There is a strong narrative in our culture about the lone, wild-haired inventor.
The genius with the ‘lightbulb moment’ who elevates the ordinary into the extraordinary by leaping out of a bath or scribbling feverishly into the night. The one in a billion.
That narrative drives a lot of ‘eureka moment” thinking around driving innovation”
It’s probably time to put that narrative to bed.
The mad inventor is the opposite of the innovator.
Through my reading of Midnight Lunch: The 4 Phases of Team Collaboration Success from Thomas Edison's Lab which I have blogged about previously.
I am inspired to put forward new ideas, which inform much better approaches to management around innovation, delivery and commercialization.
To truly collaborate and manage an innovation project, you need to listen, and be able to ideas on top of another idea.
I call this ‘plus plus’.
Multiple ideas added together make something totally new.
Think of non-sticky glue added to paper bookmarks, or Post-its.
Digital natives don’t shut down the dialogue with others, they’re driven to connect.
Vast online tech communities such as GitHub and open source platforms like Drupaland, WordPress only exist and innovate through collaboration.
They thrive on a framework like this:
1) Active Listening in the pursuit of new ideas
2) Collaboration like Edison’s teams
3) Combining people and ideas into a new entity
Quite often, Traditional management is the opposite of this process.
Everything is in a box; rigid and process-bound.
I’m always open to the solution provided by this process: but what about the 19 other alternatives points of view to the solution?
I’m looking forward to the rapidly evolving world of business management rather than more traditional management:
- Where ideas are valued,
- Staff innovation is nourished,
- Value over money and time is prioritized, and
- People genuinely connect over shared and disparate ideas,
- Leading to more innovative and better outcomes.
Ideas Accelerator is an easy and proven 3 step method that helps you rapidly act on your ideas, get concepts to market faster, engage customers, and be more profitable.
Contact Paul Wilson here to turn your great ideas into action.
