Tag Archives: commitment

Leadership Best Quacktices from Oregon’s Dan Lanning

Leadership Best Quacktices from Oregon's Dan Lanning

by Braden Kelley

For the first time since 2012 (a couple years before Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy) the University of Oregon football team is ranked number one in the NCAA football rankings and in the pole position in the race to the national championship playoff picture.

Make no mistake, this year’s Oregon Ducks’ football team is full of talent, but in sports like in business, the difference between a winner and a loser is often the character of its leadership and culture.

In the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, the role of a coach extends far beyond strategizing plays and winning games. It involves shaping young athletes into well-rounded individuals equipped not only for their sports careers but for life. Dan Lanning, head coach of the Oregon Ducks football team, exemplifies this human-centered leadership. His approach demonstrates qualities that every leader (whether in sports, business, or any other field) can learn from and apply. Here, as a passionate advocate of human-centered change and innovation, I’ll explore the key facets of Coach Lanning’s leadership that make him effective and inspiring while building a winning culture.

1. Empathy and Understanding

Coach Dan Lanning excels in creating an environment that prioritizes empathy and understanding. He recognizes that every player is unique and has different motivations, challenges, and aspirations. This individual focus allows him to connect with players on a personal level, fostering an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. Through active listening and consistent communication, Lanning ensures that his athletes feel heard and valued, both on and off the field.

2. Commitment to Development

A true leader invests in the growth and development of their team members. Coach Lanning adopts a holistic approach to player development, emphasizing education, character building, and life skills alongside athletic prowess. By encouraging his players to excel academically and engage with their communities, Lanning instills a sense of responsibility and maturity. This well-rounded development is crucial in preparing athletes for the varied challenges of life.

3. Cultivating a Winning Mindset

While empathy and development are central to Lanning’s approach, he also understands the importance of instilling a competitive spirit. Lanning is adept at fostering a winning mindset among his players without compromising sportsmanship and integrity. He emphasizes setting ambitious goals, maintaining discipline, and embracing the process. This mentality not only contributes to the team’s success on the field but also prepares athletes to tackle future obstacles with resilience and determination. You’ll notice that even in victory, the team’s focus is brought back to the process, brought back to reinforcing a commitment to growth.

4. Innovation and Adaptability

In a rapidly evolving sports landscape, innovation and adaptability are key. Coach Lanning leads by example in embracing change and encouraging creative problem-solving. Whether it’s integrating new training technologies or developing novel game strategies, Lanning shows a willingness to experiment and adapt. This not only keeps his team competitive but also inspires his players to think outside the box and continually evolve. In the video we pick up a team meeting conversation going into the game where they are talking about looking for an opportunity to use a creative formation and play call to steal a first down, and then they perfectly executed it in the game to steal a first down.

5. Building a Strong Team Culture

Coach Lanning understands that success in sports is fundamentally a team effort. He places great emphasis on building a cohesive and inclusive team culture where every member feels they belong. By fostering collaboration and unity, Lanning creates a support system where players are encouraged to look out for each other and celebrate each other’s successes. This strong sense of community enhances team morale and motivates players to perform at their best.

6. Leading by Example

Finally, great leaders lead by example, and Dan Lanning is no exception. His work ethic, commitment, and positive attitude serve as a powerful model for his players. Lanning’s transparency and humility encourage an open dialogue where athletes feel comfortable contributing their own ideas and perspectives. This participative leadership style not only empowers players but also reinforces the collective pursuit of excellence.

Conclusion

Dan Lanning’s greatness as a leader is not measured solely by his achievements with the Oregon Ducks but by the profound impact he has on his players’ lives. His human-centered approach demonstrates that effective leadership is about nurturing potential, fostering growth, and enabling individuals to exceed their expectations. As we consider leadership in any field, Lanning’s example reminds us of the transformative power of empathy, innovation, and community.

And finally, Go Ducks!

p.s. Be sure and follow both my personal account and the Human-Centered Change and Innovation community on LinkedIn.

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons

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Are You Investing in an Innovation Culture?

Are You Investing in an Innovation Culture?

Innovation is everywhere.

You can’t go an entire commercial break during the Super Bowl or a State of the Union address (okay, sorry, both American examples) without hearing the word innovation pop up at least once or twice. Companies have added innovation to their company values and mission statements in accelerating numbers. Some organizations have implemented idea management systems. And others are willing to spend large sums of money on design firms and innovation boutique consultancies to get help designing some new widget or service to flog to new or existing customers. Based on all of that you would think that most companies are committed to innovation, right?

