Last Wednesday, it occurred to me that a preoccupation with process can really impede the pursuit of revolutionary innovation. By process, I mean a focus on what happens between when an idea "emerges" and when it first gets to market.Instead, leaders should communicate constraints and conditions and then actively support action. Focus on the bookends, not the books.
Constraints and conditions
1. Utilize clear constraints
Let people know they'll get real money, but not a lot of it, to take the next development and learning step.
2. Focus on user and market outcomes
Fund fundamentally different customer experiences or "good enough" solutions to disrupt our own market.
3. Start with impact, wait for mass
Be patient for scale, but impatient for in-market proof and per-unit profitability.
4. Cultivate hunches
Steven Johnson's forthcoming book (Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation) seems to be built in part around his idea of "cultivated hunches." Think of them as wise hypotheses and patterns that you're people have seen. They're out there in your organization. Actively find them, help people develop them and unlock them. If you asked people to share their hunches right now, how many big ideas would be in there?
5. Act, preferably fast
Help people get things shipped to generate feedback from real users, in-market. One of your jobs as a big-shot leader is to help people make progress. Is there an experience out there that you can't prototype or build within 60 days?
Agile/lean thinking and the theory of disruption come together quite nicely when you do this.