Hello everyone… I have a lot going on at the moment so I just wanted to let my readers know that I am taking some time off the blog. I have felt the last two months or so that I need to work out why I am doing this and if it adds value or interests me.
Given that at the moment it isn’t adding value or making me interested I need some time to sort out if I want to continue down this road. I will see after a short break if it’s worth my while continuing.
All the best.
Luke
Recently I was sent a link to a personality profiler from CareerOne.com.au. I would think of this tool as obscure, if not more than a little bananas. HOWEVER, I did the test and it come out with most bizarre answers I have ever seen. I would recommend you try it if you want to discover how twenty-one questions that are randomly moved and compared to each other can create ideas about your future. The main outcome for me when I did this test was that I was informed that I like innovation as a way of life. So, given that the test knows ALL and is ALL KNOWING I decided that I would blog about it.
Where most business, universities and the like fail is that they baulk when it comes to change. Change for the sake of change can be a good thing because it can get you into the mindset that everything can be improved. Somethings will never innovate (COKE) and in this sense I am not entirely sure that they could change it and have great results. However, by adding value to the same product (macadamia meet chocolate) you have something innovative. They added vanilla flavouring to Coke and viola! We have innovation! Be prepared to launch.
According to some authors (Tim Ferriss) you can automate things. I am wondering if the automation of things makes us forget that some things have a shelf life and a process is only as good as its lifecycle. If this is so, then I am certain that a lifecycle, has a start and an end point. Everything gets stale. Life, marriage, Web 2.0, bananas. The bottom line is when you allow “staleness” to come and form into predictable patterns you are hindering learning, which in turn hinders innovation. I have heard it said this way, “a good teacher prepares the cirriculum then bounces their ideas off their students to deliver the best possible course”. About 4 people said that… and I can’t remember in which order. That doesn’t matter… what matters is that when we enforce rigidity, patterns and process managerialism we are forced into cycles of defensive mechanisms and staleness is born.
I have a lot of fears. The biggest is that I will remain bored and stuck doing things that I have no interest in (hence the evil survey from careerone nailed my ass on this one). I have to create new things to do because I am the kind of person who likes new challenges… for this reason I have taught everything from E-Commerce to Occupational Health and Safety. You could argue that I lack discipline… fatness may also prove this to be so. However, when you are faced with a fear of change or failure you feel paralysed. You feel helpless… the key to remaining innovative is to act and to act decisively. Run towards your fears and go through it with gusto. Balls out! This gets the innovation train (hat tip: Alison) chugging along at full pace. It does… fear is the primary killer of innovation.
Another key to innovation is to remain open to new concepts. When we form defenses, we form a solid unbreakable model of the issue at hand and we think that this problem will create for us a genuine threat/opportunity matrix for us to decode. In reality such things don’t exist… they are mere tools for the analysis of problems. Are you stuck in an either/or, black vs. white cycle? Move past either or to AND! Or simply, take both options you are stuck with and add something that is completely different ala lateral thinking. Shift!
In closing this short (obscure) post I would like to say that true innovation is a way of life. If you define yourself too early in the game then you leave yourself with no way forward in the future EXCEPT the past. A concept has power. Innovation is measured by actions more than thought… deeds more than models… yet every innovation starts with a single person(s) decision to think about change. Why don’t you think about change?
A recent experience has shown me the importance of leaders. As our discipline (Information Systems) meanders towards a slow tumbling death from hell, I have been wondering where the leaders are? And yes I put myself in that category. This got me thinking… sometimes you NEED leadership.
What we really need at work at the moment is someone to stand up and show us the way forward. Most of us don’t have the faintest idea what the hell to do or what is going to work. Leaders know what needs to be done and they know there is a path. Even if a leader doesn’t know what the path is and where it will lead they have insight, foresight and direction. We need a leader to help us in these times and most importantly we need direction.
In my life I have been spiralling downwards with a clear lack of direction for about twelve months. I won’t lie, this has been one of the worst experiences of my life to date. What I have learned in this time is that taking advice from other people is great… but I really need is leadership. Some turn to various places to get that kind of leadership but for me I find people that are willing to listen and can offer some sound advice. Still, you can’t live your life around these things you need to “man up” and make decisions that you are accountable for.
One thing I have come to find very annoying is people who deliberately leave out key information about a topic in order to protect ideas they think are valuable… why share it in the first place. DAMMIT! I don’t know how many times I have read something on the internet about how to this or make something and the end result is different. My wife’s grandmother used to leave key ingredients out of recipes all the time for example!
However, a good leader will be able to call you out and help you to see the bigger picture at all times. They will be able to point the direction towards what you need… not necessarily what you want. A good leader can show you the way and point you towards the steps you need to take in order to make it work for you. They will give you keys and help you to see the very best. In short a good leader will help you to think strategically.
I think that in every area of life there are leaders. You would be hard pressed not to find one. However, how many good ones are there? I leave you to work that out.
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