PowerUP Brilliance™ - New book for innovation leaders to sharpen adaptive can-do thinking and mobilize the right matrix management teams

Executive summary

Power UP

Brilliance
Lead from
the Middle
with Courage
Merom Klein PhD &
Louise Yochee Klein PsyD

Brilliance. Initiative. Foresight.
When an IBM survey asked 1500 CEOs what they need to prosper
in tough times, these were the qualities they put at the top of
their lists. To invent breakthrough game-changing solutions.
Overcome adversity. Thrive in uncertainty. Take initiative.
Most CEOs said such brilliance is “in short supply” — despite
all they have invested in talent management, connectivity,
flat agile structures, technology. We agree. But not because
they lack the capacity for brilliance. What they often lack is the
ability to flip the switch and convert potential into brilliance
and brilliance into mobilization, action and results.
Courage flips the switch. To PowerUP Brilliance.
We’ve all been there. When an influential board member
dismisses a hot idea. When charge-forward personalities
discredit holdouts and their risk assessments. When someone
asks for input and teammates sit in stunned silence watching
the political winds or waiting for the big boss to speak. When
new technology, new systems and new structures make
it harder, not easier to get all the special interests aligned.
When there are no easy or straightforward answers, given the
complexities and turbulence your enterprise faces.
5 Courage Activators give leaders a roadmap to power up
brilliance when they face these adversities. To overcome
fear and complacency. To shape the culture, rather than
allowing dysfunctions in the culture to shape them — one
conversation, videoconference, product team or investor
meeting at a time. To wrestle down key issues and find the
best, not the easy or obvious, answers.

5 Courage Activators PowerUP Brilliance
NORTH STAR
Lofty, noble awesome

Available for purchase @ amazon.com
Dr Merom Klein and Dr Louise Yochee Klein lead Courage International, a global innovation
and strategy execution consultancy that equips senior executives to be effective sponsors of
innovation initiatives — and equips mid-level leaders to orchestrate breakthrough innovation
with matrix structures and cross-functional teams. Merom and Louise Yochee are business
psychologists with 25+ years of experience equipping large corporations, agencies and
entrepreneurial teams to accelerate innovation and lead transformational change. They are
known for leadership workshops and coaching that jump-start innovation, get initiatives
unstuck and deliver quick wins and rapid ROI, and for diversity dialogues that tap cultural,
personality, generational, gender, cross-functional and other differences for creative value.

PURPOSE

ORDER OF
THE WEST
Plan,
co-ordinate
& adhere
to

RIGOUR

Disziplin
‫משמעת‬

Intention • ‫מכוונות‬
DEEP DIVE
Open

CANDOUR

Offenheit • Candeur
‫פתיחות‬
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY
RISK to invest in
someone else’s success
Fidelite • Verpflichtung
‫מחויבות‬

© 2013. www.courageinstitute.org • Tel: Israel: +972-4-3721008 - USA: +1-215-529-8918 - Canada: +1-819-303-0967 • UK: +44-1223-790227

© 2013 • Dr Merom Klein & Dr Louise Yochee Klein • www.courageinstitute.org • Tel (USA): +1-215-529-8918

SPIRIT OF
THE EAST
Excitement,
engagement
& hopeful

WILL

Volonte
‫התלהבות‬

‫ בינלאומי‬ʻ‫קוראג‬
International

Page 1

Middle-out, not top-down
Imagine: As the CEO, you take the podium and announce
a bold new direction, new innovation initiatives and a new
organization structure to take the enterprise forward. The
luminaries who hear your message are inspired. In the Q&A,
their questions are, “How will this work? When do we start?
How can we help?”
But the holdouts are silent. Your “call to action” rocked their
world. It threatened the security of their boxes and fiefdoms,
their silos and authority. You raised the bar to a level that is
unprecedented, unreasonable and out of reach, unless they
break free of their old paradigms. They don’t “get it.”
Fast forward to the cafeteria. A luminary sits down with a few
holdouts. One of the holdouts has a higher rank, more status
and lots of clout. The holdout explains why your vision will
never work. How should your luminary respond?
In 1000 moments of truth like this, your call for “brilliance” can
be powered up and amplified — or not. If your luminaries
see themselves stuck in a hierarchy trap and respect the
chain of command and the hegemony of higher-status team
members, they’ll settle into a norm of playing it safe, waiting
for permission, following directions and being conflict-averse
and overtly “nice.” If they continue to take direction from the
top-down, you don’t need a PhD in business psychology to
plot the trajectory and see where your bold vision is headed.
But suppose your luminaries see themselves as “points of
light” in the middle of an interconnected network. Suppose
they see themselves as your emissaries, responsible for

