Disruption has always been the way of life. History offers innumerable examples of new social and technological processes displacing taken-for-granted routines. 

Some years ago, digital technologies disrupted communication and information exchange. Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is imposing another major disruption. AI enables new forms of engagement and makes incumbent business models obsolete. 

Disruption is not always a threat, though. Approached the right way, it offers opportunities. Identifying the disruptive trends early and tackling them head-on creates opportunities.  

Innovation allows converting disruption into opportunities. Innovating a new product, process, or business model adds value to the enterprise. The new offering captures the customer’s attention from competitors. 

In today’s digital age, IT leaders have a big responsibility to drive innovation in their enterprises. Here is how they can make innovation succeed in their enterprises.

Stay ahead of the curve

Innovation and disruption is a cat-and-mouse game. The key trigger for innovation is disruption that threatens incumbent businesses. At the same time, successful innovation disrupts existing business models. 

The buzzword in tech-based business today is “disrupt or be disrupted.” IT leaders have to be proactive in their commitment to innovation. Or else, their enterprise risks falling into a “be disrupted” scenario. In today’s fluid environment, it is only a matter of time before a new technology or process makes the incumbent obsolete or irrelevant. 

IT leaders grappling with AI have two choices. They can be proactive in innovating and integrating AI into business processes. Or they can allow external disruptive forces to dictate their future. For instance, a reactive approach to AI entails layoffs and cost-cutting. A proactive approach strives to enable human-machine collaboration and how best to leverage AI to unlock additional value. 

Have a clear agenda

Most IT leaders understand the importance of innovation. They encourage innovation and set aside budgets for it. But many initiatives still fail. The reason is a lack of clarity or an unclear agenda.

In many enterprises, innovation means an assortment of initiatives. Power centres support innovation for contrasting reasons, such as curiosity, hubris, and fear of missing out. Such initiatives only waste money and frustrate the workforce.

Sustainable innovation depends on strong leadership who can create clarity of purpose. Effective leaders establish a clear agenda based on the purpose. Next, they develop supporting processes and implement governance structures centred on such agendas. Side-by-side, they also encourage people towards the agenda.

The agenda may be anything to further enterprise goals or cope with the impact of disruption. Examples include improving customer touchpoints or developing products to meet unmet customer needs. 

Setting an agenda goes much beyond imagining an endpoint, though. Leaders must also articulate a clear vision and motivate the rank-and-file toward it. They also need the courage to pursue it even when faced with scepticism. Consider Elon Musk’s vision for sustainable transportation and energy. The steadfast vision, amidst mounting criticisms and scepticism, was pivotal for Tesla’s success.

Promote culture change 

Developing a culture that promotes innovation is essential to navigating disruptive times. Many enterprises fail in their innovation efforts because their culture does not support innovation. 

Innovation requires transparency and open sharing of information. The workforce has to be confident in experimenting and risk taking. IT leaders have to:

• Allow teams to explore ideas. Seek out diverse perspectives and experiences within the team. Foster an environment where ideas flow freely. Encourage team members to state opinions and counter viewpoints without fear of repercussions. 
• Encourage transparency and open sharing of information. Silos and hoarding information hinder progress. Set up information management systems that facilitate open and transparent communication. At the same time, ensure strong data governance measures to ensure data integrity and prevent misuse. 
• Empower teams to make their own decisions and do their own thing. Innovation thrives when managers become facilitators and embrace a leadership style suitable for the digital era. Micromanagement stands in the way of creativity.
• Encourage experimentation and calculated risk-taking without fear of punishment. Recognize and reward successful experiments. Also, celebrate the journey, not just the destination. Set up the infrastructure to encourage experimentation with new technologies and approaches. Embrace a cycle of “fail fast, learn, and rapid iteration.”
• Transform failures into learning opportunities. Failure is inevitable when trying to innovate in an environment of disruption. Instead of punishing failure, Analyze failures to identify the root cause and prevent future missteps.  Learn from failures to improve ideas.

Ensure skill development

Sustaining the culture change for innovation depends on developing workforce skills and promoting continuous learning. 

IT leaders seeking to navigate technological disruption through innovation need to: 

• Updated learning platforms to upskill the workforce on the latest skills and ensure their digital fluency. The workforce will resist the change if they remain ill-equipped with newer technologies.
• Mentor the workforce to equip them with the skills and the approach conducive to innovation.
• Prepare the workforce with the critical skills and traits needed to succeed in disruptive innovation. These include adaptability, resilience and critical thinking.

Focus on communication

Disruption is a time of uncertainty. Fixing communication systems to ensure clear communication lays the foundation for successful innovation. Clear, transparent, real-time communication ensures all employees remain updated on their need-to-know. It facilitates open discussion of ideas, constructive feedback, and fixing expectations. The chances of misunderstandings or any important message or data slipping through the gaps become less. On the other hand, the lack of a reliable or stable communication channel can fuel mistrust.

Setting up robust communication systems is only the first step, though. IT leaders should use these channels to articulate their vision and strategy to counter disruption. They need to make frequent, timely, and open communication to keep the workforce updated and in the loop.

Strive for resilience 

In today’s disruptive times, businesses that cannot adapt fail. Innovation requires changes, and in today’s fluid ecosystem, such changes have to happen fast. 

Agility is the key to successful innovation. An agile mindset is responsive to change and can capitalize on emerging opportunities. 

IT leaders need to:

• Facilitate connections and partnerships. Today, collectives and networks have a greater impact than any single organization. With technologies changing fast, trying everything in-house is a recipe for disaster. Rather, nimble enterprises curate an ecosystem of alliances. Partnerships offer access to varying talents and resources to surface ideas and enable synergies. Partnerships and alliances also enable enterprises to absorb the shock of disruption. 
• Set up flexible organizational structures to pivot and respond fast to changing conditions.
• Identify and resolve bottlenecks or pain points in the way of change. 
• Promote cross-functional teams that can break down silos, collaborate and make quick decisions.
• Connect with industry leaders, think tanks, start-ups, and other influencers. Such collaborations help IT leaders remain up-to-date on the latest trends. They can also forge strategic partnerships that deliver synergies and ease the path to successful innovation.. 

Take a practical approach

Technology is no longer a competitive differentiator. Any enterprise can access the latest technology. In such a scenario, competitive differentiation depends on innovation. 

Successful IT leaders take a practical approach to innovation. 

Many IT leaders fall into the trap of getting too desperate to innovate.  They remain blinded by the latest tech trends and lose sight of what customers want. Innovation success occurs when the initiative addresses customers’ needs and pain points. Innovating to introduce a new technology for the sake of it leads to failure.  

Also, overreacting to disruption becomes counterproductive. IT leaders need not dismantle a still-profitable business or a system that works fine only for the sake of change.  Innovation should not be a solution in search of a problem.

Successful IT leaders focus on strengthening relationships with their core customers. They change things that do not work well or risk becoming obsolete soon. But they do not take knee-jerk reactions or dismantle working systems without reason.  

In today’s digital age, IT leaders must lead from the front to counter disruptive forces and drive change through innovation.