DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

Talent Management By the Numbers - 5 Ideas to Jumpstart Your 2011

By Nikki Dy-Liacco

On the last working day of the calendar year, we typically have a small gathering in the office pantry to celebrate and reminisce on the year that was. As a fan of the musical Rent, I added the song Seasons of Love to our year-end ritual.

525,600 minutes, five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
525,600 minutes, how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

In 525,600 minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

While I can measure my 2010 in client events, boarding passes and loads of laundry, I could just as easily measure it in the number of times I heard “cautious optimism”; read another article on managing generational differences in the workforce; or received an invitation to a free Webinar on how to leverage social media tools. While I may or may not have had 525,600 interesting thoughts, allow me to share my five observations on the workforce from the last 12 months, that I suspect will stick around.    

1. An Alphabet of Generations. You know of X, Y and Z, but there’s yet another generation ready to wreck havoc on the workplace: Generation C for the 24/7 Connected Generation. I’m somewhere in between X and Y based on my birth year—I have a lot of strong characteristics associated with both—but if I read through the checklist of Gen C’s traits, I could be one too! Generational differences make up but one part of the puzzle, which also includes differences in culture, gender, personality, work styles, zodiac signs (you get the picture…). At the risk of creating a bowl of alphabet soup, the time has come to focus on Gen “I”—for each Individual. While there are many suggested tactics to manage the different generations in the workplace, leaders cannot take a cookie-cutter approach to managing people. A leadership style that motivates and inspires one individual may plunge another into poor performance. By better meeting the needs of Gen I, leaders will create higher levels of engagement and organizational results.  

2. A Home for Third Culture Kids. If you’ve ever struggled with the question “Where are you from?” or have spent a significant portion of your growing-up years in a foreign country, chances are you’re a Third Culture Kid or a TCK. According to Denizen.com, an online site dedicated to this unique group, TCKs “are the citizens of the future. [They] possess the globalized views and diverse experiences that are necessary in an ever-shrinking world. [They] will be the leaders of tomorrow, and will help others navigate this globalized society.” I had the good fortune of meeting Ruth Van Reken who co-wrote the book Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds which helped to popularize the term TCKs after writing a blogpost. Together with other adult TCKs here in Singapore, we discussed how today’s world is much more of a home for us global nomads than it was decades ago. Companies need more leaders with TCK qualities such as adaptability, cultural sensitivity and resilience who can help to expand and globalize. While you can’t make someone into a TCK, you can develop global leaders. 

3. One Skill to Rule Them All. While Tolkien’s One Ring promised great power, there is One Skill that could overrule all other skills. Mr. Lim Swee Say, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore and Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress, was part of the closing plenary session The World in 2020 at the Singapore Human Capital Summit 2010. Given the looming reality of structural unemployment or the mismatch of current skills becoming obsolete with the requirements of the future, he shared that the most important skill to develop today is adaptability. While some may argue that it is difficult to develop, the Minister emphasized that the only solution is to build adaptable workers and to provide opportunities for continuous learning. While it’s not as easy to learn as riding a bicycle, there are practical ways to build one’s capacity to embrace change:

• Gain confidence in unstructured, unpredictable situations like task forces or projects that require you to adapt to different issues and people. Seek an assignment in a new environment or department.
• Get to know people throughout the organization, developing a network that you can depend upon during times of uncertainty and change. Join a cross-functional team that requires you to work with a variety of people.
• Ask your manager to help you identify situations when you have responded negatively to change and identify alternative behaviors that would result in a more positive reaction.
• When working with others, observe how they react to changes in tasks, deadlines, etc. Note effective behaviors and seek coaching from your manager on how you can model those behaviors. 

