Review of Denning and Dunham's, The Innovator's Way

I promised readers that I would read and review two books that seemed quite interesting to me and seemed to offer something new on the subject of leading, creative leading and change.

Here is the first: a review of Denning and Dunham, The Innovator's Way.  This review is also available on Amazon.com at

 http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Way-Essential-Successful-Innovation/product-reviews/0262014548/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

How Many Lifetimes?

I really like the essential orientation that Denning and Dunham bring to the subject of innovation. First, they define innovation in terms of a practice being adopted by a community. Immediately that puts their vision above and beyond the run of the mill notion of new gadgets competing for attention. Second, they orient their "advice" around practices: personal disciplines that are devoted to strengthening insight, questioning and gaining clarity. When a business book suggests journaling and meditation as frequently as do Denning and Dunham, something really good has to be going on. And finally there is the wide range of human activities that have to be brought to bear in order to establish an innovation -- I refer to the eight practices that constitute the core of the book. Finally I was moved by the idea that innovation transpires through conversations. As a professional mentor, I share that faith in the power of this great gift. That said, each of these potentials were diminished for me. I have to admit that I am no lover of business books -- having written a few myself. My problems with this one revolve around the idea that the book is about practices, but in no way does any person have enough of a lifetime to start, cultivate, benefit from and become a "master" of more than one or two of these practices, no less all the practices cited in the litany of the eight measures D&D prescribe. So, the book seems to be written for other consultants, to provide them with a check list of things they can look for in order to gain billable work in an organization, and not to consider either individual practice or community dynamics of adoption of innovations. And this shortcoming becomes a glaring failure to me for the missed opportunity. In my own study of the "breakout creatives process" I have seen how four completely different mindsets, lifeways and practices are involved in generating change. The eight practices cited here bear the stamp of each of these figures. Sensing and Envisioning bear elements of the mystic; Offering touches on the artist; Adopting and Sustaining have prophetic qualities; Executing, leading and embodying are qualities we speak of when mentoring leaders. My point is -- absolutely no one can take on all of those roles and adopt the practices required to master them. The opportunity missed here, in my mind, is a discussion of how each of these roles contributes to innovation and how conversations between and among the figures, at different stages of the process enrich, stabilize and generate affirming energy in the process. Instead we get explanations of innumerable terms and checklists -- typical consulting fare. Finally, I was disappointed that the authors who are obviously well read and support the intellectual enterprise did not make this kind of practice essential in any of their phases. Even a 'master" in their mind knows and learns about an area; but doing the hard work of study, of knowing the history and biographies of key figures in their fields, of studying texts that advance thought, the process of questioning and enhancing the ability for form new categories and new lines of conversation was never broached. Is intellectual pursuit too hot a topic to broach in a business book?  I do recommend this book as a way to stimulate new thinking about innovation and how individual practice contributes to it. It is also useful for consultants who want to give advice that helps hard-driving business people, devoted to the bottom line a reason and practices for taking a different look at the business life.   But if you are looking to gain insight into how to become a person that makes a significant contribution to the process of innovation by cultivating life practices, this isn't going to cut it.

