Innovating for the Future with Outmoded Mentality?

One of the most daunting challenges for leaders today is how to innovate and stay ahead of the curve.  It seems a herculean task for most and the question is always “why is this so hard?”

The simple answer is that is isn’t hard……..if you are able to shift your mindset away from antiquated (and painfully slow!) bureaucratic procedure into a new paradigm of rapid prototyping and group leadership.  In this new landscape of rapid change and ambiguity leaders can no longer operate a system of ‘approval’ wherein they make the decisions on behalf of the organization.  Rather, future leaders must evolve into a system where their primary function is to create the conditions for leadership capacity throughout the organization.  This shift in mentality and skill set enables agility with rapid decision making and rapid course correction – the cornerstones of innovation.

So how do we get there?  Kingbridge would like to offer the insight that what is required to achieve such an overhaul in leadership is a shift from organizational development to personal professional development wherein individuals take on the accountability for their own education and capacity growth.  In fact it hardly seems possible to do it any other way – trying to shift into a paradigm where rapid decision making is necessary throughout the organization and under any number of circumstances and across skill sets requires networks, systematic thinking and conversational skills.  None of which are things you can really ‘pick up’ during a corporate training session, they all require practice, forums for discussion and most importantly adaptation of this new mindset. Relying on organizational training to equip you with these skills is kind of like trying to learn to swim from a you tube video on your living room floor!

To read more on future leadership trends and their implications check out this paper from Center for Creative Leadership.

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