4. All Eyes and Ears on Asia. Galileo never claimed that Asia was the center of the universe, but it sometimes feels that way now that all eyes are fixed on Asia for business opportunities. At a panel dialogue on Leadership Capabilities for Success in Asia at the Singapore Human Capital Summit 2010, Mr. Gerald Lema, Corporate Vice President and Asia Pacific President for Baxter International shared how operations in Asia cannot expect all the answers from corporate headquarters. In fact, it seems that Asia is the new World Headquarters for most global firms. While their physical corporate office may not necessarily sit in the region, most head offices based in North America or Europe are looking towards their operations in China, India, and other fast-developing markets for direction, for answers and of course, for growth. Cordelia Chung, Regional General Manager for IBM-ASEAN, also shared her thoughts on how to lead in Asia. She stressed the need to increase communication, to speak up and to be more assertive. Now that the world is watching, leaders in Asia need to step up and be heard more than before--the rest of the world is listening!

5. You, Me, Five Bucks and Good Conversation. Do you remember that line from the movie Reality Bites? (I did mention earlier that I’m a Gen Xer, right?) I did after a conversation I had with my manager on a recent study on Boosting Productivity among Knowledge Workers from McKinsey Quarterly. The key to higher productivity is to identify and address the barriers they face in their daily interactions (and pay them more than five bucks, of course). Compensation and setting performance metrics are important, but because knowledge workers spend half their time on interactions, it’s the quality of their day-to-day interactions with their peers and managers that ultimately count. And what is an effective interaction but good one-on-one two-way conversation about an upcoming project, recent performance, career aspirations, or your last holiday?

A few months later I had a chance to hear CEO and President of Bersin & Associates Josh Bersin on upcoming talent management trends. One stood out which echoed the McKinsey study: all of talent management comes back down to the individual manager. While HR provides the necessary systems and tools, talent management is really about each manager taking the organization’s needs and the individual’s aspirations, and having a conversation to ensure alignment, engagement and success. The way I see it, the pressure is on for all managers. A selection system will fail if the hiring manager can’t excite the applicant with why-I-love-this-job stories. If managers can’t carry a decent conversation and workers feel “blah” after talking to their boss, I guarantee they will look for their “five bucks” somewhere else.

I hope these points can jumpstart your 2011—enough to generate your own list for your year-ender reflection to the tune of (sing with me now) 525,600 minutes... how do you measure a year in the life?

Nikki Dy-Liacco is DDI’s Marketing Manager for South East Asia. She’s proud to be Gen I Third Culture Kid, and is committed to being adaptable and loves to sing along to the Rent OST after a productive workday of good conversations

Talent Management By The Numbers - 5 Leadership Lessons from Literary Chaos

By Barry Stern Ph.D.

In Rolling Stone last month, I encountered Yoko One quoting one of my favorite John Lennon lines, “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans”. And so it goes with my reading. To me, books are irresistible, bright shiny objects. What I end up reading is borne out of my life’s chaos, a function of ephemeral passions du jour stoked by discussions with business colleagues, friends, family, late night infomercials, and whether I have finished watching the full 6 years of the Sopranos on my iPad. Whether it’s a bunch of post-its on my desk, an Outlook task list category labeled “books,” a sky high pile of ugly unread periodicals on top of my file cabinet, or scribbled napkin notes stuffed disgustingly in my wallet, my reach always overextends my grasp. 

Yes, I am Barry and I suffer from ADBD (Attention Deficit Book Disorder). My new Kindle and iPad life provides an interesting chronology of my pathetic condition. Currently, I have 36 free “Samples” on my Kindle. I have read them all feverishly and, sadly, they all look equally terrific to me. I would be the worst critic in the world – a one man universal hype machine. Amazon’s cloud presents me with a ready list of the 22 books I read in 2010. I won’t even attempt to comment on them all, but if you have hit the hyperlink you have already peeked into my disturbed literary state.

