Fostering Creativity in a

Culture of Compliance

Colonel John F. Price, Jr.

TRANSFORMAT

ION

REVOLUTION IN

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Adaptive Planning Innovation

Entering PremiseInnovation in U.S. military planning processes is essential to our competitive military advantage

JPEC* often fails to produce or sustain the spark in our approach to military operations because:

We lack a full understanding of innovation

We focus on validating what we already know/expect

We fail to fully appreciate the impact of culture

We lack some of the tools needed to effectively manage innovation in the process

* JPEC – Joint Planning & Execution Community

OverviewUnderstanding Innovation

Why it matters is to National Security

Barriers & Tools

Way Ahead

Key Concepts

Ideas

Creativity

Innovation

Change

Culture

Connecting the TermsIdeas

Thought, concept, suggestion, impression

CreativityAbility to generate new/novel ideas

InnovationSuccessful implementation of new ideas

ChangeIncremental or discontinuous shift resulting from innovation

CulturePattern of shared basic assumptions shared by a group on the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to the problems of external adaptation and internal integration

It’s About Your Attitude

Creativity is not a skill or attribute, but a mindset that embraces a broad array of different things including ambiguity, learning, possibility, connecting, ideas, options, exploring gaps and inconsistences, the offbeat, and failure.

– John Maxwell “Thinking for a Change”

What does Creativity look like –

to you?

Value of Creativity

Creativity is the primary source of incremental (evolutionary) and discontinuous (revolutionary) innovation in organizational products and processes

Innovation is the central determinant of long-run success and failure for an organization

Creativity is the main contributor to organizational value streams"All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that

questions some tenet of the conventional wisdom." Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (Father of the Nuclear Navy)

Innovation MattersFundamental component of Military Leadership

Responsibility to improve individuals / organizations

Essential pillar of the Art of WarHarnessing intellectual competitive advantage

Record of innovation

Longer cycle of innovation

Event vs. process

Drivers of Innovation Tactics

Technology

Tolerance (Public)

So What’s the Problem…

“In a stable and effective but conservative organizational environment

the reward for improving existing technology, products, and processes is greater than the incentive to turn the

world on its head. Thus ground-breaking changes are viewed as difficult,

disruptive, unpredictable, and risky, while incremental innovations are seen as

reliably producing predictable results more quickly. It is great irony that wisdom for many firms that derive current good fortune from radical

innovations of the past lies in erecting barriers to these same types of

innovations today.”

Barriers to Innovation

Individual BarriersAttitudes toward Creativity/InnovationPersonal ShortfallsThe Temporal Challenge: Present vs. FutureRisk/Reward Barrier

Organizational BarriersComplexity BarrierSemanticsReceptivity – Adoption Capacity

Attitudes toward Creativity & Innovation

Myth #1 – Creativity always comes from

an epiphany

Myth #2 – There is always a clear path

to creativity

Myth #3 – Creativity is the work of the

lone innovator

Myth #4 – Creativity always results in

great ideas

Myth #5 – I’m not creative

The Enemy WithinThe Pull of Conformity

Creativity in our organizations is rare, not because it is an elusive skill set endowed to only a select few, but because of the natural human pressures of conformity and resistance to change.

Missing Skill SetA lack of training or education in creative thinking will serves as a deterrent

The Trap of Reproductive ThinkingThe product of past experience and shaped by habit and routine

Too BusyCreativity can be a casualty if the pace of operations that does not afford sufficient time or energy for creative exploration

Intellectual LazinessLeaders are simply not willing to set aside the time or put forth the effort to engage in critical, creative thought

Temporal BarrierCurrent Execution vs. Future Planning

Cannot be in two places at once – physically or intellectually

Leaders choose every day on where to orient themselves and their organization on the temporal landscape

These decisions, often made without a lot of intention or deliberation, have great consequences for the organization’s approach to innovation

When forced to choose, most leaders fixate on the urgent demands of the present

As this happens, organizational tolerance for risk-taking and failure slowly decrease, and they gradually loose the innovative spark

Many leaders fail to notice this culture shift due to contentment with incremental innovation

The fixation on incremental progress leaves the organization closer to its demise due to an inability to live with disruptive change

Risk/Reward Barrier

The risk-averse nature of the military is exacerbated the significant unknown return on the risk investment

“Military organizations thus have been and continue to be in the problematic position of needing to innovate new military concepts and technologies in order to sustain or regain their effectiveness, all the while recognizing that innovations adopted today may be less effective or even inappropriate tomorrow”

The looming period of fiscal austerity threatens to make the military even more reluctant at the very time creativity and innovation is needed most

Complexity Barrier“Innovation is a complex process that is neither linear nor always apparent. The interactions among intellectual, institutional, and political-economic forces are intricate and obscure. The historical and strategic context within which militaries transform compounds this complexity.”

