’s just everybody’s responsibility.

One other thing comment from Blumenthal that’s worth remembering…

I think that covers everything and from a source with unarguable credibility.

Flickr image credit: Hiking Artist and Alexander Johnmann

Seven years and more than 3000 posts ago I started this blog and in that time I only occasionally missed a day. When I couldn’t post ahead of time I found a way to write from wherever I was, but the time has come for a vacation.

But rather leave you high and dry with nothing to read, especially with time off this week, I offer up the July Leadership Development Carnival to keep you entertained and provide learning opportunities. I’m taking the rest of this week off and will return Monday, July 8th.

I wish you a wonderful Fourth of July!

Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership presents How to Overcome the 3 Organizational Barriers to Leadership Development.  “Why is it that more organizations and executives don’t fully embrace the effective development of their leaders? It all comes down to 3 barriers: They either don’t understand why it’s important, how to do it, or they just won’t. This post reviews each barrier and provides tips for overcoming them.”

Dana Theus from InPower Women presents Activating the Hidden Face of Workforce Diversity. “Building a diverse workforce isn’t so hard given the growing numbers of minorities in the U.S. population, but grooming them into leadership is another matter entirely.”

Julie Winkle Giulioni from juliewinklegiulioni.com presents Team, Group or Train Wreck? “Despite the ubiquitous use of the term, not all groups are teams. Teams share some essential qualities that distinguish them from other collections of individuals…. and that are explored in this article.”

Jim Taggart from Changing Winds presents Creating Your Leadership Footprint through the Practice of LESS is MORE.

S. Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents The Leader’s Primary Job: Engaged Employees.  “The benefits of engaged employees are impressive and undeniable. This post looks at Gallup’s 2013 ‘State of the American Workplace’ data as well as global data on employee engagement. Edmonds places responsibility for boosting employee engagement squarely on the shoulders or organizational leaders.”

Lolly Daskal from lollydaskal.com presents Failure: The Competitive Advantage.  “Some of us may look at failure as us not being successful, life has taught us that Struggle, failure, pain, adversity—they are all our teachers. Failure gives us the competitive advantage, it opens the door unto everything we need to know.”

Randy Conley from Leading With Trust presents Are You a Thermometer or Thermostat Leader? “Randy Conley uses the metaphor of comparing thermometers and thermostats to examine how leaders can either be reactive to the dynamics occurring in their teams or proactively create the right environment for their teams to succeed.”

John Hunter from Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog presents Experience Teaches Nothing Without Theory. “Too often leaders are applying behaviors without understanding the theory (or without evidence showing that the practice based on the theory is effective – failing to practice evidence based management).”

Jesse Lyn Stoner from Jesse Lyn Stoner presents Focusing on the Future Sets Leaders Apart. “Jesse Lyn Stoner is hosting ‘The Value of Vision’ series for the next month. She has invited several leadership experts and thought-leaders to join her in exploring the role of vision in today’s complex, fast-paced world. Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of the groundbreaking bestseller ‘The Leadership Challenge’ kick off the series using their most recent research. The series will run for a month and will include 10 industry experts and thought-leaders such as Ken Blanchard, Whitney Johnson, and Doug Conant.”

Michael Folkmanfrom Four Groups’ Blog presents Rethinking the War for Talent.  “Despite advances in technology, selection methods and years of cumulative experience; organisations continue to struggle squaring the recruitment and talent puzzle. Arguably, with all the tools currently available to them, businesses are no better at recruiting than they were 20 years ago. Whilst new technologies and social media have widened the net, there is little evidence to suggest that decision making is improving or that organisations are better at understanding what makes a successful hire. Maybe it is time that we re-frame the talent question and look at recruitment decisions through a different set of filters?”

Chery Gegelman from Simply Understanding presents When you don’t know, what you don’t know. “What do you do when you don’t know something?  Or worse…   What if you are in the midst of change and don’t know what you don’t know?”

Frank Sonnenbergfrom Frank Sonnenberg Online presents Winging It Through Life.  “Winging it is a form of shooting craps. You gamble that, prepared or not, you’ll be able to handle whatever comes up in life –– seven or snake eyes.”

Bernd Geropp from More Leadership presents 3 Ways how employee motivation gets destroyed! “Lots of managers want to motivate their employees. I believe that is the wrong approach. You don’t need to motivate but you have to take care that you don’t de-motivate. I share 3 ways how employee’s motivation can be easily destroyed and how it can be avoided.”

Karin Hurt from letsgrowleaders.com presents Stupid Idea or Seeds of Brilliance?

Jennifer V. Miller of The People Equation encourages leaders to be cultivators of talent, not hoarders, in: 7 Signs You’re Hoarding Your Team’s Talent.

Mark Miller from Great Leaders Serve presents Today’s Challenge: Delegation Without Guilt.

Jon Mertz from Thin Difference presents Interview with Megan Emme, Social Leader. “Many exciting Millennial leaders are rising up. Megan Emme is a great example of a social leader, emanating the characteristics of Gen Y in an engaging way.”