Herewith presented, if only as personal therapy and delusion, are some leadership lessons I’ve taken from these books:   

1. Continue to develop weaker elements of an individual’s “success profile” regardless of the height of towering strengths.  In the tome, The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and Me, Dr. Nichopoulos points out our first lesson.  Elvis Presleys’ demons were evident to all, but too many were willing to turn a blind eye to the weaknesses that robbed him of his talent, and ultimately, his life.  
2. A superior performer does not an engaged employee make. In his autobiography Open, tennis superhero Andre Agassi describes how he learned to hate the game. Absurd, unbelievable, and true.  So while I thoroughly enjoy the excellence of the many talented people around me, this book contains a major caveat – they might not be nearly enjoying themselves as much as me. And one day they may well be gone.
3. Augment your leadership approach with an appeal to the intrinsic characteristics of motivation, particularly for more complex endeavors. I struggled with this one for a while, being a classically trained behavioral psychologist, however in Drive, Daniel Pink eventually convinced me that I must take more leadership action based on the power of what he terms autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If you’ve got the time, click here for an engaging 11 minute summary of his work. 
4. Treat people with “total respect and total honesty." Lizbeth Salander and Liesel Meminger  (central characters in, respectively The “Dragon Tattoo” Trilogy [Larsson], and The Book Thief [Zusak]) survived unspeakable atrocities.  Yet, they demonstrated the remarkable spark, preciousness, and resilience of the human condition. I left these ladies inspired to honor the humanity in all our employees, and to give my courageous best to each as they continue their development journeys.
5. Finally, in the post-Christmas spirit, Yes Virginia, there really is a place for leadership vision.  You see it in the remarkable work of Jack Rakove, Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, which profoundly reshaped my understanding of the formation of the USA.  In a world where blimps represented the technology of the future, brilliant minds and passionate foot soldiers created a reality which still resonates for those of us in the US today. And I have had the audacity to look askance at a 5 year plan? How narrow.

Well there you have it. My secrets are exposed. What leadership lessons did you draw from unlikely places over the last year? I’d be interested to know.   

Barry Stern Ph.D. is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI). Follow him on Twitter.

Talent Management By the Numbers - 14 Great Insights on Measurement

By Jazmine Boatman, Ph.D.

I eat breakfast during my morning commute, I make phone calls while I’m running errands, and I file email messages as soon as I’ve read them. I am constantly looking for ways to be more efficient. So naturally, any compilation that says “Best Of” is going to find itself at the top of my (long) reading list, in particular ASTD’s “The Best of Measuring and Evaluating Learning”  in T+D magazine.

In terms of better understanding how to measure the impact development programs are having on the business, this 14-article collection couldn’t sum up the thorny topic any better. It has all the makings of a good story—a compilation of history, case studies, and even myth-busting. Plus, how often do you get to find out from the source why one heavyhitter (Kirkpatrick) wants to sue another (Phillips of ROI fame)?

But what I liked best about this issue is that it leaves you with one of the most important messages about measurement: There is no magic bullet and time is wasted spent searching for it. It comes down to a realistic dialogue about objectives, metrics, and stakeholders: What were your objectives? What metrics will prove that you met them? Is that what your stakeholders care about?  Each organization will answer this question differently. So if you’re wondering how to navigate through the weekly catch phrases (e.g., ROI, ROE, “strategic” measurement) and want to efficiently make some progress towards answers, I would suggest thumbing through this issue.

In the editor’s note, Paula Ketter worked hard to boil it down for us: “document expectations of the program and then measure those expectations”. Save yourself some time: That’s about as close as we’re going to get to a magic bullet.

Jazmine Boatman, Ph.D. is the Manager of DDI's Center for Applied Behavioral Research (CABER).

Talent Management by the Numbers - 5 Great Talent Losses in 2010

By Mike Hoban

“Leave the world a better place.”  Emerson is purported to have said that and I’ve always found it to be both an inspirational and aspirational principle.  In the year 2010, a number of talented people departed the earth who indeed left it a better place because of who they were or what they did.  What follows is my own short list- in no special order - of mostly well-known people with talent who passed on this year and who made the world and my world specifically a better place and why. 

They’re inspirations for the rest of us as we think about what we contribute as employees, bosses, entrepreneurs and citizens of the world.   

