Driving Innovation: learning to lead change

John F Kennedy is acknowledged to be one of history’s great leaders. On that fateful day on the 22nd November 1963, JFK was travelling to the Dallas Trade Mart to give a speech that would kick start his quest for re-election. In his undelivered speech, JFK was to speak of the state of the nation.
If you have the time, in what is the 100th year of his birth, then I encourage you to read his speech here. If you don’t, here’s the stand out section.
“The United States is a peaceful nation. And where our strength and determination are clear, our words need merely to convey conviction, not belligerence. If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.”
“Finally, it should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future.”
JFKs speech demonstrates his capacity for vision and forward thinking. It also shows how prescient much of the contents of his speech remain in the context of global and US current affairs.
He understood that being a great leader wasn’t a result of the position he held and the power it afforded him. Instead his speech serves as a reminder of the need for leaders to constantly evolve and learn.
In the same speech the US president was to declare that “leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” and that “in a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason.”
His statement goes beyond increasing knowledge. Instead it’s about accepting new ideas and new ways of doing things, based on objective though, as the common currency of progress, freedom and prosperity.
Fast forward over 50 years and his words are particularly relevant as society progresses towards the most significant revolution of human kind; the age of autonomy — of machines, professions and more.
With progress comes ever greater progress.
As such the nature of change, changes. As technology progresses at an ever more rapid pace, so change becomes the norm rather than the exception. This constantly challenges our need to adapt.
By equal measure leadership is not a static endeavour. In fact, leadership demands fluidity, which requires a willingness to recognise the need for change, and finally, the ability to lead change. This applies equally to the context and to the self.
This requires an awareness of ones capacity to lead change and understanding your maturity in implementing change. When faced with change many react instead of proactively shaping it. This requires a different mind-set and a capacity to learn how.
Learning is the oxygen of leadership and is one of its most important elements. Starve yourself of learning and you starve your capacity to lead change.
All too often in large organisations change faces inherent resistance. This comes in many forms, but the complacency of “I know-it-all”, or a “my way is best” attitude is the biggest internal barrier to learning to lead change. It’s often manifest in those who have served the longest or sit at the top of the organisation, or the HiPPOs (the highest paid person’s opinion).
This complacency and lack of desire to continue to learning to lead change is a fundamental reason (among many others) why start-ups are able to beat large corporates. Inside a large corporate organisation leading change is about constantly learning to open you mind to the infinite possibilities that exist.
To drive corporate change it is necessary to reframe leadership as learning. So that organisations, functions and individuals collectively learn to lead change and train others to do so. As Arie de Geus stated ‘the only sustainable competitive advantage is an organisation’s ability to learn faster than the competition.’
At the end of 2013 I took an unplanned pivot in my career and I started learning to lead change.
When I started on my journey with InMotion Ventures, I began to learn all over again; professionally about mobility and transportation, corporate innovation as well as early stage investment and venturing; and personally about leading change inside an organisation, and be an effective leader of that change. The only way was to learn.
My learning was accelerated by the pace of change taking place in the auto industry, the new business models and emerging opportunities for growth, encapsulated by the chance to shape the future, rather than being shaped by it, while also bringing about positive social impact.
On this journey I found managing uncertainty and learning to lead change hugely liberating. It represents my most intensive and accelerated personal development experience. It pales in comparison to completing my MBA or any other professional experience I have enjoyed inside other corporates. Arguably it has proven to be the most fulfilling, rewarding and challenging experiences of my career.
From my learning of leading change I’ve summarised the principle insights that I believe you need to be aware so you can become a better leader and to continue your learning journey to lead change.
1. Recognise your greatest challenge
After years of experience be wary of the trap of thinking you know it all and that you are better than you actually are. Accept that you don’t know everything. Create a desire in yourself and others to be wrong. Embrace that vulnerability and show others the way forward. Maintain your humility and learn from your own mistakes.
2. Be prepared to burn political capital
If you’re only focused on the corner office then leading change isn’t necessarily for you. To successfully lead change you have to be prepared to be Captain one minute and Pirate the next. Find the right way to enable others to learn to lead change by challenging people and their conventions.
3. Focus on the soft factors
Create an environment that fosters that learning to achieve your leadership goals. Recognise any team and activity will be a product of their environment. Learn from Netflix to enable ‘freedom and empowerment’ so people have the latitude and conviction to want to learn.
4. Invest in the capability to learn
Past experience of leading change is no indicator of an ability to learn how to lead change in the future. Engage with those that have the right attitude and willingness to learn, not only those who have the predetermined level of experience. Use learning to create a more empowered, determined and engaged team and environment.
5. Address the normal distribution
Think of the organisation as normal distribution curve. At the front end is a small group who are willing to learn to lead change. These advocates want to make change happen. Help them learn to be the leaders of change and overcome the potential dissent of the detractors.
6. Relentlessly remove friction
To make change stickier inside an organisation build and curate your internal network to help remove inherent friction. Recognise the speed at which you learn is linked to an outcome that has a path of least resistance.
