This blog post is contributed by Sally Grisedale, an attendee at Innovation Leadership: Visions for the Future event hosted by FWE&E. To visit Sally’s blog, click here.

A good time was had by all at the FWE&E Innovation Leaderships, Visions for the Future event last night hosted at Ericsson’s Experience Lab in San Jose. Sarah Beckman spoke on learning theory for design innovation. She is senior lecturer at the Haas School of Business Management at UC Berkeley. Her talk was followed by a panel session of distinguished leaders in the field moderated by Lisa Solomon.

The panelists included: Dr. Jan Uddenfeldt, Senior Vice President, Senior Advisor Technology to CEO, Ericsson Group. Susan Worthman, Associate Chair, MBA in Design Strategy and Director, Leading by Design Fellows Program, California College of the Arts. Jennifer Dulski, Co-Founder and CEO, Center’d/The Dealmap. Chris Ertel, Partner, Monitor Group’s Doblin Practice. The meeting was graphically recorded by Lynn Carruthers, Visual Practitioner, Monitor Group, Global Business Network.

In her two hour presentation, Sara Beckman described the four key take aways for any organization needing to innovate. These are:

1. Develop empathy through out your organization for customers and users.
2. Focus on the most imp. Problems and ladder up the hierarchy by asking why
3. Motivate change innovation with compelling sticky stories
4. Learn through rapid prototyping of alternative solutions.

Develop empathy through out your organization for customers and users. Identify the audience and design for the extreme then test your solution on the mean. For example, the potato peeler the Oxo Goodgrip, was designed for a person with arthritic hands to use. Arthritis sufferers make up a small percentage of Oxo’s customer base however, the design innovation also met unexpressed needs of the larger audience. This design is a market leader.

Empathy is also needed for the stakeholders in an organization on whom you are pushing your innovation. This remark was made by panel member Chris Ertell from Doblin Inc. As a design innovator and leader for fortune 500 companies like Apple, Yahoo! and Excite, I often failed to understand this point. Product innovation led by a designer without proper institutional support from user feedback, business planning and engineering implementation is destined to fail, at least this was my experience.

Design innovation can succeed when you have command and control leadership like Steve Jobs at Apple or you have open innovation born out of love. Without this arrangement it is hard to avoid the corporate run around and business incentive to focus only on short term financial wins.

Focus on the Most Important Problems. Sara spoke to the need to Focus on the most important problems and ladder up and down the hierarchy of needs and keep asking why. Working with individual clients and companies over the years I have found this to be true. What a client tells you is a problem often masks a deeper issue that needs addressing before any attempt at resolution can be found. Diagnosis is critical to establish the true problem to be solved. Where the pain shows up, may not be where the pain originates so you have to keep asking questions. More explicit or stated needs that can be found through interviews with customers.

Where Sara spoke to “laddering up and down the hierarchy” I believe she was speaking to the scope and focus of design innovation in the product design context. In my experience innovation is a ladder with four steps.

Step One: Improving an existing product to create greater efficiency or cost saving for example, creating a cheaper aluminum can.

Step Two: Evolving a product to bring it to a new level of performance, for example, Oakley sunglasses do the same job a any pair of sun glasses but have evolved to serve the community of sports players.

Step Three: Inventing a new product solution. For example, the iRobot is a new class of vacuum cleaner. The iRobot cleans on its own, whilst the competition continue to compete on suction power.

Step Four: Transformation occurs when a product comes to market that changes the market or the organization for example, the iPhone.

Motivate Change with Customer Stories. Sara recommends enforcing and motivating change with compelling stories discovered from customer observation. There are two types of story. One you tell internally to unite the team in pushing ahead with a new idea and stories you tell the market to help sell your new product. For example, Kimberly Clarke customer insight stories helped reframe their perspective on diapers away from “waste management technology” to clothes designed to help parents potty train children. This research inspired story then became the story which launched a new product of “Pullup” diapers with the famous tagline “I am a big kid now”

Learn through rapid prototyping of alternative solutions. In the five years I worked in the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computer, all I did was prototype new product concepts for testing, feedback and industry promotion. The type of prototype ranged from simple card sorting exercises to understand the order someone would complete a task, to interactive prototypes people could click on and tell us if what happened on screen matched their expectation of what they thought would happen.

