Stalking Innovation
Peter de Jager is a provocative Speaker, Writer and Consultant. His primary focus in on how we manage change, technology and the future.
In addition to speaking at conferences worldwide, he's also written monthly columns for Municipal World and Computing Canada.
His goal is always to question what we think is so, and in so doing perhaps open up new opportunities.
If you'd like permission to reprint any of Peter's articles, please contact him directly.
You can contact him at
pdejager@technobility.com
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How can we add constant innovation and creativity to our thought processes and job descriptions? The South African author William Plomer put it this way, “It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected.” Given that IT is besieged and encircled by under exploited technologies, we have the opportunity to become the centre of corporate innovation.
Pick only three technologies out of the vast buzz of fads/developments and you’ll have enough to keep any team of organizational brain stormers busy for a week. Let’s see... how about some of the more obvious ones? RFID, Podcasts and Myspace.com?
RFID: Does your organization count anything, at any time of the year? If there isn’t a team mandated with at least thinking about how
RFID could be used in your organization then you will miss either a business opportunity or a cost savings
PODCASTs: As someone who speaks for a living, I’m skeptical about the value of any ‘audio performance’ of less than perfect quality. Yet, as universities continue to increase their use of PODCAST technology to store and distribute lectures, the pressure to seek corporate applications should also increase. How could PODCASTs improve, compliment, replace and/or enable communication channels in our organizations? Are we even looking at this as an opportunity?
And that's the point. If we're not consciously and deliberately looking to
exploit all new technologies then we are going to miss opportunities.
Myspace.com: In every organization I’ve ever worked in, I’ve had reason to ask questions. Coming up with questions was easy, what was difficult
for me was finding the right person to ask. I don’t know what the results would be if everyone maintained their own profile, skills both formal and informal, areas of interest etc. etc. I don’t know if a project team would become more of a team if that information was available. I suspect that whatever the outcome, it would be unexpectedly positive and steeped
in opportunity.
If after reading the above triplet of idle musings you’ve passed negative
judgment on the ideas, then you’ve missed the point. It’s never about whether one idea succeeds or fails; it’s about creating a culture of innovation. A culture that compels us to constantly re-evaluate all business processes in light of new capabilities.
I don't care if you think the above three technologies are blasé, clichéd
and tired, what I care about is that we tend to become jaded while
surrounded with wonders taken directly from Science Fiction novels.
Opportunity is there for the taking, but only if we're looking to find
it.
I know all the excuses, I’ve used them often enough in the past; we don’t have the time, the budget, the resources etc. etc. We’re all in agreement that when we’re under attack by malignant to do lists, it is difficult to carve out some time to look above the trenches. Yet, the potential benefits are, or at least should be, obvious.
There are several ways we can allocate resources to search for new solutions and opportunities. One is to create an innovation ‘team’, a handful of people who are given the mandate of thinking creatively. That one has never thrilled me. Putting a sign up and stating “Be creative behind this door!” seems a tad restrictive to the free flow of creative juices.
Another method is to make innovation an integral part of everyone’s responsibility. This requires more than just adding a new paragraph to our job descriptions. It means making the effort to allocate time to
spot, stalk and snare new ideas. This doesn’t have to be onerous. Putting “New Ideas” onto the agenda of every meeting isn’t much, but it’s a start.
Creating a culture where ideas are nurtured is a bit more difficult. Go back to
your thoughts as you read the opening paragraphs of this article. If you ‘poo-pooed’ the ideas I presented, then you’ve got some work ahead of you. Creativity requires, (make that ‘demands’) an open mind, a willingness to always search for what
might work, rather than pointing out what will obviously fail.
So… what new, untested, unexplored, unexploited technology will you examine in your next meeting? At least one reader
of this article thinks that’s a good idea… you’ll meet them soon enough… they’re your next competitor.
© 2006 Peter de Jager – Yes, he's a speaker with a passion for Change. You can contact him at pdejager@technobility.com
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