Archives for May 2021
Daily Inspiration: “Bold visionairies never marginalize the potential of their future by clinging to the mediocrity of their past!”
“Bold visionaries never marginalize the potential of their future by clinging to the mediocrity of their past!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Nothing big was ever achieved by thinking small!
But hand in hand with that mindset comes to the reality that some of the most successful people in history had a proven track record of failure before they saw achievement.
I started thinking on this track when a wonderful book that was recommended to me arrived: “An Accidental Life: How I Failed At Almost Everything.” I haven’t even cracked the cover yet, but I think it reflects the mindset I’ve carried throughout much of my career. It’s on Amazon here.
Failure and success? It’s happened with everyone. I’ve long been a fan, as have many, of Walt Disney and the visions he possessed that created a remarkable future. I was truly stunned when I was invited in by the organization years ago for a keynote on the topic of creativity and innovation. A pinch-me moment!
Clearly he had inner creativity that defined his future. And yet, Disney took also had a failure in his past. In an often-repeated story, he was fired from his writing job at the Kansas City Star because his editor felt he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” But that doesn’t mean that previous failure defined his success – he clearly just ‘had what it takes.’
What about the rest of us? Those of us who might not have similar inner creativity? To a degree, it’s our failure that defines our future – and that’s what drew me to this book. We’ve all made mistakes throughout our lives and through our careers that have proven to be stepping stones for a powerful reinvention. We know that it is our ability to take risks, try new ideas, and pursue bold goals that can really define our future. We know that we can learn from those mistakes!
So fail already! Just don’t let that hold you back – build on it! Don’t stop there – use that failure to think of even bigger goals. If we subscribe to that frame of mind, then the logical extension is that if we refuse to cling to our past in our efforts to carve a new future, we’ve discovered one more powerful pathway to eventual success. If we’ve had those moments when we’ve ‘thought small,’ never dared to think big – that need not ever define our future again.
Our small past should not define our potential for an even bigger future!
Daily Inspiration: “‘Just-in-time knowledge’ – your ability to access the right knowledge, at the right time, for the right purpose – will be the key to your more complex future!”
“‘Just-in-time knowledge’ – your ability to access the right knowledge, at the right time, for the right purpose – will be the key to success in your more complex future!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Flashback – I’m on stage on this day in 2015 to open a meeting for the global human resource leadership executives for Honeywell. My focus was on emerging skills and HR trends in the aerospace, materials science, and building technology industries. Like most others, each of these industries face major skills challenges in a world of relentless, accelerating change.
“‘Just-in-time knowledge?’ It’s a phrase I coined way back in 1997 when I almost wrote a book called “Nomadic Workers – Business Organizations and Strategies for the New Millennium.“. I even had a mock cover for it! It didn’t become a book but morphed into content and part of the structure for another book I wrote at the time, Surviving the Information Age. Here’s a glimpse of the cover that never was!
Nomadic workers? Today, we call it the ‘gig economy’ or other phrases. It’s a very real and significant trend, and I pretty much nailed the reality of where we are today some twenty-five years ago. While I didn’t get a full book about it, I certainly outlined the trend, as global workforces migrated to a structure in which access to skills became critical – and many of those skills exist within a highly specialized, mobile, accessible-from-anywhere workforce.
I must have been on to something – I developed a full keynote topic around the idea, and that led to dozens of keynotes for the workforce, skills, associations, and HR conferences over the years, eventually leading to an opening keynote for the global WorldSkills conference later that year in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
It’s fun to look back at what I wrote in 1997 when I conceived of the topic that would lead to the stage for this particular event 18 years later. (Click for a PDF). Being verbose was not a skill back then. (PDF)
Much of my thinking was based on my own experience – I ditched the typical career path and began working in a home office, the future that many others would discover along the way – particularly during the pandemic. And so, in my brochure, I describe the office. LOL! (PDF)
The trend? From 1997:
The number of full time jobs has begin to dramatically shrink – yet, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in the change of the relationship between employer and employee, as the nomadic worker becomes the dominant form of corporate resource.