How do luminaries see their world?
SILOS & CHAINS OF
COMMAND

Function heads give
orders. You defer and
respect their expertise
and authority

Think less
like this

NETWORKS &
MOLECULAR TEAMS

Function heads bring the
best luminaries forward
to sharpen up each
other’s thinking.

Act more
like this

PoweringUP Brilliance with the holdouts who are stuck in a
cycle of fear and reluctance, security and complacency? Now
chart the trendline. If you could power up even 200 or 300 of
these cafeteria conversations to be ennobling and uplifting,
rather than enabling the status quo, how much faster could
your innovation initiatives get traction? If you could power
up brilliance in just 500 of these moments of truth in task
forces and conference calls, planning meetings and dress
rehearsals, where would that take you?

The standout’s dilemma
You are recruited for your brilliance. You
let it shine. Then, the group tells you to
fit in, get along and hammers you down
when you’re the nail that sticks out. It’s a
Catch-22 that tests your courage, if you
are someone who sees things differently.
Yael: A case in point.
Yael, the new Medical Liaison, joined a product launch
team. After a few days getting herself up to speed, Yael saw
flaws in the team’s launch strategy. “Unless our new drug
is administered properly, it will not help patients with an
at-risk profile — and may actually make them sicker,” Yael
warned her Franchise Managing Director. “We need a plan
for physicians to identify and manage patients who have this
profile, so the drug works as it should. Without such a plan,
health plans will be reluctant to keep our drug on formulary.”
The Commercial VP, himself a physician, ridiculed Yael and
was incensed that the Franchise MD was listening to her. “We
already dealt with this issue,” he said indignantly, “There is no
reason to re-cover old ground, second-guess our key opinion
leaders and regulatory advisors, or complicate our launch
just to appease a new doctor who is grandstanding.” The
Finance Director also was put off by Yael’s recommendations,
warning that her risk-mitigation plan could scale back their
sales projections and have a negative impact on the net
present value of the asset and on the company’s stock price.
As the Franchise MD, we are sure you’d like luminaries like
Yael to have the political savvy to see when a Big AHA! is

going to stir up a controversy. And have the finesse to Power
UP Brilliance in a cross-functional team, rather than throw
down the gauntlet and make others defensive. If they don’t
yet have these skills, of course, we can help.
But, even with more political savvy and finesse, luminaries
like Yael are going to stir the pot and make some waves — if
they step in, reach out, sound off and say, “We can do better.”

Decoding the matrix: What’s your role?
BENEFICIARY, END-USER OR ADVOCATE

The customer, end-user, patient or buyer who is served by the
enterprise and their agents and advocates

EXECUTOR

Step up
to adhere to
plans and get
them done as
well as possible

ORCHESTRATOR

Reach out and mobilize the
right players to do the right
things in right sequence,
wrestle down the right issues
for the right decisions, to
deliver optimal outcomes

SPONSOR

Approve investments. Allocate capital.
Approve/set contributions to enterprisesuccess. Oversee accountability.


International

International

Knowing your place
If you’re the CEO or Franchise MD, you’ll be asked to intervene
when someone (like Yael) thinks she is generating “luminous
efficiency” to shed light on an enterprise-critical issue —
but gives off too much residual heat. An Orchestrator, like a
Commercial VP, may complain that the controversy is slowing
down the launch, putting sand in the gears, jeopardizing
the ROIC that was expected when the board approved the
investment in an innovation like this new drug therapy. Or
Yael may complain that it’s too hard for a young dark-skinned
non-Anglo woman to be heard as an Advisor.
To PowerUP Brilliance, Sponsors may need to step back and
deliberately not intervene. Instead of deciding, they need to
clarify outcomes, deliverables, accountabilities. Rather than
enabling either-or trade-offs or compromises, Sponsors
need to ennoble Orchestrators to optimize short term launch
objectives as well as long-term liability and reputation risks,
customer retention as well as customer acquisition, top line
revenue and bottom-line profit. And hold them accountable
for the way they use divergent perspectives like Yael’s, not
just for neutralizing or overpowering the opposition.

