Disruption and Innovation

As the dust settles on the Civil Service’s most recent One Big Thing campaign, conversations will no doubt be taking place across the organisation about how teams and departments can be more innovative. That’s no easy task though, especially when daily work pressures can make it hard to find the thinking space to be innovative. 

One person well placed to advise on this is Liaquat Lal, a partner at Gatenby Sanderson, the leadership development specialists who are part of the KPMG-led consortium that provides training through the Civil Service learning frameworks. As the designer of the ‘Innovation and disruptive thinking’ workshop that Gatenby Sanderson currently offer to all Civil Service leaders, we caught up with Liaquat to find out more. 

Likewise, private sector organisations have typically led the way on innovation because it’s required if they’re to differentiate, get ahead or even just survive. But it’s becoming more of a requirement for the public sector too now.  

So what does all this mean for public sector leaders? 

I think it’s simply another factor in how our expectations of public sector leaders are shifting. Some of that is about being able to lead in times of unpredictability and complexity. But we’re also now expecting our public sector leaders to innovate, to come up with the next big idea. We’re expecting them to do more for less, to think creatively, to learn and, if they’re going to fail, to fail fast.  

Those are new capabilities for many public sector leaders whose work previously used to focus more on managing the risks attached to spending taxpayers’ money and operating within strict  regulatory guidelines. Now, they’re also expected to oversee an environment of innovation and creativity. They need to make it safe enough for team members to think, to contribute, to work together and to co-create new ideas and approaches. They need to create the conditions from which innovation can emerge.  

That requires skills and behaviours that a lot of leaders didn’t previously think were that important but that they now need to start developing. Without this, they’ll struggle to innovate to solve their current problems, let alone whatever they might be faced with in the future. 

Can you really teach someone to be more innovative and disruptive?  

Absolutely. It’s a learned skill so the more you can practise it, the better you’ll get. Through my work, I come across a lot of people who say, I just don't do creativity, I'm not an innovative person. Yet, when they wake up in the morning, the decisions they make about the clothes they put on, that’s a creative process. How they show themselves to the world is evidence of that creative thinking.  

I believe that starting to become more innovative and creative can start with something as simple as taking a different route to work, eating something new or doing something that you’ve never done before. All of those things can change the way you think.  It’s also important to understand how embedded you are in your daily patterns, as these can limit the foundations from which you can innovate. Mixing up your routines and patterns can open you up to new perspectives, perceptions and experiences. And by doing things differently, you can create connections that didn’t previously exist in your mind. 

I always suggest that it's worth paying attention to your cognitive diversity as well. Who are you surrounding yourself with and how challenging is that for you? Are you surrounded by people who think the same? If so, how might you change that? 

It's really important to broaden the sources of information and knowledge that inform how you perceive the world and to then think about how you connect those things together in new and unexpected ways. That’s the basis of innovation and disruption. 

Presumably, your ‘Innovation and disruptive thinking’ workshop can help in this regard – so what can people expect from it? 

The workshop introduces participants to the drivers of organisational change and the concepts of innovation and disruption. They explore different frameworks, such as Larry Keeley’s ten types of innovation, and apply these to consider what innovation and disruption mean for their own organisation. It’s very hands-on and interactive, as you might expect. You can’t have a workshop on innovation and creativity that’s just one long PowerPoint presentation! The nice thing is that participants typically come to the workshop with a sense of both urgency and agency – i.e. they’ve got real work challenges that they need some help with. 

I’ve always wanted to create learning experiences that are fun and dynamic. Here, we've got a range of learning inputs, followed by group work where we apply what’s been learned to real life challenges. It's a real mix of different learning methodologies designed to ensure that it's interactive and engaging. 

People always seem to be fascinated by the topic of innovation, so we get them to share their own perceptions of innovation and how it’s changed their lives. That throws up some great insights into what innovation looks like to different people. We experience innovation every day and that experience matters to us because it affects how we live and work, so this generates a great amount of discussion, energy and engagement in the room. It’s really interactive and a lot of fun to be a part of. 

To find out more about the ‘Innovation and disruptive thinking’ workshop (and its sister course, the ‘Ideation and creative thinking’ workshop) or to make a booking, click here.