(I've been meaning to do this for months - probably years, actually, but been too lazy/busy. When I upgraded my Radio Userland software recently, the WYSIWYG editing no longer worked. Lazy/busy won out yet again, but this time it was easier to move the blog.)
11:39:47 AM    
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Tom Peters is whacked, and he'd probably be pleased to hear it. Without a doubt, he provokes my thinking. For example, in recent article (by Charles Babcock, InformationWeek, 12 Sept 2006 ), he tells us to...

'"Experiment fearlessly," he advised. Strategic plans, which extend present operations forward in sustained growth, "work brilliantly under conditions where you don't need them." Use a strategic plan "called doing things," he recommended.'

Quit thinking about it and planning it and Just Do It, he's telling us. And he's even modeling the behavior, with a slight twist, as Just Say It. Let people react to his provocative words! Tom will continue to experiment fearlessly, learn from his experiences, and revise his approach as he deems appropriate. But let's be clear on what "It" is - for Tom, it's words - thoughts - ideas. The risks are mostly to his personal credibility.

But where is the line between "fearless" and "reckless"? I think Tom often crossed it, but that's his style to provoke thinking outside the box. Organizations, however, need to differentiate more carefully between the two: of course we should think and plan, but we should balance this with the risks at hand. An innovative idea with small risks might deserve a "Just Do It" approach, but one with medium to high risk might include a concept stage, a pilot stage, and based on the results, a "Now Do It" stage. And don't forget to include feedback loops. Most projects I've worked on last a heck of a lot longer than one of Tom's speeches. Things can change substantially given a bit of time.

12:21:46 PM    
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Are you a knowledge bridger? That's someone who takes expertise from one field and applies it to solve a problem in a completely different field, thereby creating a breakthrough product or service. Wharton's David Hsu and National University of Singaporee's Kwanghua Lim looked at knowledge bridging in biotech startups and concluded that among the possible strategies to increase knowledge bridging in an organization, the trick was simply to "hire the right people and give them the freedom to follow their curiosity".

If it were only that easy. Just look at the first part, "hire the right people". What would the job posting on Monster look like? And as with any hire, how do you know that you've hired a solid performer rather than an impressive interview performance? Then there's that pesky problem: superstars behaving badly. Will your latest talent turn into a disruptive prima dona? Then there's the availability issue. If you are lucky enough to find the right person, can you win them away from competing job offers? If you "win" them over now, how do you keep them?

These are central issues for the knowledge economy. One approach is to grow your own superstars. Give them resources and opportunity to succeed individually and also take steps to open your corporate culture. Ideas include creating wide transparency across the enterprise; encouraging cross-training, continuing education, and sabbaticals; encourage a sense of community in both physical spaces and electronic ones (via today's collaboration and social software); make sure your innovation process is the best possible; and of course be ready to embrace your distributed knowledge bridgers, wherever they may live or travel.

You can even look for inspiration by being a knowledge bridger... take, for example, Management by Baseball.

4:22:53 PM    
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It shouldn't come as a surprise to regular readers of this blog that IBM's latest CEO research, which focused on innovation, stresses the need for collaboration. From the Executive Summary:

"External collaboration is indispensable. CEOs stressed the overwhelming importance of collaborative innovation – particularly beyond company walls. Business partners and customers were cited as top sources of innovative ideas, while research and development (R&D) fell much lower on the list. However, CEOs also admitted that their organizations are not collaborating nearly enough."

Among IBM's recommendations:

• Ignite innovation through business and technology integration – use technology as an innovation catalyst by combining it with business and market insights.
• Defy collaboration limits – Collaborate on a massive, geography-defying scale to open a world of possibilities.

7:29:06 AM    
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Does it seem as though your company has no clue about innovation? It's especially frustrating in the IT field, where innovation occurs at breakneck speed in the industry as a whole, yet despite this most companies, even those in technology fields, are strictly followers. Are the boardroom executives to blame, as this article suggests?

"For many boardrooms, IT innovation is seen as a risk. The first question many senior executives ask when confronted with a proposal for new business technology is: ‘Who else is using it?’ Government will generally recoil from IT products that are not well-proven." - Innovation must be fostered, Computing, 08 Mar 2006

Yes, but that doesn't let IT executives off the hook. The article suggests (1) following Google's lead by setting aside a portion of the budget for working on "new ideas". Google reserves 20%, but anything is better than nothing. (2) avoid using technical jargon. (3) make an environment that fosters innovation. Good ideas? Sure. But are they actionable?

Google pulls off the first one because their leadership is composed primarily of tech geeks. Most companies have non-technical decision makers at the helm, as described in the quote above. What's a poor IT exec to do? Build a business case. Learn how to pitch an idea from your audience's perspective, without technobabble, and be prepared to practice, practice, practice until you get it right.

And if you can't wow them with a truly innovative idea, at least don't fall too far behind. Find out everything you can about what your competitors are doing. The fear of falling behind may be the best way to spur your board into action.

10:28:55 AM    
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"There is something deep within us that responds to those who level with us, who don't suggest our compromises for us."

It took me a while to wrap my brain around the second half of the quote. The first half is simply "be authentic", but the second half is a bit more subtle. Is it pointing out how one person can inhibit another from being authentic themselves, thus inhibiting a real conversation? I'm going to really consider this idea, because I think I might unwittingly "suggest compromises" to others in an attempt to keep them from feeling uncomfortable when faced with tough questions.

The quote is from Susan Scott's article "Companies, careers, built or lost one conversation at a time". Scott is the author or Fierce Conversations, and Founder and CEO of Fierce, Inc. Her premise is that real, authentic conversations are what's missing in both our work and personal relationships. Scott offers these three questions to get real conversations going:

1. What's the most important thing we should be talking about today?
2. What do we believe is impossible for us to do, that if it were possible, would change everything?
3. If nothing changes, what's likely to happen?

I can only imagine what kind of conversations would have flowed from here in my former place of business. Scott maintains that "When the conversation is real, the change occurs before the conversation is over."

It's not a recent publication, but I will be adding this book to my reading list! It even has an intersection with distributed work... Scott concludes her article with this:

"And don't try to have important conversations via e-mail. The most powerful communications technology any of us will ever have is eye contact. The next is voice. Dead last is words on a page or a screen. "

5:15:28 PM    
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