Last year I spend a fair bit of time talking to a senior People officer, can’t say I fancy their company (in my opinion most are not a whole lot more than policy police and many times a little on the dimmer side to my liking) but this one was strange and I like strange. Discussions were often at philosophical levels and usually open ended and vague. It’s just the kind that gets my creative juices flowing. Over several rounds of conversations we talked about talent one of my most favorite topics after brands.
We talked about talent and business models, talent acquisition, talent preservation, talent development and also talent decimation (no I am not kidding, that what most organizations do, they bring talent, morph it to a mold and destroy the ingenuity, the very thing they paid top dollars for. Fostering mediocrity in the process and obliterating any innovation prospects). To add to the challenge establishing guard rails in the form of bureaucracy to making any real significant contribution.
As we continued to discuss these topics we stumbled upon the speed of business model evolution and the factors that drive the speed. We talked about Clayton Christensen and even Joseph Schumpeter for perspectives on innovation. The one and only element of success behind discontinuous innovation is not funding, is not the creation of skunk works, it is not even intelligence it is TRUST! It is the pill that enables organizations to let individuals try new ideas, concepts and models outside the realm of ‘Business as Usual’. It is the panache that lets individuals the ability to take calculated risks FAST.
Later while thinking about this essay I did some basic research and found this book by Steven Covey.
