This morning a client who is job-hunting said, “I came to you because what I’ve done in the past isn’t working in this economy. I am open to trying a new approach.” Wow, what courage! When an accomplished professional with significant success is willing to try something totally new, to me it shows enormous strength of character. With this in mind, I was inspired to do a little research around innovation. Innovation is such a hot topic in business literature; how can we use those lessons in our personal and professional endeavors? And, how do the lessons from business lit connect to the coaching approach?
Right away I came across a Harvard Business School article entitled, “Managing Innovation: Controlled Chaos.” Among the success factors, a couple of things stood out to me. The first is Need Orientation, which is roughly: approaching potential customers early, testing solutions in users’ hands, learning from the interactions, and adapting (I have paraphrased from the article). This speaks to a person’s determination and willingness to adapt and try new approaches. Other factors were being Fanatic and having a Long Time Horizon.
Another article, “Value Innovation: The Strategic Logic of High Growth” suggests that companies that flounder are playing a “Keep up with the Joneses” game. Instead, the success strategy is to make competitors irrelevant by using a logic called Value Innovation, meaning that you redefine what the real product need is.
Translating this into coaching terms, we talk about periods of “conscious incompetence.” This would correspond to the idea of controlled chaos. You jump into a black hole, you don’t know what’s going on, but you let your values and vision serve as your guide. That way, you can be true to yourself even while you are open to the mistakes that allow you to learn. As for Value Innovation, who are you comparing yourself to? Where should your focus really be? And finally, the idea of a long time horizon translates to not being married to the outcome. Yes, you want your vision to succeed, but you are open to the changes and improvements to it that your learning provides.
So, where are you finding that your existing approach isn’t working? How courageous are you to try something new?