Mark Behl from Leadership for Today’s Executive presents Manage Expectations or Manage Emotions. “As a leader, you must learn to manage expectations or be really good at managing emotions.  When we fail to manage people’s expectations, whether it is project timelines, budgets, or strategic initiatives, we are left managing their emotions.  Senior leaders that are upset, customers that are frustrated and angry, or key stakeholders that thought more progress was being made.  I have learned over the years that managing expectations will get you much further and help you build credibility as someone who is able to deliver on what they promised.”

Mary Faulkner from Surviving Leadership presents Everything Rustles (how fear drives your people). “Wonder why people are acting the fool in your organization?  It’s probably fear.  Learn how David Rock’s SCARF model can give you the framework to address the impact of fear in your organization.”

Lisa Kohnfrom The Thoughtful LeadersÔ Blog presents Soft skills have hard-core results. “In today’s fast-paced work environment, soft skills are anything but.  They are the keys to effective leadership and they aren’t easy.  Follow these simple steps to enhance your ‘soft skills’ and get the results you desire.  Take the time to focus on your behaviors and interactions with others – and reap the benefits.”

Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents Management is Like Coffee. “Just as there is an optimum amount of coffee that provides positive benefits there is an optimum amount of management that yields the best results; this is true no matter how high the quality of the coffee or excellent the management/coaching.”

Chris Young from Human Capital Strategy Blog presents 7 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Founded This Company.

Mike Henry Sr.from Lead Change Group presents 6 Forces Resisting Change “Have you considered what situations or temptations you face when you consider a better future? What forces work against change and for the Status Quo?  What causes you to be tempted to choose something less than the best for you or your organization? Identify and face those challenges and push through to make a positive difference.”

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. from Practical Solutions presents Leaders Bouncing Back from a Fall “How leaders bounce back after a fall from grace? We are all immune to setbacks and falls. It is how well you manage your reputation and responding well to it that makes a big difference.”

Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents Ideas that will not die. “Just like those creatures in horror movies, there are ideas that just will not die and keep on wreaking havoc.”

Susan Mazzafrom Random Acts of Leadership presents 3 Ways Anyone Can Boost Team Performance. “You may think company culture can only really be affected (for better or for worse) by the CEO of an organization. But regardless of your level in an organization you have the power to impact the culture for the better.”

Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents 5 Tips for Promoting From Within. “When you realize what it’s costing the company not to promote from within, you’ll want to implement the five action steps for creating a new promotion policy.”

Bill Matthies from Business Wisdom presents Knowing when not to change to “normal”! “Change is inevitable, constant, but not everything needs to change all the time. Great leaders manage change, both that they wish to happen as well as that they don’t, and knowing the difference is what makes them great. Watch and listen to what Faith Jegede learned about that from her Autistic brothers. Great leadership is everywhere.”

David Burkus from LDRLB presents How to Select a CEO for the Collaboration Economy (Written by Eric Lowitt).

Steve Roesler from All Things Workplace presents Who Are Your Conversation Catalysts? “What do you do when you need to get a message out to your organization or your customers, and want to do it as quickly and effectively as possible? Here is a quick read with action tips you can use today.”

Anne Perschel from Germane Insights presents Molding Culture Change: Get Their Fingerprints on it which provides “Four tips for getting employees onboard and implementing culture change.”

Dianne Stetzer with Talent Management Intelligence presents The Innovation Paradox by Ellie Hall.  “Want to drive a culture of innovation in your organization? That strategy starts at the top of your organization. Learn more about the conflicts that your CEO and senior team will face in implementing your innovation imperative.”

Image credit: Great Leadership

If you listen to the media, especially new media, you would think the US is a hotbed of innovation.

You would be wrong.

“The Information Technology Innovation Foundation ranked the U.S. last of 40 countries in terms of improved innovation capacity over the past decade.”

What if you asked business leaders? More than two-thirds would give their organizations high marks for innovation.

But what happens when you ask the working stiffs in those same organizations? You’d find innovation marks well below half.

Some 78% of leaders said yes; just 43% of employees agreed. Does the leader “urge employees to continually expand their understanding of business trends and emerging issues”? Leaders 77%; employees 51%. Does he or she “guide employees who fail or make mistakes to reframe the experiences as learning opportunities”? Leaders 77%; employees 47%. And does he or she “champion the merits of employee-initiated ideas to senior management”? Leaders 75%; employees 42%.

Those questions were asked of “513 leaders and 514 non-leader employees.”

I found grim amusement in the recommended fixes.

Senior Management Sets the Pace

Choose the Right Leaders

Develop Innovation Leaders

Build a Business Process for Innovation.

I thought senior management were the leaders, but obviously not since they are supposed to choose the “right leaders” and develop “innovation leaders.”

The idea that innovation thinking and support can be delegated by senior management to specialists at lower levels is just plain ludicrous.

If you want an innovative company filled with innovative employees then you need a culture of innovation that includes no fear, room for initiative and where the messenger is never killed.

(For more on culture and innovation, including links to research and articles, click here.)

Oops; I forgot to send an entry to The September 2012 Leadership Development Carnival NFL Kick-off Edition, but at least I remembered to give you the link!

Flickr image credit: EFF