In our intensely competitive global economy, be it pharmaceuticals, electronics, software or OTC products, the name of the game is innovation. The key to staying on top is getting to the next big idea and turning it into a marketable product or service—and doing it faster than the competition or the private label distributors. How can we lead with innovation as our goal? Everybody knows that the best ideas rarely come from the top; we also know that people usually do not come up with innovations while sitting at the computer checking e-mails, listening to voicemails or sitting in on the production forecast meeting.



The creativity that spawns innovation transcends the daily grind of the workplace and often shows up in unexpected areas. Great ideas come in dreams, from reading magazines you normally wouldn't pick up, seeing a movie, meeting new people, eating at a new restaurant, traveling to a foreign land and scores of other daily human activities that are unattached to the structural demands of traditional office life in corporate America.

The question I put to leaders is this: how can we reengineer office life to serve innovation? For many years, the function of office life was to serve production. Production is orderly, has concrete goals, benchmarks to meet, quotas to produce, etc. But as fast as markets move and shift, building an office environment around production only is no longer appropriate. Such an environment produces the illusion of stability in the marketplace.

Innovations happen when we don't have a specific goal in mind. A powerful innovation leaps over goals and staid thinking to create a new and bold strategy. Today, more than ever, we need creative offices where innovation is encouraged, not orderly offices where status quo thought and performance are repeated day after day.

It is our leaders who are charged with making this happen. Leaders must somehow find a way to tap into their people's imaginations and set them free to roam in uncharted territory. Leaders need to be prepared to put a process in motion and then get out of the way so that the boundless creativity of their people takes over. Much different than the old time autocrats, today's leader must be a creative facilitator - someone who understands how to provide people with a less stressful environment that allows for the playful experimentation that leads to innovation.

I advise my clients to bring together a diverse group of people and meet off-site one morning a month, using a different creative facilitator every time (not the boss!). No phones, no computers and no interruptions. A well-facilitated three hours are all the group needs to go off and dream about the "Big Idea."

During these creative three hours, group members can focus their full attention on what's out there and get clarity on what they've been thinking about for the last month, what they've been reading, seeing, experiencing and hearing about from customers, the sales people, the media, other cultures, popular culture, compatible or incompatible industries, etc. The group then needs to consider the ideas they believe they can all get behind to meet and/or exceed the challenges at hand.

Next, the group drills down to the four or five concepts that best fit the company culture and have the substance to promote what Andy Grove calls a 10x change. It is then - when they think one particular idea makes sense and is executable - that they are charged with making it happen. They present it to the powers that be, or to whomever they report. And the key for the leader here is to get out of the way of the "Big Idea" and let it find its footing in the real world.

Remarkable things happen when upper management communicates that it supports and values these brainstorming sessions - that they are not just some nice activity, but are actually at the heart of a new business model based on innovation. Then people approach these monthly meetings having really done their homework. They are fired up because they know they can potentially come out with a "Big Idea" that will impact the real world of their business. They become aware of how much trust the leadership has in their creative abilities. And in today's knowledge-based creative economy, where workers are after the next big intellectual challenge, such a leadership practice has the incredible side effect of bolstering employee retention.

For the leader who nourishes this kind of forward-looking "Big Idea" thinking within the ranks, it would be foolish not to let some of the best ideas run their course. Allow people to fail. Not every great idea can be a commercial marketable innovation, but some will be - and they make the ultimate difference.

Sometimes we get stuck in our thinking about leadership. I suggest that today's leaders should be charged with allowing some chaos - at least enough to produce that elusive eureka! moment that can transform their company from average to extraordinary.