Thumbtacks:
Holding up great ideas for everyone to see since before the invention of the corkboard.


Thumbtackhead:
Thoughts on our interaction with technology.
Conversations about employing technology the right way, to solve the right problems, right now.

Building Canadian Innovation and Jobs with the Cloud

By
John.Weigelt
Published: March 15, 2012Posted in: Cloud, Digital Economy

     Whew!  What a busy week.  I’ve just come back from a whirlwind tour of our country describing the results of an IDC study on the impact that the Cloud has on Jobs.  These visits were capped off with the exciting opportunity to share the news on CBC’s Lang and O’Leary Exchange show.  You can see me at 40:30 at this link.

     While the tour lasted only a few days, I’ve been crisscrossing Canada (yes those are 25 flight segments since mid-January) meeting an increasing number of businesses that are harnessing the cloud to grow their business.  It’s been really invigorating to see so many great innovators.  What’s really great is that while those of us in technology appreciate the impact that it is having, perhaps the bigger impact that it has on business is really starting to be appreciated.  And this impact is not just on tech companies, it’s on all types and sizes of business.  By making computing as easy to get and use as you would electricity from a socket, businesses can focus on their ideas, their innovation and the next big thing.  By helping larger businesses run their computers more efficiently by following the steps used by Microsoft to deliver services to 100’s of millions of people allows larger businesses to use those resources for innovation instead of mundane maintenance.

     I know that some people will be skeptical about the idea that jobs are going to grow across the economy and that roughly one in five jobs will be attributable to cloud computing.  If you look at the great innovation we’ve encountered across Canada, you’ll not only see the IT aspects, but also the opportunities to grow jobs in other industries.  Here are the examples.

www.mediavalet.co  – Mediavalet makes it easy to share photos, audio and videos around the world.  Thousands of hotels use this service to provide potential visitors a glimpse of what’s waiting for them as they plan their trips online.  In this case cloud can help build jobs across the tourism industry as it brings in more visitors, allows hotels to focus on their business and builds new marketplaces.

www.newspaperdirect.com – Newspaper direct delivers over 2000 newspapers in 95 languages around the world to a variety of electronic devices.  Not only does the cloud fully enable the delivery of the content, it also helps newspapers reach a larger audience allowing them to hire more reporters, advertisers and editors.

www.opreie.com – By taking the paperwork out of real-estate transactions, Opreie’s solutions allow real estate professional focus on their clients and building out their business.  By reducing the time and complexity of the transactions, real estate professionals grow their office and take on more clients.

www.cortex.net  - Cortex Business Solutions harnesses the cloud to automate and streamline their purchasing process.  With today’s increasing pace of business, all businesses need confidence and predictability in their procurement.  Through reducing the costs associated in this critical part of their business, organizations can invest in their core capabilities; be it energy exploration, transportation or environmental services.

www.connect2fans.com – Today’s entertainment marketplace has dramatically evolved with talented people now more connected with their fans than ever before.  By making it really easy for build marketplaces to bring talented people and their fans together, Connect2Fans helps talented people spend more time on their passion and reach the community that appreciates it.

whatsnexx.com – Whatsnexx provides a cloud based one-stop marketing environment talking the complexity out of all aspects of marketing campaigns, professionals can focus on the more important elements of reaching their audience.  This helps marketing firms hire more artists, writers and communicators in place of computer support staff.

www.redwoodglobal.ca – Talented people are the lifeblood of today’s economy and Redwood Global helps organizations find the very specialized talent to be successful.  By moving to O365 cloud based office tools, Redwood Global was able to avoid overhead associated with computer management and focus on helping clients find the people they need.

 www.resaas.com – Social networks have always contributed to individual and business success.  By bringing together the often distributed real estate community in their own social community, Resaas connects professionals so that they can be more effective in their practice and grow their business.

www.gaugemobile.com –The Cloud empowers consumers more than ever before as it provides a wealth of information at their fingertips.  2D barcodes are making it easier than ever before to link the physical world and the virtual world.  These connection symbols are appearing on any number of places and things across the economy. GaugeMobile makes it easy for businesses to harness the great capabilities of barcodes and the emerging wireless equivalents (NFC) to grow their audience and customers.  This can help everyone from organic food creator invite more people to savour their creation following to artists building a greater following by making it easier to appreciate the background to their works.

