Leadership Practices

Create a presentation that analyzes leadership practices, models, and your own abilities as they relate to innovation and, write a 2–3-page analysis of a presentation plan.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Analyze contemporary leadership practices and models from the perspective of innovation.
- Analyze the practices of an innovative leader to reveal lessons for a company.
Competency 2: Assess personal skills at leading innovation in organizations.
- Evaluate one’s own leadership skills and practices that foster organizational innovation.
Competency 3: Analyze models of innovation and change management to create a culture of innovation.
- Analyze a model of innovation to reveal why it is appropriate for a company.
- Analyze the innovative merits of a plan against successful practices and models of innovation.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
- Create a presentation that effectively communicates content to an audience.

In the introduction to Leading Innovation, DeGraff and Quinn (2007) note:

A quick look around reveals that innovation has many forms, including a better or new product, such as a car; a combination of products, such as a hybrid cell phone; a fashion, such as a designer dress; a business model, such as a short-distance airline; a marketing campaign, such as one for a mature product that makes it seem new; a service, such as a bank that offers customized products and services; an attribute, such as orange juice that helps clean your arteries; and a package, such as a paint can that never spills. What do these forms of innovation have in common? Nothing! (p. 6)

If asked for commentary on that statement, the authors of our readings and the presenters of our presentations throughout our course might very well disagree. They might argue that all of those cases of legitimate and meaningful innovation have the common attribute of innovation leadership and innovative organizations. While each case of innovation had a very different road to discovery and fruition, in every case, leaders and organizations were involved. It is very likely that in every case, elements of the skills and practices of disruptive innovators and innovative organizations would be evident.

As your exploration of disruptive innovators and innovative organizations in this course comes to a close, you have an opportunity to reflect once again on your own proficiency with the skills, practices, and models we have been studying. Now that you have carefully examined these skills, practices, and models and have studied leaders that use and exhibit them, you might have more insight regarding your own application to create innovative cultures in your own organizations. You might see new opportunities to use the skills, practices, and models and develop new ones.

You might also see new opportunities to encourage the characteristics of innovative organizations. Perhaps you do not have control of an entire organization or even a department. Perhaps at this point in your career you are aspiring to be a future leader of innovation. Nevertheless, you still may be able to encourage the practice of these skills in people, the development of processes that encourage the practice of those skills, and philosophies that support leaders to create cultures of innovation.

References

DeGraff, J., & Quinn, S. E. (2007). Leading innovation: How to jump start your organization’s growth engine. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Questions to Consider

As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.

In this assessment you are asked to create a story to engage your company to become more innovative. Consider the following:

Who is the audience you wish to persuade?
How will you use components of storytelling (i.e. emotional, novel, and memorable) in your story?
How would you follow up to ensure that the passion you created in the initial story launch is contagious?

Assessment Instructions

Note: The assessments in this course build upon one another and should be completed in sequence.

Overview

In this course, you have explored three areas as they relate to corporate innovation:

Contemporary leadership practices and models that support innovation.
Personal skills and leadership practices that drive innovation and the creation of innovative organizations.
Models of innovation and change management that leaders use to create a culture of innovation.

This final assessment challenges you to integrate these concepts while focusing how to begin down the path of creating an innovative culture in your company.

Course Scenario

Your germ of an idea that started with a simple question at the global leadership conference is now in full bloom. You have researched leadership principles and models, assessed your own leadership and innovative aptitudes, and analyzed both Design Thinking and a change management model.

Assume that you have approached leadership with your stated enthusiasm for introducing an innovative mentality into the company’s culture, and that they were supportive and have asked you to present your findings to the company.

You know your content and message must tell a story that includes an analysis of innovative leadership practices, models of innovation, and a profile of a successful leader in the same or similar industry. It needs to provide real-world examples and hint at a path for ushering a culture of innovation at the company.

Finally, you know that acceptance of your idea is one thing, but you want your leadership to consider you for the job of further promoting innovative thinking and practices in your organization. So, you want to include an appraisal of your leadership and innovation abilities to do the job.

During a subsequent meeting with leadership to discuss the details of how you will share your findings, a division head suggests that you be given an hour slot at the next annual meeting where you can give a PowerPoint presentation on your research. You may also invite a guest speaker (preferably one that you profiled). Another senior manager quips, “That doesn’t sound terribly innovative to me.” They both turn to you for your opinion; you hesitate before responding, knowing that your answer had better be supported by the leadership practices, models, and examples that you extolled in your presentation. You also know that this opportunity is a part of a shifting organizational culture, so it should probably be vetted through a change management model. You ask for a bit of time to consider the plan to present at the annual meeting…

Directions

Note: Be sure to read the Overview and Course Scenario above.

Part 1: The Message

Consider the Design Thinking Process as you create a presentation (in a form of your choosing; make sure you describe how it will be done—PowerPoint with speech, play, video, et cetera) for an internal company audience that highlights leadership practices and models that have fostered a culture of innovation in a competitor or a company from a similar industry (profile a different leader and company from the first assessment in this course). The goal is to inform your audience and to show how these practices, principles, and models can be applied to your company. (Make sure to describe any assumptions or include any details about your company that will help to clarify or support your analysis below.)

Your presentation should:

Analyze the practices of an innovative leader in the same or similar industry as your company. Include lessons learned that are applicable to your company and why or how they apply.
Analyze a model of innovation that is suitable for your company to adopt and why it is appropriate. It should allow an audience to visualize a path to being more innovative.

Part 2: Presenting the Plan and Yourself

Do the following in a 2–3-page document to leadership, notifying them of your analysis of the plan to present at the annual conference:

Analyze the innovative merits of the plan to present at the annual conference using the innovation principles and models you have examined in this course. Reference each of the bulleted items below in your analysis. For instance, you might consider questions such as the following: “Do models of innovation support this idea? Where does it fall short?” or, “Would this be a practice of an innovative leader? or, “Would Design Thinking suggest this idea?” or, “Is this something that would be consistent with a change model?”

Effective practices of innovative leaders.
Models of innovation.
Design Thinking or the change model you chose to consider in Assessment 4.

At the end of the document, it is your chance to sell yourself as an agent of change for the company. Consider your self-analysis from Assessment 2, as well as any subsequent introspection, and assess your abilities to be successful as the presenter and as a leader of cultural change in the company.

Additional Requirements

Length: Presentation as appropriate to fully convey the analysis; Part 2 document: 2–3 pages double-spaced.
Font: 12 point, Times New Roman.
References: Minimum of 3–5 references, using current APA style and formatting.