TWO GREAT BOOKS, NOT TO MISS

As my friends know, when people begin our mentoring program, I ardently advise the participants:  Do Not Read Business Books.
Well, here I am going to recommend two books, and in so doing, break every rule in my book: first, these are books reviewed in the Business Section of the NYTimes (which I read every day, and especially the Sunday version), on Sept. 5, 2010.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05shelf.html?scp=1&sq=Off%20the%20Shelf&st
Second, I haven't read the books, only this review.
So, I promise to read and review these books ASAP.
Why the excitement, urgency, rush to break rules?
These two books do something I am very fond of: as the reviewer, Nancy F. Koehn says, "the challenges confronting our global village seem to have outstripped prevailing orthodoxy."  Right on, sister.
The first book she reviews is by Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From:  A Natural History of Innovation.  This book speaks about the "space of innovation."  We envision leading as opening up a separate space for collaborative innovation -- Johnson envisions the city and the Internet as such spaces.  He sees innovation as a result of a generative process of serendipities, communications, interactions and mutual comprehensions that "recur again and again in unusually fertile environments..." and he stresses the "inherently interconnected nature of innovation."  I love the sound of this.
For us, of course such environments spur innovations of different kinds:  art, new sciences, and sometimes, new products and services -- the last requiring leaders.  But, from my studies, I see that any innovation that is worth a damn requires collaborations, friendships and mentoring at all of these levels.
The second book is by Denning and Dunham, The Innovator's Way:  Essential Practices for Successful Innovation.  Normally, I find "practical" and "how to" books numbingly boring.  But this one seems to be located on the frontier of innovation -- where we are all amateurs and in constant need of new learning.
Two things excited me about Koehn's presentation of the book.
First, Denning and Dunham define "innovation" as "the adoption of new practice in a community."  I love that image.  Not a new gadget, not a trick for wringing out expenses, not a gimmick for generating sales, but a "new practice:" something that people have to engage in in order to be worthy of the name.  And then, "in a community."  Not something for one person's gain, but a way to make the human endeavor more expansive and encompassing.
Second, they identify stages of the process that track well with our own Breakout Creatives idea:  "sensing, envisioning, offering," track with the mystic;  "adopting, sustaining" require artistic and prophetic talents;  "executing, leading and embodying," are, of course, the contributions of the leader.
Read these books with me, and let's post some of our own comments on them.

Aspiration and Mentoring: The Child's Wonder

There are many services out there these days that leaders can use to advance their careers. But we believe that only “leader mentoring” directs its attention to your aspirations. As you consider how to invest in advancing your leading, consider this: how do you align your leading with your aspirations? Leader mentoring as offered by the Arch of Leadership can help you do that.

Aspiration

What a strange thing aspiration is. Here is a longing and a yearning that burns so forcefully as to take command of one’s life, and yet with no promise of an assured outcome. Sometimes in fact an aspiration will be so diffuse that it does not even specify a goal; all it offers is the urge to sustain itself, a life of aspiring.
We can think of aspiration as flowing from the difference between the child and the adult. Seen in this light, aspiration has three sources: childhood and family dynamics; genetic formations of the psyche; and adult trauma. None of these factors necessarily give rise to the inception of aspiration. Instead, aspiration arises when those events are seen asopportunities.
As a child grows, what was once a fluid and open psyche, full of wonder, concentrates into an ego, dominated by customs and rules. The great and flowing expanse of the child’s psychecontracts and concentrates into “smaller” but more “effective and productive” concepts, categories directed toward specified interests and ambitions. The ego of the adult thus leaves behind a vacated “space.” Where once there was a realm filled with energy and activity, there remains only memories and diminished energy.
For most, that realm is so diminished that it exerts no force at all on the dominated, adult psyche. However, for some, the memory is kept in circulation by a reserve of energy that does not so easily dissipate. So, for these people, there remains in effect an “aural” realm that surrounds the functioning ego (and super-ego) that still exerts a pull and affects the functionally focused ego state of the adult.
Aspiration arises when this aura is allowed some leeway to affect the adult, making transformation possible and even desirable. When the aura is allowed such sway, all the events that promote aspiration take shape. One’s biography of a troubled or challenging childhood (and difficult parental influences) can become a story of the simple joys of daydreams, wanderings, experimenting excursions and burgeoning interests. One’s supposed weaknesses and confusions and difficulties at resolving seemingly impenetrable ambiguities can become gateways to one’s creative powers. Traumas have a way of loosening the grip of generalized convention and send a person into a deep self-examination for different sources of strength, into a resolute search for new pathways.

