Collaborative Innovation
Is “Leading from Behind” the new black?
Widely credited to Linda Hill, a professor from Harvard Business School, “leading from behind” describes a technique in the leadership toolkit that fosters innovation by encouraging greater collaboration.
Hill uses a quote from Nelson Mandela as the hook for this style of leadership where he compared leadership to shepherding where a skilful shepherd directs from behind. Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely convinced by the metaphor which at first glance seems to view human resources as sheep but I like the ideas that Hill manages to extract from it.
I was struck by the impact on our collective psyche of the lone innovator, the messianic visionary from whom flows all the world changing ideas. Sure, there will always be gifted savants out there but, seriously, are we really going to solve all the really big problems using that spurious model?
The reality is all that funky tech we wave around like we’re on trend is the result of many people’s work and inspirations rather than the romantic idea of the single demigod of innovation. Trust me, Walt Disney didn’t draw all those cartoons. That’s almost up there with believing in Santa Claus. Which, if that floats your boat, is absolutely fine but not a long term business strategy in my opinion.
To maintain sustained innovation, leaders, provide vision and direction then build communities who can innovate rather than followers who simply execute. This is the same for both the private and social sector. You don’t have to be working for the man in order to want continuous innovation to solve, say, global clean water provision. Whatever gets you up in the morning.
We’re already seeing this kind of co-creation occurring in the digital world and the open source movement but there are lots of others. After all, that’s how we make babies. As Hill writes:
“If you’re looking for innovation, it doesn’t make much sense to say that the leader’s job is to set the course and mobilise people to follow them there. If you want your team to produce something truly original, you don’t know where you’re going, almost by definition. The traditional leadership model just doesn’t work.”
In defining a new model, based around harnessing the collective genius of collaborators, leaders create a world in which people want to belong. They then sprinkle some fairy dust of organisational magic that encourages this community to engage and problem-solve together within a common purpose.
These are Prof. Hills ideas and they are theoretical at best. I believe, however, that there is a nugget of common sense here. Surely, this is something that all good leaders, rather than tyrannical psychopaths, have done since forever. True enough, there are more than enough psychopaths out there to support the case for command and control innovation. As long as we reward them they’ll keep going but it seems odd in our connected society, where collaboration is one of our prized 21st century “C” words, that we put so much friction in the way of innovation.
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An entertaining & thought provoking slayer of sacred cows, Graham Brown-Martin works globally with senior leadership teams to help organisations adapt in the face of rapid change & innovation. By challenging entrenched thinking he liberates teams to think in new ways to solve complex challenges. His book Learning {Re}imagined is published by Bloomsbury and he is represented for speaking engagements via Wendy Morris at the London Speakers Bureau
