Leadership for Innovation: How to Organize Team Creativity and Harvest Ideas

144 Pages·2007·0.37 MB·English

by  John Adair

LEADERSHIP
FOR
INNOVATION

LEADERSHIP
FOR
INNOVATION
How to organize team
creativity and harvest ideas
JOHN ADAIR
London and Philadelphia
Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this
book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot
accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility
for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a
result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher
or the author.
First published in Great Britain in 1990 by the Talbot Adair Press as The Challenge of
Innovation
This edition published in Great Britain and the United States by Kogan Page Limited
in 2007 as Leadership for Innovation
Reprinted 2007
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism
or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this
publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of repro-
graphic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA.
Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the
publishers at the undermentioned addresses:
120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241
London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147
United Kingdom USA
www.kogan-page.co.uk
© John Adair, 1990, 2007
The right of John Adair to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-10 0 7494 4800 8
ISBN-13 978 0 7494 4800 4
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adair, John Eric, 1934-
Leadership for Innovation : how to organise team creativity and harvest ideas /
John Adair.
p. c.m
Rev. ed. of : The challenge of innovation. 1990.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7494-4800-4
ISBN-10: 0-7494-4800-8
1. Creative ability in business--Management--Case studies. 2. Technological
innovations--Management--Case studies. I. Adair, John Eric, 1934- Challenges of
innovation. II. Title.
HD53.A32 2007
658.4’092--dc22
2006034629
Typeset by Jean Cussons Typesetting, Diss, Norfolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
About the Author ix
Introduction 1
1. What is Innovation? 5
Invention and innovation 6
Case study: Google –the world’s most 7
powerful internet search engine
Innovation as incremental change 8
The management of change 9
Innovation is positive 11
All can participate 12
Key Points 13
2. The Conditions for Successful Innovation 15
Management commitment 16
v
Contents
Positive strategic thinking 17
A long-term perspective 19
Responsiveness to change 21
Acceptance of risk 23
The right internal environment 25
Key Points 26
3. Organizing for Team Creativity 29
Order and freedom 30
Integrating creativity into industry 31
Getting the balance right 33
Leadership for innovation 35
Key Points 36
4. Case Study: The DNA Laboratory 39
No class or hierarchical differences 40
Leading by example 42
The optimum use of resources 43
The human resource 45
Creeping bureaucracy 45
Bureaucracy versus innovation 47
Key Points 49
5. Case Study: Soichiro Honda –Leader for 53
Innovation
The forge of a creative mind 54
A creative thinker in action 55
A partnership of complementary abilities 56
Not problems but opportunities 57
Passing on the torch 59
Key Points 60
vi
Contents
6. Real Commitment from the Top 63
The leader as teambuilder 64
Giving direction 66
Key Points 68
7. How to Motivate the Creative Individual 71
Selecting creative people 72
Characteristics of innovators 73
Expectations of creative people 76
Creative leadership 80
Key Points 82
8. Team Creativity 85
Building on ideas 86
Brainstorming 89
Team creativity in action 91
Team creativity and organization 93
How to criticize other people’s ideas 93
Key Points 97
9. Harvesting Ideas 99
Suggestion Schemes 100
Quality Circles 102
Success factors for Quality Circles 103
Towards team creativity 105
The importance of training and education 107
Key Points 108
vii
Contents
10. Overcoming Resistance to Change 111
The human need for continuity and change 112
Understanding the forces of resistance 115
Principle one: plough up the ground 116
Principle two: market your ideas 118
Principle three: have a practice run 121
Principle four: make change incremental 122
Principle five: leadership is essential 123
Key Points 124
Conclusion: Leadership for Innovation 127
Key Points 131
Index 133
viii
About the Author
John Adair is now widely regarded as the world’s leading
authority on leadership and leadership development. The
author of 30 books on the subject, he has been named as one
of the 40 people worldwide who have contributed most to the
development of management thought and practice.
Educated at St Paul’s School, John Adair has enjoyed a varied
and colourful career. He served as adjutant in a Bedouin regi-
ment in the Arab Legion, worked as a deckhand on an Arctic
trawler and had a spell as an orderly in a hospital operating
theatre. After Cambridge he became Senior Lecturer in
Military History and Leadership Training Adviser at the
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, before becoming the first
Director of Studies at St George’s House in Windsor Castle
and then Associate Director of the Industrial Society. Later he
became the world’s first Professor in Leadership Studies at
ix
About the Author
the University of Surrey. He also helped to found Europe’s
first Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter.
John Adair now acts as a national and international adviser
on leadership development. His recent books, published by
Kogan Page, include Not Bosses But Leaders, The Inspirational
Leader, How to Grow Leadersand Leadership and Motivation.
x