Generation "F" vs. the Fortune 500
This just in from Gary Hamel.
"The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of "Generation F" -- the Facebook Generation. At a minimum, they'll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web, rather than as is currently the case, a mid-20th-century Weberian bureaucracy."
Hamel's 12 key concepts:
1. All ideas compete on an equal footing
2. Contribution counts for more than credentials
3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed
4. Leaders serve rather than preside
5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned
6. Groups are self-defining and self-organizing
7. Resources get attracted, not allocated
8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it
9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed
10. Users can veto most policy decisions
11. Intrinsic rewards matter most
12. Hackers are heroes
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2009It All Began With Balls
Most companies begin on a shoe-string -- under-funded, under the gun, and under the radar. The company I co-founded in 1986, Idea Champions, was no exception.
When my business partner and I began, we had almost nothing -- just an idea, some chutzpah, and a deep desire to succeed.
While we both were likable, smart, and skillful schmoozers, we had zippo in the way of a marketing plan.
Racking what was left of our over-caffeinated brains, it soon became abundantly clear that we needed some kind of showcase, some kind of "window to the world" -- a place to strut our entrepreneurial stuff and get in front of the people who were the likely buyers of our service...
Back in those days, this meant one thing -- renting a booth at the ASTD convention -- the annual meet market in the training and development field.
The thought of this made the two of us slightly nauseous, since we had "cased the joint" a year before and come away with three impressions:
1. We didn't have enough money to get in the door
2. We didn't have the right marketing materials
3. We probably should have gone into our father's business.
Clearly, we'd have to do something different if we were going to distinguish ourselves from the 600 other companies vying for the same customers.
Giving out slick brochures was out of the question. (We didn't have any). Giving out our client list was also out of the question. (You could count the number of our clients on one hand -- the hand of Vinny "Three Finger" Scalucci).
In a flash of entrepreneurial mania, it became obvious that we would need a lot of balls to pull this off. Yes, the kind you're thinking of, but also another kind -- juggling balls.
The AHA? We'd create an "anti-booth" and teach people how to juggle. Our booth would be a rest stop, a haven, a place for thousands of convention-weary people to recuperate from all the other booths with their endless supply of Hershey's kisses, business jargon, and fishbowls full of business cards.
OK. So we didn't have a marketing plan, but we did have inspiration. And even more than that, a very specific idea of how to get the attention of the marketplace.
Our plan was simple.
We'd bring a posse of our juggling-savvy friends and teach thousands of convention-goers how to do something they'd secretly wanted to learn for years -- juggle. No hard sell. No corporate speak. No used-car salesman smiles -- just the experience of having a breakthrough.
And our message would be delivered in 30 seconds or less.
Here's how it worked: As aspiring jugglers dropped their balls, we'd drop in a few well-timed comments to help them make the link between what it took to learn to juggle and what it took to innovate.
Our booth was wildly popular. People loved it. People loved us. And we always had a crowd.
But "having a crowd" doesn't necessarily translate into sales -- and sales is what we were after. Were we pumped? Yes. Were we optimistic? That, too. But still we had nothing to show for our efforts.
That is, until the afternoon of the third day.
That's when we spied the proverbial big fish walking in our direction. DIRECTOR OF TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT, AT&T his name tag screamed.
This was the moment -- the moment of truth.
The impeccably dressed Mr. Big approached. He stopped, tried to look through me, and spoke:
"What's this?" he asked.
"Um.... what does it look like?" I replied.
"Juggling?" he responded.
"That's right!" I said. "Would you like to learn?"
Ah.... the existential moment of truth! Dare he lay down his plastic bags of information to try something new? Dare he stop being in charge and become a student for a change? Dare he run the risk of failing.
He looked at me. I looked at him. Then he cleared his throat.
"I've been trying to learn to juggle for 25 years," he confessed, looking at his watch. "OK. Teach me... but... all I have is five minutes."
By the grace of the juggling Gods, we taught the man. In five minutes. His mind was blown. Borderline ecstatic, he reached into his wallet and pulled out a business card.
"I don't know what you guys do," he laughed, "but I know you're not a juggling company. Call me on Monday and let's talk."
We did. He took our call -- and spent the next 20 minutes telling us about his weekend juggling adventures. How he couldn't stop. How he taught his son. How he had a ton of fun.