Stewart Udall – Udall did as much as anyone in the past 75 years to spearhead both environmental consciousness and subsequent concrete action.  As Secretary of the Interior for two different presidents (Kennedy and Johnson), he oversaw the addition of four national parks, 8 national seashores and many other national monuments, historical sites and wildlife refuges.  As a tireless champion of the environment, he helped pass some of the original environmental legislation which we now take for granted and in his lifetime wrote 9 books on environmental and historical topics.  An interesting - and heroic - side note about Udall.  He forced the integration of the Washington Redskins football team in 1962, because the stadium was federally owned.  For me, he was always an interesting, prescient and thoughtful man and we are a greener planet because of him.   Udall was 90 years old.

John Wooden – Easily the most famous college basketball coach in history, Wooden led his UCLA teams to 10 national championships in 12 years, 1964-1975, including 7 years in a row, an unthinkable achievement these days.  But Wooden was more than a great coach who had great teams.  He was decent; likeable; honorable.  It’s tempting for sports fans to dislike teams who seem to win too much and need some comeuppance (think the Yankees), but Wooden was such a classy and humble individual that I and so many others had nothing but admiration for him and routinely rooted for his powerful UCLA teams.  He also created a series of lectures called “The Pyramid of Success” which was his motivational view of how to succeed not only in basketball but in life itself.

The write-up in Wikipedia provides a touching story about what kind of man he was.   

Wooden was just four months shy of being 100 years young.

Leslie Nielsen – His special talent?  He made us laugh.  I know he made me laugh.  Who could forget the now classic line Nielsen deadpanned in the 1980 movie Airplane:  Rumack (Nielsen):  “Can you fly this plane, and land it?”  Ted Striker: “Surely you can't be serious.”  Rumack:   “I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.”  Creating laughs and mirth surely (oops) qualifies in my book as making the world a better place.  After Airplane established him as a comic actor, he starred in several “Naked Gun” movies, always as a very clueless Lieutenant Frank Drebin who innocently stumbled his way through improbable situations and LOL-quality puns. 

And while his characters spoke clever lines written by others, Nielsen had his own home-grown funny lines as well.  One I like best is “Doing nothing is very hard to do...you never know when you're finished.” His talents will be missed.  He was 84.                     

Ted Sorenson – Whatever one’s political leanings, I think it’s hard for anyone to not be impressed and inspired by Ted Sorenson’s famous words written for JFK’s inaugural address in 1961:  “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  It set a tone.  It set a standard.  It established a new voice for America.  As a young boy, I remember hearing those words as the youthful president spoke them on that cold January day for all the world to hear.  Sorenson was 32 years old when he penned those words – pretty heady stuff. 

Sorenson was 82 when he passed on October 31.               

Fred Morrison – Fred who?   Many other talented people passed away in 2010 who made their mark on both the world at large and on my world and it was difficult to whittle it down to five.  But the final slot belongs to Fred Morrison: the inventor of the Frisbee.  It is hard to imagine a world without Frisbees and it was Morrison who designed the first ones made out of plastic in the late 1940s.  It went by the name of “Flyin-Saucer” and in the early 1950s was improved and rechristened the “Pluto Platter.” 

However, it wasn’t until he sold the rights to toy maker Wham-O in 1957, who improved it further (incremental innovation), put marketing dollars behind it and re-named it “Frisbee” that the product, um, took off.  Morrison went on to become a millionaire, and parks, beaches and college campuses have not been the same since.  This innovator was 90 when he died earlier this year.                   

So yes, there were quite a few withdrawals from the world’s talent bank this past year.  We all can’t be presidential speech writers or environmental statesmen or “made-ya-laugh” headliners.   But we all can strive to do our parts in our everyday lives so that when others talk about us when we are gone there are indeed positive legacies that people appreciate us for.  Talent is not just about intrinsic gifts, it is also about what we do about the gifts we have, no matter how modest we think they are.

Mike Hoban is a senior consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI). 