Companies will hire the best talent, regardless of where that person might be. A new form of career competitiveness is emerging, with extreme competition for this group of nomadic workers – highly skilled individuals who call the shots.
Where people work from won’t matter – a trend that has implications for the future of both rural and urban economies.
Lifestyle choice will come to dominate career decisions. The nomadic worker carries different attitudes towards life and work, and rejects many of the currently accepted “norms” of the corporate environment.
Their attitudes will revolutionize the world of work.
The shape of tomorrow’s company won’t be defined by the walls in its offices – it will be defined by the reach of its computerized knowledge network, and its ability to tap into the skills and capabilities of the nomadic worker, wherever they might be.
Many of the organizations who bring me in for a CEO-level leadership meeting, board retreat, or staff event want to focus on a message that revolves around the idea of ‘how can we innovate faster.’ They recognize that, obviously, their access to skills has a big impact on their ability to do this. And so, HR and just-in-time knowledge became a natural fit for a trend I focus on.
The bottom line is simple:
- the ability to obtain rapid, instant knowledge generation is becoming an urgent necessity in almost every field of endeavor;
- the ability to quickly digest, understand and assess new knowledge is an increasingly important skill – one that not a lot of organizations have mastered;
- the ability to reformulate our thinking, assumptions, and capabilities to respond to the constant change being thrust upon an organization is of increasing importance
Just in time knowledge involves a form of continuous learning that is instant, fast, and urgent – and if an organization is to succeed in the future, it must be a master of the ability to succeed with just-in-time knowledge.
Innovation Isn’t What You Think It Is – Here’s What You Need to Know!
The following article was published in AkzoNoble’s “A” Magazine, featuring some of my thoughts on innovation in organizations. The organization is the largest global paints and coatings company and is a leading producer of specialty chemicals.
The article is a good read as to how I think and work.
It was distributed in print form to several hundred thousand readers in their global client base.
WHAT’S YOUR VISION OF THE FUTURE
by Jim Wake
If routine rules your working life, you could be stifling any chance of growing and improving your business. Worse still, if you fail to encourage creative thinking, you could well be doomed to failure.
Innovation is not what you think it is, says Jim Carroll, a self-described “futurist” who makes a living advising companies on how they can reinvent themselves to compete effectively in a fast-changing world. “When it comes to the word innovation,” he explains, “a lot of people hear that word and they think it isn’t something that applies to them. I call it the ‘Steve Jobs effect.’ People hear the word and they think: ‘That’s about the design of cool products and only cool people get to do that. I manage purchasing, so how could I be responsible for innovation?’”
But what Carroll tells them – in ways designed to get them to laugh at themselves and squirm in uncomfortable self-recognition – is that innovation is both more mundane and more achievable than dreaming up the next breakthrough consumer product, writing brilliant computer code, or developing new methods for microsurgery. “I step back and reframe the question,” he continues. “To me, innovation is three things that apply to everyone in the organization. Whether they are the head of purchasing or product development, or the CEO or the Vice-President of sales, it’s about challenging yourself with three questions. What can I do to run this business better? What can I do to grow this business? And what can I do to transform this business?”
To Carroll, it’s a lot more about awareness than it is about genius. “Running the business? Innovation offers all kinds of opportunities to take costs out of the business. With computerized technologies to streamline processes, for example. It’s just unlimited potential. Growing the business is all about how we get into new markets, new product development, how we generate revenue where revenue hasn’t existed before. Transforming the business is about restructuring ourselves. How we collaborate better, how we reshape the way we’re doing R&D, how we do things differently as an organization.”
“A lot of people still think that innovation is some deep mysterious thing,” he goes on. “To me, the link is that there’s a whole bunch of obvious trends which are going to impact an organization, whether they’re demographic, social, political, business trends, whatever. Innovation is simply responding to and keeping up with those trends. Some of it is drop-dead obvious: in Western society, we have a looming boom of baby boomers who are going to become older and sicker and require more care, so that just impacts a whole variety of different industries. With technology, there’s a whole bunch of fascinating trends underway where a lot of everyday devices around us are going to gain intelligence, are going to be linked to the internet, so that’s an obvious trend. And in terms of politics, what’s playing out in Egypt – where there’s a transition of power from one generation that is unplugged, unconnected, to a different generation that is plugged in and connected. Those are the kinds of obvious trends I’m talking about.”
