Article Review: innovation in leadership

  The article I read was called "Innovation Leadership: how to use innovation to lead effectively, work collaboratively and drive results". It was from the Center for Creative Leadership. The authors are David Horth and Dan Buchner. I located this article before spring break by doing a search about leadership and innovation using Google.
   This article was written for business professionals who are looking to improve their workplace. The article focused on not doing the same things simply because they have always been done, but rather trying new ideas and not being afraid of failure. Economic instability meant that you don't know what the future holds so you can do what you did in the past and expect it to produce positive results. Doing the same things will only give you the same results; if you want improved results, you need to be open to new options.
    Leaders need to be open to listening to ideas of their employees and customers. Employees also need to keep their minds open and be willing to adapt their ideas to improve them. This is their two tiered approach: innovative leadership and leadership for innovation. There were six innovative thinking skills to help business people. These included: paying attention, notice what is going unnoticed; personalizing, using your own and customers personal experiences; imaging, using pictures and metaphors; serious play, exploration and prototyping; collaborative inquiry, pulling together multiple viewpoints; and crafting, not using either/or thinking, but using several ideas.
    I will apply this to my professional development because every client I work with will have different needs and abilities. I can't use the same approach for everyone. What works for one client may work for another, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try something new that could be better. I also need to be open to combining my ideas with the ideas of others and to adapt and change as the situation changes.
    I would recommend this article to anyone who will need to work with a team and in a changing and growing field. It is a good article for TR students to show them that innovation is necessary in many professions, especially TR.
    Here is a copy of the article I read: http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/InnovationLeadership.pdf