The Mentoring Moment

Here’s where leader mentoring comes in. The aspiring adult feels the pull of a great conflict. On the one hand, lurking in this person’s being is a call to something more expansive and more encompassing in his or her life. Yet, as an adult, this person is no longer amenable to the naively open wonder of the child, demanding instead competence and effectiveness in his/her functioning social, economic and historical world. The conflict stops movement in both directions: no longing, but no advancing of competence either. The person is stuck, in a quandary. To leave the aspiration behind seems to be a deep personal betrayal. But to act naively and precipitously seems irresponsible, if not downright idiotic.
The leader mentor forms a bridge between the two demands so that a person can commit to aspiration in a way that’s both competent and effective. How does the leader mentor do this? Simple: The mentor truly listens. The mentor takes the time to hear the yearnings that call out from that aura and validates them for the mentee. Then this mentor helps the mentee to envision a way of living that can viably answer the call. By listening, and in a lively and engaged silence, the leader mentor helps the mentee appreciate her aspiration and figure out a way to take it into her leading.
Note that it is not “strengths” and talents that are emphasized by a mentor. Paradoxically, it may seem, yet those very places, ways and states of being that are often decried asweaknesses or distractions from attaining one’s goals and ambitions become the places where aspirations can take hold. In the leader mentor’s eyes, what others might call “weakness” is, instead, the pulsing of those aspirations from this great aural realm. They areyearnings that have not yet hardened into imperatives. The leader mentor helps the aspirant firm up his or her “soft spots” into a vision so that they can become robust and resolute, and then become a project worthy of attracting followers.

The Companion to Aspiration’s Call

The result of a mentoring engagement is thus commitment. The silence of the mentor offers a safe place where the leader’s aspiration can be heard and then cultivated. With her mentor’s help, the mentee once again takes possession of a great spirit of aspiration and wonder that can then set out firmly, with self-trust and attentive responsibility, through the arches, and out into the life of leading,
At the Arch of Leadership, we are ready to be your leader mentor.

What are Your Limits?

Leaders, I have been thinking about you.  It may seem strange, but I have been thinking of you while I have been training our new pup to stay within the bounds of our Invisible Fence. 

To do this, I have posted flags around the perimeter marked by the fence, and I walk my dog up to that boundary.  When he hears the beep (inaudible to my sixty-ish ears) he is startled and I lead him back into the safe area surround our property. My pup can peer out into the forbidden beyond without obstruction, but some strange force (the signal I have implanted in the ground) keeps him constrained.
Now, with that image in mind, I ask you to be honest with yourself with respect for your tolerance for learning.

Limits
Such "tolerance," or "intolerance" as the case may be, all comes down to how you behave when you are at your limits.  Limits mean that while there is ferocious and confident action on one side of the divide, on the other, there is very little.  A limit comes into view when some yearning, sighting, aspiration has glimpsed onto that other side, and the first inclination is to beat a retreat -- the way I have trained my dog to behave at the sounds and vibrations caused by our Invisible Fence.

The limits demarcate the locale of our own, self-imposed, invisible fence.  We all have such limits.  They are there for good reason.  They keep us safe.  They keep our mortal lives on track so we can accomplish something in our brief lifetimes.  They make it possible for our spouses, friends, followers and employees to anticipate what we might do in different kinds of situations.  All creatures have built-in structures that enable us to foster our best capacities within those limits, so we can excel at our way of life.

Learning
But humans have an capability that other creatures don't have:  we can learn new ways and expand our capacities for understanding, experiencing and shaping new visions of our ways of living.  When we are young, we take our capability for learning for granted;  as we get older, we place greater and greater restrictions on what we are willing to learn.

For leaders this creates a problem:  the role of the leader is to turn a vision of wider and more encompassing possibilities into realities by creating followers.  Where are those greater vistas to come from if not from learning?  And so leaders need to test themselves as to the state of aliveness of their learning.

