Innovative leadership is about being someone who has made this mental shift. It also means giving others the latitude and encouragement they need to do the same. The payoff is an organizational shift away from resistance to change and the tendency to just hunker down, to a much more engaged sense of, “I’m ready world, give me your best shot.”
Promoting innovation isn’t just about getting people to volunteer their ideas. It’s about moving away from traditional top-down, command-and-control, closed loop management techniques. Moving instead towards a more challenging, more flexible, more appreciative style that’s not only more productive and successful; it’s a whole lot more fun.
With innovation, the odds favor the gambler. The longer you play, the more likely you are to win. Each calculated risk that fails, if carefully evaluated and used to learn, brings us closer to a successful solution, by teaching us what won’t work and hinting at what does. It’s those who stop gambling, who fail to experiment long enough and often enough, who give up too soon, who lose.