Rethinking innovation – a video playlist.
Archives for February 2022
Daily Inspiration: “The ability to imagine the future is a gift. The tenacity to make it become real is a skill.”
“The ability to imagine the future is a gift. The tenacity to make it become real is a skill.” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Real artists ship.
That’s the legendary comment made by Steve Jobs at an offsite corporate office leadership event; the Macintosh team was discussing the ongoing effort to develop the new computer that would disrupt the personal computer world. As the story goes:
So he stood at an easel at one end of a long, narrow conference room and unveiled the first of three epigrams:
Real artists ship.
They were all artists. They knew that. But real artists don’t hang on to their creations. Real artists ship. Matisse shipped. Picasso shipped. They were going to ship too.
Real artists ship? They don’t just come up with ideas – they deliver those ideas to the world as something new, revolutionary, groundbreaking. They ship.
It’s one thing to have an idea. It’s another to make it work. It’s great to have a vision of the future – but it’s a rare individual who can actually make it come true. Everyone lives within the boundaries of their visions – but it seems that only a successful few can see it through to completion.
What gets in the way of the delivery of great ideas? Corporate inertia, bureaucracy, routine, skepticism, cynicism – the disease that is at the root of all innovation failure. In other cases, barriers come about due to a focus on small details, a drive for perfection, or a project scope that is simply too large to succeed. Sometimes, the way forward will not be clear because the path ahead is clouded by a tendency to cling to the same direction as what has worked in the past.
There are simply too many things that can get in the way of success. To deal with this, you need to be relentless tenacious; it’s your weapon of choice, your friend in delivery. How do you ship? Examine your tenacity, your drive, your conviction, and your determination. Do you all too easily back away from the potential ideas that matter, or do you try to push on through? Do you let the naysayers hold you back, or do you ignore them? Do you let the challenges you face and the barriers in your way slow your momentum, or do you do everything you can to break through them?
Real artists ship. Do you?
Seeking Resilience? Achieive Agility!
Busted supply chains. Challenged logistics. Fast-changing business models. More demanding consumers. The end of stability in the era of VUCA – volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity.
What do you do about it? Focus on agility teamwork. I’ve been on stage speaking about this goal for well over 15 years – here’s a little bit of insight!
Daily Inspiration: “Nothing changes if you don’t care to change it:~ so maybe you should be doing something you care about!”
“Nothing changes if you don’t care to change it:~ so maybe you should be doing something you care about!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
The future comes to those who adapt – without passion, there is no purpose!
At a personal level, if that is the case, what can you do to bring more success to your efforts to align to a faster future? Maybe it is something as simple as shifting your priorities so you spend more time on the things you like to do, rather than just the things you need to do. Or it might be far more complex, abandoning one long-standing career path for another new one that involves a massive change in direction – hello, Great Resignation!
Whatever the case may be, it’s a simple fact that when people are not emotionally invested in the outcome of something, they won’t do what’s necessary to see it comes about.
What about corporate success? It’s a well-known fact that innovation success comes to those who can successfully change – and yet many fail at this seemingly simple task. Why is that? Often, it’s because those who are directed to drive the change have no interest in the process – they aren’t vested in a successful outcome. That needs to shift if there is to be any chance of progress. When initiating a change process, one of your most important questions should be, “what can we do to ensure that those who are involved in the change see some benefit from the change?”
All of this becomes particularly more important when the rapidity of change has changed. We live in the era of acceleration, and while in years past we had moments of clarity to think about an upcoming change, today we just have to change. Change happens before you know it, and just once you’ve figured it out, another wave of change comes at you. Relentless, ongoing waves of change define our future.
The bottom line? If you find your passion, your purpose changes – and you will change. Recognize this reality – over the years, one of my favorite stages quotes to emphasize this issue of the speed of change became: “Change your future, before the future changes you!”
With that in mind, if you aren’t invested in your future, the future won’t vest in you!
GET IN TOUCH
Jim's Facebook page
You'll find Jim's latest videos on Youtube
Mastodon. What's on Jim's mind? Check his feed!
LinkedIn - reach out to Jim for a professional connection!
Flickr! Get inspired! A massive archive of all of Jim's daily inspirational quotes!
Instagram - the home for Jim's motivational mind!