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Driving Creativity and Innovation through Leadership Driving Creativity and Driving Creativity and Innovation through Innovation through Leadership Leadership By Roger McKean Bazeley By Roger McKean Bazeley

Driving creativity and innovation through leadership-Bazeley

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Driving Creativity and Innovation through

Leadership

Driving Creativity and Driving Creativity and Innovation through Innovation through

LeadershipLeadershipBy Roger McKean BazeleyBy Roger McKean Bazeley

Context of Innovation• The act of driving creativity and

innovation through leadership does not stand unto itself out of the situational context of history, an organizational support structure, or those that follow or support the leader.

The Discussion• examining the historic evolution of

leadership’s role in embracing creativity to drive innovation

• current best practices in both the public and private transportation sectors,

• relates to my previous roles as an industrial designer, brand marketing director, and creative project manager.

Roots of Innovation and Leadership in Society

• The roots of creativity and innovation are reflected in the very artifacts, tools, public works –architecture, urban infrastructure, and transportation design innovation, throughout the history of mankind.

Roots of Innovation and Leadership in Society

• I observed in my undergraduate anthropological studies that the flow of innovation in science and technology in great civilizations, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans was as unpredictable as was the change of leadership due to events of political and social upheaval.

Roots of Innovation and Leadership in Society

• Creativity and technology enabled authoritarian leadership to successfully overtake other cultures and nations politically, culturally, economically through trade, and the production of goods, and weapons.

The Egyptians• The Egyptians were excellent

engineers and constructors, but their ship design technology did not keep-up with the sea-going designs of the Phoenicians and the Greeks, eventually losing mastery of the seas.

The Greeks• Greek period of history brought with it

the growth of Athens’ power and innovation in leadership and governance with the principals of “Democracy”

• “demokratia” or “people-power” where Athens’s citizens controlled the chief decision making bodies

Public Participation• decisions of whether to go to war, what

taxes should be levied, or should “we”spend our city’s money on warships or new buildings were decided by the votes of thousands of ordinary citizens in the assembly.

• The Athenian Greek form of governance and decision making changed the concept of rule by authority to that of rule by consensus and public participation

The Romans• The Roman Empire and other civilizations

located along tributaries and great bodies of water that supported agriculture, transportation and trade gained power by population growth, land acquisition, and the development of sea and land transportation; defined much of the urban infrastructure and land-use constraints that impacts many of our major urban and regional centers of the world.

Innovation “the Enabler”• Innovation and technology became an

‘enabler’ in producing urban infrastructure, agriculture/food, transportation, goods, and weapons of war for leadership to control and win over its opponents thought the strategic movement of human and technological resources.

The Renaissance Mind, Enlightened Leadership

• the realization of the involvement and nurturing of creativity and innovation from leaders like the Medici’s in the 14th Century

• fundamentals of the modern world were formed during this unique period of time

• the principals of linear perspective, by artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo, and the incredible Leonardo da Vinci, described as the archetype of the “Renaissance Man” who was a scientist, inventor, engineer, anatomist, painter, sculpture, architect, musician, and writer.

Enlightened Leadership

• enlightened period in ideas and creativity with the synergy created by the competition and patronage of fundamental institutions, urban centers as Florence, and the church in Rome.

• Italian commercial inventions still drive the engines of capitalist society, and the ideal of the individual to embrace civic participation and achievement for the benefit of society

Leaders Participation• Leaders can participate and become

enablers by nurturing creativity and innovation in science and technology with the knowledge that innovation does not stand alone, nor is it predictable.

• The Renaissance mind reflected the qualities of free will and responsibility to society that are applicable to modern thinking in leadership responsibility and ethics, where the actions of leadership have consequences.