Talent Management by the Numbers - The 20 Best Leadership Blog Posts 2010

By Dan McCarthy

I’m honored to have been asked by DDI to assemble the best leadership posts from 2010.  As the host of the monthly Leadership Development Carnival at my own blog, Great Leadership, I have the pleasure of rounding up the best of the best on a regular basis.

With all due respect to Harvard Business Publishing, The Washington Post, and Fortune Magazine, and the academic scholars, I’ve decided to limit my selection to the independent leadership bloggers. Great ideas about leadership and leadership development are no longer limited to a handful of well-known “gurus”.

You may be wondering how I determined that the collection of posts below were “the best” – out of those thousands. I actually didn’t. Instead, I reached out to some of my own personal favorite leadership bloggers – OK, to me, they’re the “best”- and asked each of them to submit their own favorite posts with a comment from the author. And they are . . .

1. Art Petty, Management Excellence - "Leadership Caffeine: Managing Risk Without Stifling Experimentation"

Why: “The leader's role in cultivating a workplace environment that stimulates and supports innovation has never been more important. It takes an effective leader, well-grounded in the purpose of his/her role and focused on supporting others to create an environment for innovation to take root and then flourish.”  -

2. Sharlyn Lauby, HR Bartender - "7 Types of Power in the Workplace"   

Why: “Everyone has power.  Everyone.  There's value in understanding what kind of power and the best way to use it.”

3. Alison Green, Ask a Manager - "How to Manage a Problem Employee"

Why: “It uses a specific situation to talk managers through how to hold an underperforming employee accountable, addressing a lot of the common qualms managers have when faced with this.”

4. John Baldoni, John Baldoni's Lead By Example - "Leaders Need to Involve Themselves in Crises"

Why: “The measure of a leader is what he/she does in tough times. This blog provides a practical way of approaching leadership in tough times by doing what employees need you to do: be seen, be heard, be there.”

5. Mary Jo Asmus, Mary Jo Asmus - "Stunning Leadership"

Why: “All things require practice to get better at them. This is true of ballet, and it’s also true of leadership. The prima continues to practice even when at the top of her game; so should a leader. This post compares the practice necessary to exhibit a stunning performance, whether one is a ballerina or a leader.”

6. Kevin W. Grossman, Leaders. Better. Brighter.™ "Lead small. Think big. And be of self-aware endurance."

Why:  “For me, it's indicative of what it means to lead self for the long run -- regardless of whether you're an individual contributor or a manager or a CEO.  It truly epitomizes my continuous journey of learning and leading.”

7. Lisa Haneberg, Management Craft - "Six thoughts about Middle Management"

Why: “I think it offers a positive and refreshing take on a very important, but often not appreciated role. It got a lot of comments, so the post resonated with folks.”

8. Kevin Eikenberry, Leadership and Learning With Kevin Eikenberry "Ten Decisions a Leader Makes Everyday"

Why:  “I think this is a good post because while as leaders we must always be decisive, these aren’t the decisions that come at us consciously, yet when we make these decisions effectively, we are well on our way to being  a more effective leader.” 

9. Jennifer V. Miller, The People Equation "Leaders Help People Connect the Dots"

Why: “The essay highlights the rapid pace of information flow in the workplace and offers 6 tips for leaders in how to provide context to their contributors.”

10. Jane Perdue, Get Your Leadership BIG On! "Decisions, double-edged swords and the devil’s advocate"

Why: “We have choices to make every day; and with the hectic pace of work and life, it's altogether too easy to make a snap decision that wreaks unintended havoc.  Using a simple decision-making process promotes buy-in, reduces the possibility of huge blunders and puts the woulda/coulda/shoulda/ gremlin to bed.”

11. Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership - "The Attitude Trap"

Why: “This is an issue for bosses because it seems so logical. But, addressing a bad attitude directly is a trap.  It will get you argument, denial, and withdrawal, but little or no change. It may even generate anger and bad blood. It's more effective and very easy to ask yourself a simple question and then take action.”