As the leader moves on the away from the familiarity of current operations, the variables increase and the amount of decision-ready information decreases resulting in a rapidly increasing complexity

“true innovation is not a discrete event or individual action, but a process. As a process, it demands that leaders understand multiple complex systems. Innovation thus includes building consensus and preventing interference or sabotage from risk-averse or hostile players.

Semantic BarriersUS military dialogue on innovation has become cluttered over the last two decades with sensationalized language of transformation and revolutions

Infatuation with technological change led us to view innovation as a point instead of a process

Creates an unrealistic expectation for innovative capability and timelines

Innovation only appears to be an isolated event when we intentionally separate the culminating breakthrough from the sequence of preceding events

Flawed View - Edison’s light bulb and Orville and Wilbur’s aircraft can appear as dynamic manifestations of inspiration

Reality - Innovation are the consequence of creativity and effort applied over time

Receptivity Barrier

Adoption capacity – an organization’s ability to willingly receive new ideas

“The combination of financial intensity and organizational capital possessed by a state, influences the way states respond to major military innovations and how those responses affect the international security environment’’

Ownership of the tactical or technological innovation does not ensure success by the innovator

“Innovations often benefit precisely those states who were not involved in the innovations themselves, but who were able to better implement them into their own cultures and bureaucracies”

In our defense processes, the “future” lacks a specific senior advocate or a political constituency to ensure it is represented

Turning the ShipTo combat the barriers, DoD strategic culture must increase its focus on the future and the role innovation plays in getting there

Entire JPEC must become less wedded to Military Science more comfortable with Military Art

Planners, Analysts, and Decision-Makers must balance their focus on current Capabilities, Posture, and Forces with imagination for future employment

Fix the StructureYour actions and the structure of your organization are never neutral when it comes to creativity

Leadership processes and organizational design are either embracing creativity within the unit or you are constructing barriers to it

Generating a creative culture is not easy nor accidental, but it can be achieved through intentional effort

Tackle the Temporal Barrier

Establish processes, structures, and appoint leaders to manage operations along the temporal scale between current operations, future operations, and future plans – connected but distinct

Promote continuous improvement for current products and processes, while simultaneously seeking innovations that will fundamentally change approaches

Establish clear roles for strategic planning and futuring

“We have to be willing to cannibalize what we’re doing today in order to ensure our leadership in the future. It’s counter to human nature, but you have to kill your business while it is still working.” -- HP

CEO Lou Platt (1994)

Tackle the Temporal BarrierThe leader must work to create a tolerance for different temporal perspectives that help foster the culture of creativity and innovation

Leaders need to create “Ambidextrous Organizations”

Simultaneous emphasis on the present and the future.

Ability to “host multiple, internally consistent architectures, competencies, and cultures, with built-in capabilities for efficiency, consistency, and reliability on the one hand and experimentation, improvisation, and luck on the other”

Include Strategic Foresight / FuturingStop perpetuating the idea that the future is a

varied extension of the present

Strategic foresight and futures drive leaders to consider transformational and revolutionary ideas

Combine linear, forward-looking, competition-based strategic planning with backward-looking, discontinuous, trend-based futuring

Allows leadership to see what is, what could be, and what they want the future to be all at the same time and make decisions that span multiple time horizons

Embrace the Leadership Challenge

Leaders must be willing and able to induce positive turbulence on the organization

Leaders must be willing to loosen controls and accept risk for radical innovation to occur

Leaders must be able to embrace the tension and contradictions between the present and the future

Simultaneously managing today and tomorrow with contrasting alignments of people, structure, culture and processes

Enabling Innovation

To enable innovation leaders must set

the stage:

Expectations, Incentives and

Encouragement

Resources (time and money) and Training

Safety net and culture that embraces

intelligent risk taking

Ownership and freedom of action

A path for ideas to be vetted and heard by

decision-makers

Use the Tools of the Trade

Key Take-AwaysMilitary competitive advantage = National Security

Military competitive advantage is grounded in the ability of the military to innovate and adapt

Creativity is an attitude, a skill, and an asset

Creativity is essential to innovation in military planning, analysis and war-gaming

Innovation = Creativity + Effort + Opportunity

Innovation is a process; incremental or discontinuous

Fostering innovation requires intentional leadership

Further Reading

My Musings…“The Downfall of Adaptive Planning: Finding a New Approach after a Failed Revolution” (Air and Space Power Journal, Mar-Apr 2012)

“Seeing It Coming: Revitalizing Future Studies in the US Air Force” (Air and Space Power Journal, Sep-Oct 2012)

“U.S. Military Innovation: Sustaining Creativity in a Culture of Compliance” (Air and Space Power Journal, Sep-Oct 2014)

“Spanning Innovation’s Temporal Barrier: Unleashing Organizational Creativity for Today and Tomorrow” (In review)

“A Call to Creativity: Essential Leadership Roles for Tomorrow’s Military Officers” (unpublished)

“Creating and Killing U.S. Military Futures” (unpublished)

QUESTIONS / COMMENTS ??