The Renaissance mind • The principals of leadership are

determined by situational context; context is important, times change, circumstances change and as a result leadership must adapt to new challenges

• turn ones life into a work of art for the benefit of our communities as a beacon of enlightenment expanded to others by sharing and nurturing

The American Entrepreneurial Leadership Model 1776-1900

• the ideals of the freedom of expression and individualism, and reflected the continuum of innovation and leadership in the American model of entrepreneurial capitalism

• industrial revolution to the beginnings of mass production

The American EntrepreneurialLeadership Model - 20th Century

• technological innovation was demonstrated in Albert Post’s evolutionary manufacturing of interchangeable parts in bike manufacturing

• Wright Brother’s of Dayton Ohio, who transitioned from bicycles to aviation

• Henry Ford’s application of the principals of mass production

• “Entrepreneurial Leadership Model”

The American EntrepreneurialLeadership Model

• Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Glenn Curtis of Curtis Aircraft, John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, were innovators that accelerated the acceptance of new ideas, science, technologies, and products built for the mutual benefit and demand of society, and profit for the business entrepreneur. “Entrepreneurial Leadership Model”

Industrial Leadership, Consumerism and Creativity – “Madison Avenue”

• World War II resulted in the acceleration of mass production, technologies, and productivity

• 1950’s post war population growth increased demand upon managers to lead large and complex industries, and large scale public works projects

• John Kenneth Galbriith’s book, “The affluent Society (1957)

• Levitt in 1947 built 17,500 houses at Levittown, Long Island, creating the first “urban sprawl”community which coincided with increased personal transportation mobility, with the 1956 authorized building start of the Interstate highway system.

Consumerism and Creativity –“Madison Avenue”

• corporate expansion and growth driven by marketing and New York’s “Madison Avenue,” with Advertising agencies like Young & Rubicam, Dole Dane & Bernbach, and Ogilvy & Mather.

• America’s golden age of corporate expansion, urban and suburban infrastructure, modern architecture, and consumer product companies like Coca-Cola, Kodak, General Motors, Ford, Exxon, and IBM

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

• Business Week’s 2006 list of the world’s most innovative companies

• Categories: Process Innovation, Product Innovation and Business Model Innovation

• . Apple, 2. Google, 3. 3M, 4. Toyota, 5. Microsoft, 6. General Electric, 7. Proctor & Gamble, 8. Nokia, 9. Starbucks, 10. IBM

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

• 25 most innovative companies there are five that are involved in transportation including: Toyota, General Electric, Virgin, BMW, Honda, and Southwest Airlines.

• More than 50% of the Business Week’s survey respondents said that the CEO was responsible for driving innovation.

• “Without heavy fire cover from the top. Innovation efforts will get lost in the shuffle of short-term demands

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

• 1. a culture of innovation starts from the top in an organization, (bottom-up empowerment vital)

• 2. face-to-face R&D teams reduce late-stage conflicts and speed project development times,

• 3. when evaluating managers, subjective metrics, such as risk tolerance or the measure can be a better way,

• 4. make a seat at the table for employees to participate with senior management,

• 5. communicate the institutional memory of an organization’s innovation tradition to new management and R&D talent.

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

• supporting innovation through leadership’s nurturing and in going outside for ideas

• fostering the concept of “Open Innovation”• largest share of time and money goes to

incremental innovation• improving existing products and services, creating

and developing new products or services for new customers, or reducing product or service costs

• gaining a true understanding of the customer and understanding how to develop a product or service that fulfills and exceeds customer demands and expectations is often illusive and unpredictable.

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

Leadership Driving Innovation in the 21st Century

• Microsoft and Apple both have strong authoritarian leaders that nurture and demand innovation and creativity from its design teams, R&D centers and employees, and sub-contractors and suppliers

• Apple drives and enables technological and product innovation bythe concepts of “deep collaboration” or “cross-pollination” or “concurrent engineering”, where products and concepts are developed simultaneously on parallel tracks by all departments at once, in endless rounds of interdisciplinary meetings

• Jobs rules by control with creative vision in directing product innovation through a decisive personal driven decision process and a great sense of design and a knack for hiring geniuses

Innovation in Transportation: Project Management

• How do you build and lead an organization that promotes creativity among employees and managers that leads with innovation in technology, project design, management, and the delivery of services in the public transportation sector, i.e. Caltrans. Amtrak, VTA, AC Transit, La METRO, as often drives the top performing private sector businesses?