12. Jason Seiden, Fail Spectacularly! - "Screw Your Career Path, Live Your Story!"

Why: “The post captures the naked emotion of leadership under fire by providing a stark juxtaposition of career path and story. The lessons of the post remind would-be leaders that platitude-filled corporate paths, by design, cannot prepare them to stand on their own two feet.”

13. Bret Simmons, Bret Simmons - Positive Organizational Behavior - "Leadership is a Journey"

Why: “This was a very impromptu post. I read something that challenged my thinking, then shared the experience with my readers. A good blog posts challenges people so see things in ways they might not have anticipated. Blogging is a way for me to document my own learning and growing process, and this blog post is a good example of that.”

14. Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership - "How to be a More Approachable, Sociable Leader"

Why: “I picked this because it’s personal. At the time I wrote it, it was something I was really working on and part of my IDP.  Six months later, after following my own advice, I’ve been told to stop telling people it’s a development need – because it’s not. There’s no such thing as “hard wired” – anybody can change if they want to,  know how to, and work at it”.

15.  Mike Myatt, N2growth Blog - "Game Changers"

Why: “What I like about this piece is that it’s brief, relevant and actionable. It takes a fairly complex topic and provides a simple framework that can be easily adopted. I also liked the post because of the value contained in the comments section”.

16. Mark Bennett, TalentedApps - "The Power of Developing Teams"

Why: “The post highlights that while we talk about how leadership includes developing teams, we often miss important considerations in what it means to actually develop *teams* and not just groups of individuals.”

17. Scott Eblin, Next Level Blog  - "What We Can About Leadership from the Chilean Miners"

Why: “I wrote this about three weeks into the drama.  There were great leadership lessons at that point and even more later.  Wrote a follow up posts on the rescuers.  To me, it’s the leadership story of the year and it has a happy ending!” 

18. Erin Schreyer, Authentic Leadership - "You Are One of a Kind, and I’ll Lead You That Way"

Why: “Treating people differently can pose challenges for some organizations.  This post provides a few practical tips on how leaders can provide this benefit!” 

19. Author: Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace  - "I'll Change: Tell Me Exactly What You Want"

Why: “Leaders who want change often find themselves with willing, but confused, followers. The answer: Be more specific.”

20. Mark Stelzner, Inflexion Point - “The Art of Saying No” 

Why: "It touched upon systemic issues that leaders and their reports deal with every day. Moreover, the comments provided by my readers helped to take the conversation beyond the original post."

If you think I missed an outstanding leadership post – and I’m sure I did – feel free to leave a comment with the link and why you think it’s so good.

Dan McCarthy is the author of the award-winning leadership development blog Great Leadership, which draws on his 20-plus years of experience in the field of leadership development. He is currently the manager of leadership and management development at a Fortune “Great Place to Work,” “Training Top 125″, and “High Impact Learning” (HILO 80) company.

Talent Management by the Numbers - Vote for Your Favorite Talent Management Intelligence Blog

As we end the year, we want to hear from you about what Talent Management Intelligence Blog inspired you this year. Did something change how you do your job? What did you think was a must read? Please vote for your favorite 2010 DDI blog by including a comment in this post with the headline of your favorite post.
Follow the series on Twitter at #TMbythenumbers

Talent Management by the Numbers - The Top 5 Innovative Thinkers on Innovation

By Mark Dembo

2010 may go down as a record-breaking year when it comes to chatter about innovation.  Of course, to me, this sort of begs the question: from the Industrial Revolution to the Information Revolution – hasn’t innovation always been the fuel of the growth engine?

In days of yore, when we thought of innovation, we pictured researchers in Thomas Edison’s lab creating the latest new invention; activities focused on by discreet, specialized parts of the organization. For today’s thinking, I like the definition offered up by dictionary.com: 

Innovate: “to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.”

Innovation is not just the realm of product-development; it’s about process, it’s about organizational design, it’s about learning and development – in short, it’s about the very fabric of organizational life today.