Sara mentioned that getting her students this year to test their ideas is proving difficult. She feels this generation is so used to looking stuff up online, that interacting with people and sharing their ideas face to face is not desirable.

The reality is, if your audience can’t try out your ideas before you go to market, you are missing out on one of the most creative moments of the design innovation process. When you make the time to observe, listen, analyze your work being used by the people you are designing it for, you experience profound insights which help transform your OK ideas into great ones. This is when the stories are made, this is when the penny drops, and this is when you and your team find the heart connection, what martial arts experts call “hitting the Tai Chi”. Finding that perfect right point that when you attain it, all the other variables, problems, glitches and hiccups fall away and you have your perfect right solution.

With our upcoming “Innovation Leadership – Visions for the Future” event taking place tomorrow at Ericsson in San Jose, the ability to harness the spirit of collaboration has been a focal point in my mind. One of the interviews conducted as part of Ericsson’s “2020 – Shaping Ideas” project resonated with me in particular: that of self-proclaimed “future narrator” Anne Lise Kjaer, who led a research team across the world (yes, the entire world!) to collect opinions about the future of women in business and in the workplace.

Anne Lise Kjaer - 2020 Shaping Ideas

At the onset, Kjaer is quick to remind us that the future is an indeterminate thing. After listening to her interview, I realized that it’s true: I –and perhaps most people—tend to think of the future as a finite thing, as in “the future will be like XYZ,” rather than “the future might be like XYZ.” We forget that the future is not a predetermined place where we will all eventually end up regardless of the choices we make. Corny as it sounds, we have the power to create exactly what that future will be like. The possibilities are endless!

Despite the fact that the future is an intangible and mercurial concept, Kjaer’s job is to make predictions based on current trends and opinions. After her extensive survey, she came to the following conclusion:

“[In the future], women won’t bother to try to get into a male-ruled organization; they will just try to start their own company, because it’s much easier. If you go into an old-fashioned, last-century organization, which was very left-brained, you won’t have a chance in the future…

Daniel Pink supports Kjaer’s premise in his book, A Whole New Mind, reiterates that the era of “left brain” dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which “right brain” qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate.

It remains to be seen whether women will be forced to circumvent established traditions of thought by starting their own companies. However, it highlights an interesting shift specific to the world of entrepreneurship – as women step up to take the reigns, innovate, and build new companies, what changes can we expect to see? How will women build, lead, and foster differently? I, for one, am excited to see what changes (hopefully positive) these shifts will bring to the future.

Guest Blog written by Lisa Kay Solomon, Principal, LKS Partners
Ms. Solomon specializes in the design and facilitation of strategic conversations. Lisa has over 15 years combined experience applying a “design thinking,” experiential approach to developing leadership potential and building strategic growth opportunities.

As leaders, we consistently seek innovative new ways to invigorate existing methods of development. Having just spent two days at Design Management Institute’s second annual “ReThinking Design…The Future of Design” conference in San Francisco, I am more convinced than ever that “design” will be the coveted leadership competency throughout all organizations – not just within the established design and innovation centers. In this context, design is not about a pretty aesthetic or a shiny new object – it’s an intention – a commitment to embrace fluid, organic, collaborative, hypothesis-driven, iterative approaches to solving complex problems.

I was particularly impressed to see the usual suspects of design firms and forward-thinking design companies were not the only participants. Equally present were representatives from forward-thinking universities and graduate schools looking for inspirational and practical ideas on how to build integrated curriculums to teach future leaders critical thinking, design and visual communication skills. Their goal is to teach future leaders how to “toggle” between subjects and disciplines, how to understand whole-systems logic while leveraging individual parts, and how to bring in several perspectives that allow for diversity of opinion to cross pollinate multiple possibilities. Ultimately, they want to teach students how to learn, not just how to perform.

