I received the following trends alert related to the role of innovation in our current corporate life. By the way, this is a worthwhile thing to subscribe to!
The point of this post is my comments after the alert. Please read!
Herman Trend Alert: Innovation and Entrepreneurship February 24, 2010
For years now, we have seen a growing trend towards "Innovation" being a leading
focus for corporations worldwide. A new book from Robert C. Wolcott and Michael
Lippitz, "Grow from Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation"
(McGraw-Hill 2010), provides a roadmap for effectively creating innovation in
organizations.
Wolcott is the founder and executive director of the Kellogg Innovation Network
(KIN), "a unique forum for select executives and innovation managers to meet and
discuss internal and industry-wide challenges, business growth, risks, and
successful strategies, with academics from the Kellogg School of Management".
Discussed in the book, "Innovation Radar" (IR) grew out of an understanding that
"innovation is about more than just products and technology". Companies can
innovate in any area. Using IR, executives look at 12 dimensions of innovation;
the chart represents all of the activities with which companies can add value.
The valuable part of IR is that it provides a bridge between strategy and
innovation and gives executives the opportunity to have all of their questions
and answers (hopefully) before they begin the strategic process.
Wolcott suggests that entrepreneurs. . ."Be clear about their objectives. Be
clear about their questions. Recognize that "we [often] only see the things for
which we are looking".
The authors also talk about some corporate initiatives that promote innovation,
like IBM's "Global Innovation Outlook" programs and "Innovation Jams". In these
unique in-person and online events, IBM engages people from a wide variety of
enterprises to solve global challenges facing humanity.
In "Saving America: The Generativity Solution" by Robert R. Carkhuff (HRD Press
2010). Moving past any obvious political overtones, Carkhuff believes that the
lack of economic freedom hamstrings entrepreneurship. Defining Generativity as
"the capacity to generate a new idea", the author also provides an organized
approach to innovation. “The Generativity Solution” is the application of
"generativity" to all areas and levels of human endeavor: individuals,
organizations, and all components of the community, culture, and economy. And
that is only the beginning.
Expect innovation to become increasingly important, as the nations of the world
look for answers. Wolcott is right: "Corporate entrepreneurship in all of its
forms is the strategic answer to the challenge of economic growth."
************************************************************************************
MY COMMENTS:
Yes in fact, innovation is now more than ever critical as our economic engine sputters along. And yet, here in lies the concern and the reality check. As someone who comes in contact with thousands of managers and team members across North America each year, here is what I've discovered is the reality.
Conformity is the desired behavior! Many people in management and leadership positions have a very low tolerance for diversity and difference and these elements are essential components to innovation.
Many in the very positions who have the power to champion and foster the very innovation needed don't have the emotional intelligence or ego management to create and support the environment necessary for the very thing needed to occur!
I suggest we partner the concept of innovation with the fostering of divergent and contrary thinking. Can we as leaders in the business community handle it? We'll need it to move our economy, businesses, and country forward.
Coaching Question: What is your tolerance for people who are dramtically different from you in every way. How do you feel or handle when people disagree with your position in a definitive and dramatic way?
Showing posts with label innovation creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label innovation creativity. Show all posts
Friday, May 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Innovation and Leadership - SpaceShipOne
Confidence in Nonsense - What Innovators can Learn from SpaceShipOne
Though this is somewhat old news...some news is worth repeating!
"Research should be defined as doing something where half the people who know about it, thinks it's impossible. When there's a true breakthrough, you can always go back to period in time when people said "that's impossible'. That means a true creative researcher needs to have 'Confidence in Nonsense'". - Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne.
The Mohave Desert is the birthplace of the sonic boom and the X15. And now the mantle of innovation rests on the shoulders of Burt Rutan of SpaceShipOne. Only two winged craft have gone into space, the X15 and the space shuttle. Both took decades to develop and were incredibly expensive programs to develop. Neither have been able to bring the cost of spaceflight down so economically such that regular people like you and me can travel into space, either for business or pleasure. And yet, in September 2004, SpaceShipOne broke all the rules, not once but twice, in a craft that was flown by wire by a human (not computer controlled) and was fuelled by laughing gas and old tires.
So what can would-be innovators learn from SpaceShipOne's experience? Firstly let's consider Burt Rutan, the designer and leader of the team. Rutan says "There are less than 500 people who have flown in space in 40 years. People believe that government organizations are working on ways to get the rest of us into space, but they are not. Unless guys like me do this, it will not get done, period."
And so as far back as 1994, Burt started putting pen to paper and dreaming up new and original ways that spaceflight could be accomplished on the cheap. But it was not until 2001 when Paul Allen invested, that Burt really got serious about going after the Ansari X prize and developing SpaceShipOne. Putting together a small team of very smart people, where everyone was responsible for something critical. But elite doesn't mean lots of experience. Matt Steimetz, a young bright guy who worked on the construction of the craft says, "Most companies would say you're just a kid out of college and you don't have enough experience to work on a spaceship, here they just give you a lot of responsibility and say we'll see how you do." Of course, one could argue that with so few spaceships in the world, who would have the experience?
Using materials that were cheap and abundantly available was most important to the team. The fuel composed of nitrous oxide and rubber (aka laughing gas and old tires) is highly economical, compared to the thousands of pounds of liquid oxygen consumed by the space shuttle, let alone its solid rocket boosters. The construction of the craft was based on airplane kit designs, using fiberglass and other lightweight materials to keep both weight and cost down. And yet, the design is so unique. Part of the space shuttle's ongoing cost are the thermal ceramic tiles on its underside, which protects it from the immense heat of reentry. Instead Rutan designed a wing structure that 'feathers' by 90 degrees, slowing the descent of the craft so that tiles are unnecessary. Revolutionary.