If you asked most CEOs “Is your organization committed to innovation?”, do you think you could find a single CEO that would say no?

So, why do think I’m about to make the following statement?

90+% of organizations have no sustained commitment to innovation.

When it comes to fostering continuous innovation, most organizational cultures stink at it.

Let’s look at some data, because anyone who is committed to innovation (and not just creativity) should love data (especially unstructured data from customers):

  • Over the last 50 years the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has dropped from 61 years to 18 years (and is forecast to grow even shorter in the future)1
  • In a worldwide survey of 175 companies by Hill & Knowlton (a communications consultancy), executives cited “promoting continuous innovation” as the most difficult goal for their company to get right. “Structurally, many companies just aren’t set up to deliver continuous innovation.”2
  • 84% of more than 2,200 executives agree that their organization’s culture is critical to business success3
  • “96% of respondents say some change is needed to their culture, and 51% think their culture requires a major overhaul.”3

So what does this data tell us?

For one thing, it helps to reinforce the notion that the pace of innovation is increasing.

For another thing, it doesn’t exactly scream that organizations are as committed to building an innovation culture internally as their words externally say about being committed to innovation.

Why is this?

Well, as fellow Innovation Excellence contributor Jeffrey Phillips once said:

“When it comes to innovation, ideas are the easy part. The cultural resistance learned over 30 years of efficiency is the hard part.”

And when you get right down to it, most employees in most organizations are slaves to execution, efficiency, and improvement. And while those things are all important (you can’t have innovation without execution), organizations that fail to strike a balance between improvement/efficiency and innovation/entrepreneurship, are well, doomed to fail.

This increasing pace of innovation along with the lower cost of starting/scaling a business and the always difficult challenge of building a productive culture of continuous innovation, is the reason that the lifespan of organizations is shrinking.

So if it isn’t enough to talk about innovation, or to invest in trying to come up with new products and services, shouldn’t more organizations be also investing to making sure their innovation culture doesn’t, well, stink?

The obvious answer is… (insert yours here)

So, if your innovation culture stinks, I encourage you to come join me at Pipeline 2014 and attend my keynote session on exploring five ways to make it smell better:

“Our Innovation Culture Stinks – Five Ways to Make it Smell Better”

It’s a free virtual event on June 6, 2014.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Sources:
1. Innosight/Richard N. Foster/Standard & Poor’s
2. Hill & Knowlton Executive Survey
3. Booz & Company Global Culture and Change Management Survey 2013


Build a common language of innovation on your team

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Three Actions to Become More Innovative

Three Actions to Become More Innovative‘What are three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative?’

Sometimes I think that people out there talking about innovation try and make crafting a good innovation process sound harder than it is and the work of making innovation happen sound easier than it really is. Whether this is self-serving behavior to try and drive people to buy their books or consulting services, I’m not sure, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s not.

Instead let’s see if we can simplify some of what we know into three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative:

1. Make a Commitment

  • Many organizations say they want to be more innovative, but few are willing to make the commitment. Leaders may talk about it once or twice, and then expect others in the organization to commit themselves to innovation. Talking about innovation is much easier than committing to the changes and risks required for successful innovation. Organizations that succeed at becoming more innovative commit the financial resources to discrete innovation projects, they commit to the human resources flexibility necessary to staff them, and they commit the communications resources necessary to ensure that everyone knows the innovation journey the organization is committed to.

2. Collect and Connect:

  • Innovation is ultimately all about data. Organizations seeking to improve their ability to innovate, must get better at collecting and connecting the dots. This means improving their ability to transform data about the organization’s customers into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into insight. The ability to transform data all the way through to insight is key because new and novel insights drive an organization’s ability to identify those ideas with the potential to deliver more value to their target market than any other existing alternative. Improving this transformation capability is not just about data though, but about people, and if your organization really wants to become more innovative it has get better at connecting people at the same time (both online and in the real world). Creating connections between people and data is a powerful input to innovation.

3. Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail:

  • Most organizations do a great job of planning how to succeed, but many organizations don’t make a plan for how to fail. People like to talk about failing fast, failing cheap, and failing smart. The first two are self-explanatory, but what does that failing smart look like?
  • In part this means taking educated risks, but even doing that you are still going to have failures, and so you must ask yourself:
    • What did we learn?
    • What can we use later?
    • What do we do now?

Doing these three things won’t guarantee that you will come up with a whole collection of new innovations, but it will help make your organization more innovative. There is a difference, and if you’re not clear on what it is, then let me direct your attention back to the first paragraph. 😉

Build a Common Language of Innovation

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