Shaping Innovation

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

It just makes sense. The ancient Egyptians knew that building the model of a pyramid in sand would lead to a final architectural design. Leaders, too, need to have the skills - and the tools - to preview their actions and think about potential outcomes. The first design is only the beginning of the blueprint.

Skills. Tools. Innovation requires both. Leaders can shape their "sandcastles in the air" into a design - the real underlying architecture of the organization.

Four bright ideas to fuel tomorrow's innovation

Rule #1: Uncertainty is possibility. Uncertainty is opportunity. And you don't want to get surprised by missing an important opportunity.

Rule #2: Some of the greatest dangers for an innovator who is able to identify future trends is to mistake a clear view for a short distance, to be too early, and to think that things are going to arrive more quickly than they actually are.

Rule #3: Don't let your hope about what will happen interfere with your judgment of what you think could happen.

Rule #4: The essence of executive wisdom is the ability to make the right decision based on incomplete information. The sooner you can be comfortable that you have the right decision with less information, the faster you can move over your competition.

Source: Paul Saffo
Paul Saffo is a technology forecaster and futurist based at Stanford University and is a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Media X research network. He was the founding chairman of the Samsung Science Board and serves on a variety of boards including the Long Now Foundation, the Singapore National Research Foundation Science Advisory Board, and the Pax Group. http://www.bigthink.com/

May Learning Day:

Our learning day line-up will showcase a few of the innovators who have been instrumental in leading large scale research and projects. Remember, it's one thing to talk about innovation. It's another to lead innovation.
Skills. Tools.

See you on Thursday at the University - 5th floor, ATAC building at 8:45 am sharp. We are having a late 1 pm lunch.

Dress: Business or business casual. Look good...We're being videotaped for a Leadership Thunder Bay Marketing video, thanks to the Communications Committee.

And, as always, if you need help with your 10 minute dress rehearsal presentation, please just ask.

BTW, if you're serious about being a sand castle sculptor, go to http://www.popularmechanics.com/ and search "Sand Castles". Playing = leading innovation!

- Maggie