A Little Quiz
We can begin by asking these questions.  Maybe write down answers to the questions you choose to answer:

• How far are you willing to stray beyond the bulwarks of your hard-won knowledge?
• How much time are you willing to give to learning that stretches not only your knowledge, but your awareness of yourself?
• How much time and effort are you willing to expend with ideas, texts and in conversations that, as one person once said to me, "makes my head ache?"
• How do you distinguish between your aspirations and your ambitions?  
• How much time, thought and energy do you devote to each?  (Which is most likely to enable you to create followers who will seek to create products, services and organizations that will foster more expansive and more encompassing ways of living for other, nature and the earth?  Your ambition or your aspirations?) Now, once again, how much time, thought and energy... and effort.. do you devote to each?
• What is the most difficult challenge you have taken on to open up your capabilities to a wider vision?  When did you do that?  What was the result?  What have you done about that since?
• When you (imagine yourself) speak to your grandchildren, what is it that you tell them to aspire to, to hope for, to work for?

All of these questions test the limits we have set for ourselves.  If these questions seem pointless or "idealistic," then you are comfortable to a tee within your limits.  So be it.
If they offer moments of reflection, you are feeling those limits.

Then you get to decide, what's next?

That's where the mentor comes in.

The Crisis in Followership

The scenes from the Gulf of Mexico, of the devastation of our ocean and wildlife habitat, no less whole ways of life are crushingly heart breaking.  How did this happen?  Technical failures?  Yes.  Regulatory complacency?  Absolutely.  Corporate greed.  You bet.
But I see something else, that underlies all of these:
What we have here is a failure of followership.
There were plenty of managers involved:  BP's, the drilling company's, Halliburton's, and regulators.  But none of these managers were following any commanding or demanding vision.  Each operated on the basis of immediate, situational and expedient objectives.  There were plenty of opportunities for all of the managers involved to follow something significant:  environmental responsibility, operational safety, modesty, humility, precaution, preparation for disaster.  But none of these ideas were in play.  Instead, just the managerial imperatives for efficiency, speed, profit ad a place at the table.
We all need managers.  And we esteem, and reward the good ones.  This is not about managers, but about that lack of followership that engenders creative leaders.
I say this is a crisis in followership because a leader only arises when followers seek something that requires large scale collaboration on something large, long term, requiring vision or even sacrifice -- sharing of effort and commitment that can't be done individually. And by leader here, I mean someone that stands for bringing to fruition a vision of something more expansive and more encompassing than managerial objectives, or narrow successes in executing operations.
I've seen it time after time, no one asks for a leader when a short term objective will do.
 So it is in this case (and in the case of the financial meltdown, the crashing and burning of the health care and educations systems).  In the case of this disaster, no one sought anything to follow at all, they just wanted to get the job done according to the short-term demands of their immediate objectives (mostly quick turnaround and low cost).
This catastrophe is not a matter of improper risk assessment, as David Brooks states in his New York Times column today, this is not a problem in dealing with technology (think of the space program or the safe operation of nuclear power plants in France).  It highlights the lack of willingness to follow something more visionary and globally important, and thus yield to a leader who embodies those higher principles.  No leader of this kind was in evidence in this crisis, because none of the organizations involved saw the need to follow such a person. We have such people, those who offer their leadership that envisions large scale collaboration for our highest social, environmental and economic values, but their leadership is not called for by our corporate culture or paid for by willingness to fund effective regulation.
We have to be willing to follow something greater than ourselves if these crises are going to abate. I think this disaster is symbolic of the rampant propensity for pursuing self-interest that we have settled for as a way of life, especially in our business practices.
"No one raises their children to be followers," one of my clients said to me.  And with that attitude, there won't be leaders either.  And we can expect crises equal to the complexity and large scale that our technology allows to roll on, taking one bit of health, one stretch of shore line, one species with it, time after time.
We can ask, where were the leaders?  But I think first we have to ask, who were were willing to follow, for what ends, for what kind of a society, nation, world?  No followers, no leaders.  There you have it.