© 2013 • Dr Merom Klein and Dr Louise (Yochee) Klein • www.courageinstitute.org • Tel (USA): +1-215-529-8918

ADVISOR

Speak up to
offer the best
counsel, valid
data and the
best ideas

Page 2

Conflct-prone realities in conflict-averse systems
If you don’t have the time for your workforce — starting with
your own leadership team — to get comfortable with change
before they execute it, or for luminaries like Yael to back off
and wait and see if their worst fears erupt into a BP-style
liability, If you PowerUP Brilliance, it’s inevitable that you’ll
make some sparks fly.
As the CEO, you may find yourself challenged — like Todd
Wallach, CEO of Molecular Detection, whom we profile in the
book. Todd was a savvy multi-cultural manager, having run
businesses in the US and UK, Canada and Europe, China and
Brazil. He speaks several languages. But this was his first CEO
assignment running a company in Israel.
Todd describes his first management team meeting in
Jerusalem as an inquisition. But instead of seeing the sharp
criticisms as insubordination or sand in the gears, like Yael’s
Commercial VP, Todd listened and heard his team saying, “You
can do better. Give us the facts. Tell us why. Show us you’re
qualified to set the goals, lobby for resources, tell us what’s
enterprise-critical. And listen, we we really do know better.”
Dr William Polvino says the same thing about running a
Danish/American enterprise. He tells Americans to appreciate
the direct probing “say-it-like-you-see-it” style that Danes
bring to scientific and business deliberations. And to smile
and respond factually, when asked for proof that your logic
and data are sound — rather than getting defensive.
Years ago, we worked with a Korean company that was
expanding operations in China and sending Koren expats

Courage skill #1: Diagnose…
Think more
like this

Level 5. Champion solutions
Level 4. Master solutions
Level 3. Discover solutions

Act less
like this

Level 2. Wait for solutions
Level 1. Blame and fight
Level 0. Avoid and deny

to run those operations. What the Korean luminaries found
maddening was the absence of controversy. They complained
of feeling set up to fail — by smart lieutenants who smiled
and did exactly what their Orchestrators told them to do,
whether or not it was correct. In cultures that are conflict
averse, PoweringUP Brilliance requires leaders to increase the
level of productive dynamic sharpen-up-thinking conflict —
with Candor, Will and Rigor that serves the Purpose and that
builds trust so there’s more capacity to Risk.

Brilliance is a paradox
We say we want it. But we like it better
when people agree with us, praise
our efforts, defer to our authority. To
PowerUP Brilliance, it takes Courage to
have your conclusions and authority
challenged — so the enterprise can profit.
We’ve worked with a number of Chinese leaders who have
recognized, like Todd, Bill and our Korean clients, that we
need to embrace conflict-prone realities in order to Power UP
Brilliance. Not that we can’t do it with finesse and respect for
cultural and personality differences. We can. But, to support
Orchestrators who are transitioning from a Silos/Chains of
Command to a Networks/Molecular Teams view of the world,
Sponsors can issue a Credo and statement of Core Values that
says, “We value your best thinking. Bring it on.” One CEO did
this by hanging pictures of elephants in the main Conference
Room and declaring, “This is the place, behind closed doors,
where we deal with the elephants in the room.”
Tal: Another case in point
As a Business Development Director, Tal was orchestrating
a complex deal, in-licensing a clean energy innovation that
was co-owned by a venture group, a nervous inventor/
entrepreneur and an academic institution. Tal followed his
CEO’s explicit step-by-step directives. But the CEO was wrong.
When the deal nearly came apart, the firm’s outside advisor
called the CEO. “Why did Tal make such a huge mistake?” the
advisor asked the CEO. “I explained why the tactics he used
would never work and told him what to do instead.” The CEO
admitted to the advisor, “That tactic was my idea. I’m sorry. I

