Steve Jobs once said that innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower, and he was right in many ways. But I’d add that while innovation may define a leader, a leader also creates innovation. In fact, today’s most effective leaders are those who have learned how to spur the growth of innovation across their organizations and throughout their teams. With the simple first step of valuing the process of problem-finding, leaders can begin to

In more stable business climates of decades past, chief executives could leverage efficiency to achieve success. Closely managed corporate routines could be made a little quicker, a little smoother and a little cheaper to maximize profit and improve the bottom line. While that skill still has its place in the boardroom, today’s chaotic and unpredictable business climate also demands that executive leaders learn an entirely new skill: how to be adaptable.  Managing organizational routines tightly

In the February 2012 Academy of Management publication “Perspectives”, Jackson Nickerson and his associates suggest that that management’s problem finding and problem solving ability is vital for organizational performance and provides a platform for scientific organizational design. Our own research and experience agree completely. See for example : 1.  Basadur, M.S. (1992).  Managing creativity:  A Japanese model. Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 6 (2), 29-42, which provided evidence that top Japanese companies deliberately induce problem finding perormance as well

Albert Vollmer, the chair of Work and Organizational Psychology at  ETH Zurich, Switzerland, is leading  an applied research project called “Constructive Controversy for Innovation”. The goal is to introduce the concept  of Constructive Controversy for resolving conflicts in team innovation decision making.  The core of the  concept is the intellectual, or task conflict which arises when different people have to combine their different knowledge into a joint decision. Dr Vollmer suggests that the reality is that  organizational people don’t

Solving complex problems & building a roadmap for the future is hard work. You don’t need a “think tank,” but a “do tank.” How it works:A Simplexity Thinking group application session begins with a fuzzy situation, which, in our world, is an undefined problem or situation.  We have noticed that with time constraints, many of us in business immediately call the fuzzy situation our “problem”. But at Basadur, we believe it is the fuzzy situation