@jandeman

Rant on innovation

I wrote this on January 2, 2009. After coming back from two days at a conference on innovation in the public sector I was just about to write a rant about the goings on in this field. But something in me said I had already written it... And so I had. Here is a small excerpt:

If you really want your organization to be more innovative, creative and entrepreneurial - go to school and study the best. Steal from them and implement. But foremost understand that this is a process of changing culture that takes time, a long time. And be humble to the fact that you might not succeed. Organizations have been known to resist change...

Here is the full post. I'd love to know what you think.

/jan

PS. In general I find it more and more intersting to explore the charades we employ in our organizations. I'l be writing about this in a coming post. DS.

The Flip Manifesto by Dan Pink

I've just read Dan Pink's inspiring e-book on leadership, motivation and innovation.

You can get a hold of a copy by subscribing to his newsletter on danpink.com.

Recommended.

Hope to update this post later with a few thoughts in connection with my read.

 

 

Troubling stuff

Read this.

"The study, called "State of Create," found that eight in 10 people believe that creativity is critical to economic growth. But it also found that only one in four people feel like they are living up to their own creative potential. And 75% of respondents said they feel like their employers put more pressure on them to be productive than to be creative."

Sigh.

 

Holy moly

This post in Management Issues just baffled me. Consider this:

"In fact, four out of 10 of the 500 employees surveyed said that innovation is either a long shot for their company or a mere "buzz word" the company would like to embrace."

"According to research carried out in 2010 by the Nielsen Company, organizations with less senior management involvement in the new product development process generate 80 per cent more new product revenue than those with heavy senior management involvement."

"A culture of innovation will support ideas coming from any individual, any level and sometimes from unusual places in the organization."

I rest my case. Do you now get why organizations need to be more human friendly?

Hacking Management

A couple of years ago I went to London and participated in the launch of Julian Berkinshaw's book Reinventing Management. That put me on track for his and Gary Hamel's joint work into Management Innovation. As with all new strands of work you see some very interesting stuff and you see some not so impressive stuff. But they have stayed on track and their work has among other things evolved into The Management Exchange or The MiX.

I can recommend that you spend some time at The Mix. Check out what they are doing. See some interesting clips. Read about the different 'hacks' of management that are being tested.

It is work life this that we need to be doing on a wider scale, in each organization. I agree with the basic premise they make. Management as a technology is mature and needs to be innovated, or rather reinvented. 20 years from now we'll be amazed over the progress we've made. For now we're stuck in confusion and frustration over an organizational model that is losing it's ability to deliver what we need. And is step by step draining us of our most precious resource - our dignity and humanity.

Jan

Peter Senge on collective smartness and more

Peter Senge shares his thoughts on systems, learning and collaboration vs individuality. See the whole clip. Take a while and reflect. Then think hard about you organization. I hope you see some potential for new perspectives and initiatives ;) If we want our organizations to suck less, this is the kind of thinking we need to put to work.

Jan

What goes around comes around

The last two weeks have been pretty amazing for me. Lots of exciting things in the making and I have been a little over-whelmed about the relative easiness in moving things ahead. When I reflected upon why I was experiencing this I reached these conclusions.

• People I interact with respond favorably to the new directions I am exploring, not only because they like the directions, but also just because I now have a more apparent direction (or directions). Direction matters.
• Enthusiasm and engagement can be very contagious. People respond better to folks who are engaged in their work. They want in on the energy. They offer to help. Enthusiasm matters.
• Most of the folks I'm interacting with are my friends. New friends, old friends. Friends of friends. They are not primarily business aquaintances. They are friends. Relationship "capital" matters.
• We might forget details from the past. But we remember if people are honest and friendly. We remember if they have made good contributions before. Obviously I have a few screw ups in my track record but today I am extremly happy I have always chosen to be responsible, generous and fair. And always delivered at the top of my capacity. History matters.

What goes around comes around. No rocket science, but good to reenforce. 