Courage skill #2: Ennoble in sequence

5

1

PLAN
Define next
steps &
timelines
with

RIGOUR

SET THE COMPASS NORTH
Explain WHY. Show benefits.
Define the shared lofty

PURPOSE

3
2

DEEP DIVE
Watch reactions.
Ask to open

CANDOUR

International

ENERGIZE
Build
confidence
and lift

WILL

MAKE YOUR REQUEST
Ask for the

RISK

to achieve your shared PURPOSE

didn’t know it was so wrong.”
The CEO confronted Tal. She asked, “Who’s running this deal?
You or me?” Tal stared at the CEO with empty goat-eyes. The
CEO repeated her question, and demanded to know why
Tal did not take charge and use the best ideas, rather than
saying, “Yes ma’am,” and following the CEO’s orders. Tal tried
to defend himself, telling the CEO that she did not give him
the authority to take those decisions. The CEO shook her
head. “I have ideas. But that doesn’t mean I’m infallible. It’s
your job to take charge and get this deal done — not to curry
favor and put us on a track to send this deal to a competitor.”

International

It was here that we came in — in a PowerUP Brilliance
leadership workshop for Tal and ten of his colleagues
Orchestrating enterprise-critical innovation initiatives. “We’re
not the problem,” Tal said, “Our CEO and her dysfunctional
team should be here in this workshop.” The entire group
agreed and glared at the facilitator.
1. We entered the Courage cycle with PURPOSE, setting the
compass North. Rather than taking the bait and indulging
an avalanche of pity-us victim-of-hierarchy complaints,
we asked, “What would better look like?” and invited the
innovation Orchestrators to tell us how they’d like the
C-suite be more co-operative Sponsors.
2. We asked for the RISK. “Maybe they do need training,” we
said, half-teasing, and asked,. “How will you train them?”
Then we paused to see their reaction. It took a minute
for the group to see that we expected them to lead from
the middle, take charge and reshape the less-than-helpful


4

Page 3

support they had been getting from the top-down.
3. CANDOR was next — listening to their reasons why they
are stuck at Level 1 (Blame) or Level 2 (Wait). Then, with
a few more questions, we sifted through the excuses and
zeroed in on the problems that needed to be solved.
4. We lifted WILL — to ignite hope, energy, confidence and
remind the Orchestrators WHY they had been chosen to
lead and what made them high-potentials. Yes, they said,
they were up to the challenge and ready to lead.
5. Finally RIGOR — to build robust plans to get out in front
of obstacles, bridge cultural, generational, personality
and other diversity dialogues, apply creative product/
service innovation and process mapping techniques for
breakthrough improvement and — Viola! — create lift.
How to build a culture that powers up brilliance.
In any corporation, culture is a mosaic of 10,000 or more
distinct sub-cultures. We may all have the same Core Values,
Destination Statement or Credo on the wall. But stay in the
same conference room and hand the reins to Tal, Yael or 1000
other orchestrators and you can watch the dynamics change
as each meeting ends and another begins.
Yes, there are things that you can do, as the CEO or as a
Franchise GM, to sound the call, align your culture wish-list
with business realities and walk your talk. But shaping the
culture, day after day, meeting after meeting, is a partnership.
You can provide the roadmap, the oxygen and the fuel. But
it’s Orchestrators like Tal, Advisors like Yael and Executors
like the unnamed luminary who sat at the lunch table with
Blame-and-Fight or Deny-and-Avoid colleagues who do the
heavy lifting. If you invest in their success. And make it real

63 days from start-up to power-up
Assess brilliance

Are innovation leaders equipped
to lift reluctant partners
to Level 4 and 5 brilliance?

Kick-off (2 hours)

Virtual or live call-to-action
with goals, overview and first
simulation challenge. GO!!

