Highlights from IBM 2011 Study: Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity

This is a companion to the IBM 2010 Global Chief Human Resource Officer Study, and I am pleased to be one of the 40 people selected by IBM as a creative leader, for this study.

Why are some organizations consistently good at innovating and/or adapting while others seem to be blindsided by change? Is it because of their disciplined innovation process or the knowledge and skills of their people? Or is it their determination to build a culture where challenging assumptions is not only encouraged, but expected? Our IBM Creative Leadership Study found that leaders who embrace the dynamic tension between creative disruption and operational efficiency can create new models of extraordinary value.

In today’s volatile and complex environment, rapid adaptability is fundamental to success. Yesterday’s market-leading “best practices” can all too often turn into tomorrow’s recipe for disaster. History is full of examples of organizations that became so enamored with, or paralyzed by, the status quo that they failed to anticipate the fickle winds of customer demand and faded into oblivion.

Forward-thinking leaders, however, learn to harness this complexity to their advantage. They take processes with many distinctive parts and integrate each element into a smoothly functioning whole. They are at their best when anticipating the evolving needs of the marketplace and presenting differentiated products and services that cater to today’s highly empowered, knowledgeable and technologically enabled consumers.

What, specifically, enables leading-edge organizations to capitalize on the inherent complexity in today’s environment and catalyze innovation within their business models, products and services? According to the IBM 2010 Global CEO Study, the ability to embody creative leadership is among the most important attributes for capitalizing on complexity.

“Creative leaders invite disruptive innovation, encourage others to drop outdated approaches and take balanced risk. They’re open-minded and inventive in expanding their management and communication styles, particularly to engage with a new generation of employees, partners and customers.”

To succeed in an increasingly interconnected world, creative leaders avoid choosing between unacceptable alternatives. Instead, they use the power inherent in these dualities to invent new assumptions and create new models geared to an ever-changing world. Creative leadership in action enables a wide range of product, process and business model innovations.

Organizations will need to act upon three imperatives to accelerate the development of creative capital:

Uncover the key capabilities of the creative organization – Empower the organization’s ability to understand how the world behaves. Expose those individuals who see opportunities where others do not and map out what is found. Connect ideas and people in novel ways. Try many and various ideas. Inspire belief that action is possible. Maintain the discipline to get things done.
Unlock and catalyze the creative capabilities of leaders – Create high-impact, experiential learning tied to real business challenges. Develop inspirational role models who demonstrate accomplishment and empowered leadership. Unleash small, diverse teams to pursue bold ideas in response to challenges. Create work structures and incentives aligned with intrinsic motivation. Promote a culture of inspiring vision built on authenticity and powered by trust.
Unleash and scale organizational creativity – Share information for collective vision. Tap into global expertise networks. Expand management and communication style repertoires. Build ad hoc constituencies of those sharing common goals. Influence collective behavior through real-time analytics.

The report provides an excellent road map for leading and managing creativity in organizations. I particularly like how they frame the power inherent in dualities (dealing with polarities) to invent new assumptions:

“By harnessing the energy of opposites, creative leaders and their organizations can benefit from new assumptions that replace less effective “either/or” approaches.” For example a synthesis of local versus global polarities produces a new generation of social media-inspired globalists will push past tired management models and East versus West cultural stereotypes.”

Download Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity IBM study 2011. (PDF 1.93 MB)