The Art of Change Leadership. Cheryl Cran

Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.

      Elon Musk is an example of a change leader who is focused on the bigger picture of innovation and speed; his overwhelming objective is to have more electric cars a reality sooner than later.

      So what if we applied Tesla's approach to innovation in our companies today? Innovation as a collaborative approach not only solves the transformation dilemma, it also creates greater engagement for all employees within the company. In order to create speedy innovation, it takes more than a few people; it takes a village. Steve Jobs acknowledged that he had creative vision and he was quick to state that he had a team of talented developers and creators that worked together and in a dynamic way that encouraged sharing ideas, challenging the ideas in a healthy way, and then sharing the innovation as quickly as they could to the market.

      In fact, it is speedy innovation that keeps Apple as one of the world's top performing organizations. No sooner do they release a new version of the iPhone, they are consistently and constantly creating new products with new features that are right on target with the consumer needs. In fact, one of Apple's many successful business approaches is anticipating what the customer wants before he or she even knows they want it.

      Innovation and speed is not limited to technology. You and I both know that technology needs humans to operate it (well, at least so far!). As change leaders who drive transformation, we as humans need to increase our speed of thinking, of linking unknown things together, of connecting with each other in helpful and productive ways, and in adding value to employees and customers. How? There will be more about that later on in the chapters that follow.

      Who Is Responsible for Leading Change?

      I know it's an obvious question, and yet, is it?

      You may already inherently know that you are responsible for leading change, you are the one reading this book, you are the one who is a leader either with the title or without the title in your workplace. It is my philosophy that everyone is a leader! Being a leader of change is very different than being a reactor to change. One drives success forward, the other resists the fast pace of change and slows down progress. Do me a favor and right now pick up a pen or use your personal device with a writing app and write your name using your opposite hand. Now, if you are ambidextrous, you have an advantage, but must of us are not. Notice that the writing is not as legible, smooth, or pretty as when you write with your dominant hand? Why?

      Because we use our dominant hand to write, writing with our dominant hand has become an unconscious competency we just do. This is how many people respond to change: he or she has a way of reacting to change and that way either creates progress or it hinders it.

      If you were to practice writing with your nondominant hand for about 30 to 90 days, you would be able to write more competently with your opposite hand and you would be able to increase your skill set to write with either hand you chose to use. The same is true for change.