The video is an interview/discussion offering practical advice for corporate innovation leaders on how to advance their careers by aligning with senior leaders' goals and constraints. Key recommendations include using the Value Proposition Canvas to map leaders' jobs, pains and gains; framing innovation as a value proposition for leaders' careers and goals rather than ideological advocacy; bringing in peers and external voices; and recognizing when to change jobs if leaders are not receptive.
But see yourself as a value proposition, not as an ideological innovation guru, because that rarely works.
I'm just about to jump on a podcast with Alexander Hang. He is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Norwegian Post and also runs a great podcast on innovation.
I think that the main thing to understand is almost use one of our tools, the Value Proposition Canvas. Understand the jobs, pains and gains of the senior leaders. Understand their constraints. For me, it's easy to talk about what companies should do. I'm not managing a multi billion dollar company, but I work with these leaders all the time and I really try to deeply understand their constraints, their anxiety. What's the challenge? Publicly listed company, how could I make it clear to them that this could be a win for them? And that's always very context specific. So innovation leaders need to first ask what's in it for the leaders? How do I work with their constraints? Don't try to argue what should be done. That never works. Try to argue how this can help them in their career, in their overall goals, the vision that they have. And if it doesn't fit, if you have leaders that you know they're not going to do this, change your job. Sometimes that's the best thing. If you want to advance your career as an innovation leader, do your best to try to create those conditions. Always good to bring in peers for your senior leaders, because they listen to peers, they listen to outside people. They probably won't really trust you even if they trust you. They want to have other voices. But there are enough out there who've really done it. So really focus on what are the constraints for your leaders and you'll make a huge jump because you'll become the value proposition to them. But see yourself as a value proposition that, not as an ideological, you know, innovation guru, because that rarely works.
