Thomas Edison’s Secrets to Creating Innovation Leaders

If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Miller Caldicott, you’re in for a treat this Tuesday evening at Leadership Chat! Sarah is a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, an innovation author, and a professional trainer who guides organizations to ignite innovation.

Sarah began researching and writing about Edison’s world-changing innovation methods after spending more than 15 years in corporate life as a senior Marketing executive. Her book, “Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor” delineates Edison’s five competencies of innovation. I found it eye-opening  because these competencies were very different than I expected.

At Leadership Chat, Sarah will share the secrets of creating innovation leaders she learned from years of studying Edison’s method of BEing an innovation leader. I expect them to align with the five competencies of innovation:

1. A Solution-centered Mindset

As Sarah states, “Your mindset reflects your sense of purpose, and your sense of purpose organizes your perceptions. In other words, purpose determines perception.” (And in my view, reinforces the critical importance of knowing your purpose!)

Sarah goes on to say, “(Edison) believed his success was inevitable and this belief energized his every endeavor… His solution-centered mindset allowed him to embrace seemingly fantastic goals, like lighting the world, and make them come true. Edison aligned his goals with his passions and cultivated a powerful sense of optimism that had a magnetic effect on his coworkers, investors, customers, and ultimately the entire nation.

We call it charismatic optimism.” I find it profoundly powerful and inspiring.

2. Kaleidoscopic Thinking

According to Sarah, Edison was able to generate a “vast range of ideas” and to consider many problems at once, each from multiple angles. She describes how, at the height of his exploration into electrical power, he worked on forty projects simultaneously. (Seems unfathomable, right?) This term also defines how Edison, like Newton, Einstein and da Vinci, cultivated the use of metaphors, analogies and visual thinking to liberate his mind.

3. Full-spectrum Engagement

I love how Sarah describes this: “Edison understood that although time on the clock was limited, the wellspring of creative inspiration was boundless. He drew on a seemingly endless source of energy, and he had a remarkable range of expression. No matter what he was doing, he was fully engaged, living life in the present… Edison discovered an optimal rhythm to facilitate amazing stamina and high performance.”

4. Master-mind Collaboration

This competency is particularly applicable in the corporate setting where the innovation leader will be leading teams to innovate. Elements of this competency should resonate with all leaders:

• Recruiting for chemistry and results
• Designing multidisciplinary collaboration teams
• Inspiring an environment of open exchange
• Rewarding collaboration
• Becoming a master networker

All with the intent to create and leverage, “higher group intelligence.”

5. Super-value Creation

As a former marketing executive myself, this competency surprised me because it’s about how Edison acknowledged and acted on the critical need to understand, measure and fulfill the needs of customers. I wasn’t aware that, as an inventor, Edison was focused on this. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense because his inventions proved invaluable rather than unnecessary.

As Sarah describes this competency, “Helping others is life’s most fulfilling endeavor. It’s great to follow your bliss and do what you love, but if you truly want the money to follow then you must strategically link your bliss to something that others, preferably those with discretionary income, want or need.”

By understanding these five competencies of innovation, we receive clues to the secrets of creating innovation leaders in today’s world.

Don’t miss out! Join me and Sarah tomorrow evening, January 24th at 8pm Eastern Time on Twitter for #LeadershipChat as Sarah shares Edison’s secrets of identifying, cultivating, creating and being an innovation leader.

Below are several resources Sarah has developed revealing how you can drive innovation, and create innovation leaders:

“Innovate Like Edison” (http://www.amazon.com/Innovate-Like-Edison-Five-Step-Breakthrough/dp/0452289823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327071671&sr=8-1) (Dutton Penguin 2007) is the first book ever written about Edison’s world-changing innovation methods.

“Inventing the Future: What Would Thomas Edison Be Doing Today?”(http://bit.ly/InventingtheFuture-ebook) was released in Nov 2011 as a companion ebook to a TEDx talk Sarah delivered last Fall.

TEDx Video: “Inventing the Future, Edison Style”(http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxPeachtree-Sarah-Miller-Cald)

Edison’s Notebook – A free monthly innovation newsletter offering insights on how to bring Edison’s timeless innovation and collaboration methods into today’s global economy. Sign up at www.powerpatterns.com  Archives available at http://www.powerpatterns.com/newsletter.html

Sarah is currently writing “Midnight Lunch,” a full-length book on Edison’s collaboration methods, due out in October 2012 (Wiley & Sons Publishing)…please watch for it! To view her Innovation Keynote Speeches and Workshops – See www.powerpatterns.com

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