I think you’ll agree that while cloud technology certainly provides a foundation for the innovative companies listed above, it provides a springboard for jobs across the economy.

Share

Canada’s Open Government Consultations

By
John.Weigelt
Published: January 4, 2012Posted in: Digital Economy, General, Open Government

I finally got around to providing my input to the Canadian Federal Government’s Open Government Consultation.  If you haven’t taken the time to provide your thoughts yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes and complete the simple online survey.  You should also let your friends know as well, since I’ve found that there are quite a few people that don’t know about the important consultations that the Government of Canada conducts.  The 2010 consultations on the Digital Economy provide great case in point.  As I travelled across Canada speaking with business leaders, the vast majority (really almost all) were unaware of the consultations.  This isn’t a criticism. Just an observation that despite the outreach, either the business leaders weren’t reached or they felt that the consultations didn’t apply to them.  This is unfortunate since we know that the digital economy affects us all.  It is understandably difficult to do big advertising campaign for every consultation process, especially with the large number of activities that are underway at any one time (see http://www.consultingcanadians.gc.ca/ ).

It’s really cool to see the government look to innovative approaches to interact with constituents.  While sometimes things don’t always go as smoothly as planned with Trolls and Freeps creeping in from time to time and even some unfortunate design issues that could impact the outcomes, we should applaud the risk taking that is being done.  The Open Government consultations broke new ground again as Treasury Board Secretariat hosted a tweet chat on Dec 15. Unfortunately I found myself on a plane at that time (when am I not on a plane?  I get my Super Elite the hard way.  By segments!)  Since I couldn’t be there, I decided to try find out what was said, what questions were asked and how many people were engaged.  It was great to see that TBS published transcripts of the discussions in English and French.  Unfortunately the transcript was a little hard to follow in its strict sequential format, so I thought I would try to make it more usable.

Using the VMHI2S parser (very manual, human intensive, 2 screen), I set to work on the English transcript.  I took the comments and threw them into Excel.  After a bit of manipulation I managed to get the transcript into a usable form.  I deleted almost all of the RTs since almost all of them didn’t include any *new* or additional information.  I then transcribed the stream to a new spreadsheet with the following logic:

  1. Work through the tweets in time sequence;
  2. Is it a new conversation item (Question, Comment, or answer)
  3. If it’s a new topic item, assign it a new ID
  4. If it’s a response or comment to an existing item, transcribe it in sequence after the original.

(Note that it was sometimes difficult to connect comments, questions and answers – any errors / omissions are unintentional.  The transcript could also have some holes in it (I think it might have missed a few posts early on)

After a little time (OK, far too much time), I ended up with this spreadsheet version of the English discussion called Open Gov Q&A sorted . (here it is in .csv right click to save locally)

Looking at the stream in this form really allows you to get a sense of the accomplishment that the tweet chat represents.  While twitter does have its limitations for a fulsome discussion (as some people pointed out), there was some useful back and forth.   I think we all need to consider the pace of the activities in the office at TBS. From the English stream there were almost 150 unique discussion items.  That’s over 3 discussion items every minute.  Each item needs to be read, considered and potentially answered in a very short time.  As you can see from the stream, some questions were more on topic than others.  There was some soapboxing, only a little yelling and not too much trolling.  I’ll let you decide what’s what ;-)

When all was said and done you’ll find that many responses were lightning fast (within minutes of the comment or question) and that the responses were thoughtful and conversational.  The combined @SCT_Canada and @TBS_Canada posts were around one per minute (44 posts).  A quick look at the community shows predominantly Canadian Tweeters, with a couple of posts from south of the border.   Of course you can download the file(s) and parse it on those items of greatest interest to you.