While I hope that the next generation has a better shot at learning these skills holistically, I’m left wondering what happens to the rest of us who are already in positions of responsibility. How do those of us who have too many deadlines, too many emails in our inbox, and too many commitments find the time to appreciate the whole system? Where do we begin to search for multiple perspectives? How do we re-learn how to learn?

Contrary to the old adage, I believe that you can teach old dogs new tricks. There is no need to wait until the next generation finds its way into positions of leadership: we can incorporate design processes into other departments now. Moving forward with a new way to develop projects and products is possible by applying collaborative design principles to your next conversation. Instead of drilling the “right answer” or defending your personal opinion, allow yourself to collect and combine the best aspects from each stated position. Embrace the “why” in a conversation, not just the “what.” Bring someone else into the conversation to provide a fresh perspective. Most important is the willingness to take a risk by presenting your ideas before you’re sure that you’re “right”; this is the only way to incorporate feedback and create the most positive, well-rounded outcome. It takes courage, faith, and commitment to design a new kind of dialog where colleagues develop ideas between each other rather than talking at each either. These are exactly the kinds of leadership skills and competencies that must be embraced at every level of the organization – instead of exclusively within the innovation and design teams.

There are certain terms we hear all the time in the workplace: innovative, cutting-edge, and groundbreaking, to name a few. These terms are frequently used without providing a clear definition of what they mean - you simply know innovation when you see it. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all “holy grail” guide that will provide all the answers when it comes to developing innovative leadership, strategies, or products. Since our lexicon of what constitutes ‘new’ changes by the day (and sometimes by the hour), it is futile to try and put it down in words for fear of sounding outdated tomorrow.

Ericsson has moved beyond the expectations of a big technology company in launching an ambitious project to define the meaning of innovation. “Ericsson 2020- Shaping Ideas,” uses a wonderful starting point: the future. Rather than trying to define what it means to be innovative today, they have attempted to project an image of what innovation will be like tomorrow.

“At Ericsson, we need to collaborate and get inspiration from people outside our business in order to adapt to these changes—people that take a stand, and that want to share and work together.”

In choosing perspectives outside the realm of technology and communication, Ericsson has demonstrated a powerful shift in models of leadership – embracing a model that seeks out diversity to achieve a truly innovative strategy. The ideas featured in the project do not represent the company’s opinion, but rather demonstrates a corporate commitment to innovation through collective wisdom – drawing together the minds of many to develop a much more powerful and complete vision of what the world might become in 2020.

Tapping into the power of innovation is no small feat – it requires commitment at all levels of leadership as well as a comprehensive strategy to execute vision throughout your organization. How do you push the boundaries of traditional work environments to promote innovation in your workplace? Do you invite conversation, dialogue, and thought leadership to shape the vision of your company? If not, what steps can you take to create invigorating methods and ideas through the power of collaboration?

In today’s fast-paced, information-saturated world, the constant influx of information is often overwhelming – to the point of over-saturation. It becomes challenging to identify, absorb, and utilize the relevant (key) pieces of information to augment our strengths as organizational leaders. Often we find ourselves sidetracked putting out “fires”, pushing through to meet deadlines, and consumed by a new projects.

In periodic points throughout my career, I’ve found find myself feeling as if I’m wearing blinders – being too focused on internal corporate issues and struggling to find the resources to bring creativity and innovation into my workspace.

I’m guessing that many of my colleagues and peers struggle with the same. The constant challenge we all face as leaders is how to stay ahead of the curve; maintain the “big picture” vision that will guide our business strategy, direct our goals, and motivate our teams to high performance. In other words, how can we leverage the vast amount of information around us, to motivate and prosper?

