Innovation Culture - Three Boxes

A few years ago Dr. Vijay Govindrajan gave an interview at Willow Creek Leadership Summit. The video below and has been used in our leadership development presentations last year. What continues to impress upon me is for moving away from Box 1 thinking is to selectively unlearn. All this needs to be done while continuing business operations. Leaders have the on going challenge to guide their teams while doing this (improving present efficiencies of current business processes) while continuing to learn new things that lead to the development of new ideas and new strategies (innovation). Summing up what Vijay is expressing is the onus on leadership as they do strategic thinking is about shaping the future that is not yet tangible. - "Strategy is Innovation".  The cultural within leaders and their teams is to journey from Box 1 (Competition for the present) thinking to Box 2 & Box 3 strategies (Competition for the future).



Lao Tzu once said "To acquire knowledge one must rigorously learn every day but to acquire wisdom one must unlearn every day" My translation: rigorous learning and rigorous editing and purging!