Then he started grilling us about our work. Apparently, he liked what he heard, because the next thing we know he's inviting us to pilot our creative thinking training at AT&T.
Which we did.
The training was a big hit -- so much so, that our now juggling-savvy client invited us back two more times the next month to do it again, (just to make sure the glowing feedback wasn't a "false positive.")
It wasn't.
Those sessions were also a success. So much so, that Mr. New-Juggler-After-25-Years-of-Frustration pulled the corporate trigger and licensed our training.
During the next three months we taught nine AT&T trainers how to facilitate it. Then, when Lucent split off from AT&T, we taught their trainers and enjoyed five years of great results and even greater passive income.
How did it all begin?
By doing something different. By going with our strengths. By differentiating ourselves from the competition. By translating theory into practice. By giving people an experience, not just words. By skillfully responding to a moment of truth. By having fun. And...by translating all of the above into a service that delivered on it's promise.
Balls get us started, but it was execution that sealed the deal.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
1. What risk are you willing to take to grow your business?
2. What strengths of yours do you need to leverage?
3. What moment of truth is fast approaching for you?
The above story is excerpted from my next book (WISDOM AT WORK: 40 Stories of Love, Learning and Letting Go from the Front Lines of Business).
If you are a publisher and want to talk turkey, contact me. If you are an agent with the chops to get my book into the hands of the perfect publisher, contact me. If you know an agent or publisher you think I should contact, contact me.
"If not you, who? If not now, when?"
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:57 AM | Comments (2)
March 20, 2009INTENTION: The Root of Creativity
If creativity is the flower of a human life, then intention is the root. Indeed, there are many bipeds among us who believe that without intention, there can be no creativity.
More than its second cousins -- hope, wish, dream, and desire -- intention is the ground from which creativity springs.
One of the biggest reasons why creativity is so flaccid in most individuals (and by extension, most organizations) is that there is very little intention -- and the intention that does exist is often a simulation of the real thing -- upwardly mobile fast trackers inheriting someone else's vision, strategy or idea, but not sufficiently in touch with their own inspiration to really break through.
And so, if you want to create something new and meaningful, you will absolutely need to get in touch with your intention.
The force. The mojo. What moves you.
Intention, of course, can take many forms: the intention to change, the intention to improve, the intention to serve, the intention to manifest miracles.
Whatever form it takes, however, your effort will need to be more than mental. More than emotional, psychological, or astrological. It will need to be primal -- in the same way that the moon affects the tides.
Moon-howling intention.
Well then, what is moving you these days? What is in your bones? What is calling you from within?
(Excerpted from Awake at the Wheel)
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2009Got Innovation Process?
If you want to create a river, you will need two things: flowing water and two river banks. If you want to create a culture of innovation, you will also need two things: new ideas and the organizational structures to keep those ideas flowing forward.
Most organizations miss the mark completely. They either have an abundance of ideas OR overly engineered processes to move those ideas downstream -- but not both.
What's needed is a balance of the two: liquid creativity and meaningful boundaries. Or as the spiritually minded among us might say, "formlessness and form."
If you are interested in helping your organization find the right balance, begin by taking our 4-minute poll. We'll be posting the results here in a few weeks.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2009GOOGLE UPDATE: Hire smart people and ask them for your objectives
Just found this interesting update, at Bill's Blog, on innovation at Google (via Google Alerts, of course). If you're looking for some best practices to adapt (and are willing to go beyond business as usual), this one's for you. Here's what I mean:
"Seems like many things at Google, are voted on, or managed by peer reviews. An example are their quarterly objectives and key results. They are done bottoms up with very little top down input. Google's approach is to hire the smartest people they can and then ask them what they should be doing."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2009USA! USA! We're # 8!
America may the world's biggest consumer of Frappucinos, but we're #8 in innovation, according to a joint study of 110 countries by the Boston Consulting Group, National Association of Manufacturers, and the Manufacturing Institute.
But hey, if you don't really care about joint studies (and who can blame you?), click here for an inspiring music video by my good friend, Stuart Hoffman, the Hindi-Hasidic founder of the LA-based Hoffmaniacs.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2009Innovation Begins with Fascination
I own a huge library of books on innovation. Mostly hardcover. The $27.95 variety with big indexes and forwards by people who make more money than I do.
