Boldly Go Around the World Experiencing a World of Innovation

Thursday 11 October 2012

Somewhere around 200 BC, a Greek scientist named Aristarchus

suggested that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not, as was the

common belief at the time, the other way around. Despite the

overwhelming mathematical logic of Aristarchus´s claim, most people

continued to believe that the Earth was the centre of the universe for

another 17 centuries!

It´s natural to wonder how much further along modern science would

have been if the Greeks has just taken Aristarchus´s word for it way

back when. When we cling to our preconceived ideas and the world we

know, progress is impossible. The first step on the journey of discovery

is to open your mind.

Keeping an open mind means being open to new experiences. When you

are experiencing new things and when you have the opportunity to share

these experiences with others, you cannot help but grow as a person. The

more people do this, the faster the entire human race progresses.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and

narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these

accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be

acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s

lifetime.” – Mark Twain

It is human nature to think that our way is the only way and to cling

to our own cultures and practices. However, history has taught us that

hanging onto one worldview at the expense of all others inevitably leads

to conflict (even war!) and stagnation.

Increasingly, people are coming to realise that the secret to both

progress and peace is collaboration. When we embrace our diversity, we

share new ideas and learn from each other, discovering that there are

many ways to see the same world. When we become tolerant of others, we

start noticing opportunity where we never saw it before. The growing

pains that our bodies and minds go through as we integrate new knowledge

into our existing frames of reference are well worth it if one considers

these benefits.

Those of us who have had the opportunity to go abroad know the

exhilaration and inspiration we feel at being exposed to new things. We

know what a powerful learning experience travel is. However, even more

people have never had the opportunity to challenge themselves to look at

the world anew in this way.

“Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so

important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If

you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any

limit to what you can do with your business and your life.” Harvey

Firestone

We live in a society where now, more than ever, we need to learn to

understand each other and the world around us. This is the only way to

identify ever more innovative practices so that we may advance as a

species.

You may argue that you can do this on the Internet – but this

statement is akin to saying that one can appreciate the Mona Lisa simply

by looking at a postcard reproduction. The only way to experience life

is to actually experience it – there is so much more to the world

outside of our borders than what can be recorded in a blog or captured

in a photograph.

So, since ideas come from seeing things you never noticed before

(seeing familiar things differently), we challenge you to challenge

yourself in all things by actively seeking new ways to see the

world.

Consider the following guidelines for evaluating your organisation´s

innovation practices to see if it meets best practice. Ask yourself

these questions:

• Does your company behaviour get defined by your hierarchical

  structure or is there room for behaviours to emerge naturally outside of

  these structures?

• Does your organisation have a strong vision and values base that

  guides such behaviours – to the extent that it is

  self-reinforcing?

• Is this compared and benchmarked against international best

  practice and does it motivate innovators in the organisation to take on

  new challenges?

• Does your organisation enable innovators to spontaneously and

  independently enlist people and partners and support them with other

  resources that allow them to take an idea forward?

• Do you leverage resources outside of the boundaries of your

  organisation to achieve results that would not be achievable inside of

  your organisation?

• Do your strategies allow for dynamic changes in plans to adapt

  through trial and error to the emerging and dynamic

  environment?

• How does your organisation capitalise on new innovations from

  both inside and outside your organisation to enable them to

  emerge?

• Is your performance system geared to identify, quantify, measure

  and manage risks with market-based performance metrics?