This document discusses the role of leadership in driving creativity and innovation throughout history and in various sectors. It provides examples of how leadership in ancient civilizations, the Renaissance, and various periods of US history embraced or stifled innovation. The document also examines best practices for leadership encouraging innovation in transportation projects and companies today, emphasizing the importance of culture, cross-departmental collaboration, understanding customers, and applying creative problem-solving processes. Finally, it argues that both private and public sector transportation organizations would benefit from prioritizing innovation in their planning and operations in order to better meet customer needs.

1. Driving Creativity and
Innovation through
Leadership
By Roger McKean Bazeley

2. Context of Innovation
• The act of driving creativity and
innovation through leadership does
not stand unto itself out of the
situational context of history, an
organizational support structure, or
those that follow or support the
leader.

3. The Discussion
• examining the historic evolution of
leadership’s role in embracing creativity to
drive innovation
• current best practices in both the public
and private transportation sectors,
• relates to my previous roles as an
industrial designer, brand marketing
director, and creative project manager.

4. Roots of Innovation and
Leadership in Society
• The roots of creativity and
innovation are reflected in the very
artifacts, tools, public works –
architecture, urban infrastructure,
and transportation design innovation,
throughout the history of mankind.

5. Roots of Innovation and
Leadership in Society
• I observed in my undergraduate
anthropological studies that the flow
of innovation in science and
technology in great civilizations, such
as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
was as unpredictable as was the
change of leadership due to events of
political and social upheaval.

6. Roots of Innovation and
Leadership in Society
• Creativity and technology enabled
authoritarian leadership to
successfully overtake other cultures
and nations politically, culturally,
economically through trade, and the
production of goods, and weapons.

7. The Egyptians
• The Egyptians were excellent
engineers and constructors, but their
ship design technology did not keep-up
with the sea-going designs of the
Phoenicians and the Greeks,
eventually losing mastery of the seas.

8. The Greeks
• Greek period of history brought with it
the growth of Athens’ power and
innovation in leadership and governance
with the principals of “Democracy”
• “demokratia” or “people-power” where
Athens’s citizens controlled the chief
decision making bodies

9. Public Participation
• decisions of whether to go to war, what
taxes should be levied, or should “we”
spend our city’s money on warships or new
buildings were decided by the votes of
thousands of ordinary citizens in the
assembly.
• The Athenian Greek form of governance
and decision making changed the concept
of rule by authority to that of rule by
consensus and public participation

10. The Romans
• The Roman Empire and other civilizations
located along tributaries and great bodies
of water that supported agriculture,
transportation and trade gained power by
population growth, land acquisition, and the
development of sea and land
transportation; defined much of the urban
infrastructure and land-use constraints
that impacts many of our major urban and
regional centers of the world.

11. Innovation “the Enabler”
• Innovation and technology became an
‘enabler’ in producing urban
infrastructure, agriculture/food,
transportation, goods, and weapons
of war for leadership to control and
win over its opponents thought the
strategic movement of human and
technological resources.

12. The Renaissance Mind,
Enlightened Leadership
• the realization of the involvement and nurturing
of creativity and innovation from leaders like the
Medici’s in the 14th Century
• fundamentals of the modern world were formed
during this unique period of time
• the principals of linear perspective, by artists
such as Donatello, Michelangelo, and the
incredible Leonardo da Vinci, described as the
archetype of the “Renaissance Man” who was a
scientist, inventor, engineer, anatomist, painter,
sculpture, architect, musician, and writer.

13. Enlightened Leadership
• enlightened period in ideas and creativity
with the synergy created by the
competition and patronage of fundamental
institutions, urban centers as Florence,
and the church in Rome.
• Italian commercial inventions still drive
the engines of capitalist society, and the
ideal of the individual to embrace civic
participation and achievement for the
benefit of society

14. Leaders Participation
• Leaders can participate and become
enablers by nurturing creativity and
innovation in science and technology with
the knowledge that innovation does not
stand alone, nor is it predictable.
• The Renaissance mind reflected the
qualities of free will and responsibility to
society that are applicable to modern
thinking in leadership responsibility and
ethics, where the actions of leadership
have consequences.

