Todd Wangsgard
Enterprising, results-driven, and grounded are words that describe Todd Wangsgard. He brings 24 years of leadership and organizational development experience to his clients.
Clients value his ability to create clarity out of the business fog that prevents most companies from enabling greatness and developing the capabilities of their associates.
Todd has excellent professional experience. He was Senior Manager of Training, Talent Management, and Communications for ATK Lake City, a government-owned, company-operated manufacturing center in Independence, Missouri. He organized the training department, developed and implemented all levels of leadership curriculum, and oversaw the operation’s succession planning and teambuilding strategies.
As the Manager of Professional Development for ATK, a $4 billion aerospace and defense company, Todd led the creation of employee and leadership assessment and development initiatives for operations in 23 states.
Todd worked for Intermountain Healthcare, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, the intermountain west’s largest physician, clinic and hospital network. He founded IHC University and managed the implementation of curriculum as well as the administrative team of IHCU.
An industry cross section of Todd’s clients represent higher education, health care, insurance, manufacturing, aerospace, and defense.
Todd holds a PhD from Walden University in Leadership and Organizational Change. He has also earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix and a B.A. from Weber State University (Ogden, Utah) in communications.
Todd is affiliated with a number of professional organizations and holds certifications to teach a number of programs. He is a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a Master Facilitator for Achieve Global, and a Certified Professional Behavior Analyst (DISC).
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FranklinCovey Consultant Blogs | Todd Wangsgard | Milieu
Innovation, Creativity, and Risk-Taking: More than Words
Innovation, creativity, and risk-taking have long been propped up as essential ingredients to an organizations’ ability to gain competitive advantage in the modern business milieu. And yet most employees will tell you that their workplace isn’t exactly as tolerant of risk as popular rhetoric might suggest. It appears that most individuals and organizations experience a love-hate relationship with the hard reality that accompanies true innovation – the need to experience failure, often repeatedly, before we experience the breakthrough of success.
If creativity is so important, why isn’t it more pervasive in formal group interactions and individual projects and initiatives? Conduct your own experiment, and I believe you’ll discover a key contributor to the standard climate of caution. When you ask a classroom full of eager Kindergarteners, “Which of you is an artist?” every hand goes up! And yet, when that same question is posed three years later to the same class of now seasoned pupils, a slightly more reticent group of 3rd graders isn’t as eager to identify with that same label. Why?? What happened in those intervening years? Perhaps some children are told their art is “good,” that it “conforms” to conventional expectations. “Look! Johnny’s tree looks just like a tree! Aren’t you a good artist!?” Yet Jenny is told, “You went a little outside the lines. Besides, trees aren’t supposed to be purple.” This oft unintended reinforcement, repeated over time, cements into the minds of impressionable children what they “can” or “can’t” do – what they should or shouldn’t do – who they are and are not.
Perhaps as adults we need only forget what we’ve been told about our abilities to uncover that hidden artist who’s been hiding all these years. You say, “I’m left-brained – much more logical in my approach to life.” Says who? Maybe you just haven’t allowed your more innovative nature to express itself. “I could never come up with new and different ideas like my co-worker!” Is it possible, you’ve never taken the time or put forth the effort to be deliberately different?
I propose that one key barrier to more innovation, expressed creativity, and calculated risk-taking in the workplace stems from the absence of such expressed values in the organization and/or the misalignment of stated values with day-to-day practice.
For example, if an individual employee personally recognizes the value of being more creative in her work, but reads the company’s plaque of narrowly defined values on the wall – Integrity, Service, Quality - she may hesitate to take much-needed risk, because it doesn’t appear to “fit.” Then again, even if Innovation appears in the list, when an employee’s boss tends to micromanage and behave in ways that forbids any actions “outside the lines,” it doesn’t really matter what’s hanging on the wall. That employee (and thousands of others like her) will eventually find their way to discouragement, disengagement, and literal resignation.
Does your organization explicitly include creativity and risk-taking among its values? If so, can you see it in day-to-day interactions among associates? Highly effective people who are truly interdependent regularly engage in ways that seek out the diversity and strengths in everyone involved in every assignment. It’s their M.O. They encourage robust dialogue that stimulates the hearts and minds of all parties. And even though they may uncover conflicting ideas and encounter failure in those divergent discussions, they also tend to synthesize breakthrough solutions more often than the masses. In what ways will you keep these values on the wall and alive in your actions?
Fear Breeds Opportunity
In his recently published biography, “The Snowball,” investment guru Warren Buffet is credited with offering the following advice:
”Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”
You can change the word “greedy” to anything you like better. Eager. Aggressive. Risky. It means just about the same.
Anyway you look at the current economic milieu, it clearly represents a profoundly poignant opportunity for people and organizations to capitalize on principle-centered thinking and action. Here are just a handful of pairings between popular 7 Habits principles and crisis-driven actions that you and I can use to strengthen our organizations.
- Production/Production Capability: Invest in the best people who might be nervous and go hire the best people who have lost work elsewhere. Your talent edge will continue to sharpen while the competition loses its.
- Emotional Bank Account: Assure your best customers and suppliers of your loyalty. Reinforce abundance. See this as a chance to bolster relationships of trust that may have been stagnant or malnourished.
- Begin With the End in Mind: Redefine what you and your organization need to look like on the tail end of the recession. This allows you to begin aligning your reality with your newly formed vision – now.
- Put First Things First: Hone your ability to focus and execute on your highest priorities. Use this time to build highly motivated teams toward making significant weekly contributions that are documented during regular accountability session.
Sure, there are less noble actions that fear can breed, such as the chance for the clever and strong to take advantage of the ignorant and the weak. However, that’s exactly why I emphasize “principle-centered.” Only by operating on true principles of effective human behavior will our actions from these difficult times sustain the kind of rewarding relationships we are seeking over the long haul. More and more, people can read our intentions like a book and will judge us by the outcome. We can’t afford not to make principles the centerpeice of every action.