Many of the women I know have discovered synergies between athletic achievement and effective leadership on a personal level. I’m no exception –cycling is my personal passion and something that keeps me grounded and focused during high intensity work periods. Wouldn’t it be great if we could identify (extract) the tools and mindset of high performance athletes and integrate them into our work performance? Marilyn King, the speaker for Your Story of Now,” demonstrates that these two worlds have far more in common than what initially meets the eye. Appearances aside, both worlds require specific qualities to achieve success: commitment, stamina, and above all else, raw drive. Marilyn provides an approach that will examine patterns of success and tailor them to create a leadership strategy that will result in high quality and exceptional performance.

When it comes to seeking out new and innovative ideas, look up and out and beyond your immediate surroundings—it is quite often in unfamiliar territory where the greatest inspiration lies.

Collaboration and collective wisdom are powerful. In January, I had the pleasure of attending a Thought Leader Gathering hosted by Patricia Neal from Heartland Inc. The speaker was Alan Briskin, who has written a book entitled “The Power of Collective Wisdom”. Alan explained that Collective Wisdom refers to knowledge and insight gained through group and community interaction. It is elusive and unpredictable – it can’t be willed into being. We can, however, create the conditions for collective wisdom to be cultivated. Leading a meeting to gather collective wisdom requires the leader to “lead from behind” and allow the creativity of the group to be fostered. It’s not about forcing the decision but more about enabling the discussion to happen.

“Convening is different from facilitation. By definition, facilitation is ‘the process of making things easy or easier.’ Conveners invite participants to co-create the highest possible outcome for a meeting or gathering.” ~ Craig Neal, Heartland Inc.

To be truly successful, Collective Wisdom requires us to open ourselves and our decision-making process to include diverse opinions, varied perspectives, and different experiences. Transitioning from individualistic thinking to a collaborative group mentality can be a dramatic mind shift for some women leaders, but the value speakers for itself – more heads are better than one. In other words, the likelihood of coming up with the best solution increases significantly when we encourage diversity AND foster the conditions for Collective Wisdom to emerge.

My previous blog post discussed the importance of creating authentic connections for professional and personal benefits. Here’s an example of theory to practice. Women with strong networks are much better positioned (and more comfortable) reaching out to bring “new wisdom” to the table. Women who haven’t cultivated these connections have fewer resources to draw from and are more likely to act alone, limiting their impact as a leader.

It’s true that no single woman leader can do it alone. Nor should we try. In fact, leaders who don’t embrace a collaborative style of management will inevitably be less successful. Social networking and the web have created an expectation of collaboration- irrespective of age, title, status, gender, or race. It’s already happening online, the question is are YOU tapping into the power of collaboration to achieve success?

March is National Women’s History Month. It’s a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements exemplified by thousands of women who understood the power of change and broke barriers to redefine the role of women in society. I’m in awe of these courageous women and humbled to be considered among them as a recipient of the 2010 History Makers Award.

The National Women’s History Project’s theme for 2010 is “Writing Women Back Into History.” This theme is incredibly relevant to me as I explore the impact women have on the world. NWHP says, “The history of women often seems to be written in invisible ink.” Going forward, how can we can we fix that? How can we empower each other to continue the legacy of change handed down by the extraordinary women who came before us and make sure our efforts are recorded? How do we write ourselves back into history as we follow our goals, ambitions, professional careers, and personal relationships?

There’s no simple answer. One way is to build a social and professional community by women for women. Collaboration empowers every woman to become a triumphant leader. Collaboration enables us to break the mold and achieve the unachievable. In our community of FWE&E members, every day I see women enhancing their impact on the world. Their success moves all women forward and underscores the power of change.

President Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

How will you write yourself back into history?

Today marks the 2009 release of the UC Davis Census of Women Leaders where they are reporting that once again, the number of women in the C suite and on Boards of the top 400 public companies in the state of California is a paltry 10.6% which is DOWN from the 10.9% number reported in 2008.

Equally shocking is that 118 (29.5%) of California’s largest 400 public companies have no women board directors or executive officers. Only 15 of the 400 companies have a woman CEO.  The Bay area has the county with the greatet percentage of women directors - San Francisco (15.7%), as well as the county with the least - Santa Clara (8.2%) - the heart of Silicon Valley.

