No risk, no reward: 8 principles for innovation

At ConantLeadership, we're committed to lifelong learning and continuous improvement. In service to your leadership growth, each month we curate this digest of timely resources from around the web to—

Share actionable advice from top leadership luminaries
Celebrate a range of viewpoints (inclusion is not an endorsement)
Contextualize workplace trends through a leadership lens
Illuminate cultural recalibrations in the world of work
Support your personal development in life, leadership, & beyond

No Risk, No Reward

"If you really want to change paradigms," you must accept that "there's no such thing as true innovation without risk," writes Clinical Professor of Strategy David Schonthal in this Kellogg Insight piece. Schonthal notes a central tension: "Most successful organizations have at least some aversion to risk," so leaders who are serious about building future-focused cultures "must be thoughtful about creating the right conditions for innovation to happen." This requires "not just the right methods, but the right mindset," which "encourages and rewards brave conversation," rather than surface-level dialogues which may often default to "innovation theater."

Schonthal shares eight key principles to consider.

1. Start with a social contract. "Start each innovation-focused meeting not by diving into ideas but by collectively developing a social contract for the discussion itself."

2. Model from the top. Participants "will take their cues from the most senior participant, even if the social contract encourages ideas from every level," so leaders should "set the tone and model desired behavior."

3. Move from idea to action. "Ideas on a whiteboard aren't enough. Find a practical way to synthesize key outputs from the meeting that lead to action."

4. Have fun. "Productive ideation meetings should invoke a sense of play, often supported by humor."

5. Mind the 'peak end' rule. "End with a bang, not a whimper." To conclude on a high note, make sure to leave time at the end of the meeting to "discuss actionable next steps," vote on top ideas, or review the social contract.

6. Do you even want to go there? Most people are pro-innovation in the abstract but can be less so in reality. "Be honest about whether you want to get people thinking differently," and if you're not ready for a risky approach, table it until you're better positioned.

7. Beware the loudest voices. "In any meeting, the louder voices will tend to dominate, potentially squelching high-quality ideas from more reticent members." Find ways to ensure everyone contributes.

8. Be careful with psychological safety. "Any group environment must feel safe and respectful," but beware of group harmony veering into group-think. "The goal of any innovative effort is to provoke creative tension."

Get the full story here.

**For more on productive conversations, explore our CEO Manifesto on Meetings from the archives. Then, check out our coverage of Amy Edmondson's advice for leveraging psychological safety to spark innovation.

How to Keep Growing

Senior and C-suite leaders can't merely espouse the importance of learning and growing; they have to practice what they preach in perpetuity to stay nimble. In this Chief Executive piece, David Novak, retired Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, writes that leaders must avoid "the stagnation trap" as they achieve success, and remember that "any of us can become better, more active learners at any point in our careers or life." He recommends five foundational habits that contribute to lifelong active learning.

1. Invite more truth-tellers into your life. "I've been lucky enough to have some amazing truth tellers in my life . . . I didn't always want to hear what they had to say, but I made myself listen." Novak advises: "Find your truth tellers. Encourage them to speak up. Make it safe for them to be honest and open"

2. Learn to see the world the way it really is. "Delusional people don’t learn well, which is why active learners keep orienting themselves to reality. Our truth-tellers can help, but we need to do more to avoid interpreting events based on what we wish rather than what is."

3. Give away credit for successful ideas. "If you want to encourage people to share more of their brilliant ideas with you, give away the credit as often as you can. Recognize people for their valuable contributions every day. And take the heat for the ideas that don’t succeed."

4. Prime your brain for learning. "For years, as the CEO of KFC and then Yum! Brands, I had an embroidered pillow in my bedroom that just said, 'PLAN.' It was a reminder to take time every night to prepare for the following day—to review my meetings, read analyst reports, check in on major projects and more. I wanted to walk into every day ready to listen, learn and deliver my best."

5. Teach. "Research has shown that when we teach or give advice, we are better at taking that advice ourselves . . .The process of sharing our knowledge forces us to simplify it, break it down to the essentials, and codify it so that it can be digested and understood. That simplification process helps us understand it in new and better ways, or sometimes helps us test and clarify our ideas."

Get the full story here.

