If innovation was human…

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 11/01/2021

If innovation was human, how would it feel? Would it be frustrated and angry at seeing its potential wasted? Would it be full of hope and joy at the positive changes it could deliver to people’s lives and livelihoods? Or would it be like the rest of us; working through a mix of emotions as […]

What kind of VUCA leader are you?

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 08/12/2020

Don’t panic! From Corporal Jones’ immortal catchphrase in Dad’s Army to being written on the front of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s funny how often that instruction ‘Don’t panic’ reoccurs in books and films. A simple phrase, yet one which is almost as meaningless as it is helpful. The same potential for panic […]

Leadership development is broken – so, how do we fix it?

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 01/12/2020

Leadership development is broken! How does that statement make you feel? Do you see it as a personal attack and demand proof, or do you nod sadly and agree? And who do you blame; the system, leadership schools, your predecessors, your employer; or perhaps you accept some of the criticism yourself? Now whilst psychologists may […]

Leading FOR Innovation; It’s a numbers game!

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 25/11/2020

Let me make you a promise; nowhere in this article am I going to ask you where you see your leadership style sitting on a scale of 1-10. Nor am I going to set out to tell you that what you are doing is wrong. After all, every organisation is different, and every organisation may […]

If you want innovation, start with the right breakfast!

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 10/11/2020

Does culture still eat strategy for breakfast? That’s the question which I posted in a webinar which I was invited to present by ‘We are lean and agile’, a company whose vision statement is ‘making improvement easier for you.’ Through a mix of coaching and the deployment of Engage Process software they help organisations to […]

Are you tackling your innovation blockers?

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 03/11/2020

What is the number one innovation blocker in your organisation? That’s the question which the team at Solverboard, the all-in-one innovation platform, recently set out to answer. Building on the success of their 2019 report which looked at five key innovation challenges including measuring innovation and employee buy-in, the 2020 report [1] identified five areas […]

Owning the Innovation Agenda

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 05/10/2020

When the going gets tough, where are you to be found? Or is that an unfair question? You might even see it as a knee-jerk reaction to current circumstances, born out of the twin challenges of COVID and the ever-looming end of the Brexit transition period. Indeed, we can all acknowledge that over the past […]

Changing the organisational climate for innovation to thrive

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 24/08/2020

Hot summers, flash floods, intense storms; it’s hard to escape some of the more immediate impacts of climate change. But there are other impacts too, some of which scientists are yet to understand fully. Take the effects of climate change on permafrost, for example. Acting as a quasi-protective layer between the atmosphere and locked-in carbon […]

Identifying your innovation ecosystem red flags

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 11/08/2020

Innovation doesn’t work; our investment in innovation hasn’t delivered. When I hear comments from senior leaders like these, I come back time and time again to the apocryphal story of the person lost in the countryside who asks someone leaning on a gate for directions, to which the person replies; “well if it were me, […]

Joining the transformation and innovation dots

Posted by Cris Beswick
On 27/07/2020

No one is an island, so the saying goes, and the same is true of business concepts and delivery. Leadership theory, sustainability, lean project management, or indeed any other business practice cannot be taken in isolation. And if you try then the inevitable outcome is a clash between existing and new methodologies alongside confusion and […]