Visual and Creative Thinking:What We Learned From Peter Pan and Willy Wonka

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Visual and Creative Thinking:What We Learned From Peter Pan and Willy Wonka

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Failure as a Necessary Component of Innovation and Breakthroughs

In most organizations failure is implicitly, sometimes explicitly, understood to be career limiting.

Regardless of the rhetoric, and I have heard loads of it over the years of working with senior executives. They will say things like: "it OK to fail around here"; "we value failure as evidence of pushing the envelope"; "no success without failure" and so on. The truth is failure is not acceptable in most organizations.

Now if we distinguish between carelessness and failure we may have an opening for a new freedom to invent, create, discover, and take responsible risks - and in the process make major advances, even breakthroughs.

Carelessness I distinguish as not paying sufficient attention in performing in task that has a proven and established process or methodology to ensure the desired outcome. This thoughtlessness in executing a step or missing a step means that the desired outcome is not produced. And, in all likelihood what is produced has unwanted consequences.

Failure on the other hand is the consequence of trying to produce an outcome where there is no clear path or process. Where there is no precedent for a successful outcome. 

In every set of accountabilities there should be a component that requires invention, experimentation, and discover so as to produce a new level of performance. People cannot be free to be fully expressed in this area of their accountabilities if failure is taboo. Innovation and creativity will be stifled.

Also see, Some Perspective on Success and Failure.

 

The $100 Billion Collaboration Plan

Before the fact, some innovative or breakthrough ideas are inconceivable. After the fact, I often have two experiences: one is the of-courseness of the idea; and the second is, "where was the innovator looking from that he/she/they saw this possibility and others did not?"

Even after the possibility is fully explained some may not be enrolled. I had that thought when I read Alan Cohen's Opinions and Insights from Cisco. He posits that a change in the meeting process, culture and technology can add $100 billion of productivity gains to the workforce worldwide. I wonder how many will jump on that possibility and garner their share of productivity gains. 

Big Ideas and Hard Times - Can The Possibly Go Together?

We are currently in a period that we can reasonably call hard times - we're in a recession in fact. 

"Some of the most powerful and lasting management methods were launched during tough times, when companies needed new ways to manage costs and grow. Here is a look back at some of the biggest ideas over the past 100 years." Jena McGregor, Business Week.

What innovation or big idea are you working on to add to the list?

Smart Management for Tough Times

A message worth spending time paying attention to from a CEO who knows about innovation - about doing great in an economic slowdown. Listen to John Chambers talking the collaborative approach he has built into Cisco.

Acquisitions in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Evidence of a Failure of Imagination?

Is the rash of acquisitions in the pharma industry a way to cover up, or postpose having to face, what would otherwise be evidence of a failure of imagination, a failure to innovate, on the part of the acquiring company?

What other credible explanation is there?

If the design purpose is to boost the share price of the acquiring company then a chat with Jack Welch might be useful. he had something to say on the subject talking to the FT on the future of capitalism. Not one to be timid about expressing his point of view he said, “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world”.

If the purpose is to generate layoffs and increase unemployment numbers, I guess that purpose will be realized.

What is the fundamental organizing principle of these acquiring CEO's and their Boards? You have to wonder!

A Business Report That Breaks the Paradigm

After the fact a break from accepted ways of doing things seems so obvious - before the fact, nor so obvious.

How come, because we see the world through what Kenneth Burke calls a terministic screen. The world is filtered for us by our screen and we don't even know the screen is there - it is though the mechanism through which we select reality as well as deflect reality.

Take s simple thing like annual reports for example - what's the screen through which we look that has a report be a particular way? Until Audi's business report that is. After seeing their report, an aha! perhaps, an of course, why didn't we think of this, why isn't every report like this?

Innovative? Absolutely!