//jan

Some personal thoughts about work

In my early thirties I spent a night in intensive care with a suspected heart attack. It later turned out to be a massive stress reaction. I didn't sleep that night. Instead thought about why I was constantly pushing myself to the limit in my work. What was so important that I evidently was prepared to destroy myself?  

Early next morning I had figured it out. I had arrived at the conclusion that I was prepared to kill myself to earn love and recognition. 

Now, once I had exposed this to myself it was impossible to continue with the destructive behavior. It just seemed so stupid. And I quickly realized if it was love and recognition I was after, there probably were smarter ways to get them. I had reached a new level of understanding about myself. 

I will admit that it took some time to change the everyday realities of my life. There were a lot of social "contracts" that had to be renegotiated with family, friends and colleagues. Not always successfully which has ended some relationships. Still, all in all a real improvement in my life.

The remaining problem with this process is that it took away the meaning of work from me. What happened was I started to work less. To do away with the immediate pressure. But also because it freed up time to explore other things, or simply do nothing. On an intellectual level I understand that I need to work, both as a means for supporting myself and a way of building my self worth. But I must admit I have very little emotional drive in my work.

The paradox is that I seem to be doing better work than ever and earning more while working less and less. This baffles me a little as it is contrary to what I was taught to believe in. 

During my current sabbatical I have examined this paradox some and have challenged myself to rediscover the meaning of my work. The model I'm currently running may work well enough for me, but what I have discovered is that I'm easily bored and seldom challenged to my full potential. This cannot be sustainable. So, I find myself convinced that if I'm going to work for 20 or so more years I'll need to put more emotional "capital" into my work.

Where this will put me looking forward is to be discovered. It is darn scary and very exciting at the same time.

Jan

 

On self-reliance

I'm finding that a lot of folks these days are singing the praise of self-reliance and independence, be it countries, companies or individuals. The logic as far as I understand it is that one can stand stronger when crisis hits and one also can avoid the disappointment of others failing to deliver when it is most needed. Or avoid going through the emotional hassle of trusting someone. Better to do everything by oneself and control one's own destiny.

I believe this reasoning is flawed. Not that the striving for self-reliance and independence is inherently bad. On the contrary this can be very good as long as it reflects a genuine interest in accepting responsibility and accountability for one's actions and non-actions.

But when self-reliance and independence become a strategy to avoid vulnerability and possible failure it is pushing the whole idea too far and making it counter-productive. As far as I am concerned being overly self-reliant is a recipe for lonliness and becoming irrelevant. And chronic blaming of other people's incompetence over one's own brilliance.

Humans and our enterprises are defined by relationships. If you don't trust others, if you can't stand things going wrong, if you can't show your uncertainty or weakness then much of what it is to be human is lost.

In general we humans develop together through our interactions, not in isolation. You can chose your attitude towards this. It either sucks big time and keeps all your talent and brilliance boggled down. Or you can decide to join the adventure of human messiness. You risk making an ass of yourself. You risk being let down by people you trusted. You risk things turning out different than you imagined, and some times even better than you imagined! You risk that your shining ego not be seen as brightly as you dream of.

But you also win the joy of genuinely helping other people. You win the joy of achieving things with others. And sharing accomplishment. And tapping into so much love and energy that you never would have gotten access to otherwise.

I know what I am talking about. I have switched sides. And it has made all the difference.

Jan

 

World's shortest business book?

We all agree that business books have a tradition of being way too long. This night I googled the term and came up with - nothing. Could this be real? Has there been no claim of this title? This cannot stand!

So, please join me in an exploration to find/create the shortest business book in the world. I'll pitch in my contribution here below. Slightly idealistic, but hey that's me... Please ammend/change it as you fit by writing comments. Or submit your own version. Or point to the ones already written. 

Hopefully we can collectively claim the title in the near future. Or just have fun trying ;)

But remember. Keep it short! :)

 

Title: How to build a sustainable business

Chapter 1. Over time revenues should be higher than costs. Preferably much higher.

Chapter 2. Only sell what customers actually want to buy. 

Chapter 3. Be kind and helpful. To customers. To employees. To society. And to the environment. 

 

/jan