Rebel Innovators - Committed to the Cause

This past weekend we celebrated Independence Day, or more commonly known as the “4^th of July”, and this year was our nation’s 140^th birthday. As I enjoyed the day off with friends and family, I thought back to a couple of books that I have enjoyed that recount some of the history of America’s birth. The first is David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning book 1776, and the other Joseph J. Ellis, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, book The Quartet. The themes that impacted me from these two great books showed individuals involved with the revolution and the beginning of the nation were:

•  Rebels to the status quo
• Innovators of a new standard
•  Totally committed to the cause

As I thought through these themes, the three characteristics that marked the Founding Fathers are the same as those found in successful leaders and organizations.

Rebels to the Status Quo

The economical, social, and political environment in the Colonies was not vastly different from the one found in the other parts of the United Kingdom. The lack of representation, followed by an imbalanced amount of taxes, and the inability for class growth made the Colonies susceptible to serious problems. However, very few “brave” individuals were willing to take on the powerful British state to demand the changes. The ones that did decide saw a future not linked to the status quo of the current environment but a new, vibrant future. They were marked traitors, rebels.

Today, the current business environment could label Apple, Google, Netflix, etc., as traitors, rebels. These organization, and others, saw the status quo but decided to rebel against it and demand changes to create a vibrant future. The risks, the failures, the obstacles did not deter them, and it does not deter individuals, leaders, organizations that look to change the status quo. The mark of organizational death is the mindset to continue to do things the same way because it has always been done that way. A rebel does not want death, it demands life.

Innovators of a New Standard

Beyond being rebels, the founders needed to design a “country” that would provide the freedoms that they sought to have in their lives. As innovators, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others did not look to create a country from scratch, but looked at other countries and ancient writers to take concepts and philosophies and implement the ideas. Innovators and disruptors do not always come up with new ideas as much as understanding the current situation, taking ideas from various areas and then implementing them to make a difference. They become the doers of ideas and not just the thinkers.

This is the same with leaders and organizations. Innovators often look beyond their industry to understand new trends and ideas and then look to implement it into their organization. An example would be in the Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Beyond the innovative opportunities for monetary possibilities, the prospects of taking this idea and adapting it to education will be revolutionary. This innovation could be a game changer in education and how we provide competency-based learning.

This will, like the country’s founders, will cause people to be uneasy and will fight against it. Creating things and innovating often disrupts the status quo and those with a stake. Successful leaders and organizations are often disruptors in not only their industry but other industries as well.

Totally Committed to the Cause

Although it is not easy to be a rebel and innovator in an industry, the part that often can trip most individuals or organizations is the commitment level. The history of America’s beginning is filled with disappointments, gaffs, and defeats; however, the total commitment to the cause of freedom did not deter the founders. With each set back, the opportunity to learn and grow from the experience pushed the birth of the country forward. Others did fall away, but a core team stayed in focused to the cause.

For successful leaders and organizations, the road to success is never easy. The realization and acceptance of failures and defeats are used to empower, as learning outcomes, and ultimately, become the basis for a better product, service, or idea. It is the leader or organization that allows others to try and fail so they learn, that build an environment of success. When failure is taken off of the table as a complete negative, then individuals and organizations thrive.

Like the rebels, innovators and individual totally committed to the cause of freedom, those leaders and organizations that take on the same characteristics will become the new standard for others to follow. Do you desire to be a rebel? Is that who you are or your organization is? If not, how do you become the disruptor and new standard-bearer for your industry.

We need revolution in our business world, and especially in our education system. Let begin now!

Revolutionary Leadership

“Reform is as much about changing mentality as about redesigning structure.”

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge The FourthRevolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State

In their book, The Fourth Revolution, Micklethwait and Wooldridge look at the need within the current national state to reinvent itself to be more efficient and provide the real services that its citizens desire. Even though the book is focused on national governments, there were some practical pieces that could be picked up for leaders in other industries.

