The Case for Comments and Why They Should Be Taken Seriously Comments are a vital aspect of the internet and have their place in communication; they’re not just a tool to criticize someone else’s beliefs. The comments are meant to be taken as an invitation to participate in a dialogue that is inclusive and free…
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What are people like? I have a feeling that we all, on some level, already know the answer to that question. Despite this, we continue to believe that humans can alter their nature. We believe that because we appear to be intelligent and capable of change — we have these large brains that allow us…
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“I’m afraid the patient doesn’t have much longer to live,” the doctor said. There is a treatment, but it has some serious adverse effects. The patient responded, “I’ll take it!” What adverse reactions can I expect?” The doctor sighed and said, “Well, primarily cultural change.” Those hierarchies and communication channels that were just so perfectly…
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Many people, from philosophers to scientists, use thought experiments to determine the outcome of a hypothesis. In many of our innovation, targeted IP generation and futurist sessions, we generate ideas which can be considered hypothesis (although our futurist program typically uses thought experiments to generate a possible future state, then generates products and services to address that future state, then backcast to generate hypothetical capabilities we need to address that future state.
A while back, I wrote a blog post about the two kinds of people in the world, the ShouldWes and the DoIts. You can go back here to read the full post, but in short, the DoIts are the action takers, the ones who see or generate an idea they want to move forward on that idea, no matter if the idea is incremental or disruptive, they want to take the risk and develop the idea, get in in front of customers and see if the idea lives or dies.
A common refrain that I hear from individuals at some of the companies that we’ve worked with in the past (and some prospects who ultimately decide not to work with us) is that we are experts at generating ideas, but most of those ideas simply do not have a business model – which is, of course, a fancy way of saying “we can’t figure out how to make any money with this idea”.
I love Scott Adams and Dilbert – he perfectly encapsulates some of the incredible silliness of corporate work and life – and like all great humor, contains enough truth to sting. The other day, I was especially struck by the last panel in a running joke about Wally being selected to be mentored by the CEO. As it happens, Wally, being Wally, has been mentored for a week and has not improved at all. The CEO, worried that this will look bad (he can’t win, he either appears to hire crappy people or can’t mentor anyone successfully) is in discussion with the HR Director (Catbert) about this, deciding that to save face, he will need to promote Wally. To which Catbert says “That might be a bad idea in the long run”. In the final panel, the CEO says:
What is the most important component of a winning innovation team?
People. And As Depeche Mode says:
“People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully”
I love Depeche Mode. As a guy who grew up in the 80’s, there was nothing better than kicking back and listening to music, reading Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus and thinking, aren’t people horrible?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – you hear via email or in an offhanded remark during a meeting that an awesome employee who you know (let’s call her Sophia), an intelligent, expressive and creative individual, is no longer with the company.
One of the models that we use in our futurist sessions is known as the second curve. A simple model, it assumes that there are cycles to everything – and everything that is being done today will wane, and something else will take its place. Change is the only constant in life and the universe and everything. These cycles may be long, or they may be short, but the key takeaway here is that they will always happen.