**For more on this, explore our post on how the growth mindset sparks miraculous, 'aha!' moments.

The Best Company Cultures Know How to Celebrate

It's common sense that work celebrations and recognition can be a great way to boost morale and strengthen teams—but their power doesn't stop there. Celebrations also offer leaders a rich opportunity to reinforce strategic goals and build more cohesive cultures. Ted Kitterman, in this Great Place to Work coverage, explains: "What you celebrate as an organization can send a powerful message to employees," and each time you shine a light on positive behavior, "you are expressing your values." The best workplaces know that "honoring employees" is an effective way to emphasize "expected behaviors," and to deepen employee connection to the mission. And, says Kitterman, when great performance is called out "and properly incentivized, a company transforms." To get started, there are five key things to begin celebrating (if you're not already).

1. A healthy variety of milestones and anniversaries

2. Shared company values

3. Belonging and inclusion

4. Innovation and progress

5. Individual excellence

Get the full story here.

**For more on the power of celebration, read Doug Conant's first installment in our new limited series, "EQ Answers to AI Questions," in which he offers his CEO-tested advice for effectively recognizing team strengths.

Help People Find Their 'Inner CEO'

"As the already dizzying pace of the digital era continues to accelerate," the changing corporate landscape demands a more egalitarian approach to leadership, says Jeremy Blain in this Big Think piece. As "distributed and hybrid" work continues to transform "the human side of our business," Blain recommends a leadership approach that evolves from a hierarchical "command and control" model to a more empowering framework that encourages "in-role thinking, innovation and decision-making." To facilitate this, he's coined the concept of the "inner CEO," which "represents the untapped potential within" the workforce and celebrates individuals' ability to "generate ideas and act beyond their job descriptions without needing approval." Blain says this idea acknowledges the reality that employees are now expected "not just to excel in their specific roles but also to make a strategic impact on the organization." And by encouraging contributors to embrace their "inner CEO," leaders are more likely to earn trust and foster collaboration. Get the full story here.

**For more on this, explore our coverage of a conversation with Stephen M.R. Covey and McKinlee Covey about why the new world of work demands a "trust and inspire" approach, rather than "command and control."

Future-Proof Your Mindset

As Google's first ever Chief Innovation Evangelist, Frederik Pferdt has spent his career thinking about how to prepare for the future, and becoming an expert in how to lead and shape innovation. In this Next Big Idea Club ex cerpt from his book, What's Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready, Pferdt shares five tips for future-proofing your mindset.

1. The future shouldn't be something that happens to you. It should be something you make happen. "The future is something that you must actively shape using choices that arise through creativity and imagination."

2. Being ready for the future isn't about technology. It's about your mindstate. "What matters most is how mentally prepared you are to tackle problems and seize opportunities that present themselves at any given moment."

3. Train your mind to expect the unexpected. Don't fear change: "Recent studies in neuroplasticity have shown that our brains are capable of continuously adapting to new information and conditions."

4. If you're stuck, open your eyes to better. "Hope is nice, but it waits with its fingers crossed for something good to happen. Radical optimism, on the other hand, is an active, vigorous belief in the potential not for good but for better. The pursuit of better is about progress, not perfection."

5. How do you want to be in the future? "It’s not a question of what you want to do or who you want to be. It’s a question of how you want to be . . . The future isn’t off in the distance—it’s right now," so start ASAP. "You have to check in with yourself daily to ensure that you are in this world as you intend to be."

Get the full story here.

**For more on shaping your future, explore our 6-step Blueprint process for changing your leadership and your life, which helps you envision your boldest dreams of success, unearth your values, and learn to "forget perfection."

W hy Boards Fail to Pick the Right CEO

"Ask board members their most important duty, and they will likely say it is appointing and overseeing the CEO," writes former Medtronic CEO Bill George in this Harvard Business School Working Knowledge piece. He says boards often fail to pick the right CEO because "they don't prepare candidates for the challenges they will inevitably face after stepping into the role." George identifies the top five mistakes "boards often make when handling their most important responsibility—hiring the appropriate leader for the job," and offers some wisdom on how to avoid these pitfalls.

Mistake 1: Companies are not grooming successors within the company. Boards should be "keeping their eyes open for possible successors at all times," with a goal of "developing a half-dozen or more leaders who could be long-term CEO candidates."

Mistake 2: Companies often choose a successor who pledges to lead the business in the same direction as the current CEO. "Boards should be looking for leaders who are visionary as well as adaptable to changing external conditions and are able to redirect the company to head in new directions to meet future needs."

