As an Indian national, born and brought up in Bengal, I was raised with the culture that Bose was any day a better leader than Gandhi.
What I was never told or taught was that Gandhi was not just a great leader, but also a great innovator. He actually innovated the Indian independence movement and others embraced that process in various directions. Today when I reflect back, I understand that much of Gandhi's leadership success was attributed to his systemic innovation method and prototyping to test those methods.
Leadership and innovation is very closely related. We tend to believe innovation is all about technology. We fail to recognize at times that innovation is a test of an hypothesis - be it technology or social or finance. So if you can get the results of the poof of your hypothesis, you can innovate anywhere.
Mahatma Gandhi used no force, and yet showed us how not resisting could be a powerful
force for change. His Mastery did not even seem to be leadership for most of his career
and yet from the beginning he was pursing the creation of a new reality.
Saurabh Ganguly is also a great leader. Today when I look back, he innovated a method by which he motivated the same team members to do way better than under his immediate predecessors and used each success to build on for the better future results. His methods were not only different from past Indian cricketers but also distinctly localised to suit the Indian culture and mindset.
Leadership and Innovation goes hand-in-hand. That's why the saying goes "Inspire through action" and "Lead by example". Leadership with systemic innovation of prototyping and testing the prototypes quickly and the ability to change and adapt quickly to realtime feedback is key to the success of the leader and his innovative methods.
What I was never told or taught was that Gandhi was not just a great leader, but also a great innovator. He actually innovated the Indian independence movement and others embraced that process in various directions. Today when I reflect back, I understand that much of Gandhi's leadership success was attributed to his systemic innovation method and prototyping to test those methods.
Leadership and innovation is very closely related. We tend to believe innovation is all about technology. We fail to recognize at times that innovation is a test of an hypothesis - be it technology or social or finance. So if you can get the results of the poof of your hypothesis, you can innovate anywhere.
Mahatma Gandhi used no force, and yet showed us how not resisting could be a powerful
force for change. His Mastery did not even seem to be leadership for most of his career
and yet from the beginning he was pursing the creation of a new reality.
Saurabh Ganguly is also a great leader. Today when I look back, he innovated a method by which he motivated the same team members to do way better than under his immediate predecessors and used each success to build on for the better future results. His methods were not only different from past Indian cricketers but also distinctly localised to suit the Indian culture and mindset.
Leadership and Innovation goes hand-in-hand. That's why the saying goes "Inspire through action" and "Lead by example". Leadership with systemic innovation of prototyping and testing the prototypes quickly and the ability to change and adapt quickly to realtime feedback is key to the success of the leader and his innovative methods.
Soumi,
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea that leadership and innovation are closely related. A leader has to create new hypothesis to respond to ever changing and uncertain situations. And rapid prototyping provides a good way to test these hypothesis - the way Gandhi did.
Of course, Bose had a hypothesis as well - very different from Gandhi. Do we know that he did not prototype it before taking the plunge? I don't know. But now I am curious to know. Great post.
Great Blog!!!
ReplyDeleteBut wanted to know whether Bose has done any prototype on his innovation? I think I should go back and read Bose's Biography... :P
Soumi,On a slightly different note, we can ask a question, "What does an innovation leader do?" I have tried to give a simplified view in this blog written 2 years ago: 4 types of innovation leaders. You may find it interesting.
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