Set your focus
Your business challenges
Your innovation imperatives
Your quick wins and rapid ROI
Your talent to develop

Reinforcement & coaching
Virtual or live follow-up
workshops/webinars, 1:1 or
peer coaching

Your innovation learning
structure

Live workshops (½-1-½
days)
Role clarity in your matrix
Mobilization maps
Diversity dialogues™
Straight talk to ennoble,
uplift, build accountability
Team mobilisation to hold
innovation partners on belay
Creative tension, generative
mind flips, win/win solutions
Simulations, decision-making
and live practice exercises
Application & action plans

Innovation initiatives

Apply what you learned.
Mobilize. Power up brilliance.

— expecting to see results in 63-80 days.
It takes a village.
A famous adage tells us, “Never swim alone.” It’s as true in
a lake as it is when the initiative you orchestrate dives into
ideas, product upgrades and new business models.
Brilliance is not a solo effort, especially when breakthrough
solutions have a system-wide impact. Big opportunities
have lots of many moving parts and diverse stakeholders to
mobilize. Your effort to bring a newly acquired venture into
alignment with the corporation’s “way of doing things” may
be the final wave that swamps the boat, if you are unaware of
sister departments with parallel change initiatives. We work
in cross-functional teams and matrix structures not because
it is easy or clear, but because it is the best way to get the
right luminaries working together on the right issues at the

Courage is special knowledge
One national leader said it’s “knowing
how to fear what ought to be feared
so fear does not extinguish your own
brilliance — and knowing how not to
fear what ought not be feared, so your
brilliance ignites and does not extinguish
another citizen’s brilliance.”
right time — working parallel rather than in sequence.
How training, coaching and workshops can help.
In workshops, coaching and team mobilization initiatives, we
equip leaders to decode and navigate their matrix structures
— and leave them with a roadmap to mobilize a network
and imbue the members of that network with the courage
to smile in the face of fear, overcome reluctance, strengthen
partnerships and act. That’s the “now what” — where action
learning comes back to the workplace and delivers a ROI.
As you envision a Leadership Program to PowerUP Brilliance
and development the talent that has “the right stuff” to
accelerate your growth, your designers should start the
dialogue here — with the strategies you need to execute,
the extra doses of brilliance that bring new innovations and
make the difference and the ROI that will tell you (and your

Power Up Brilliance: Action learning
3. Now what

1. What

apply courage-building
leadership to accelerate your
change initiative

fun simulations,
vivid cases and
assessments
to see new
possibilities

2. So what

feedback and
skill practice
to diagnose and
ennoble with
more impact


up-and-coming leaders) that they’re making good progress.

International

From here, your program designers can craft the “what” —
• innovation and process mapping activities — to look past
“what is” and re-imagine what can be
• dramatizations that get your leaders up and moving,
interacting and challenging each other
• simulations to make better sharper faster decisions
without letting fear, distortions, wishful thinking or “sandin-the-gears” dilute results
• vivid cases to create moments of truth and dilemmas like
the ones that real leaders in your enterprise face
• where the fun, the joy of discovery, the laughter, the
camaraderie, the magic happens.
The “so what” is the reflective part of the journey. It’s where
fun and activity transition into deep dialogue and personal
journalling. And where rehearsal — for a pivotal presentation
or a 1:1 ennobling uplifting dialogue — goes from scripting
to fluency. It’s where a leader takes his or her 360-feedback
and transforms it into an Individual Development Plan —
and where s/he takes the results of a Courage Assessment or
Engagement Survey and creates a Team Mobilization Plan.
Now what?
If we’re provoked your thinking about PoweringUP Brilliance,
about sharing responsibility for culture-shaping with the
leaders in the middle who bring your culture to life, about
moving from a blaming or victim’s perspective to take charge
and about equipping leaders to be the Core Values you want
to see — we now invite you to assess a group of leaders (on
our website), read the book or call us and start a dialogue.

International


Page 4

PowerUP Brilliance™ - New book for innovation leaders to sharpen adaptive can-do thinking and mobilize the right matrix management teams

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (12)

Similar to PowerUP Brilliance™ - New book for innovation leaders to sharpen adaptive can-do thinking and mobilize the right matrix management teams

Similar to PowerUP Brilliance™ - New book for innovation leaders to sharpen adaptive can-do thinking and mobilize the right matrix management teams (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

PowerUP Brilliance™ - New book for innovation leaders to sharpen adaptive can-do thinking and mobilize the right matrix management teams