Leadership is the key component to an organization’s successes and failures. Current leadership in some industries operates in ways to pacify specific groups so they are happy rather than maintaining the value, vision, and mission of the organization. The maintenance of the organization's value, mission, and mission often requires leaders to make decisions that might not be favorable to all but are required for the overall success of the organization. Additionally, organizations that have leaders willing to make the hard decisions are often organizations that also have leaders that develop environments of risk taking.

This risk taking is important if the organization has the mission and vision of being a leader in its industry, a front-runner, and innovator. Risk does not always mean success, failures do occur. However, innovative organizations and leaders do not use the failures to suppress risk takers but as learning opportunities to create something better. Better processes. Better products. Better employees. Better. Better.

What happens if you are not a part of that type of organization? This can be a difficult environment to work. It might seem logical that the lack of innovation in a organization is tied to the unwillingness of the leadership to be innovative. However, it is that an organization often moves away from its stated values, vision, and mission and replaces it with short term strategies that patch holes in the organizational fabric. This short sightedness leads to a slow death of an organization, often times causing it to become extinct. The organizations that tend to have this type of leadership often look out to save what they have acquired and push an organization to work in silos, whereas innovative organizations breakdown those silos to work together (example).  

As a leader, the decisions that are made revolve around the impact that the organization is going to make on its industry, its customers, and its employees. The willingness to make decisions based on old practices and processes often leads to an organization falling behind, becoming extinct. The decisions that are based outside of the values, vision, and mission of the organization leads to internal organizational distrust. Or, the decisions can be “outside the box” ideas that lead to pushing the organization to operate in innovative ways that cause change within their industries. It is this type of leadership that are industry leaders rather than the organization that only says it wants to be the leader but their decisions do not bare the same results.

What type of leader are you? What type of leadership do you want to be under? Is that where you are now or do you need to move on? Moving on is not running away, it is understanding that the desire to be under great leadership might mean sacrificing the place you current are employed.

Blank Pages - Taking the Plunge

There are moments in life, both as a person and as an organization, that require major decisions that can define the next portion of the journey. The decisions are often not easy, maybe frightening, but are necessary. What can make the decision more difficult is the fear we face in the midst of the possible outcomes of the decision. A fear of failure can paralyze the decision making process. This fear can result in a decision being safe and secure that carries no rick as opposed to the decision that could bring about change.

Marty Sklar, in his book Dream It! Do It! My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdom, talks about a blank sheet of paper in the following way:

There are two ways to look at a blank piece of paper. One way is it's the most frightening thing in the world because you have to make the first mark on it. The way we taught the Imagineers to think about that blank page is it's the greatest opportunity in the world. Because you GET to make the first mark on that page and let your imagination fly. It was a wonderful opportunity for all of us, and the greatest influence in my career.

This is the same way that individuals and organizations often look at the large decisions, either in fear or in expectation. It is fear that often holds back individuals and organizations to make changes, to be innovators, or, in the words of Apple, be difference makers. The view of failure as bad leads to the fear that people have with making the "wrong" decisions.

But how do change makers, innovators, difference makers emerge? Most people and organizations want to be categorized as one of these, but they do not want to do the hard, or more importantly change their environment. It is the change makers, the innovators, and the difference makers that operate in an environment that embraces opportunity, innovations, and failure that leads to greater discoveries. It is not an environment that promotes fear of failure, which leads to apathy.

What does this all mean? It means, as an individual or organization, there is a need to review how you look at the blank page, and your decision making. This does not mean you make decisions based on ignorance, or poor data and information. It might mean that you look at the decision from other points of view, maybe your partner's, or your customer's, or you ask questions that might not seem obvious to everyone else. It is not letting fear influence your decision but your desire for improvement that is the driving force.

Decide today, how do you want to look at the next blank page that is put in front of you? Are you ready to take a opportunity that might fail but can lead to something better, or are you too scared to even make a mark?