I was really excited to participate in an NPR interview this morning until the first comment from a listener came in with the remark about why are we even talking about this issue since many women want to stay at home to take care of kids while their husbands bring home the paycheck.

When asked to respond to this, I could only comment that it is an example of the gender bias and stereotyping that exists for both women and men that keep things stagnating the way they are.

The reason I don’t understand why we have to talk about this issue is that there is so much data out there supporting that when there is diversity of all kinds in the board room and the C Suite that there is better financial performance, more measured risk taking, and greater creative thinking and problem solving due to the diversity of backgrounds, disciplines, gender, race etc.

Organizations will face a major talent shortage in the near future as qualified, educated women (more women graduating with MBA’s than men for example) will look at those companies who created intention around having diversity of all kinds as a better place to work.  Those who create sponsorships to create opportunities for women, who measure the degree of diversity in hiring and who actually walk the talk will be the ones who win the talent competition.

Women also can influence changing this picture by learning how to network more strategically to break into the power circles where decisions are made; negotiate higher salaries rather than justifying what is offered; and seeking out and accepting roles they might need to stretch into.

Men will take a role if they are 50% qualified and feel they will figure it out when they get there. Women tend to feel they need 100% of the competencies before they can accept the role.

This issue is about choice. Maria Shriver’s recent report on women talks about how roles are changing as many women are the main career bread winner and the husband stays home to take care of things on that front. And, there are many women who are choosing to stay home to relish the valuable time they will have with their children.

The point is, there is not one right answer here. But corporate America seems to be stuck in a model of one way of doing things that does not support the aspirations, life challenges, or goals that many women have.

We’re having a dialogue about this issue tonight with Dean Currall of UC Davis Graduate School of Business, Maureen Connors, Board Member of Decker Outdoor Corporation (in the Top 25 companies in CA on the UC Davis list); Karen Rohde, SVP of Sun Microsystems (being acquired by Oracle), Bethany Mayer, Chief Marketing Officer of BlueCoat, and Deborah Campbell, Director of Membership from Catalyst.  Come join us at 6pm at DLA to continue this discussion or comment here on what you have to say about this very important issue.

In my previous blog, I reported on the highlights of the W.I.N. Global Leadership conference held in Prague, Czech Republic on October 8-10.

In addition to those highlights, during the conference two business school professors from London and Switzerland  delivered presentations that I found quite thought provoking. Both discussed the different characteristics that make women leaders thrive, but also pointed out ways they shoot themselves in the foot.

Do you agree with these competences and assertions from Nigel and George or do you have a different list?  Do any of these competencies strike an idea for a new development area for yourself?

Nigel Nicholson, Professor at the London Business School, began by stating that we have a fundamentally wrong model of leadership being practiced today that is based on meritocracy where decisions are made on a linear hierarchy.  It creates a purely random universe where people “get there” by luck.

What you are supposed to be doing as a leader is getting the best out of those around you.  There is a unique set of characteristics that women have used to help drive the future that are actually more positive than the male dominant hierarchy model.  However, women often don’t jump into the water if it doesn’t look good.Meaning they don’t move between enough different environments - which lessens their opportunities for leadership roles.

Nigel also talked about the strategy of the future being based on vision and outlined some key skills that women have and should develop in order to prepare themselves for future leadership roles.  These key skills include:  asking questions; de-centering (seeing what something looks like from another perspective); managing like a partner and not a boss; storytelling - connecting people with the past, present, and the future in a way that is emotionally compelling.

A leader answers the following questions:

1. Who am I and why am I here?
2. Who are we and what do we stand for? - Our core competence and real purpose
3. Where are we going?
4. Why are we going there? - Stated with conviction!
5. Why must we change? - A crisis is a terribly opportunity to waste

On the last day of the conference, George Kohlrieser, Professor at IMD in Switzerland listed out his view of the critical competencies for women leaders.  His background is very interesting as he began his career in law enforcement and grew to become a hostage negotiator.  Much of his work is about resolving conflict and many of the ideas presented below are covered in his new book “Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Resolve Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance.”

