New Innovation

"The living organism must adapt to changes in the environment. The extent to which it can do so successfully will determine the organism's place on the evolutionary scale."

- Richard Restak, The Brain

Defining the Need: In an article, Helping the U.S. Keep Its Innovation Edge, in the November 17th, 2003 issue of Business Week, Sal Palmisano, President of IBM, states that he believes the U.S. is at a critical moment in its history. He emphasizes that our singular advantage in a global economy in the future will relate to how well we understand the need to take diverse risks to prepare our workforce and society to be able to innovate in new ways.

Mr. Palmisano redefines innovation as the intersection of invention and insight, and the fusion of new methods and new approaches. In so doing he shifts the focus from the innovation of things and technology only, to the innovation of ideas, collaboration and expertise….requiring a broader and deeper knowledge in more areas that has been seen as appropriate for a manufacturing economy…..as well as a new way of thinking that connects diverse factors and ideas into a set of parallel processes of continuous innovation in all areas of society. In short, the world defined by Mr. Palmisano requires a new type of leader.

In a world of constant change, this new type of leader will complement the traditional action, outcomes based project leader so important to Industrial Society. Known as a "master capacity builder," this transformative leader will need to be able to seed "capacities for transformation" among diverse people and organizations in a newly emerging Conceptual Age, will need broad knowledge in many areas, process design skills, emotional maturity, a willingness to take risks for the common good and a compassion for others.

Six areas of transformative leadership need to be developed:

1) Ecoplanning and Emergence (adaptive planning) are fundamental principles for adapting to a constantly changing society.
2) Transformational Process Skills able to create a culture of transformation
3) Transformational Attitudes that are consistent with a constantly changing society
4) Transformational Capabilities that are consistent with a constantly changing society
5) Spotting Trends and Weak Signals that are consistent with a constantly changing society
6) Connecting Ideas, People, and Institutions are at the core of the ecology principle for transformative leadership.