How much fun could you have if you didn't let "societal norms" dictate how your organization approached innovation? How easy would it be to install a "fast lane" going into a subway station - for those that just wanted to catch their train a little quicker?
You change your attitude on simply accepting the way it's done currently and instead, develop a vision where people can have fun while doing something completely mundane.
Escalators move slow and stairs can be dangerous when you're in a hurry. How would you quickly and efficiently move people to the bottom of the stairs and, at the same time, allow them bring out their inner child while catching their train?
Why not consider a slide in a subway station? Watch the video.
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, July 20, 2009
To Boldly Go
The "leading" part of leadership is most important right now. Not false leadership (I am a manager therefore I am a leader) but the real fundamental philosophy behind the word "leader:" to do what no one else has done.
Leadership is about going where others are not, doing what others are not, thinking what others are not. Corporate America has become a hum-drum exercise in mediocrity: everybody doing pretty much what everybody else is doing. No one seems to be taking risks. No one (with a few exceptions) seems to be doing anything to stand out and be different. And yet everyone claims to be offering better service, a better product, a better price. But it’s really all just the same.
During this economic downturn, senior execs were so busy slashing budgets and expenses that they had no time to concentrate on how they could deliver better, innovate better, create better and be better. Why? Because they were cutting the very budgets that would have allowed that. They were cutting because everyone else was cutting.
If you're cutting, you're not creating. If you're cutting, you're not generating new ideas. If you're cutting, you're managing not leading. If you’re cutting because everyone else is cutting, then you’re following, not leading.
The leadership Attitude most required right now is to step out and be noticed and allow your people to step out and be noticed. It will fuel the barrage of ideas that follow. We, as an economy, need that Leadership Attitude right now. And we need to do it differently.
Leadership is about going where others are not, doing what others are not, thinking what others are not. Corporate America has become a hum-drum exercise in mediocrity: everybody doing pretty much what everybody else is doing. No one seems to be taking risks. No one (with a few exceptions) seems to be doing anything to stand out and be different. And yet everyone claims to be offering better service, a better product, a better price. But it’s really all just the same.
During this economic downturn, senior execs were so busy slashing budgets and expenses that they had no time to concentrate on how they could deliver better, innovate better, create better and be better. Why? Because they were cutting the very budgets that would have allowed that. They were cutting because everyone else was cutting.
If you're cutting, you're not creating. If you're cutting, you're not generating new ideas. If you're cutting, you're managing not leading. If you’re cutting because everyone else is cutting, then you’re following, not leading.
The leadership Attitude most required right now is to step out and be noticed and allow your people to step out and be noticed. It will fuel the barrage of ideas that follow. We, as an economy, need that Leadership Attitude right now. And we need to do it differently.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Going Outside Of The Box
If you want a few parts of your organization to stay "in the box" because parts of the organization are working well, then you don't want any "outside of the box" ideas. You can't do both. You can't play two golf-courses at the same time and you can't be both in and out of the box at the same time. Not possible.
Maybe you're looking for a few new ideas for your organization. That's OK. But don't call it out-of-the-box thinking just because you've never done it before. Out-of-the-box (OOTB) is doing what NO ONE ELSE is doing. In order for you to be able to do that, you would have to give up everything you know about how your business runs right now.
The biggest barrier to OOTB is getting your people, who have been living inside the box, to even remotely comprehend what OOTB looks like. Any great idea that would revolutionize how you do things would be met with skepticism and resistance by people inside the box. They just won't get it.
If your people think it's a good idea, then it's probably just a SAFE idea. If it's a really brilliant and creative idea, your people will resist it because most people fear change and because they're inside the box. Your people will desperately try to fit the new idea around their old perceptions. It doesn't fit because you would have to ask your people to give up everything they know about how your business works in order for them to conceive a new way of doing business. And that's risky to them.
So again, are you looking for a few new ideas that can make the organization better or are you looking for a revolutionary new way of doing business? One is ideas and one is out-of-the-box.
Attitude Adjustment: The best way to think outside of the box is to never get in the box in the first place. Because once you're there, and you've hired your people to work inside the box and you've trained your customers to buy from you inside the box and your processes are designed to work inside the box, then you will have to change the world before you can change your organization.
