A popular teaching story these days is about how Gandhi, when asked by a mother to help her son stop eating sugar, told her he could, but to bring the child back in a 2 weeks. She did, and he simply said "stop eating sugar." Astonished, the mother asked why he didn't just say that the first time if that's all he was going to do. His response? "Mother, two weeks ago I was eating a lot of sugar myself.”." Many folks mistake the lesson as only a person not eating the sugar can ask another to do the same. We think there is a deeper lesson, the lesson of "moral ground" and it has implications for innovation leadership.
The lesson, as we see it, is that in order to have the moral ground to make the request of the child, Gandhi, a true innovation leader, needed to experience the process of quitting himself. He needed to intimately experience what he was going to ask the child to do.
So it is with innovation. As innovation leaders, we are asking others to improve their creative thinking and innovation skills. Being better than those we lead at these skills is not enough. We are asking them to engage in a process of improvement, so we must be engaged in a process of improvement. If I want to lead improvement in innovation skills, I must lead my self to be improving my innovation skills.
This tenacity of intention, coupled with a belief that there is no such thing as a grown-up, will win you the day as an innovation leader. Hence the quote commonly attributed to Gandhi: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" so hear yourself saying "I must be a model for creative thinking and innovation supporting behaviors."
Put yourself in the responsible position. Think some more about this by reading here:
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