I was at a dinner recently sitting next to a very senior HR leader from a large global organisation. He was sharing with me some changes that were taking place as the result of a change of leadership at the highest level. 

As you would expect, the new leader is keen to make their mark, and leave a legacy and one of the areas he is focusing on is Innovation. He is asking his most senior leadership team to really step up in this area. 

"I want leaders who can lead innovation".

I whole-heartedly support this idea and yet I have a very big question.....How will they do that?

Historically, this organisation has been very traditional in its approach, risk averse, analysis driven, slow to make decisions and despite being global it is led from the centre with little opportunity to innovate and the edges. Many of it's senior group have grown up in that culture. It seems to me it will take more than a bold statement to shift the culture to be "innovative". 

I believe that before the leaders can innovate, the organisation needs to undertake some innovation readiness. 

This is is just like preparing the soil before you sow the seeds. The quality of your soil is directly related to the quality of your harvest. 

Organisations that that want to be innovative need to ensure they have tilled the soil. 

The culture needs to have:

Tolerance for mistakes

Do you reward innovation irrespective of the results?

Do you recognise those that are trying irrespective of the results?

Are you promoting examples and sharing stories of innovative practices?

Delegation of Authority

Do people have access to budget?

Is decision making as low in the organisation as it can be?

Are people truly accountable for their decisions?

Skills

Do they know how to innovate?

Can they facilitate innovation brainstorms or discussions?

Are they able to effective evaluate ideas?

Only when we have this in place will we have leaders who are READY, WILLING and ABLE to lead innovation.