Share

Do the Math!

By
John.Weigelt
Published: December 11, 2011Posted in: CIO Toolbox, Cloud, General

I just came across yet another security pro recommending private audit of a cloud services provider facilities to get comfortable with the operations.  Really?!  It seems that the security and privacy professionals recommending this need to catch up on their reading and perhaps a little bit of math.

Fundamentally, cloud services are all founded on the principle of “scale.”  Microsoft’s “Economics of the Cloud” whitepaper discusses the many ways that scale contributes to the supply and demand side economics of cloud services provision.  In my blog post “Special is Extra” I explored how special requirements have the potential to increase the costs associated with the cloud service.  Enterprise class cloud services providers therefore look to use standard approaches across their environments to provide scale at lower costs to customers.  Standard approaches often include third party audits to test compliance against recognized approaches such as SAS70, ISO 27001, FISMA and HIPPA.

Now consider a cloud service provider with 10000 customers using geographically distributed resilient facilities.  Full compliance audits against any recognized audit standard is a lengthy endeavor, even when all the supporting processes and paperwork are in good order.  Audits can often last several months.  So even if customers engage auditors with cloud services experience, these private audits will not be single day affairs and will require many days on site.  If we were to be very optimistic and suggest that each audit would require a week on-site, with approximately 200 working days a year (no weekends, holidays, round down for easy math), that would leave 40 potential audit slots.  At any one audit slot, there would be 250 (10000/40) individual customer reps going through the cloud facilities.  The number of individuals could be far higher since each company would be represented by more than one person.

Let’s consider the impact of this from a security perspective. We quickly see that this practice, even if practical, would greatly reduce the assurance of the cloud services and increase the costs of the services (due to the added staff required to assist the 250 audit teams each week, to shepherd the teams through the facilities, conduct clearances and reviews of all visitors etc.)

As you consider your enterprise class service provider, review the independent audit reports against your compliance requirements.  Rest assured that the independent experts that conducted these audits did so on your behalf and on behalf of all other customers using the service.

Share

Canada Open Gov Timeline v2.4

By
John.Weigelt
Published: November 26, 2011Posted in: Canada Gov Camp, General, Open Government

Hi Everyone,

Here are the latest Canada Open Gov timeline spreadsheets:

Canada_Open_Data_Timeline-v2.4  CSV

Canada_Open_Data_Timeline-v2.4 XLSX

Share

Innovation in Government

By
John.Weigelt
Published: November 23, 2011Posted in: Digital Economy, General, Open Government

The almost daily news reports about the tough worldwide economic situation provide stark stories about the challenges being faced by the worldwide community.  While Canada has not faced the same extreme challenges, the complex nature of the global economy is increasingly influencing us locally.  Over and above the studies confirming why Canada has weathered the storm compared to other nations, there are a fair number of studies looking more broadly at how Canada compares to other nations.  The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity compared 16 most prosperous regions in North America and found that Ontario finished 15th and Quebec 16th.  The 10th annual report from the Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress further determined that the prosperity gap is a productivity gap and the productivity gap is an innovation gap.

                Innovation is top of mind for CEOs, with Forrester reporting that 93% of businesses executives surveyed citing innovation as a top strategic priority.  Unfortunately, not everyone has the same understanding of this priority.  As one of the top 10 overused terms of 2010, there are many different interpretations and perhaps misperceptions of the word “innovation.”  I like the way the Boston Consulting Group characterizes the outcomes of innovation:

  • New to the world products or services that create entirely new markets
  • New offerings that allow expansion into new customer groups
  • New offerings for existing customers
  • Incremental changes to existing offerings
  • Lower production costs for existing offerings

At times it might seem that innovation speaks only to commercial enterprise, but innovation applies across communities including government.   You can easily restate the outcomes listed above for government as:

  • New to the world services or entirely new programs
  • New services that broaden engagement to a wider community who don’t normally interact with government
  • New services for individuals and businesses who regularly interact with government
  • Incremental changes to existing programs and services
  • Increasing efficiency in who programs and services are delivered

 Innovation is critical for government for a number of reasons:

  1. Talent – Governments are competing with industry for top talent.  Increasingly, new graduates are seeking employers that provide opportunities for innovation. 
  2. Efficiency – These tough economic times impact governments as they also look to make every dollar go further.  Innovative approaches allow governments to deliver the same high quality services at a lower resource cost.
  3. Competition – Governments are indeed in competition with each other.  Municipalities, provinces and federal governments compete with each other to attract business to their region and create local opportunities.  In delivering their information programs, governments are also in competition with others to capture their audience.  You can easily imagine situations where individuals might seek health, recall, travel advice from foreign nations creating risk not only for the individual but the local government programs as well.
  4. Foundation for prosperity – At the Canada Innovation Nation seminar in Waterloo, Tom Jenkins proposed that “Poor productivity in an enabling sector may be leading to poor productivity in other sectors.”  Now Tom was referring to the telecom sector, but I believe that the example remains valid for the other sectors that enable Canadian business.  So sub-optimal productivity in the government sector has the potential to lead to poor productivity in all other sectors.  Fundamentally, our prosperity as a nation depends on Government innovation.

Innovation is the key catalyst to build value as we emerge from these tough economic times.  Government should work to enhance their innovation efforts alongside those occurring in industry.  The nation is depending on it!

Share

How Large is Your Project?

By
John.Weigelt
Published: October 18, 2011Posted in: CIO Toolbox, General

A few years ago I was interviewing candidates for a project management position on my team.  There were quite a few local candidates with fairly similar experience and nothing really stood out between them.  One CV was particularly intriguing.  It seemed the candidate had been the overall project manager for a US Navy guided missile frigate.  You have to admit that being at the helm of a $2 billion dollar project sounds pretty impressive?  But is it really?  Is it complex? Or simply complicated?  It certainly is a lot of money.

While we have a tactile sense of the enormity of say a ship and a general feel for the wide variety of parts that need to come together so that this mass of steel, plastic, glass, etc. eventually floats, we don’t have the same sense for IT projects.  My conversations with senior leaders in government have uncovered uneasiness for the large IT project.  This unease is often as a result of experience with less than expected outcomes from previous projects.  The Sept 2011 edition of Harvard Business Review suggests that IT projects are more prone to experience “black swan” style outcomes of cost overruns and managers don’t often properly plan for these eventualities. 

I guess the first question IT managers need to ask themselves is:  “Is my IT project LARGE?”  Largeness is relative and needs to consider a number of factors.  Some of these factors are:

                Is the project complex or simply complicated?

                How many stakeholders are involved?

                Is this simply a technology effort or is it a policy or culture changing experience?

                Have you done this before and at the same scale?

While I certainly didn’t invent the idea, I’ve long been an advocate of converting large projects into a program with many small discrete projects.  It’s like taking a million dollar effort and dividing it into 1000 $1000 projects.  Not only does the poor performance of any one small element have a much smaller impact, it also helps build agility into the overall program delivery.  Of course there may be one or two absolutely critical pieces that can make or break a project, these can be explored early in the process so as to help inform further decision making.

Another key element is evidence based decision making.  It’s often been said that if “you’re not measuring it, it’s not getting done.”  Measurement is fundamental to understanding how you’re doing; If you’re on track or if things are going off the rails.  And it’s also important to measure the right outcomes as well.  On time and on budget are important, but not if you’re not driving business outcomes.  Sometimes the best decision in reviewing the metrics is when to stop. I really like the advice of Daniel Rasmus where he proposed that stop doing lists are as important as to do lists.  By collecting solid metrics about how each stage is doing, organization can quickly pivot and pursue different approaches.

