There is an urgent need for new and improved thinking about leadership and innovation. Older leadership models, tried and true practices, and previous innovation strategies do not adequately address todays challenges. Academics, consultants and popular writers have drawn leadership and management apart. Similarly, research and practice of innovation have emphasized strategic and organizational factors, whereas research and practice on creativity have focused on individual factors. However, successful organizational transformation, and managing change, demands both leadership and management.
Book Details:
- Author: Scott Isaksen
- ISBN: 9780470014998
- Year Published: 2006
- Pages: 420
- BISAC: BUS071000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Leadership
About the Book and Topic:
There is an urgent need for new and improved thinking about leadership and innovation. Older leadership models, tried and true practices, and previous innovation strategies do not adequately address todays challenges. Academics, consultants and popular writers have drawn leadership and management apart. Similarly, research and practice of innovation have emphasized strategic and organizational factors, whereas research and practice on creativity have focused on individual factors. However, successful organizational transformation, and managing change, demands both leadership and management.
Why is a new book on this topic needed at this time? Broadened response to change. Managers are facing broadening demands on their time and attention to a dynamic and uncertain environment. No organization is insulated from the requirements of being able to broaden their responsiveness to change. Organizations in both the private and public sectors face an increasingly ambiguous environment. Under these conditions, managers must learn how to become more flexible and agile in order to respond successfully. More inclusive leadership. Organizations have traditionally conceived of leadership as a heroic attribute, appointing the few real leaders to high-level senior positions in order to get them through the hard times. Many observers within organizations are becoming cynical about this approach and are beginning to think about the need to recognize and utilize a wider range of leadership practices. Leadership needs to be conceived of as something that happens across functions and levels. New concepts and frameworks are needed in order to embrace this more inclusive approach to leadership. Exploiting a broader range of creative talents. Organizations have typically viewed creativity as belonging to a gifted few (usually placed within the design, research and development or marketing functions). As a result, the development and implementation of innovation strategy has been limited. There is increasing recognition of the need to move beyond this narrow view of who has creative talent to how a broader range of talents might be applied. The contributions of innovation and creativity need to be understood as a source of competitive advantage. Organizations need to find ways to recognize and apply the full spectrum of creative talent represented in the entire employee population. Integrating innovation leadership and individual creativity. The best selling Innovator’s Dilemma by Christensen argues that disruptive innovation should be managed differently from routine innovation, and that the two demand different resources and organization. Conversely, in the popular Winning Through Innovation, Tushman argues that organizations’ must become “ambidextrous”, balancing both demands. Our book helps to integrate these different perspectives. The questions and discussion must move beyond, What is the difference between leadership and management? to How do we use a full spectrum of creative leadership skills to improve our responses to the needs for change?
Provides a balanced and integrated approach to creativity, innovation, change and leadership Meeting the Innovation Challenge is organized around a new model of creative leadership Offers practical models, frameworks and resources Develops a systems approach that focuses on method, people, context and need Isaksen and Tidd have vast experience both of writing on leadership and innovation, and providing training and consultancy to major corporations
About the Author
Scott Isaksen is the President of the Creative Problem Solving Group, Inc. (CPSB) and Senior Fellow of its Creativity Research Unit. He has been a professor and director of the Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College from 1981 to 1997. Scott has published over 150 articles or chapters in a variety of academic journals, popular publications and books. He has written or edited The Handbook of Creative Learning (1982), Creative Problem Solving: The Basic Course (1985), Frontiers of Creativity Research: Beyond the Basics (1987), Identifying and Recognizing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (1993), Nurturing and Developing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (1993), Creative Approaches to Problem Solving (1994, 2000) and Facilitative Leadership (2000). Scott currently also serves as the Vice President of the Center for Creative Learning in Sarasota, Florida, through which he maintains his interest in taking creativity into the world of education. He now provides leadership training to major corporations and is faculty member for the PwC Leadership Conferences for its tax practice, Ogilvy s Senior Leadership Programme, and Oxford University Press International Leadership Programme. Joe Tidd is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management and Director of Studies at SPRU (Science & Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex, U.K. and visiting Professor at Imperial College Management School, University of London. He was previously Head of the Management of Innovation Specialisation and Director of the Executive MBA Programme at Imperial College. He has worked as policy adviser to the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), responsible for industrial innovation and advanced technologies. There he developed and launched the annual CBI Innovation Trends Survey, and presented expert evidence to three Select Committee Enquiries held by the House of Commons and House of Lords. Prior to working for the CBI, Dr Tidd was a researcher for the five-year, $5 million International Motor Vehicle Program organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. He has worked on research and consultancy projects on technology and innovation management for consultants Arthur D. Little, CAP Gemini and McKinsey, and technology-based firms, including ASML, BT, Marconi, National Power, NKT and Nortel Networks and Petrobras. He is the winner of the Price Waterhouse Urwick Medal for contribution to management teaching and research, and the Epton Prize from the R&D Society. He has written five books and more than sixty papers on the management of technology and innovation, including the market-leading textbook Managing Innovation: Integrating technological, market and organizational change (Wiley, 3rd edition, 2005). He is also Managing Editor of the International Journal of Innovation Management, co-founder of the EPSRC-sponsored Innovation Club of 20 firms, and was the national co-ordinator of the ESRC Innovation Knowledge Exchange Group (KEG).