Mistake 3: Businesses allow the current CEO to dominate the hiring process. "Many boards fail to take control of the succession process, preferring to let CEOs control which candidates are presented to the board," which is a mistake because, "the board has more emotional distance from the CEO job than the current incumbent and can provide some much-needed perspective."

Mistake 4: Companies choose an outsider who is a poor fit with the company's culture. Boards should look more critically at external candidates who appear "superior on paper" to internal candidates but who may not "understand the nuances of the business or how to effectively manage its people."

Mistake 5: The board often doesn't give the new CEO a clear mandate. "Too many boards fail to give their new CEOs specific guidance about their expectations. Only later do they realize the disparity between the CEO’s chosen direction and their expectations."

Get the full story here.

**For more from Bill George, explore our recent blog resource featuring his insights on authentic leadership.

The 3 'D's of a 'Hard Reset'

When managing change, often all that's needed is a continuous improvement mindset matched with strategic tweaks, incremental goals, and strong execution. But what about the more dire scenarios when small adjustments are insufficient—what should leaders do when a total overhaul is required? In this excerpt in Fortune from her book, Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times, author Rebecca Homkes offers advice for leaders who are facing the need for "a fundamental change in your organization's strategy, structure, and operating model," or what she calls a "hard reset." A "hard reset" is not for the faint of heart and is necessary when, among other factors, "your current competitive advantage has been significantly compromised or weakened, and your historical advantages will not provide differentiation."

Homkes says the first step in a hard reset is acceptance: "Embrace it. It does not mean you will never thrive; it just means you need longer in the reset and transition mode." And she shares a detailed list of critical steps for embarking on your dramatic transformation. One of the most important steps is Homkes' method for measuring progress using a milestone tracker called "DDD, which stands for Define-Do-Deliver."

Define - What do we now know that we need to know to execute this?
Do - What activity needs to be done?
Deliver - What result, ideally quantifiable, will this produce for the organization?

Importantly, "each DDD should have an owner and a deadline with the goal of having all 'defines' completed one-third of the way through that execution time frame. Meet frequently to review progress." Get the full story here. (This story may appear behind a paywall or email gate for some readers.)

**For more on transformations, explore our coverage of how Fran Horowitz turned around Abercrombie & Fitch as CEO.

Lessons on Teaming from NASA

"There are good reasons that collaborations often falter: physical distance, time zone differences and unequal access to information, to name a few," say Stanislav Shekshnia and Sergey Vorobiev, the authors of this INSEAD Knowledge piece on teaming. Despite the numerous material roadblocks to effective teamwork, the authors say "the biggest obstacles are psychological," and can be overcome. Teaming, which often refers to spontaneous "collaboration on the fly" in response to a specific goal or issue, "allows participants to solve unique, complex problems," outside the rigid structure of a traditional team. The authors take a cue from NASA in their teaming approach. In 1979, NASA "assembled 50 industry insiders as well as 20 astronauts, scientists and psychologists" to produce a report that would improve aviation safety. The team, which was created only for this specific task, "explored the challenge together before breaking into smaller groups to examine specific problems," and successfully developed a 200-page report that changed the global aviation industry forever. To replicate the kind of teaming success seen in NASA's example, the authors advocate a three-phase "initiate-integrate-institutionalize" model.

Initiation. "The goal of this stage is to spark organizational interest in teaming. Three factors make or break the initiation stage: participation and endorsement of the senior leadership, the scale of the program, and delivering meaningful outcomes."

Integration. "The second stage is about making teaming part of organizational culture and the company’s operating system on a larger scale. In this phase, senior leaders articulate and reiterate their belief in teaming, explain what it means in the organization’s context, and set organization-wide goals and expectations for all employees."

Institutionalization. "The goal of this ongoing stage is to entrench teaming as a shared philosophy and way of working across the organization. Teaming principles and new cultural norms become embedded in key organizational processes including recruitment, evaluation, remuneration, promotion, training and communication."

Get the full story here.

Introducing Doug Conant's New Limited Series: EQ Answers to AI Questions

In this new limited series, ConantLeadership Founder & CEO, Doug Conant, provides thoughtful, human answers to pressing leadership questions. The questions are generated with the help of AI. But the answers are entirely from Doug through a lens of people-centered leadership.

The first question in the series is, "What are some innovative ways to recognize and celebrate team strengths?"

Read Doug's first EQ answer here.