And so armed with his small team and two craft (one to lift SpaceShipOne part way into the sky, that is a design accomplishment in itself) Rutan has accomplished the seemingly impossible. Jim Tighe, the Chief Aerodynamicist of SpaceShipOne says, "Nowadays we place very little emphasis on what an individual can do, I hope this shows people that to achieve something great, you don't need to be a large multinational corporation or large governments needing international cooperation with the US, Russia and Japan. You don't need millions of people to do something fantastic. Hopefully today we have showed that 20 people can do something fantastic - just look what we did with 20 people in 3 years."
An extraordinary accomplishment. So what can this world's would-be innovators learn from SpaceShipOne's experience? Here are some key points:
1) Dare to Dream and have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) - why not? Even if you have to take tiny steps to getting there, you are still on the path to achieving what you want.
2) Do have the best team possible, and trust your team members to deliver.
3) Don't be limited by the way things have been done before. Question everything.
4) You don't need unlimited resources to get things done, just a small group of people who really want to make a difference.
5) Go back to the drawing board. Approach the problem many different ways. Redefine the problem and follow the sequence of events that cause the problem. Perhaps you can affect the root cause earlier in the chain, so the problem doesn't even occur.
Burt Rutan's hero is Werner von Braun for his pioneering work in rocketry. Someone asked Werner von Braun once, "What is the most difficult thing about going to the moon?" He replied, "The will to do it". Burt adds, "The technology isn't an issue, it's the way people think about Space." For Burt, this is not an end, just a very good beginning.
Thanks Burt, for your 'confidence in nonsense.' And here's to all you innovators out there thinking at 337,500 feet.
The Mohave Desert is the birthplace of the sonic boom and the X15. And now the mantle of innovation rests on the shoulders of Burt Rutan of SpaceShipOne. Only two winged craft have gone into space, the X15 and the space shuttle. Both took decades to develop and were incredibly expensive programs to develop. Neither have been able to bring the cost of spaceflight down so economically such that regular people like you and me can travel into space, either for business or pleasure. And yet, in September 2004, SpaceShipOne broke all the rules, not once but twice, in a craft that was flown by wire by a human (not computer controlled) and was fuelled by laughing gas and old tires.
So what can would-be innovators learn from SpaceShipOne's experience? Firstly let's consider Burt Rutan, the designer and leader of the team. Rutan says "There are less than 500 people who have flown in space in 40 years. People believe that government organizations are working on ways to get the rest of us into space, but they are not. Unless guys like me do this, it will not get done, period."
And so as far back as 1994, Burt started putting pen to paper and dreaming up new and original ways that spaceflight could be accomplished on the cheap. But it was not until 2001 when Paul Allen invested, that Burt really got serious about going after the Ansari X prize and developing SpaceShipOne. Putting together a small team of very smart people, where everyone was responsible for something critical. But elite doesn't mean lots of experience. Matt Steimetz, a young bright guy who worked on the construction of the craft says, "Most companies would say you're just a kid out of college and you don't have enough experience to work on a spaceship, here they just give you a lot of responsibility and say we'll see how you do." Of course, one could argue that with so few spaceships in the world, who would have the experience?
Using materials that were cheap and abundantly available was most important to the team. The fuel composed of nitrous oxide and rubber (aka laughing gas and old tires) is highly economical, compared to the thousands of pounds of liquid oxygen consumed by the space shuttle, let alone its solid rocket boosters. The construction of the craft was based on airplane kit designs, using fiberglass and other lightweight materials to keep both weight and cost down. And yet, the design is so unique. Part of the space shuttle's ongoing cost are the thermal ceramic tiles on its underside, which protects it from the immense heat of reentry. Instead Rutan designed a wing structure that 'feathers' by 90 degrees, slowing the descent of the craft so that tiles are unnecessary. Revolutionary.
And so armed with his small team and two craft (one to lift SpaceShipOne part way into the sky, that is a design accomplishment in itself) Rutan has accomplished the seemingly impossible. Jim Tighe, the Chief Aerodynamicist of SpaceShipOne says, "Nowadays we place very little emphasis on what an individual can do, I hope this shows people that to achieve something great, you don't need to be a large multinational corporation or large governments needing international cooperation with the US, Russia and Japan. You don't need millions of people to do something fantastic. Hopefully today we have showed that 20 people can do something fantastic - just look what we did with 20 people in 3 years."
An extraordinary accomplishment. So what can this world's would-be innovators learn from SpaceShipOne's experience? Here are some key points:
1) Dare to Dream and have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) - why not? Even if you have to take tiny steps to getting there, you are still on the path to achieving what you want.
2) Do have the best team possible, and trust your team members to deliver.
3) Don't be limited by the way things have been done before. Question everything.
4) You don't need unlimited resources to get things done, just a small group of people who really want to make a difference.
5) Go back to the drawing board. Approach the problem many different ways. Redefine the problem and follow the sequence of events that cause the problem. Perhaps you can affect the root cause earlier in the chain, so the problem doesn't even occur.
Burt Rutan's hero is Werner von Braun for his pioneering work in rocketry. Someone asked Werner von Braun once, "What is the most difficult thing about going to the moon?" He replied, "The will to do it". Burt adds, "The technology isn't an issue, it's the way people think about Space." For Burt, this is not an end, just a very good beginning.
Thanks Burt, for your 'confidence in nonsense.' And here's to all you innovators out there thinking at 337,500 feet.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
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