There are no doubt hundreds of other pieces of advice for how to deliver successful Large IT Projects, so an exhaustive list here is probably not possible, but one last important element is communication.  All organizations can benefit from a comprehensive communications program around the activities that they are looking to accomplish.  Governments can benefit by proactively reporting the many small successes as a program progresses so, that when small setbacks occur, there is an established body of evidence around the due diligence and sound decision making that led to that point.  Private sector organizations can benefit to keep their customers and shareholders confident in their offerings or business.  I’ve been disappointed lately with how good version one products with a ton of innovation have been torpedoed through poor communications around their launch.  Simple messages around the company’s long term commitment to the direction or that customers should feel confident that their provider will take care of them as they embark on the newer direction would go a long way to solidifying success and addressing a hostile media.

Organizations are successfully delivering IT projects to deliver innovation, increase productivity and ultimately become more prosperous.  Fundamental to their success is not biting off more than they can chew to make sure that their project is just the right size to challenge the status quo while not overwhelming the operation.  As you explore your next IT project, you need to ask yourself, “Is my IT project too large?”

Share

Clouds and Condos

By
John.Weigelt
Published: August 25, 2011Posted in: Cloud, General

I’m a big fan of metaphors to help describe new technologies since they often help people that aren’t immersed in the stuff on a daily basis gain a quick understanding by building a crosswalk to those things with which they are familiar.  Of course I fully appreciate the limitations of metaphors as well.  I can’t tell you how many debates that have been started as the trolls look for any discontinuities in the examples used.

It’s been interesting to be caught up in the technology transformation that we know as cloud computing.  While this transformation has had a significant impact on how technology is delivered, it also has had a significant impact on people having the conversation on these technologies.  No longer are only the technology people discussing new ways of delivering the services, it’s also the organization’s service delivery leaders, the financial group, the legal group and even the board of directors level that are actively engaged in the conversation.  This is where the challenge arises.  Cloud is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of technologies, processes and even philosophies for delivering IT as a service.  All these different permutations and combinations can quickly lead to confusion and rat-holing when decisions need to be made.  Enter the metaphor.

One of my favourite places to look for a metaphor is the automotive industry, and I’ve used the collection of parts, kit car and dealership example to try to characterize cloud services.  I’ve also used the lumberyard, pre-manufactured home and site built homes as well.  Unfortunately, I still get some blank stares from the audience (maybe it’s just my delivery :-) ).  So I gave it a little more thought and came up with what I think is an example that I think everyone can relate to and doesn’t give the trolls too much to complain about.  Since everyone needs a place to live, I thought that the housing example, refocused, could serve as a useful way to help clarify the different cloud services.  Here it goes:

When organizations are looking to gain an appreciation of the degree of flexibility offered by the cloud service delivery models of Public, Community/Hosted and Private cloud, confusion often arises within the various stakeholders.  A simplified approach may be to use the metaphor of apartment, condominium and building ownership to help illustrate the respective levels of specialization an organization can expect.

Public Cloud as an Apartment

If you think back to when you rented an apartment, you’ll remember in addition to looking for a space that fits all your stuff you also considered what services were included in the monthly rent.  Electricity, Water, Gas, Heat and even cable came up in the discussion.  Even paint colours (configurations of the space) could be limited (no flat black walls please).  Ultimately, it was all described in the standard rental agreement which was the same for all tenants.  Public cloud services are not unlike the apartment model in that they provide a given set of packaged services to a broad community.  If you find a cloud offering that you think fits, you complete legal agreements and set off to configure them to meet your needs.  Just like you aren’t able to tear out a wall or encroach on your neighbor in the rental, the public cloud offering will also note the extent of customization possible.  Finally, like the apartment where you rely on city inspectors for their review of the building, public cloud services will have third party reviews to provide subscribers with assurance.

