A Thai professional working in the innovation field confided the other day: “I wonder how many business leaders are truly sincere about innovation and are really willing to walk their talk.” I thought I’d throw this interesting and controversial comment back to you: Does it hold true for your company? Are the leaders in your firm serious about innovation? Do they do what it takes to turn your company into an innovation leader? And do they personally walk their talk or are they just paying lip service?

We have just begun 2008. In the coming months, some business leaders plan to do certain things that they deem helpful for producing innovation in their company: hiring an innovation manager, charging her with recruiting an innovation team, developing an innovation management system, and so on. “I want to have innovation, so if we do these things, then our company will be an innovation leader,” those leaders may think. Unfortunately, innovation is not that easy.

Like most things in life, organizational creativity does not follow this Have-Do-Be approach. It’s the other way around. The American singer Margaret Young noted: “Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” I agree. And BE-DO-HAVE is the more promising way to innovation, too. Here are some action recommendations for realizing the creative leadership potential in you and your firm.

1. First, BE a better creative leader

Leadership theory suggests that in order to lead others, you first need to lead yourself. In other words: live what you preach to make your followers model your ways. Transforming a company or a team into a creative organization always starts at the top. It starts with the leader. It starts with the right mindset. So in 2008, BE a better creative leader. BE a better thinker, ideator, creator and innovator. BE a better risk-taker and activator.

Are you ready to BE a better creative leader? How much of your time, money, energy and other sacrifices (that may even affect your personal status and “face”) are you ready to commit? Remember: the higher your personal commitment to really BE a better creative leader, the better the innovation results for your whole organization over time.

2. Next, DO. Think, ideate and create — regularly and systematically

Now do creative things that give credibility to your new BEing as a creative role model. Innovation is the end result of ideas coupled with action. No ideas and/or no action = no innovation:

• First, start every day by reminding yourself to be a better creative leader today.

• Regularly make time to think and ideate — alone or with others. Track where you are and what you do when you get your best ideas. Then invest time in those activities that connect you with your innate creativity and allow you to be a better ideator.

• Whenever you have a promising idea, try it out. Test its potential by using the method of rapid prototyping and the principle of trial and error. If the idea works and adds value, implement it right away as a visible testimony for the change you want to see.

• If you have to deal with a major problem, or consider realizing an interesting business opportunity, then follow a systematic process to do better thinking and ideating. With our X-IDEA™ process at THINKERGY, we first thoroughly eXplore an ambiguous business challenge; then we Ideate; next we Develop good ideas before Evaluating them; finally, we prepare to Activate meaningful ideas.

• Last but not least: Be courageous and persistent in your DOing. Adopt the spirit of Sir Winston Churchill. Stay on course and “Never, never, never give up.” Don’t surrender to temporary setbacks: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” It took Edison and his team more than 10,000 trials to find the right design for the light bulb — so don’t stop DOing.

3. Then, HAVE insights, ideas and meaningful, value-adding innovation

If you stick to your commitment to BE a better creative business leader, and if you continuously DO the creative actions to establish yourself as a creative role model for the desired new behaviors, then sooner rather than later you and your company will HAVE innovation results: new customer and market insights, better processes, meaningful and value-adding new products, novel services, unique customer solutions, compelling customer experiences, innovative business models, magnified brands, a boosted corporate image, and the like.

However, change takes time: While you can transform a team in one year, turning a company into an innovation-friendly culture and creative organization takes at least three years. But it always starts with the leader’s commitment to BE, to DO and then to HAVE. Are you ready to commit today?

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2008. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 17 January 2008.