Some of these books are actually good. Most of them bore me. (I must confess I have a secret desire, whenever I enter a bookstore, to put glue between pages 187 & 188 in all of the new releases just to see if the publishers get any complaints).
Most of the books attempt to describe the origins of innovation. You know, stuff like "the innate human impulse to find a better way" and "the imperative to find a competitive edge" and "the endless search to fulfill an unmet need." That sort of thing.
Corporate-speak, in other words.
In my experience, the origin of innovation is fascination -- the state of being intensely interested in something. Enchanted. Captivated. Spellbound. Absorbed.
What kids are good at.
Kids and those mavericks at work who make everyone nervous and running for their spreadsheets at the drop of a hat.
A person who is fascinated does not need to be motivated... or managed... or "incentivized." All that person needs is time, some resources, meaningful collaboration, and periodic reality checks from someone who understands what fascination is all about.
That's why Google gives its workforce 20% of their time to explore projects on their own. That's why 3M and W.L. Gore do something similar. They know that the root of innovation is fascination.
If you, or the people who report to you, are not currently in a state of fascination about work it's time to turn things around. That is, IF you want to spark some innovation.
How do you do this?
For starters, here's one simple way, excerpted from Awake at the Wheel, just to get things rolling.
THE SEED OF FASCINATION
1. On a piece of paper, create three parallel headlines -- "What Fascinates Me," "People I Admire," and "What I Would Do If I Had More Time or Knew I Couldn't Fail."
2. Jot down at least TEN responses beneath each headline.
3. Look for intriguing, new connections between your responses. Any insights? New possibilities? Ahas?
4. Now, think about ways you might incorporate these new insights or possibilities into your work life (while staying open to the fact that your company is capable of changing and growing).
5. Jot down your new ideas.
6. Circle your three favorite ideas and brainstorm them with a friend. Then pitch anyone who's influence can help you launch your ideas for how to bring more fascinating projects into your work life.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:24 PM | Comments (6)
March 09, 2009Outsourcing Best Practices Revealed!
This just in!
In an extraordinary move, destined to be emulated by forward thinking business leaders around the world, I've just outsourced all my sleep to a guy named Namdev in New Delhi.
Yes, it's true. I no longer need to sleep. Namdev does it for me. It's astounding how much more productive I've been this week. And, as if my sleep breakthrough wasn't enough, I've also outsourced all my exercise to a guy named Sung Lee in Malaysia. God bless Sung Lee! He's been on the treadmill three hours today, as I understand it, and will be working on our delts and pecs tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm feeling exceptionally buff at this moment.
I was just about to have a big piece of cherry cheesecake to celebrate my innovative, time-saving enhancements, but I've...er... outsourced my eating to a woman named Min Yung in Taiwan. I'm down to about 145, but I'm feeling absolutely psyched about the new contract we just got from GE. Starts next month.
The only thing I haven't outsourced this week was this blog and a visit to my dentist. (Do any of you know someone willing to get a root canal on my behalf?)
(Image from images.businessweek.com)
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 200914 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas
Is there a secret to coming up with a breakthrough idea? No, there isn't. But there are things you can do to increase the likelihood. Here are 14, excerpted from my ChangeThis Manifesto, available here for downloading.
1. Follow your fascination
2. Immerse
3. Tolerate ambiguity
4. Make new connections
5. Fantasize
6. Define the right challenge
7. Listen to your subconscious
8. Take a break
9. Notice and challenge existing patterns and trends
10. Hang out with diverse groups of people
11. Brainstorm
12. Look for happy accidents
13. Use creative thinking techniques
14. Suspend logic
Photo by Pela
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:24 AM | Comments (0)
Create Something Before People Know They Need It!
Here's a juicy definition of innovation from the almost omnipresent Guy Kawasaki. (Excerpted from a recent interview by Diann Daniel of CIO.com)
"Innovation is creating something before people know they need it. The process involves building upon the work of others -- i.e. "copying," grinding it out, and deleting what doesn't work to jump to the next curve. Innovation isn't a lightning bolt of inspiration in the middle of a muse. More often than not, it's a process of grinding, cogitating, and doubting. There truly is no shortcut to innovation. Over the course of a career, you come up with dozens, if not hundreds of ideas, and reject most, try some, and you are lucky if a handful succeed."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:23 AM | Comments (3)