For HR and Talent Management, it’s vital to understand what innovation truly is, to articulate the success profile to enable us to hire, develop, and retain innovators, so here is my round-up of the Top 5 Innovative Thinkers on Innovation. 

Vijay Govindarajan is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and innovation, as the Founding Director of the Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.    VG, as he is known, widely makes the point that innovation is not something done in isolation, but rather must be embedded as part of the organization.

In his most recent book,  The Other Side of Innovation, VG and co-author Chris Trimble discuss the things that organizations need to do to make innovation work; the 99% of the effort that needs to happen after that initial idea is hatched.    

Gary Hamel, consultant and Professor at the London Business School, is well known for his work on core competencies and corporate strategy, much of which is focused on innovation.  In his Management 2.0 Blog, Hamel focuses on the idea that there is not just one size or flavor of innovative organizations.   His classifications:

• Tyros; young companies built around whacky new business models
• Nobel laureates; these companies are consistently innovative, albeit in a narrow, technologically oriented, sphere
• Artistes; these firms are in the creativity business—innovation is their product 
• Cyborgs; companies like Google, Amazon and Apple that have been purpose-built to achieve super-human feats of innovation
• Born Again innovators;  companies like Procter & Gamble, IBM and Ford.

While his “taxonomy” presents a great way to think about your organization, and where you may fall on this spectrum, his key point is this:

Innovation “requires a fundamental retooling of a company’s management processes . . . Most of our management rituals were designed (a very long time ago) to promote discipline, control, alignment and predictability—all laudable goals. But to outrun change or head off a newcomer at the pass, these processes have to be re-engineered so they facilitate rather than frustrate bold thinking and radical doing.”

Steven Johnson, author and expert on the intersection of science, technology, and experience.  His most current book: “Where Great Ideas Come From” further dispels the notion and myth that innovation is born in a single “Eureka” moment.  An “idea is not a single thing”, rather an “idea is a network”, says Johnson. 

Innovation is something cobbled together from existing things into a new configuration.  

He draws on examples such as the rise of the coffeehouse in mid-seventeenth century England as a key impetus for the rise of the Enlightenment and the innovations of that period. 

Watch his talk at the TED conference for a brief, yet fascinating look into the evolution of innovative thinking – and ideas for fostering a culture of innovation within our organizations.

Jeanne Meister is a leading expert in the design, operation and management of the corporate learning function, Meister take an important look at how organization design and learning needs to innovate and change in order to remain competitive into the 21^st Century.   Her latest book, the 20/20 Workplace discusses how organizations need to first define a core set of values, and then fully leverage the tools of “the social web to reimagine learning and development, talent management, and leadership practices.”

She focuses on the need to create personalized learning experiences, while being able to tap into the way the millennial generation learns and interacts. 

Daniel Pink – one-time speechwriter for Al Gore, author Dan Pink has a pulse on the key trends shaping business now and in the future.  In his latest book Drive, and in this speech at the TED Conference, Pink discusses the need to re-think how we run our businesses, citing a mis-match between what science knows and what business does.  

In today’s world, in order to encourage innovation in our organizations, the focus needs to turn to the intrinsic factors where people find true meaning in what they do. 

Pink talks about three primary drivers of this intrinsic motivation; Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.   Organizations that want to foster an environment and culture of innovation should turn their attention on how they can best provide these elements within the design of jobs and organizations.

Fostering the Culture of Innovation:

In looking at the thinking of this group, some common trends emerge that may apply to your organizations.

• Innovation does not happen in isolation
• Innovation is about more than just a great idea; it’s about turning ideas into reality
• Organizations need to provide the “space” for everyone in the organization to innovate
• Key competencies such as team building, risk taking, collaboration, learning agility, leading change are needed in our leaders to help foster innovation throughout the organization.

Wishing you a very innovative 2011!

Mark Dembo is a manager for Development Dimensions International (DDI).