10 Mental Models for the Innovative Leader
Escape from tradition to learn from the past

- Success comes from iteration not from the best idea.
Great ideas are not born, they’re iterated.
The printing press, the steam engine, and snapchat were not the best ideas, they were the best iteration. We remember the most recent & successful iteration but that shouldn’t cloud the fact that there were many less successful bad ideas leading up to their most recent state.
However, iteration in large organizations is somewhat of a non-starter. The closest most firms get is to “agile working” & milestone tracking. However, while these may support execution they do not support iteration.
Why?
Iteration requires tolerance of two non-traditional traits: tolerance of risk & tolerance of uncertainty.
In the eyes of the horse carriage, a metal beast 10 times faster powered by the same technology that makes your tea sounds pretty risky.
In the eyes of a print ad media mogul, there is nothing certain about a 30 second video that disappears after you play it and can’t be accessed again for getting your branding message across.
Yet, in hindsight the final versions of course seem without risk and quite certain. They certainly weren’t when they started.
2. Support is not hierarchical. Neither is belief
Org charts dictate authority, but they don’t dictate influence.
It is the leaders job to overcome the shortcomings that have shaped their past so that they can ease the burden of the current shortcomings for those around them.
That is, Great leaders cannot thrive without a demand for great leaders.
If people don’t believe that your leadership can support them, then they will not support your beliefs.
Despite the use of corporate tree diagrams for hierarchies, leadership is more like a river — you can support the existence of many, but threaten that existence and you will be damned.
3. Help share the story, don’t tell the journey
Bullet points, meeting minutes, status updates — they tell the journey just as your airplane ticket describes your holiday.
To truly be a great leader, we must learn to help others share their story, not just tell the journey.
The first step is to ask. The second step is to listen.
4. If you can’t have knowledge, have wonder
There is a natural beauty in the innocent admiration of knowledge not yet attained. Encourage yourself, and those around you, to never fear a lack of understanding, and to welcome the charm and wisdom of wonder.
There is something magical about how children view the world. It is a trait that most of us lose by the time we reach adolescence, and will likely not rediscover again until old age.
If you don’t have knowledge, have wonder.
5. Compare against the best of what’s possible not the best of what’s common.
I often speak with HR leaders about the lack of qualified canidates for a position they are recruiting for — and almost always, they’ve compared each candidate to the profile of the ‘typical’ successful candidate and none have matched this profile.
They have compared each individual against the ‘best of whats common’. Yet, when asked whether they want to hire the very best yet typical candidate the answer is almost always no.
They were so focused on how the person would conform to the look of their typical hire they were blind to the incredible uniqueness each candidate could bring to their firm.
Whether you are hiring in your team, or simply looking for a new friend, compare each individual against the best of what’s possible, don’t settle for the best of whats common.
6. Huge enterprises are built by giving people a small moment of joy in their day.
Tomorrow morning, when you walk into your favorite coffee establishment, I want you to pay attention to your experience. What aspects from this ritual brings you joy?
For myself, it isn’t the taste of the coffee, or the caffeine jolt, which brings the most satisfaction to my day — its the daily aroma of the coffee that brings me in and makes my day better.
When building a team, the primary role of the leader is not to improve the taste of the coffee or to add a jolt of caffeine. It is to build an irresistible aroma— to help remind each employee what is at the core of what they do & invigorate each employee why they do it here.
7. Humour can help you through tough times. Laughter can help you change your perspective.
With increasing time & responsibility, I have noticed how much ‘chance’ is involved in everything. Further, I have noticed how many choices both large and small are outside of my control, yet can significantly impact the outcome despite them being my responsibility.
Hard work could increase my chance of success, but I will always only have partial control over the overall impact of my actions. I can only manage a portion of the first order effects, and only a few of the second order effects.
When things went wrong, most of my leaders resorted to anger. But anger can only be focused on the past. What I learned is that ff you need to get through the day, use humor to focus on the intricate often paradoxical situations you will face. If you need to find a way to get to tomorrow, find a way that the situation makes you laugh.
8. The future of work is humans working at the uncertain end of the spectrum — we must change the mindset of what we consider work.
Gallop has estimated that 70% of employees are disengaged at their jobs. A shocking, yet not totally surprising statistic if you commute.
Technology has revolutionized our ability to create value, both as individuals and as a collective species.
Yet, modern corporates still operate where jobs must be clearly defined with certainty what they are supposed to achieve. However, the era of humans doing work with certain outcomes is coming to an end. It will not go away, but there will be limited need for people to be confined to what they already know.
We must adapt to being conformable that the future of work is not always certain. There are many advances to be made, but they are unlikely to be linear (how many inventions have been made by linear process…?)
9. Manage for emergent outcomes not efficient outcomes.
In the early 2000’s, when Nokia asked consumers what they wanted from the next flagship Nokia phone, almost universally the answer was longer battery life. And Nokia continued to deliver on this promise.
Then came the iPhone.
Great leaders & great teams manage for the emergence of outcomes, even if these run counter to their initial plan. Managers focus their time and energy on efficiency.
There are times that efficiency is required, but make sure if you are focusing on efficiency, that this is by design, not just by default.
10. Everybody has the capacity to be remarkable
No matter their education, salary, previous mistakes, morale shortcomings, personal afflictions, or professional gaffes — everybody has the capacity to be remarkable.
The greatest disservice a leader can do to their workforce is not insult them, but to underestimate them.
