Leading Innovation in a Risk-Averse Culture Michael O'Brien
Professional Pointers
LEADERSHIP
Leading Innovation in a Risk-Averse Culture While most healthcare organizations are focused on operational excellence, many leaders are beginning to see that an equal emphasis on innovation is necessary to remain competitive. But an organization that excels in operational excellence (which minimizes risk) could not be more different from one that excels in innovation (which rewards risk taking). As a leader in your organization, how can you maintain the advantages of operational excellence without stifling the creation and implementation of innovative ideas? Use these strategies: • Go first. Going first means managing your ovi/n psychological reaction to innovation. Innovation is uncertain and feels risky. Humans are programmed to avoid uncertainty, and leaders are no exception. After all, the new idea just might fail. If an innovation creates a significant enough amount of change, you could literally fear the change. To keep uncertainty and fear from stifling innovation, you must become more self-avyare, tn other words, learn to recognize—and resist— when fear tempts you to shift to a self-protective mode and revert back to the old way of doing things, • Shift thinking from "either/or" to "both/and." Armed with your new self-awareness, you can now heip your staff manage what seem to be polar opposites: being operationally excellent and being innovative. Typically, your organization might look at these concepts as either winners or losers. As a result, management staff from each "side" dig in, communications degrade, and nothing happens. By simply reframing the
seemingly opposing concepts with a "both/and" statement, you can open a creative discussion—because stakeholders are no longer locked into their own particular viewpoint. For example, ask, "How can we both take advantage of our operational efficiency and become more innovative In the way we address the needs and desires of our patients?" Be prepared to manage through disruption. Innovation requires organizations to let go of old work and take on new projects and processes. These transitions are disruptive and create more than the normal amount of breakdowns. Breakdowns happen when people do not do something that you thought they "should" do or when something "should not" be the way it is. Discussing these situations feels risky, and it is during these breakdowns that your leadership is vital. You can turn breakdowns into breakthroughs by accepting and encouraging divergent points of view instead of resisting opinions that are different from your own.
Michael O'Brien, Ed.D , president, O'Brien Group, nc, Cincinnati; (513) 821-9580; michael@obriengroup us; www.obriengroup.us.
Recommended Reading How High Is Your Cultural llntelligence? "Cultural Intelligence" By P. Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski Harvard Bu5ir)ess Review October 2004 Like everyone, you have walked into more than one situation—a foreign country, a different community, a new job, or even a particular organizational division—where others' actions, assumptions, speech, and gestures were unfamiliar and could have caused you to stumble if you had misinterpreted them. In their Harvard Business fieweiv article "Cultural intelligence," P. Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski maintain that you need the ability to make sense of these unfamiliar contexts and then adapt. In other words, you need cultural intelligence, or CQ.
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Healthcare Executive MAY/JUNE 2005
Earley and Mosakowski begin by illustrating the three components of CQ: 1. Head (cognitive)—using learning strategies and observation to tease out clues that will help you understand the culturf? 2. Body (physical)—adopting the culture's habits and mannerisms 3. Heart (emotional/motivational)—believing in your ability to adapt to the culture, despite challenges and setbacks With real-life examples from their study of 2,000 managers, the authors paint a vivid picture of the potential downfalls of low CQ and the possibilities opened up by high CQ, Included in this article are profiles that describe the typical cultural intelligence of
six different types of managers: the provincial, the analyst, the natural, the ambassador, the mimic, and the chameleon. Maintaining that cultural intelligence can be cultivated, Earley and Mosakowski also provide an instrument for diagnosing your strengths and weaknesses and then conclude with a step-by-step method for enhancing your CQ. With some candid self-assessment and perseverance, you can learn to accurately interpret others' unfamiliar behavior and use that knowledge to create a more successful outcome from your interaction with them. 7b purchase the complete text of this article, go to harvardbusinessoniine.hbsp.harvard.edu.