But of course, what is obvious to Carroll – who acknowledges that research is an important part of what he does – may not be so obvious to the person who is focused on meeting deadlines and paying the bills. Still, he is convinced that management can nurture an environment that encourages creative thinking and the willingness to take risks that is pretty much a prerequisite for innovation. “I call it tone at the top. It is something that is CEO-led. He or she has to set the tone for a culture that allows for continual change and adaptation and innovation, in order to keep up with the very fast-paced change around us. If you don’t set that tone at the top, then you really are doomed to failure. I see a lot of organizations try to make innovation something special. They form a little innovation team and go off in a little room and study innovation. But that just doesn’t work. It’s a culture throughout the organization where the leadership is saying to everyone that you’ve got to challenge yourself on those three questions, and we will judge you during the annual review process and in your remuneration and in your job description.”
One example he points to is Google, which provides “innovation time off” – a provision allowing engineers to devote up to 20 percent of their time on projects not directly related to their job descriptions or responsibilities. “It’s important,” says Carroll, “that organizations establish a whole series of projects that are very focused on innovative outcomes, in addition to having everyone responsible for day-to-day innovation.” He also suggests that routine is one of the biggest threats to innovation. “I think it’s very easy for an organization to go into autopilot. If you can do something to shake up their complacency – whether it’s the rebel coming on board or doing something to cause some chaos – that’s a good thing because people need to wake up to how quickly their world is changing around them.” In his talks – he gives dozens every year to audiences as diverse as Texas bankers, California cattle farmers, national park management professionals and the US Professional Golfers’ Association – he can almost be aggressive in trying to combat complacency.
“Here’s what I’ve learned,” he says during one of his videos from a keynote speech. “In every single organization, there are people who wake up every single day. The very first thought that comes to their mind is ‘what am I going to do today to kill new ideas?’” It’s a comment which provokes nervous laughter, but that’s because everyone in the audience recognizes a kernel of truth there. “You know that they’re out there because they come into their meetings and you’re presenting new concepts and new ways of doing things, and they’ve got all these little code words that they use to shut ideas down.”
If Carroll had his way, the phrase “You can’t do that because we’ve always done it this way” would be grounds for immediate dismissal. “Never mind that the world is going to change, that the world is going to go over there really, really fast, and we’re still here and we have to get over there with the rest of the world,” he says mockingly. “There are people out there who’ve adopted the attitude of ‘you can’t do that; we’ve always done it this way – it won’t work!’ You come up with a really good idea, you put it out there, you seek some reaction and there is a naysayer at the table who immediately says: ‘It won’t work’; or ‘Dumbest idea I ever heard, it’s too risky, we’re not an organization that takes risk.’” He lets the thought hang there for an instant and then points out the obvious: “The only way to get ahead is to take risks.” As if he himself has suddenly been appointed CEO, he then starts issuing orders to the audience: “Each of you from this point on agrees that you will never use, or permit to be used in one of your meetings, that phrase ‘you can’t do this because we’ve always done it this way’. You’re going to completely ban that phrase ‘it won’t work, the dumbest idea I ever heard. You’re going to banish the type of thinking that tries to hold us back from doing new things.”
He encourages his audience to conduct a simple test the next time they are sitting in a meeting – keep score of the “innovation killing” phrases that come up: a point for every time they hear “it won’t work”, “you can’t do that”, “I don’t know how”, and several others demonstrating fear of trying. Five bonus points for “The boss won’t go for it” and ten for “Why should I care?” Your company is already in trouble – innovation-adverse, in his words – if you score more than five, “innovation dead” if you score more than ten, and you might as well either close up shop or give him a call if you score more than 15.
