Innovation by Inquiry

By Victor Kuarsingh

Innovation is a term used widely within the tech industry by individual contributors , managers and leaders alike.  However, such a powerful term is used by individuals with varying definitions.  What I am discussing today is not just technical innovation, as important as that is, but any innovation and approaches to foster such innovation with a focus on leaders in organizations.

I use the term leader purposefully versus manager (or boss) as I see these as different in terms of what they provide to a business, and how they are perceived by the organizations that report to them or follow such individuals indirectly.  Leaders help guide and move organizations in a direction driving positive advancement. Good leaders most often foster the willful and heartfelt desire for people to follow them, work hard for them, and help them achieve a collective strategy and desired set of outcomes.

How could one be a good leader? Well, that is a vast subject with many nuances depending on the domain or aspect of leadership one focuses on. In this particular write up, we are focusing on how to support and drive innovation within a business. I understand that with any set of so called rules we can apply to this topic, there will always be exceptions. Great titans like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs hav, or had, unique styles that were successful – for some definition of “success”. However that style of leadership cannot always be replicated as we all don’t often start our own companies and generate ideas which were optimally timed for unique (or forced) global opportunity.

Many leaders, especially if they are promoted or are managing an organization or function within their area of expertise, may try to over influence innovation and strategy with their own ideas. There is no rule that says a leader should not provoke innovation with their own ideas, however, to gain maximum benefit, one should set the stage and environment for innovation that provides access to a wider set of inputs. What does that really mean?

Firstly, don’t be a “know-it’all”. Nothing poisons the innovation punch bowl more than a leader who attempts to be the master of all ideas expecting their organizations to blindly follow and execute on those ideas irrespective of any erroneous conditions that apply to them. A good leader seeks to first understand what ideas are out there in the ether of their organization. Why is this important? Well no one, not a single one of us, knows everything, has experienced everything, and therefore cannot possibly brainstorm every possible idea of merit. Creating an environment where people can bring forth ideas for consideration, and a process seen to evaluate those ideas effectively, is a first step in innovating by inquiry.

Once those ideas are out, there is much more to be done. The most important components a good leader will often bring to the table is experience and information. In many cases a leader has experience. The experience does not need to be measured in in years, and may be of quality experience (albeit short) where that individual has met problems head on, and found ways to solve those problems. This experience has hidden value in that a good leader will have extracted the process of how the problems were solved and hopefully extracted generic questions that led to the successful answers. Asking good questions, challenging the ideas in a healthy way, and finding validity within the base assumptions or outcomes needs to be accomplished. Driving this conversation is an important role the leader needs to support. A leader also has needed information from within and possibly outside the organization. Normally in any business, leaders are senior individuals within an organization and therefore privy to information not exposed or readily available to others inside that organization. Understanding how business information applies to new ideas is of utmost importance in practical innovation. Applying these two inputs to ideas is an essential input a good leader brings to the overall equation. Contrasting new ideas to how they fit into a generic model of solving real problems can be a great way to tease the ideas out. Also, it can often enhance, focus or affirm innovative ideas for further progression. Mapping this all back the the business (information) is a leader’s duty as well. No matter how great an idea is, a good leader needs to make sure that it can be implemented, fits the business model and would benefit the business or team as whole.

I would be remiss if I did not mention an important concept at this point. That is the notion of – “bring your experience, not your implementation”. I have used this concept for the better part of my leadership career with my teams. One large error I have seen many prospective leaders make is trying to directly replicate past success without first understanding and asking questions on what problems need to be solved in new organizations and situations. Understanding “what problems need to be solved” should precede any immediate action to implement a plan derived in other places or situations. As an analogy (racing world), a great mechanic and new team leader immediately building the best F1 racing vehicle, only to find out they are racing on the Rallycross circuit , would be a sad waste of time and resources and would not deliver overall success. The point? Don’t over rotate your frame of reference to specific past experience or implementations and up-level yourself as a leader and see the forest from the trees. That great mechanic could have built a great Rally car had they first inquired as to the needed outcomes and mission.

Finally, once you have the ideas from the organization, and you have applied needed rigor and information to process those ideas, one must attempt to understand them in practice. Depending on the area of the business they apply to, such as technology, process, products, sales; the practice may differ on how to pilot those innovations. It is important to find ways to test out the innovative ideas for practical implementation. Many successful innovations need tweaks or changes to allow them to bring the most value. Willing to apply risk to the equation, in a tolerable and correctable way, would allow the practical enhancement of ideas before deciding to either shelve them or proceeding further.

As a review, leaders help spawn and guide innovation by applying three key concepts. First, foster ideas from the entire team and organization. Second, apply successful problem solving and user wider information sets in processing those ideas for further development. Third is a process to allow for needed risk taking and failing fast to test out innovations. Of course there will be other models that work and may be more expansive. The concepts noted here are applicable on their own or can be combined with other models to help drive innovation by inquiry.

In closing, effective leaders foster ideas from their teams, help their people succeed, encourage them, and are vested in their success. If a good leader can practice that , their reward , as a leader, will be a healthy set of innovative ideas and a thankful team who are also vested in the success of their leader.