It is said that life is a journey and that what we are today is a product of all our experiences, good and bad. And even in a technological, ever-changing, world we can still see the lessons of yesteryear influencing the decisions of today. That line manager who insisted that everyone worked strictly to time, that team leader who encouraged you to take on extra training and extra responsibility; just as every action and interaction builds organisational culture, so too every personal action and interaction helps to shape the leader that you will eventually become.

However, there are some times when you have to cast aside the lessons of the past and start anew. Those are the times when the world has moved on so much that large chunks of the way in which you traditionally viewed your business and its interactions are no longer appropriate. Admittedly, even then there are some areas which won’t change. Ethics, integrity, a focus on delivering great customer outcomes; core values such as these are not only well worth hanging onto no matter what, they are a key driver of business and personal success.

So what are these other drivers which may call for a radical rethink of attitude and approach? Just what is so important that lifelong learning has to be turned on its head, leading you to unlearn the lessons of the past? Quite simply, I’m talking about a wind of change which sweeps aside current thinking and shows that there is a better way to deliver stronger outcomes.

One such is the increasing recognition that building a culture of innovation is not only game changing for the organisation, it can also deliver game changing outcomes. Before you put your head in your hands and think not another culture change initiative let me give you a few reasons to change. It is estimated that £64.7 billion is lost every year in the UK simply by failing to follow through on good ideas and even when ideas are taken up 80 to 90% of new products brought to market fail.

“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” Lao Tzu.

It’s little wonder therefore that innovation is regularly seen as a top three challenge for organisations but you aren’t going to be able to transform your organisation simply by adding the word innovation to all of your pronouncements. Quite simply, building an innovation led organisation, one with a culture of innovation at its heart, is as much about unlearning old stuff as it is needing to learn new stuff. And that is even more true for leaders as it is for everyone else within the organisation.

It’s one reason why in our book Building a Culture of Innovation we devote an entire chapter to building innovation leadership team aptitudes. In order to become true innovation leaders you have to not only be prepared to learn new skills and attitudes and approaches, you also have to be prepared to let go of the old ingrained habits. If you can’t change then how can you expect your people and your organisation to change?

Transformational mind shift

Okay, it’s not easy; but if you wanted an easy life then you shouldn’t have set out to be a leader. And the trouble is that as you have grown into leadership your leadership style and your self-image have become inextricably intertwined. I’m not asking you here to ditch core values such as integrity.  However, I am saying that if you want to lead innovation you have to unlearn traits such as micromanagement, hierarchy and control and replace them with a more open and empowering strategic, innovation-led approach. If you need help in understanding why you have to change then you may find Marshal Goldsmith’s book What got you here won’t get you there: how successful people become even more successful of some use. It’s not always a comfortable read as Marshal forces us to think about the way in which it is all too easy to delude ourselves about our approach and contributions, but unless we face up to reality then in effect we are failing our organisation.

Only once we have truly faced up to change, to the need to unlearn the legacy of the past can we hope to work with our people to move the business on. And here again the approach has to reflect the new paradigm. So we work to build understanding, we explain and we coach and we not only provide feedback but also invite 360° feedback at every level throughout the organisation. Most importantly we help our people to unlearn the habits of the past; to become empowered and engaged and to collaborate in creating innovative solutions which will deliver strength and longevity for the organisation. Most importantly, we must build a culture of innovation!