Community Cloud as a Condominium

For many people, a condominium provides them with additional say in their living space, albeit with an additional cost if the form of condominium fees.  The condominium can provide the resident with the ability to configure their internal space as they see fit.  Replacing fixtures, changing floors and other light customizations are generally permitted.  Since many condos also share common space, a community association is typically established to define those common services the community can use.  In some cases, there may also be agreement on common standards to adhere to for community (exterior colours, roofing, public spaces).  Community clouds have similarities in that they provide customer clusters with the ability to customize services across the community.  Through the community, each tenant has a voice in what services are generally provided as well as the manner in which the service can be used.  Like a condominium where significant infrastructure upgrades (say, window replacement) can be scheduled based upon the residents, often community cloud services provide the ability to define the timing of significant changes.  Finally, the condo agreement often provides tenants the flexibility for input and adjustments to meet their requirements.

Private Cloud and the Building Owner

Sometimes it’s a noisy neighbour, sometimes it’s the ability to put that new satellite dish on the roof but there may come a time where you want to have full control over your entire domain.  In those cases you need to buy the building.  When you own and manage the building, you have full reign to customize the spaces, but will find that you also have full accountability for them as well.  Of course, this generally comes with added expense as well.  As a building owner you can often save money by adopting the practices of others, be they preventative maintenance to environmental sustainability.  There is a similarity here with Private cloud where organizations operate the infrastructure they own.  Adopting private cloud processes and philosophies will allow organizations to gain some of the efficiencies found in the other cloud models while continuing to be in full control of all aspects of the service.

So while all metaphors have their pitfalls (I haven’t figured out yet how to make the above mentioned spaces elastic so that they expand when more capacity is needed ;-) ), I think you’ll find these helpful in framing the degree of specialization each cloud model accommodates.

Share

The Power of a Nudge (repost from bepublic.ca)

By
John.Weigelt
Published: August 19, 2011Posted in: General

In my last post, I wrote about how important it is that we take the time this summer to exercise our innovation muscle – stretching the mind, just as we do the body – so it is ready to jump in to action when we need it.

Well, after reading Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, it got me thinking: in what ways could we all look to apply the nudge theory?

The idea behind Nudge was perfectly summed up in a recent McKinsey Quarterly article. The author wrote: “Policy makers can nudge people to save more, invest better, consume more intelligently, use less energy and live healthier lives…through greater sensitivity to human tendencies.”

Sounds interesting, right?

The basic premise is that your constituents will make smarter, healthier choices if they are simply nudged in the right direction through public policy that reflects the true tendencies of human behaviour.

Small little adjustments can make a big impact on communities. For example: simple changes, like altering the content and arrangement of food in school cafeterias, can nudge young people towards choosing the healthier option.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are tons of examples of successful nudges out there. The UK Government has even created a Behavioural Insight Team (aka the “Nudge Unit”) tasked with investigating how lessons from behavioural economics and behavioural science can be applied to public policy making.

So what implications could this approach have in Canada for encouraging sustainability? Smarter saving and spending?

I was thinking back on the work I did on accessibility last year and wondered if a gentle nudge could get more people to include that little bit of additional information to make their materials available for all?  What if more organizations simply enabled a setting that popped up the Accessibility checker in Office 2010 before saving a document?  That simple reminder nudge could have the potential to make more information available to all by reminding people of some very simple steps.

Many of us have a lighter workload in the summer, and much-deserved vacation to relax and spend time with friends. So beyond just adding Nudge to your summer reading list, when you’re stretching that innovation muscle, take the time to explore how you could apply the theory to your everyday life. By making small adjustments to internal and external programs in your field, perhaps you and your teams could nudge Canadian constituents towards a more meaningful outcome.

Share

Summer Reading – Exercise your Innovation Muscle repost from bepublic.ca

By
John.Weigelt
Published: August 19, 2011Posted in: General

(reposted from bepublic.ca )

 

In the face of increasingly complex policy and business challenges, we know that across Canada’s public sector, teams are now charged with the responsibility of doing more with less. Today is a time of strategic renewal and a time to get creative with government operations.

But it’s also the summer – time for a break!

