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Corporate innovation is as simple as A, B, C.
A is for architects, who largely work within their own teams or the larger organization, building the culture and capabilities that enable teams to co-create.
B is for bridgers, who work at the boundaries of their enterprises, building partnerships with those outside its walls to access essential talent and tools needed for innovation.
C is for catalysts, who go even further, launching movements that activate and spread innovation more broadly.
Well, maybe not all that simple. But that’s the formula a team of researchers – Harvard Business School professor Linda A. Hill, Harvard doctoral student Emily Tedards, and strategy consultant Jason Wild – came up with after more than a decade of studying the issue.
At the core is the notion of collaboration – co-creation. And it’s about concentric circles, moving out from a few people in the organization to more internally, and then externally, often seeking to take advantage of emerging technologies. Not simple. But a necessity, by their research, to overcome the difficulty large organizations – so often stable and slow to change – face in mobilizing for innovation.
In their book Genius at Scale, they note many talented leaders are reluctant to take on roles overseeing innovation given it’s hard and risky work. But some have a masterful ability to drive innovation, and by watching and learning from them, the ABCs emerged.
“Whether developing a vaccine in record time or extending financial services to billions of unbanked people, the exceptional leaders … managed to get multiple organizations to collaborate, experiment and learn together. These leaders saw emerging technologies not as disruptive but as tools for unleashing and harnessing collective genius at scale,” they write.
The architect is the foundational role of the ABCs, building innovative communities prepared to co-create not only inside but also outside organizational boundaries.
“Architects understand that they cannot mandate innovation; instead, they invite their colleagues to think and act differently by reshaping the social environment in which they do their work. Architects invite everyone in their organization to participate in innovation and build the culture and capabilities required for them to do so,” they note.
They create a willingness to innovate – a shared purpose, with accompanying values and rules of engagement everyone can agree to. They navigate diversity of thought and overcome fears of risk. They collaborate. They experiment. They learn. And they build, people and ideas and ultimately offerings for purchase.
But these days, working internally is often not enough. There are others – individuals and organizations – whose talents must be added.
“Bridgers have the unenviable job of facilitating co-creation between their internal colleagues and partners outside their organizational boundaries – a role that requires exercising influence without formal authority,” the researchers explain.
Different organizations mean different priorities, constraints, time frames and work styles. Bridgers have to find the right partners, serve as translators between the different partners to build common understanding and then integrate the efforts to achieve success.
The researchers note it “is a difficult, hands-on, time-intensive form of leadership, and it is often underappreciated since much of it happens behind the scenes.” It requires a high degree of emotional intelligence, patience and diplomacy.
Sometimes, your ambition will require you to mobilize people across an industry, sector or even country or series of countries. The authors choose the term ecosystems to describe such structural challenges and point to catalysts as the individuals who lead innovation over such a broad range of entities.
“Catalysts galvanize and nurture strategic movements to harness the genius of those far beyond their immediate reach, often several degrees removed. They activate innovation in key stakeholders close to them and empower those stakeholders to carry that energy forward and invite others to join the movement,” they write.
The researchers stress that catalysts may take the initiative by framing collective possibilities and encouraging multi-party co-creation, but they also must be masters of letting go: “They do not impose collective agendas; they create the conditions for them to emerge.” The best test of a catalyst is whether the movement is sustained without them.
That’s presented as three distinct roles but sometimes it’s captured in one person. The key is to understand that innovation is co-creation and there are certain patterns of collaboration required to achieve success, often leading to work beyond your own walls. It’s not quick and easy. Indeed, often you will have to slow down in the short term to go faster and further in the long term.
“It requires taking the time to clarify the purpose that animates you and those working with you. It requires curiosity and diligence to gain an intimate understanding of the specific circumstances in which you’re operating. Ultimately, it requires tenacity as you embrace the hard work of marrying bold ambition with grounded reality,” they advise.
Cannonballs
- When pushing messages of change and other initiatives, think beyond the meeting where the decision is taken. Consultant Andy Freed advises you to look for ways to reinforce the message through action, not just words. What you repeat through consistent behaviour matters as much as what you say out loud.
- Consultant Mark Pfister warns board members in his newsletter to guard against decisions starting effectively to be made even before meetings occur: Board materials guide toward a preferred conclusion, with agendas structured in ways that limit rather than expand debate. “If the Board is not the place where strategy is challenged and decisions are formed, then governance has already shifted out of the boardroom,” he says.
- Nothing great was ever built by someone who had to be talked into building it, Ottawa thought leader Shane Parrish notes.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.