Innovation Leader.pub

Innovation is often associated with positive descriptors such as “fun” or “creativity”, but the authors suggest it is really about hard work and is a challenging process, both emotionally and intellectually taxing. Successful innovation emanates from the diverse thinking of diverse people. However, that same diversity often leads to passionate disagreement that must be carefully managed. Managers typically try to minimize differences and conflict, but this may be counterproductive to innovation. The authors suggest, “Leaders must manage this tension to create an environment supportive enough that people are willing to share, but confrontational enough to improve ideas and spark new thinking”. The leader has other balancing acts to pull off. For example, finding the middle ground between improvisation and performance (see Figure 1) or integrating seemingly mutually exclusive solutions to a problem.