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Innovation and strategic thinking are the resume of leadership. What if there was a way that every employee could become a source of innovation?

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Ralph Johnson
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91 views

Yy Yyyyyyyyyyyy Yyy Y Y Yyyyyyy Y Yyyy Yyyyyyyyyyyyy!Yyyy Y"Yyyyyyyy#Yy$Yyy Yyyyyyyyyyy Yyyyyy

Innovation and strategic thinking are the resume of leadership. What if there was a way that every employee could become a source of innovation?

Uploaded by

Ralph Johnson
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sports Night was a television comedy of which I was particularly fond.

In one episode, the two main characters are talking about relationship strategy. Dan is talking with Casey about how he should approach an upcoming date. Youve got to have a plan, Dan stated. I do have a plan, Casey responded. A two point plan. First, I show up. Then, I see what happens. When you are responsible for leadership in an organization, you require a two point plan as well. You need to be able to think strategically yourself and you need to inspire

strategic thinking in your followers. In your role as high chief honcho of your organization, strategic thinking should come as second nature. Or so you would think. However, leaders find themselves immersed in so much minutiae, so many things that others could be doing, that the one thing that gets ignored is likely the one thing that can be least afforded to be ignored: strategic thinking. Clausewitz (1982, p. 264, 274)observes that tactics is the actual delivery of the blow, the battle itself, and strategy the art of using this means with skill. (Holstius and Malaska, 2004) While researching the widget; designing the widget; manufacturing, marketing, and selling the widget; are all important to the organization; you already have people youre paying to do all those. As the leader, you must be the one employ these tactics with skill. Say it is time to begin Widget 2.0. Since 2.0 is following so closely on the heels of the extremely successful 1.0, it must be a killer upgrade. This is no small feat. Establishing momentum through product development and distinction is critical in todays overstimulated market. So, what is the first thing you do? Examine the customer feedback, get your hands dirty with the researchers, and develop a new sales plan complete with storyboard suggestions for the marketing division? No, none of these. Those are all tactics. Strategy is utilizing these in the most future-thinking, innovative and ground-breaking manner. You have the vision, the overall conceptual framework and the intense intuition to see all these functions work as they should and to envision the outcome. If Widget 2.0 is in development, its time for version 2.3 or version 3.0 to be on your mind. Otherwise, youre overpaid. Once your role as strategist-in-chief is firmly positioned; you must also inspire strategic thinking on the part of your followers. Of course, you would call in all of your direct reports, the division heads and those whose innovative disposition places them in such rarefied air and give them a pep talk, parts of which they can cite as they push their employees to greater success. Well, yes, but then, no. Strategic thinking on the part of your followers needs to permeate your entire organization. If the company name is on their paycheck, they are part of the strategic following. The matrix for strategic thinking in your organization must incorporate all of your organization. As has been said, strategy occurs best in the white spaces of your organizational chart (Hughes and Beatty, 2005). So, just call a company-wide meeting, get on Skype, or whatever it is you do when you want to talk to everybody; and just tell them: start thinking strategically you guys! Obviously it doesnt really work that way. However, there are methods for inspiring strategic thinking in every corner of your organization. One suggestion that has proven results in our organization is to include a dumb idea coupon in every employees pay envelope. The

employee turns in their coupon to the chief innovation officer (thats you!) along with their one idea for moving the organization (its products, a DUMB idea advertising, customer service, whatever) forward in its current, or even an untapped, market. The CIO (thats you, remember?) gives the employee ten dollars on the spot (carrying a roll of tens in your pocket and giving them out in return for D.I. (dumb idea) coupons on the workroom floor works really well) in return for their one dumb idea. This will generate any number of ideas, both good and not so good. The point is that this will energize your workforce to think strategically and the serendipity of the moment is that you could easily discover the next strategic move. As the chief strategist of your organization, it is up to you to harness your own strategic genius (or develop it) and to inspire in your followers, bottom to top, to think strategically. This is the way to stay ahead in the highly competitive global marketplace. And who knows, one day you may get to just show up and see what happens! References Holstius, Karin and Pentti Malaska. Advanced Strategic Thinking: Visionary Management. Finland: Turun Kauppakorkeakoulun Julkaisuja, Publications of the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, 2004. Hughes, Richard L. and Katherine Colarelli Beatty. Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organizations Enduring Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2005.

Author Biography Ralph E Johnson has been in government service for twenty years, then twelve years of ministerial service. He holds a Bachelors degree from Nazarene Bible College and a Masters degree from Northwest Nazarene University. Presently, Ralph is enrolled as a doctoral student in the School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship at Regent University. Ralph is married with two adult children; one of which has his two grandchildren.

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