15. The Renaissance mind
• The principals of leadership are
determined by situational context; context
is important, times change, circumstances
change and as a result leadership must
adapt to new challenges
• turn ones life into a work of art for the
benefit of our communities as a beacon of
enlightenment expanded to others by
sharing and nurturing

16. The American Entrepreneurial
Leadership Model 1776-1900
• the ideals of the freedom of
expression and individualism, and
reflected the continuum of innovation
and leadership in the American model
of entrepreneurial capitalism
• industrial revolution to the
beginnings of mass production

17. The American Entrepreneurial
Leadership Model - 20th Century
• technological innovation was demonstrated
in Albert Post’s evolutionary manufacturing
of interchangeable parts in bike
manufacturing
• Wright Brother’s of Dayton Ohio, who
transitioned from bicycles to aviation
• Henry Ford’s application of the principals
of mass production
• “Entrepreneurial Leadership Model”

18. The American Entrepreneurial
Leadership Model
• Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell,
Glenn Curtis of Curtis Aircraft, John D.
Rockefeller of Standard Oil, were
innovators that accelerated the
acceptance of new ideas, science,
technologies, and products built for the
mutual benefit and demand of society, and
profit for the business entrepreneur.
“Entrepreneurial Leadership Model”

19. Industrial Leadership, Consumerism
and Creativity – “Madison Avenue”
• World War IIresulted in the acceleration of
mass production, technologies, and productivity
• 1950’s post war population growth increased
demand upon managers to lead large and complex
industries, and large scale public works projects
• John Kenneth Galbriith’s book, “The affluent
Society (1957)
• Levitt in 1947 built 17,500 houses at Levittown,
Long Island, creating the first “urban sprawl”
community which coincided with increased
personal transportation mobility, with the 1956
authorized building start of the Interstate
highway system.

20. Consumerism and Creativity –
“Madison Avenue”
• corporate expansion and growth driven by
marketing and New York’s “Madison Avenue,” with
Advertising agencies like Young & Rubicam, Dole
Dane & Bernbach, and Ogilvy & Mather.
• America’s golden age of corporate expansion,
urban and suburban infrastructure, modern
architecture, and consumer product companies
like Coca-Cola, Kodak, General Motors, Ford,
Exxon, and IBM

21. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century

22. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century
• Business Week’s 2006 list of the world’s
most innovative companies
• Categories: Process Innovation, Product
Innovation and Business Model Innovation
• . Apple, 2. Google, 3. 3M, 4. Toyota, 5.
Microsoft, 6. General Electric, 7. Proctor
& Gamble, 8. Nokia, 9. Starbucks, 10. IBM

23. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century
• 25 most innovative companies there are five that
are involved in transportation including: Toyota,
General Electric, Virgin, BMW, Honda, and
Southwest Airlines.
• More than 50% of the Business Week’s survey
respondents said that the CEO was responsible
for driving innovation.
• “Without heavy fire cover from the top.
Innovation efforts will get lost in the shuffle of
short-term demands

24. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century
• 1. a culture of innovation starts from the top in an
organization, (bottom-up empowerment vital)
• 2. face-to-face R&D teams reduce late-stage
conflicts and speed project development times,
• 3. when evaluating managers, subjective metrics,
such as risk tolerance or the measure can be a
better way,
• 4. make a seat at the table for employees to
participate with senior management,
• 5. communicate the institutional memory of an
organization’s innovation tradition to new
management and R&D talent.

25. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century
• supporting innovation through leadership’s
nurturing and in going outside for ideas
• fostering the concept of “Open Innovation”
• largest share of time and money goes to
incremental innovation
• improving existing products and services, creating
and developing new products or services for new
customers, or reducing product or service costs
• gaining a true understanding of the customer and
understanding how to develop a product or service
that fulfills and exceeds customer demands and
expectations is often illusive and unpredictable.

26. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century

27. Leadership Driving Innovation in the
21st Century
• Microsoft and Apple both have strong authoritarian leaders that
nurture and demand innovation and creativity from its design
teams, R&D centers and employees, and sub-contractors and
suppliers
• Apple drives and enables technological and product innovation by
the concepts of “deep collaboration” or “cross-pollination” or
“concurrent engineering”, where products and concepts are
developed simultaneously on parallel tracks by all departments
at once, in endless rounds of interdisciplinary meetings
• Jobs rules by control with creative vision in directing product
innovation through a decisive personal driven decision process
and a great sense of design and a knack for hiring geniuses