Maybe you're looking for a few new ideas for your organization. That's OK. But don't call it out-of-the-box thinking just because you've never done it before. Out-of-the-box (OOTB) is doing what NO ONE ELSE is doing. In order for you to be able to do that, you would have to give up everything you know about how your business runs right now.
The biggest barrier to OOTB is getting your people, who have been living inside the box, to even remotely comprehend what OOTB looks like. Any great idea that would revolutionize how you do things would be met with skepticism and resistance by people inside the box. They just won't get it.
If your people think it's a good idea, then it's probably just a SAFE idea. If it's a really brilliant and creative idea, your people will resist it because most people fear change and because they're inside the box. Your people will desperately try to fit the new idea around their old perceptions. It doesn't fit because you would have to ask your people to give up everything they know about how your business works in order for them to conceive a new way of doing business. And that's risky to them.
So again, are you looking for a few new ideas that can make the organization better or are you looking for a revolutionary new way of doing business? One is ideas and one is out-of-the-box.
Attitude Adjustment: The best way to think outside of the box is to never get in the box in the first place. Because once you're there, and you've hired your people to work inside the box and you've trained your customers to buy from you inside the box and your processes are designed to work inside the box, then you will have to change the world before you can change your organization.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Attitude of Intellectual Capital
"Intellectual Capital" is buzzword these days. For the most part, it refers to the hidden-genius within an employee - the part that wasn't necessary in the job-description.
Too many organizations today are still using last century's model for hiring: developing a position and then sticking a body in it regardless of what else that body brings to the table. Today's model should be geared towards discovering the strengths of the applicant and finding something for them to do that taps those strengths.
So as organizations around the world resist the idea of changing their hiring practices to get the best from their people, they have given it a buzzword to make it seem kind of "foo-foo" and "out there." But the truth is, Intellectual Capital is really a description of all of the talents and aptitudes that someone possesses for which there are no categories on a resume. It's why the resume is dead.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The easiest way to tap into Intellectual Capital in any organization is also the hardest way: ask. Ask for ideas and then shut up and make sure everyone else at the table shuts up too. Don't ever allow anyone to poo-poo any idea. If you're going to ask for an idea, you CAN NOT summarily dismiss the idea without risking any future ideas. The first indication that an idea is hare-brained is the moment you start to go into deficit in Intellectual Capital.
There are no bad ideas or crazy ideas. There are only those who can't see value in an idea because they don't understand it. Don't let the dimwits of your organization stifle the hidden creativity of the closet-geniuses because "no one else has ever done it." What a horrible thing to do - shooting down an idea because you don't get it. If someone can conceive of an idea, then someone can turn it into a reality.
If you want Intellectual Capital, there's a cost: everything you ever believed to be true must first be tossed out the window or nothing changes.
Too many organizations today are still using last century's model for hiring: developing a position and then sticking a body in it regardless of what else that body brings to the table. Today's model should be geared towards discovering the strengths of the applicant and finding something for them to do that taps those strengths.
So as organizations around the world resist the idea of changing their hiring practices to get the best from their people, they have given it a buzzword to make it seem kind of "foo-foo" and "out there." But the truth is, Intellectual Capital is really a description of all of the talents and aptitudes that someone possesses for which there are no categories on a resume. It's why the resume is dead.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The easiest way to tap into Intellectual Capital in any organization is also the hardest way: ask. Ask for ideas and then shut up and make sure everyone else at the table shuts up too. Don't ever allow anyone to poo-poo any idea. If you're going to ask for an idea, you CAN NOT summarily dismiss the idea without risking any future ideas. The first indication that an idea is hare-brained is the moment you start to go into deficit in Intellectual Capital.
There are no bad ideas or crazy ideas. There are only those who can't see value in an idea because they don't understand it. Don't let the dimwits of your organization stifle the hidden creativity of the closet-geniuses because "no one else has ever done it." What a horrible thing to do - shooting down an idea because you don't get it. If someone can conceive of an idea, then someone can turn it into a reality.
If you want Intellectual Capital, there's a cost: everything you ever believed to be true must first be tossed out the window or nothing changes.
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