| News on Creativity and Innovation related
topics | |
 June 2008 | | |
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Dear Reader,
Welcome to the June 2008 edition of Innovation
Matters, the third edition of the year. With uncertainty
in the World Economy it is those businesses that can most
accurately predict the future that are most likely to survive.
The Future Is Bright takes a look at
why we might wish to take a look into the future and how
we can actually do this. Next we show you how you can
solve work related issues
whilst on holiday - without lifting a finger!
There is also a light hearted look at office
speak, you can even download your own
office-speak bingo card and see how many of the phrases your
boss and colleagues use!
Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel for UK
readers who might be maxed out on their credit
cards or having issues with loan
providers and mortgage
lenders.
Happy reading Derek Cheshire
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News
 New
this month is our brand new Futures
programme. If you need to craft strategies that go forward 5,
10 or even 25 years into the future then we would like to talk
to you about Futures. Contact us
to find out more.
If you or your organisation is looking for a speaker we
offer a range of Innovation related topics including
Intelligent Growth - success on a
budget, The shape of the innovative
organisation and The Future's Bright.
Contact us
to find out more and make a booking.
The 'rough and ready' survey of the major
barriers to creativity within organisations is still located
on my Home Page. If you currently work, or have
worked for an organisation then I would appreciate it if you
could take the time to click on two
buttons. |
 The future's
bright ...
You might have seen this article syndicated
elsewhere recently. This is the full article so keep reading
until the end.
The best way to ensure that your business not
only survives, but thrives, is to know what the future holds.
Many people profess to do this already but what is it exactly
that they are doing? From existing management information you
might be able to predict the amount of resources required
(both human and material) as well as the features of your
competitive environment. How far in the future can you do this
without resorting to sticking a wetted finger into the air?
The answer is probably less than 12 months.
The
question is, how far can we look into the
future and with what
certainty? The answer is anything from 5 to
30 years is possible, and that would certainly help with
crafting strategy and changing the direction of even the
largest multi national business if this is required. But how?
Most people are familiar with the passage of a
ship on the ocean that leaves a wake behind. By examining the
wake and knowing how much time has passed, one or more experts
could tell you something about the ship, its speed and course.
Now imagine that you are at the tail end of the wake but you
are in the present, the ship is in the future and not visible
to you. If you could pick up all of the bits of information
that are present, look at the patterns, and have access to
experts then it is possible to gain sufficient information to
predict the future for your company.
Predicting
the future has developed into a whole new topic known
as ... Futures. Most gurus will use
prediction, based on facts, certainty and giving you answers.
It sounds safe but its usefulness over time is limited and it
does not deal with the uncertainty of the future. Futures uses
a degree of imagination, stories (or scenarios) and a whole
lot of questions to rigorously examine the future and it can
look decades ahead.
Businesses might wish to use
futures to quantify risks and opportunities, craft strategies,
inform investment decisions and fuel their innovation
programmes. Government and other public sector bodies have
broadly similar aims - creating policies, identifying areas
for intervention, investment and education
needs.
The first stage of a Future's programme is
a huge information gathering exercise (remember the analogy of
a ship's wake, we need all of this information). At the same
time there needs to be some degree of focus. We cannot just
generate the answer to the question 'What does the future look
like?' A more reasonable question might be 'What does the
market for personal computers look like in 2020?' or 'What
will the requirements for transport infrastructure in Wales be
in 2025?'
Once these areas have been identified
we then begin to look at the drivers that affect these areas
and existing trends that are already apparent. We also look a
little further afield and scan the time horizon as far ahead
as we can. All the time we gather information, taking care not
to filter it too much as the 'signals' that we are looking for
easily get lost in the 'noise' and we never know at the start
how much weight (or credibility) to attribute to the
information we are gathering.
At this point we
have an idea of what we wish to look at and the various
factors that might affect it. Now we add the questions, what
if oil prices trebled or the population halved, working
through a number of scenarios and seeing how this changes the
future. Then we throw in the wildcards, who predicted 9/11 in
the USA or the bombings in London? Who foresaw the so called
credit crunch?
And how can we make this tangible
at the end of the exercise? There are two main ways of
examining strategy, observing the future from the present and
working out how to get there and the most powerful version
which is to look back towards the present from the future and
describing how we got here. This is where our storytelling
skills come into their own and we generate buy
in.
We can predict the future up to 30
years ahead in order to inform strategy making and
investment decisions for public and private sector bodies by
using:
- Information from expert groups
- Widely available information
- A number of carefully chosen scenarios
- Both existing knowledge and by introducing wildcards
- Storytelling and other creative techniques to facilitate
information gathering and generating buy in.
If you would like to know more about how you can run your
own Futures programme then please contact
us now. |
 Solving your
problems whilst on holiday
Just think for a moment about your current
lifestyle, well everyone's really. We seem to have no time to
wash the car, pick up the kids, go to the gym, cut the grass.
And so the list goes one. Well in a way I am going to compound
that but make it easier for you. You are going away on holiday
soon and are keen to get away from all of those business
problems, right? What if I suggested that they could be solved
by the time you got back from holidays and all without you
having to consciously do anything apart from soak up the sun
and drink ice cold pina coladas?
Well here's how. You
may have heard of the right/left brain model, if not here is a
recap. Your left brain is logical and handles logical stuff
like numbers etc but it also filters ideas (no you can't do it
that way stupid). Your right brain is creative and will
explore anything given the chance. To get your brain working
while you are away, simply get right into your problem(s),
understand every nuance and then distract your left brain by
doing something such as - going on holiday. Some solutions may
leap out at you and some may leak out on your return, but
something will happen.
If you are feeling even more
creative then why not use random stimulation whilst on
holiday. This technique makes use of odd or wacky stimuli. If
you are going away then the chances are you will see some
unusual things that could trigger good ideas. How could that
coconut help you at work, or that starfish, or that ice
cream?
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 Office speak,
has it gone too far?
Recently there was a great article published on the
BBC website which collated the top 50 office speak phrases
that we love to hate (or hate to love). They were all
emailed in by real people. Here are my five favourites in
reverse order:
- "At a large media company where I once worked, the head
of human resources - itself a weaselly neologism for
personnel - told us that she would be cascading
down new information to staff. What she meant was
she was going to send them a memo. It was one of the reasons
I resigned - that, and the fact that the chief exec
persisted on referring to the company as a really
cool train set."
- "The latest that's stuck in my head is we are
still optimistic things will feed through the sales and
delivery pipeline (ie: we actually haven't sold
anything to anyone yet but maybe we will one day)."
- "I work in one of those humble call centres for a bank.
Apparently, what we're doing at the moment is
sprinkling our magic along the way. It's a
call centre, not Hogwarts."
- "Business speak even supersedes itself and does so with
silliness, the shorthand for quick win is now low
hanging fruit."
- "Incentivise is the one that does
it for me."
Don't forget there are another 45 here! You
can also download the office speak
bingo card to record which phrases your boss and
colleagues use. |
 Review your
financial woes - creatively
In the current financial climate
there are many people who have credit card
balances higher than they would like or who are experiencing
the squeeze with continuing mortgage or other
secured loan payments. Those readers who have
started a business using such finance will be anxious too. Can
you do anything about it though?
There are some courses of action that can be taken
without recourse to back street loan sharks. One method is of
particular interest since the company concerned used a series
of creative techniques without even realising it. Compliance
with Ministry of Justice regulations forbid the disclosure of
further information here. If you would like to know
more then please get in
contact. |
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