28. Innovation in Transportation: Project
Management
• How do you build and lead an organization that promotes creativity
among employees and managers that leads with innovation in
technology, project design, management, and the delivery of
services in the public transportation sector, i.e. Caltrans. Amtrak,
VTA, AC Transit, La METRO, as often drives the top performing
private sector businesses?
• The “Open Entrepreneurial Model” of corporate leadership
• Innovation becomes a key driver of growth by creating
transportation products and services that address consumers’
demands, as well as unmet, and often unarticulated, desires
• Design strategy and innovation plays a key role in product and
service differentiation, decision-making and understanding the
customer’s experience

29. Innovation in Transportation: Project
Management
• LA Metro’s Wilshire/Whittier 720 Rapid Bus system
• industrial designed low-floor “techno” buses, shelters,
branding, and its rapid and frequent service, which
exceeded customer expectations
• CalTrain”Baby Bullet” express trains, running from San
Francisco to San Jose,
• matching or beating driving time by Route 101, exceeded
customer expectations.
• Effective leadership and managers embracing a vision of
improvement of existing transportation systems,
• requires integrating design and creative strategies within
the traditional roles of managing the organization’s
operations and its mission through discipline, focus, and
leadership.

30. Innovation in Transportation: Project
Management
• Problematically, public sector organizations are funded by
multiple sources of local, regional, state, and federal
sources and involve critical public oversight
•
• Innovation can be expensive, takes time, and may be out
dated by the time the transportation project goes from the
arduous planning stage to build-out and implementation.
• The use of innovative and creative consultants and the
merging of private industry “think tanks”
• Transportation planning, design, and project management
areas are key organizational areas and processes that can
drive innovation and creativity within a transportation
organization.

31. Innovation in Transportation: Project
Management
• Transportation projects structured to navigate through a
constantly changing environment of socioeconomic,
environmental, and political conditions with adjustments and
flexibility through constant feedback and assessment by
the project manager and his team.
• How many times have we heard that the company or its
management lost touch with its markets and its customers
from deriving faulty or inadequate feedback ?
• Solution:lead with vision and constantly monitor trend
changes via industry and customer feedback
• Harness, nurture, and foster an organizational environment
where creativity and innovation in R&D is valued as a vital
organizational asset internally and externally

32. Innovation in Transportation: Project
Management
• The application of the process in designing a better
customer/consumer transportation experience is by
internally applying to project development and management
process the creative acts of:
• 1. Observation/Survey
• 2. Idea brainstorming,
• 3. Rapid Prototyping & Concept Development,
• 4. Refining concept alternatives, and
• 5. Implementation-by a talented well paid diverse
workforce.

33. Innovation in Transportation: Project
Management
• There is a great need for simplification, seamless door to
door connectivity, and the highest quality product design
and service to deliver travel speed, service frequency, and
customer comfort and safety in the design and improvement
of our transportation systems and infrastructure
• Boeing continues to lead in aircraft design innovation,
quality and product differentiation with its original 707, the
747, the 777, and its new sleek fuel efficient 787
Dreamliner
• France and Japan have been longtime leaders in the design
and building of high speed rail i.e., France’s TGV and Japan’s
famous “Bullet Trains.

34. Innovation in Transportation: Conclusion
• the private sector leadership models for driving creativity
and innovation should be viewed as fluid and evolving
examples for how private and public transportation
organizations could move innovation to the front for
creating transportation systems that are more responsive
to the customer’s needs and demands for improved
convenience, connectivity, safety and enjoyment
• combining innovation with a vision based in pragmatism
must be adaptable to the fluid changes in the context of
consumer and public demands, and the regulatory
environment within an increasing complex geo-political global
environment of competition.
• it is the humanistic values of the Italian Renaissance that
have embraced the ideals of integrity, honesty, and
implementing innovation/change for the benefit of society,
being the most durable assets of leadership.

35. Innovation in Transportation: Conclusion
• Leadership must take the ultimate responsibility for its
actions, vision, and business ethics by virtue of the authority
bestowed by the principals of “public trust”
• Encompassing the role of leadership in an increasingly
complicated, regulated, and political/policy driven environment
are unpredictable risks that challenge and can compromise and
diminish the effectiveness of leadership
• To be a truly great leader one must have etched in the soul the
principals of “doing the right thing”, the belief of integrity and
service for the benefit of the public
• Only history will justify the right and wrong of leadership’s
strategic decisions, public works, or impact and benefit to
society.