• The “Open Entrepreneurial Model” of corporate leadership

• Innovation becomes a key driver of growth by creating transportation products and services that address consumers’demands, as well as unmet, and often unarticulated, desires

• Design strategy and innovation plays a key role in product and service differentiation, decision-making and understanding the customer’s experience

Innovation in Transportation: Project Management

• LA Metro’s Wilshire/Whittier 720 Rapid Bus system • industrial designed low-floor “techno” buses, shelters,

branding, and its rapid and frequent service, which exceeded customer expectations

• CalTrain” Baby Bullet” express trains, running from San Francisco to San Jose,

• matching or beating driving time by Route 101, exceeded customer expectations.

• Effective leadership and managers embracing a vision of improvement of existing transportation systems,

• requires integrating design and creative strategies within the traditional roles of managing the organization’s operations and its mission through discipline, focus, and leadership.

Innovation in Transportation: Project Management

• Problematically, public sector organizations are funded by multiple sources of local, regional, state, and federal sources and involve critical public oversight

•• Innovation can be expensive, takes time, and may be out

dated by the time the transportation project goes from the arduous planning stage to build-out and implementation.

• The use of innovative and creative consultants and the merging of private industry “think tanks”

• Transportation planning, design, and project management areas are key organizational areas and processes that can drive innovation and creativity within a transportation organization.

Innovation in Transportation: Project Management

• Transportation projects structured to navigate through a constantly changing environment of socioeconomic, environmental, and political conditions with adjustments and flexibility through constant feedback and assessment by the project manager and his team.

• How many times have we heard that the company or its management lost touch with its markets and its customers from deriving faulty or inadequate feedback ?

• Solution: lead with vision and constantly monitor trend changes via industry and customer feedback

• Harness, nurture, and foster an organizational environmentwhere creativity and innovation in R&D is valued as a vital organizational asset internally and externally

Innovation in Transportation: Project Management

• The application of the process in designing a better customer/consumer transportation experience is by internally applying to project development and management process the creative acts of:

• 1. Observation/Survey • 2. Idea brainstorming, • 3. Rapid Prototyping & Concept Development, • 4. Refining concept alternatives, and • 5. Implementation-by a talented well paid diverse

workforce.

Innovation in Transportation: Project Management

• There is a great need for simplification, seamless door to door connectivity, and the highest quality product design and service to deliver travel speed, service frequency, and customer comfort and safety in the design and improvement of our transportation systems and infrastructure

• Boeing continues to lead in aircraft design innovation, quality and product differentiation with its original 707, the 747, the 777, and its new sleek fuel efficient 787 Dreamliner

• France and Japan have been longtime leaders in the design and building of high speed rail i.e., France’s TGV and Japan’s famous “Bullet Trains.

Innovation in Transportation: Conclusion

• the private sector leadership models for driving creativity and innovation should be viewed as fluid and evolving examples for how private and public transportation organizations could move innovation to the front for creating transportation systems that are more responsive to the customer’s needs and demands for improved convenience, connectivity, safety and enjoyment

• combining innovation with a vision based in pragmatismmust be adaptable to the fluid changes in the context of consumer and public demands, and the regulatory environment within an increasing complex geo-political global environment of competition.

• it is the humanistic values of the Italian Renaissance that have embraced the ideals of integrity, honesty, and implementing innovation/change for the benefit of society, being the most durable assets of leadership.

Innovation in Transportation: Conclusion

• Leadership must take the ultimate responsibility for its actions, vision, and business ethics by virtue of the authority bestowed by the principals of “public trust”

• Encompassing the role of leadership in an increasingly complicated, regulated, and political/policy driven environment are unpredictable risks that challenge and can compromise and diminish the effectiveness of leadership

• To be a truly great leader one must have etched in the soul the principals of “doing the right thing”, the belief of integrity and service for the benefit of the public

• Only history will justify the right and wrong of leadership’s strategic decisions, public works, or impact and benefit to society.