Sure, the summer months often offer us a few much-deserved weeks to kick back and relax: the sun is shining, work is a little less hectic, and barbecues and other social events abound. But even though we might be enjoying the time away from our regular routine, remember that the summer is also perfect for getting started on a new fitness regime: exercising the innovation muscle.

In the technology business, we talk a lot about innovation. But we’re not alone – across all sectors, business leaders are hungry for new ways to make a difference, transform the way teams work, and stay ahead of the curve in creating truly unique products and services.

But innovative ideas are not something we can just pull out thin air after a little research – they do not just appear when we need them. Thinking outside of the box takes practice, and summer is the perfect time for us all to catch our breaths, and take the opportunity to imagine what and where we could be when the leaves begin to turn.

Just like we need to exercise and train our bodies before we run a marathon, we also need to stretch our minds and exercise the innovation muscle.

So how do we do it? Read those articles we filed away into our to-do pile, follow and engage with our industry’s thought leaders on Twitter, attend a conference we wouldn’t normally have time for, and explore big ideas with friends and family over a beer at the cottage.

Despite the hurdles that lie ahead, Canada’s public sector has demonstrated real leadership in innovation: things like open data initiatives, which have rolled out in cities across the country, and events like GovCamp, where more than 200 people from both the private and public sector gathered together to explore how they could achieve a new kind of relationship between government and constituents.

The summer is not the time to slow down.

If we truly want to engage constituents, empower businesses, drive greater efficiencies and spur innovation, we need to be on our game. If we make that extra effort to exercise the innovation muscle this summer, it will be ready to jump into action when we need it.

Share

Hearsay and Other Crimes against Innovation

By
John.Weigelt
Published: July 26, 2011Posted in: CIO Toolbox, Digital Economy, General

Innovation remains firmly at the top of mind of many leaders as they look to take their enterprises further, do more with less or otherwise transform their operations.  Remember that innovation takes many forms and, as the Boston Consulting Group reminds us, can include:

  • New to the world products or services that create entirely new markets;
  • New offerings that allow expansion into new customer groups;
  • New offerings for existing customers;
  • Incremental changes to existing offerings; and 
  • Lower production costs for existing offerings.

Unfortunately, people and organizations often resist the change that innovation brings.  As change agents looking to adapt to the ever changing world we find ourselves in, be alert to these top enemies of innovation.

Hearsay:  I find this the most frustrating of all the inhibitors of innovation.  Myths are easily perpetuated and it seems fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) spreads like wildfire.  Innovators often find that they have to think about all possible angles, address every conceivable risk and consider even the indirect stakeholders.  Detractors only need to insert one unsubstantiated question or unresolved doubt to add additional roadblocks to delay or upset the initiative.  In many cases the doubt has been introduced by restating popularized folklore, leaving the innovator to do the work to disprove the mythology. 

Languor:  This closely related relative to hearsay refers to the reluctance to do the work on the part of both the innovator as well as the detractors.  Now that I’ve been tuned to some of the statistical tradecraft in the marketplace, I’ve been sure to dig a little deeper to get the full context or meaning behind what being reported.  Unfortunately, I’m finding more and more people aren’t going the extra step to find what’s really going on.  Perhaps it’s the pace of business that keeps people from doing their own validation, but this missed step is critically important to appreciate fact from fiction and properly inform the innovator’s agenda.

Unexercised Empowerment:  How many times have you heard: “I can’t do that”, or “I’m not allowed”?  It seems we’ve all been conditioned to respect authority to such an extent that we project a belief of constraints placed upon us from up on high.  I’ve even found myself contemplating a veto of even a small activity because of some unconscious constraint along the lines of “that’s not how we do things”, or “that’s not your responsibility”, only to come to my senses and lend a helping hand.  How often have you been at a team meeting to hear about some of the concerns of your teammates only to realize that the change was completely in their grasp, they simply needed to seize it.

Take a moment to think about the innovators that you know and the successes they’ve achieved.  I’m sure that you’ll find that they are champions at fighting the crimes listed above.

Share
Older Entries