The core competencies for women leaders he highlighted in his presentation were:

1. Being assertive
2. Being decisive
3. Social bonding to raise performance (otherwise known as connectedness or networking)
4. Managing conflict for a win-win outcome
5. Being a secure base and having secure bases
6. Mastering the mind’s eye to focus on positive goals (versus being sucked into the negative outlook on life)
7. Developing resilience
8. Understanding business

One of the most compelling statements he made was how we get to the highest level of performance through failure and how we live in a world where there is a high expectation for entitlement.

On October 8-10, 2009, I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the W.I.N. Global Leadership conference in Prague, Czech Republic. This was my third time attending this conference and I was again impressed with the integration of creativity through music performed at the start of each plenary session and the bevy of global thought-provoking speakers.

The W.I.N. audience is very similar to that of FWE&E in its composition of entrepreneurs, executives, consultants, thought leaders who are forward-looking people and influential decision makers. They state that the W.I.N. woman is typically culturally aware, wants to be part of a community and has an international and open mindset. She is well educated, keen to learn, to grow and to contribute, receptive to new technology, embraces change and listens to her intuition.

The theme of this year’s conference was Wisdom in Action - divided into three main segments with the first day providing a global overview of topics of interest to women leaders, followed by a day of work and career issues, concluding with a day focusing on leadership and personal growth topics.

Some of the highlights for me included Axel Olsen from the Institute for Future Studies in Copenhagen who stated that the future is going to be created by women in new and different ways than we’ve seen in the past. This is the best time in life to create our own future where the opportunities are as big as the risks. The Institute offers 15 megatrends that they feel will shape the future with the top five being knowledge, new technology, acceleration, hyper-complexity and globalization. Other trends that interested me were immaterialization, individualization, networks, environment and aging. He ended by stressing that existing competition means nothing and that surprises will come from new and different angles.

Other sessions that I found quite compelling included hearing from Lorella Zanardo, Founder and General Manager of Sportgate who has taken on the challenge of highlighting sexism against women in Italy by creating a documentary entitled The Body of Women after being shocked by the images of women in the media in Italy on public television during early hours of the day.

The story of Unilver’s re-energizing of the Dove Brand as told by Angela Nelissen, Sales Director HPC of Uniliver was such an interesting story. The idea of the body self esteem campaign came from a brainstorming session held at a corporate offsite where the women were sharing the issues that meant the most to them and many of them related to self esteem. It was interesting to hear the stories of the internal communication created to “sell” the new campaign and the resistance shown by countries such as France and Italy where beauty was not viewed in the same manner. The new Dove self esteem fund for girls has been a very generous and creative offshoot of the campaign.

We heard the story of career development from Alison Smale, Executive Editor of the International Herald Tribune who, after spending many years in Eastern Europe and Russia and actually being present when the Berlin Wall came down, now lives once again in the UK. Her story of her education, opportunities that opened, and risks that she took were very compelling. What was most interesting was to learn that the International Herald Tribune is about to begin a new series on global women entitled “Turning Point” where they will cover information about women in all walks of life in all countries.

I was moved to tears by the story from Marguerite “Maggy” Barankitse from Burundi who has founded the Maison Shalom (House of Peace) and has supported up to 10,000 children orphaned by the strife in her country. Her native language is French and hearing her wonderfully accented voice tell the story of seeing her family killed in front of her, pleading with the killers to let her save the children, starting to care for them with nothing and ending with the successful story of building a wonderful school, hospital and many other services was beyond amazing. Her focus on it all being driven by love, her compassion and her belief that it could all be done was humbling.

The conference concluded with a drumming session lead by Doug Manuel and Sewa Beats where, through the practice of drumming, we learned how to follow and how to lead. An incredibly fun and motivating experience if you’ve never done it.

I look forward to hearing more stories from the other participants and will continue to post updates on the learning from this amazing group of women who come together as W.I.N.