2013 Center for Creative Leadership.

All rights reserved.

Top CEOs Cite Creativity As Most Important Leadership Quality

Kill the Company

Top Leadership Qualities

End the Status Quo,

Start an Innovation Revolution

Lisa Bodell, CEO

futurethink
Source: IBM Global Chief Executive Officer Study, 2010-11

Leading Effectively Webinar Series

Top CEOs Cite Creativity As Most Important Leadership Quality

Top Leadership Qualities

Better prepared to:

innovate
creative problem solve
take smart risks
keep up with rate of change

A blank piece of paper.

Nothing.

Snowstorm!
Cotton ball
Ice rink floor
Inside a coconut
Whiteboard
Invisible dog!
Race car with no sponsors
WHITE noise
Starting over

Potential
Source: IBM Global Chief Executive Officer Study, 2010-11

Why arent we
reaching our potential?

What do we VALUE?
MANAGING not LEADING
OUTPUTS over INPUTS
DOING over THINKING
HARD SKILLS over SOFT SKILLS
PROCESS over CULTURE

2013 Center for Creative Leadership.

All rights reserved.

Complexity
Complacency

A 2011 PWC survey summarizes the quandary:

Those in management... found innovation
disruptive to their day-to-day activities and felt it
got in the way of running an efficient operation-which is what they were paid to do.

Somethings different.

Positive Culture
(GOOD)

Negative Culture
(BAD)

Complacent Culture
(WORSE)

Inspired

Fear

Routine, comfortable

Action-oriented

Lacks inspiring vision

Somewhat pleasant

Motivated, independent

Resigned/Lacks energy

Smart risks

Unmotivated or selfmotivated

Rewards conformity

Challenging

No risks or HUGE risks

Little risk taking

Numbers

Extracting to Growing Energy

Selling Cars to Mobility Services

Establishing Funds to Make Current

Business Obsolete

2013 Center for Creative Leadership.

All rights reserved.

To be more innovative,
innovation cannot be your starting point

How Innovative Is Your Organization?

See how many questions can you answer YES to:
1. We push the boundaries of what is possible. We continually imagine how to apply
trends to our business to stay ahead.
2. Our employees are comfortable asking provocative questions to stretch the
organizations thinking.
3. Our teams apply best practices from offbeat sources to creatively solve problems.
4. Our people can think on their feet and nimbly change direction when faced with
unforeseen challenges.
5. Our employees do not easily give up on their beliefs and ideas when encountering
adversity or disbelief, and generally see them through.

To approach change differently,

change your approach

6. We constantly push for continual improvement, even if our approach is already

successful.
7. Failure and smart risk taking are celebrated within our organization and by our
leadership. Efforts do not have to be successful to be recognized.
8. There is an active culture of dialogue between departments, functions, and levels
within the organization.

How Innovative Is Your Organization?

See how many questions can you answer YES to:
# Yes
1 to 2

You Are
Status Quo

Keywords
Protective, cautious

How Innovative Is Your Organization?

See how many questions can you answer YES to:
1. We push the boundaries of what is possible. We continually imagine how to apply
trends to our business to stay ahead. STRATEGIC IMAGINATION
2. Our employees are comfortable asking provocative questions to stretch the
organizations thinking. PROVOCATIVE INQUIRY
3. Our teams apply best practices from offbeat sources to creatively solve problems.
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

3 to 5

Risk Taker

Optimistic, competitive

6 to 8

Change Maker Visionary, market maker

4. Our people can think on their feet and nimbly change direction when faced with
unforeseen challenges. AGILITY
5. Our employees do not easily give up on their beliefs and ideas when encountering
adversity or disbelief, and generally see them through. RESILIENCE
6. We constantly push for continual improvement, even if our approach is already
successful. CHALLENGE STATUS QUO
7. Failure and smart risk taking are celebrated within our organization and by our
leadership. Efforts do not have to be successful to be recognized. INVEST IN SMART
RISKS
8. There is an active culture of dialogue between departments, functions, and levels
within the organization. ACTIVE COLLABORATION

A better approach to
change.

Change the approach!

2013 Center for Creative Leadership.

All rights reserved.

Change.
Cant be put on people
but created BY THEM
Supported from top down and
driven from the middle-out
Not a 12-step program
a flexible toolkit that provides
guardrails not handcuffs

Killer Tools for Change

1. Killer Queries
2. Kill a Stupid Rule
3. Assumption Reversal

Cant always be BIG

needs to start small

Killer Queries

Kill A Stupid Rule

Whats good about our products and services?

If we won an outstanding service award, what would it celebrate and

why?
Where should we improve?

What suffers more breakdowns our services, our process, or our

people? Why?
How would you describe/change the company culture?

Youve just written a tell-all book about our organization. What secrets
does it reveal?
If we could undergo a corporate culture exorcism, what 3 evil customs
should be eliminated?

Assumption Reversal
What might be all the new restaurant concepts
that you can create?

2013 Center for Creative Leadership.

All rights reserved.

Assumption Reversal
What might be all the new restaurant concepts
that you can create?

Assumption
Menu

Reversal
No menu, tablet, waiter reads your mind

Chef

Celebrity chef, robot chef, make your own

Location

No location, location changes each week,

secret location, outdoors

2013 Center for Creative Leadership.

All rights reserved.

Resources to Learn More

Assumption Reversal
How can we apply this to our work?

futurethink.com
Assumption

Reversal

IDEA!

Develop Teams

Dont develop teams

People develop themselves

Employees create their own dev plan

and budget

Set pricing
structures

No set pricing
Give it away

No need for approvals if minimums

are met

Set agendas for

status meetings

No agendas

Only those that are prepared can

speak at meetings

Creativitypost.com
Trendwatching.com
Springwise.com
Innovationwatch.com
TED.com
Longbets.org

Download your Free Preview

of Kill the Company today!
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas.
I'm frightened of the old ones.
John Cage, Composer/Inventor

Access it here:
www.futurethink.com/freepreview
Somethings different.

Leading Effectively Webinar Series

Change Your Approach!

Lisa Bodell
CEO, futurethink
lbodell@futurethink.com
Killthecompany.com

Somethings different.

Visit www.ccl.org/webinars
for details about
live and on-demand Webinars.

Contact Tracy Dobbins at dobbins@ccl.org

with any questions about the series.