Connecting Dots explores the psychology of digital innovation leadership. Published by digital innovation leader, educator and investor Brett Macfarlane. Subscribe.
Fontainebleau, FR I’m in a COVID bubble on the INSEAD campus in Fontainebleau. I am here to frame and interrogate the findings of my research into the emotional experience and behaviours of repeat innovation leaders. It was a curious realization last week that while leaders experience many different things they all experience frustration. Very strongly so. Universally so. Though while we might instinctively think frustration is a negative emotion it may actually be a positive precondition. Let me share why.
The Leader’s Chore
There is a simple difference between management and leadership. Management is about stability. Leadership is about change. Innovation by definition is about change and therefore requires leadership.
The problem with innovation leadership is too many think about it through the mindset of management. While tools, processes, resources and policy are important, the real task of innovation leadership is to find out how much change an organization can tolerate. The more change it can tolerate the more innovative it can be. (Note see Connecting Dots 18 ◎⁃◎ Tolerance for Change.)
Innovation is exceptionally frustrating for all involved. Instinctively frustration is a bad or unpleasant thing. Yet when trying to do something new for the first time it is necessary and inevitable. While innovation leaders often are frustrated with feeling frustrated my findings indicate it is in fact a signal and source of energy and vitality that enables progress.
Working With Frustration Positively
The amazing innovation leaders I’ve been researching, often unbeknownst to themselves, are masters at surfacing and containing frustration in ways that progress their team and organization. The frustration they generate is born from an intent. An intent to address something that could be better or an opportunity that hasn’t been harnessed - powerfully positive, visionary and value-creating.
The frustration comes from the leadership task of reconciling the paradoxes of the organization. How do we change yet retain our identity? How do we renew yet run our business? How do we invest yet return to shareholders? How do we experiment yet not fail? How do we learn without losing confidence in our expertise? Questions that appear absurd and irrational when presented simultaneously yet is the reality of what leaders face.
Repeat innovation leaders are able to hold onto the intent on one hand and tune it to reconcile the paradoxes on the other hand. True failure happens when the intent is uncompromised and stubbornly held like a rock. Or, the intent is compromised by appeasing all ends of the paradoxes dissipating to nothing like a splash of water.
Humility, adaptability, restlessness and a compulsion to do the right thing are the traits I regularly identify in true innovation leaders. It is a thankless job with a propensity to hit walls or burn out. This I know from personal experience. For all its motivating benefits, frustration certainly has a powerful dark side.
To help, an instrument being developed looks at innovation leadership through three positions of frustration. The purpose of this instrument is illustrative to provide understanding for innovation leaders themselves or executives selecting leaders. As well, it can serve as a real-time diagnostic for how on-task and developmental a group is or isn’t when driving innovation programs.
Innovation Leadership Frustration as Positions:
Ref: Brett Macfarlnae
There are many great innovation leaders out there, you’re likely one. If we can raise comprehension of the true role and tasks of innovation leadership we may be able to improve the problematic state of Western organizational innovation. Hopefully, we can increase the success rate and improve the well-being of innovation leaders.
Like great athletes, innovation leaders seek and thrive under the pressure and spotlight, but unlike elite athletes, the true cognitive capabilities are not well understood or practiced. If you have any reflections on your practice and your relationship with frustration please do share. The research continues.
“Without action, the world is still an idea.”
Brett’s Movements
As noted, my research is in the sense-making stage and a first draft manuscript is in progress. I very much appreciate my EMC INSEAD peers for interrogating and validating the integrity of findings. A few final research interviews are lined up and I’ll be validating data synthesis with interviewees in November. Very rewarding to see it come together. There has been a lot of interest already and I’ve been fortunate to do a couple of company presentations of early findings. Helpful to gain further data and validate the findings are useful to leaders and their organizations.
My research was always intended to help real-world practice. I’m looking forward to next month to starting design an innovation capability development program for a global consultancy. As well there are initiatives starting on how we can increase board capability to support innovation and updating the governance model - because the current set up simply isn’t working.
I hope you are safe and finding purpose in your work as October unfolds. Your feedback on these newsletters is always appreciated. As well, please share it with peers or your social networks. It makes a big difference and I really appreciate your contributions.
Keep pushing boundaries.
-Brett
Hits and Misses
Some new things that caught my eye this past month.
On Running- HIT 🤩
While subscriptions are growing in popularity, only if you go into the value chain is it meaningful innovation. The stylishly engineered Swiss brand On has developed as close to a closed-loop running shoe as possible. Cyclon is a shoe you’ll never own, made of beans, that is fully recyclable and replaced whenever you need. I really hope this succeeds. Also, that eco-warrior brands of choice are madly trying to copy. Looking at you Converse, Doc Martin and Veja. Nike, if you can look at subscription as more than removing some purchase friction to take full accountability and ownership of your product’s lifecycle then you might regain my loyalty. Till then I love my On’s. No, I’m not compensated in any way but open to offers :-)
Image Credit: The top image is from a lockdown discovery. Fortitude bakery in London. Previously a commercial bakery but with revenue disappearing overnight the entrepreneurial founder turned their Bloomsbury mews location into a virus-safe open-air cafe. A small taste of sanity.