6: Innovation: A Necessity, Not Nicety

Leadership is at the heart of most of the chapters in this book; this one is written by someone who has spent her time since 1992 on the path of “understanding and enabling innovation.” I believe that leadership plays a crucial role in creating innovative organizations, and that being an innovative organization is essential in the 21st century. To argue my case, I share three core principles which underlie my thinking on innovation. I also explain where, and why, my perspective changed, before laying out particularities of the 21st century that lead to unprecedented levels of complexity, and make innovation, collaboration, and concurrency necessities. I close by offering some thoughts on what it takes to not only survive, but also thrive, in the first century of this new millennium.