It is funny but that often-used phrase “what goes around, comes around” seems appropriate here.
I was catching up with my often collaborator and sparring partner on “all things innovating” Jeffrey Phillips recently, and within our conversation, some of our discussions sort of triggered a reflection back to some fundamental work we undertook some years back.
In revisiting it, I felt it does stand the test of time and does seem to make this “come around” seem true. Let me provide a quick introduction along with some brief explanations :
Within our present business, we are being many ‘transforming’ questions around technology. For instance, the cloud asks a lot of questions for us to determine and decide what ‘resides’ where, what stays inside, what can be dispersed out. Decisions we make will alter our performance ability and how we compete, how we connect and interact.
Are we smarter, can we download the software seamlessly, can we determine what data stays where? What is valuable, what is not, can we layer on increasingly complexity but at the same time strip away unnecessary activities or analytics?
Each of us is making tough technology-related decisions that will determine our abilities to evolve or simply fade away due to this set of evolutionary questions we are all facing.
Often we are guilty and ignore many of the constants that are required to be overcome in our innovation organizations. We need to ‘set in place’ many aspects of innovation to work. I call thesethose anchor points, otherwise, we often are simply increasing the layering on, more and more, not giving enough emphasis on how to integrate these into a newly emerging practice of innovation that builds on a solid foundation. Let’s reflect on the changes occurring innovation.
The basics of innovation still form around building the engagement, leadership, and involvement, in constructing a culture, the climate and environment needed, so as to allow innovation to evolve and thrive. Then there is that need for constant investment in people, in our networks and relationships, that all need to come together. These are the foundation to build innovation capacities.
Today most executives seem to be time-starved. They are constantly reacting to daily events, for fix focusing and fixing short-term performance. This applies to the top executive down to the most junior.
It just seems to me they simply don’t have this luxury to think.
Technology is rapidly taking over this thinking role. We are being deluged by social media that constantly become smarter on your clicks to give you the information to help you in your daily lives.
Yet it is not helping us to really think, we often are simply not connecting the dots, we are chasing the moving dots.
We are caught in two states- a need for stability and a need for fluidity. We need to be adaptive, agile and responsive. Often we are trapped in the oncoming ‘headlights’ like a deer caught out crossing the road at night. The deer momentarily ‘freezes’ and we seem so often to be equally caught in this dilemma in our innovation’s creation capabilities
Today our organizations are still far too rigid, they are not adaptive or agile enough to really exploit innovation to the full, they are not responsive to the changes occurring constantly in fluid and dynamic markets.
We stay trapped in the established way of thinking. Organization’s struggle with this organizational constraint imposed by the singular, or dominating pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness at the cost of ‘fluidity.’
http://www.iffpraxis.com/3h-approach A great foundation source on the 3H
We so often struggle to articulate our innovation activity and they can’t project our plans into the future inconsistent and coherent ways. If this rings true of the innovation activity in your organization, then it is in danger of being seen as isolated, one-off events, that fail to link to your organizational strategy.
Furthermore, you’ll be missing out, or not capitalizing on emerging trends and insights where fresh growth opportunities reside.
To become increasingly alert to social shaping, as well as emerging technology and discoveries that might lead to new horizons, we need to connect our ‘today’ with ‘possibilities’ in the future.
“Let’s return knowledge back to knowledge!” “Let’s return value back to knowledge” This held my attention.
So now I want to draw this to your attention, the underlying story. I was recently invited to join the Future Shapers as a contributor and I was delighted to be accepted as a future shapers contributor.this is my profile link.
There are some strong reasons to add my voice to this group so I wanted to share this with you here on my main posting site
Normally I would not try to merge my posting site with others unless I have some growing level of involvement, contribution or strong identification with. Well, this is one of those but I first wanted to wait before I publicize it here, as the official launch of a funding project kicked off late last week in Madrid,(link) that radically gives it a really different meaning, one to draw to your attention as it is radically different.
So let me explain why, so I have provided the outlines of the story below in their words
Knowledge Graphs have a real potential to become highly valuable, topical and relevant. If only we can get them prised out of the engineer, data scientists, or software experts hands.
We simply should so we can get this concept fully out into the real world, that of applying as solutions to real client problems, it would really help. I get tired of hearing about “use cases”, where concepts like KG often get caught up in, that never-ending validation.
Is this validation simply because it does not work, it is too much hard work delivering the promise within the concept? Or the approach has too much complexity around it and needs massive resources to undertake?
KG needs a real resource momentum and a determination to break through uncertainty. Its huge value should drive it, and caution should be modified and lets go out and validate it, in the real world.
If any of these “constraints” are the case, then we do need to “hack this” differently, as Knowledge Graphs has what I see an incredible potential, as an application solution that should be deemed as far too important to keep under wraps. We need to instill a sense of urgency into this. Why, well read on.
There is huge value in applying the three horizon framework into your thinking. It is as useful a framework that you can get, to help decide where you are heading.
It is not just for innovation application, that can determine innovation activities. It has multiple values in any organization thinking and alignment.
The 3H informs the decisions to be taken, by recognizing their importance to the future and ‘frame’ resource allocation, identify current capability gaps to resolve.
It helps to enable the whole organization to “get onto the same page” and move towards that desired future.
This 3H thinking helps break down complex issues. Thinking in different horizons prompts you to go beyond the usual focus of fixing innovation just in the present it provides the connections of the present with the desired future. The 3H builds portfolio design, outline the steps to resolve in any complex challenge, it ‘informs’ strategy and builds the business case for taking a specific direction to that ‘desired future’.
If you want to read more on the three horizons then take some time out to explore the “insights and thinking” resource page shown under the ‘tabs’ above.
I recently applied the three horizons thinking to ‘frame’ a new innovation design
There has been an awful lot to absorb when it comes to skills and how organizations need to be designed for the future. The suggestions have come ‘thick and fast’ from so many sources.
The number of helpful reports, observations and suggestions are constant and becoming overwhelming to translate effectively.
How can we map a new pathway for shifting current practices and transform them?
Where do we focus, what do we recognize as organization practices that can begin to transform the organization and re-equip it for a different future?
After working through a number the one that held my attention and has become central to my thinking to take organizational practices forward was provided by a recent report from McKinsey “How to create an agile organization”. This report has been part of a broader ‘agile’ series from them but this one specifically gave me my necessary anchor point, to move forward with my own design thinking for agility and innovation.
Agility for me is vital, it allows us to increasingly be adaptive in an uncertain world.
As innovation continues to be central to growth far more in the future it is our ability to adapt and adjust to all the uncertainties and this requires the ability to be agile.
It is funny but that often-used phrase “what goes around, comes around” seems appropriate here.