At the other end of the spectrum are the behaviors, practices, and corporate cultures that generate new ideas – ideas flow freely throughout the organization, subversion is considered a virtue, creative champions are present throughout the company, people understand that innovation is not just about technology, but about doing things differently and better, and that failure is an inevitable – and acceptable – part of the innovation process. “Hire people you don’t like,” he urges, and “forget everything you know”. In this changing world, he claims, we don’t need MBAs so much as we need “MBIs” – Masters of Business Imagination. “The phrase Master of Business Administration is about running the business. That’s great, but what are you going to do to grow and transform the business? We [spend] more time thinking about how our markets are changing, how we might build new relationships with our customers, thinking about how we might go in and disrupt other business models and how we might ingest technology faster to do awesome things within our industry. We should just have a lot more people with a lot more imagination on our team.”
Carroll wasn’t always a change guru – he spent 12 years as an accountant. But somewhere along the way, he realized that technology was moving much faster than the business world, and that there was a business opportunity convincing the corporate world that it needed to change to accommodate new technologies and trends, or get left behind. He points out that Apple generates 60 percent of its revenue from products that didn’t even exist four years ago, and that the only thing that is certain is that everything will be different before you know it. Half of what students learn in their first year in college is obsolete by the time they graduate. “Having been at this for 15 years,” he says, “I think that the necessity for organizations to get on board with this type of thinking is becoming more critical because business is changing faster, customers are changing faster and technology is changing faster. My keyword is velocity. The need to do a lot of radical things is speeding up because everything out there is speeding up.”
The Disruptive Trends that Define Your REALLY BIG Future. But Are You Thinking too Small?
Individually, any trend is disruptive. Combine them together, and it’s transformative. When everything connects, power disperses. Legacy is death: agility and speed are the new metrics for success. These are some of the mantras that should define your future.
Disruption is real, it’s big, and it’s happening faster than you think.
The trends that define your future surround you today. Watch this short clip to remind yourself of the world you find yourself in today.
What are the roots of all this disruptive change? Edge thinking, accelerated science, the collaborative global hive mind and much more.
The fact is – it’s a great big future. But are you thinking too small?
Now ask yourself – what are you going to do to align to the era of acceleration?
Daily Inspiration:“It’s often better to inspire people with the hope of what they can achieve, rather than the fear of what they cannot!”
“It’s often better to inspire people with the hope of what they can achieve, rather than the fear of what they cannot!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
I love feedback on these daily little observations. I’ll be coming up on five years of putting them together each and every morning this August – I’ve not missed one workday! The thought process that goes behind them give me a moment of quiet reflection, and helps to set the tone as I start my day, with morning coffee, each and every day.
One long-time follower commented to me yesterday that he’s picked up a vibe that some of my recent Daily Inspiration’s are anything but – instead, they seem designed to instill fear, worry, angst, concern. “I wonder if you’re talking to an already scared audience. I wonder if they’d prefer to be comforted more.”
Guilty as charged!
And that reflects a battle that has always played out in my mind, or that has carried through the work that I do on stage, virtual or otherwise: how do you align people to the challenges and opportunities of the future without covering both sides? Deconstruct those words – challenges are problems, issues, barriers – which can often be inconceivable in scope, worrying with their implications, terrifying with their outcome. Opportunities are pathways to success, issues that present a viable future, wonderful outcomes.
Every future trend involves both aspects – challenges AND opportunities. I’ve always tried to cover both issues with any trend or aspect of the future. I’ll admit it’s difficult to not let things skew too far to one side or the other.
In some cases, I’ll take an approach that might heavily lean towards the negative side: the challenges. In other cases, I’ll focus more so on the upside. But I will admit it’s always a dilemma – some trends are just so far-reaching in their implications that you really need to shake people out of their complacency by instilling fear and shock into their soul! It can take a lot of work to try to always be positive – and so you’ve got to force yourself to find the upside through the downside.
Last but not least, in some cases, I’ve been booked primarily for the purpose of focusing on the negative, and it becomes an interesting battle to build out my trend story. I’ve had many a CEO or senior executive who has confided that as I open their global meeting, I need to come in and lay it on the line, to shake people out of their complacency; to wake them up. At one moment or other, they’ve noted that my role is to be truthful: “You can say things on stage that I can’t necessarily say.”
My world? Because it involves the future, it’s a constant battle between being inspirational and being blunt!
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