How Will You Decide to Invest in Your Leading?

Go to the Leader Mentoring Website

Our on-line program is up and running with our first class.  It is exciting to be able to offer our mentoring expertise in a way that eliminates barriers of price, geography and finding bosses willing to organize a custom, in-house program.  If our on-line prospects want to take leading to a new level, they sign up, and run with it.

So, as the producer of this program, I am also faced with a new question:  what will attract individuals to our program?

The question arises because in the on-line program, we are asking you, sitting alone and in the privacy of your thoughts and aspirations to make a decision to invest in yourself.  Even if you convince your employer to pay the tuition or chip in, the decision still starts with you to sign up for our program.

So,  what would we have to say or do or offer to get you to decide, “I want to lead at a different level, accomplish something I had never thought I could, have more impact on more people than I do now.  I’ll do this program. ” 

It’s not just a matter of sales.  The question goes to the heart of aspiration itself, and that is our main concern.  We are in the aspiration business, first and foremost.

Some think aspiration is innate, that there are just some people who have that additional quotient of energy that propels them onto new horizons.  Others think aspiration can be triggered when something new and exciting comes up and it ignites that extra burst of energy. 

But in the quiet of your room, in the sanctuary of your rest, reflection and relaxation, what would trigger a desire to make an investment – real money and time – in your leading?  How would you, all by yourself, recognize, acknowledge and take action on that aspiration within you?

Do you think of yourself as a leader?  You must, at some level, or you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter every month (or so).  So maybe there are good reasons for not taking the step to enroll.  Maybe it’s a matter of finances, or an already busy and harried life juggling work and family.  

Or maybe you just don’t need something like this in your life right now.  Maybe you are satisfied with your leading and your ability to create followers.  Maybe you are satisfied with gaining confirmation and affirmation of what you already believe about your leading, or maybe you have ample opportunities at work to enhance your leading. 

But how do we reach those of you who don’t feel that way and trigger your decision to enroll?

Let me offer this:  put mentors in your life or your leading languishes.  Elsewhere, in many different settings I have expressed this idea this way:  no mentors, no leaders.  I know of no leader who hasn’t expressed profound gratitude to that person who recognized their aspirations to lead. Our mentor-guided program does that and more:  our program puts you in the heart of a community of people who share your aspirations.  They all recognize your aspirations and want nothing else but to bring them to fruition.  And then the mentor assigned to your class helps you articulate who you are as a leader. 

You may have many roles in life – parent, worker, manager, sibling, son or daughter; but in none of those roles will you fully discover who you are as leader.  Still, no one but a mentor will help you realize why you and your life experiences can create followers.  In none of those other roles are your aspirations to become the best leader you can be cared for and cultivated.

We know that leading isn’t just about ambition and getting ahead. It’s about putting what truly matters to you into the world for others to enjoy and value.  And we also know that your healthy self-doubt might prevent you from stepping into the leader role.  So we ask a few guiding questions to help you shift your aspiration into high gear:

Do you think that your idea is worthy of following?  We’ll help you get that idea in shape so you can set out with resolve, with all your might, to accomplish it. 

Do you think you have the experience to lead?  We’ll help you see where your strengths are already fully engaged, and how other strengths you already have can be raised to a new level. 

Do you wonder what it is that others see in you such that they want to follow you?  We’ll help you see just that, so you can offer it to your followers with constancy and self-trust.

So what might move you to take the next step and at least talk to Billie or me about the course?

It is nothing short of realizing that your heart beats with the aspiration to lead and that a resource to make that aspiration blossom into more expansive and encompassing realities for those whose lives you want to affect is right at your fingertips

Go to www.leadermentoring.com and check out what we have to offer.  Contact us and let’s talk about it.

We’re mentors.  We’re there to care about you becoming the leader you aspire to be.