Daily Inspiration: Innovation & Agility – “Innovative organizations work to narrow the gap between opportunity and action!”

“Innovative organizations work to narrow the gap between opportunity and action!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Let’s talk about gaps.

Are you falling behind?

Back in 2019, I began sharing on stage the idea of what I called the ‘Acceleration Gap,’ noting that the speed of change driven by fast trends was starting to outpace the ability of organizations to keep up with that change.

Earlier this year, I updated the size of the gap, largely because the global pandemic, as well as AI and other fast-evolving trends, were speeding up the rate of change, and that was starting to challenge organizations on their ability to keep up!

Regardless of the size and scale of the gap, I noted that the big issue for many organizations had now become what I call the ‘Acceleration Skills Gap’ – that’s the difference between the speed of change and the entirely new and evolving careers and skills that an organization needed to stay aligned. The gap was once relatively small; it’s now increasing at a furious pace – many of my keynotes now include a section that identifies these new careers and skills, and the lack thereof in the organization I am dealing with.

What’s the impact of the gap? For many, it is a state of feeling overwhelmed by the speed of change – with the result that they become frozen in place, unable to act. I call this the ‘Action / Initiative Gap.‘

Overall, this situation leads to the Action / Opportunities Gap. What’s that? It’s the fact that the opportunities that are in front of you as a result of new trends are rapidly outstripping the speed of your ability to identify, digest, strategize, plan, and act on those opportunities.

In other words, you are surrounded by massive transformative opportunities that can change the way you work, how you innovate, the business model you pursue, the structure you have in place, the methodologies you use, the skills you implement to keep up with tomorrow, and the products you design and sell.

The gap was once small, but it’s big, and it’s growing bigger. In every single industry, company, nation, career, and profession.

The fact is, you are falling behind.

It’s easy to think about and identify the nature of the gap in the context of new technologies, ideas, methodologies, concepts, and new disruptive things. Take any industry, and you can find some radical new idea, concept, invention, or innovation that can provide massive new opportunities going forward.

Then take a look around at the adoption rate – it’s pretty low. There might be a lot of talk about the idea, concept, invention, or innovation – but little actual implementation. That’s the nature of the ‘Action/Opportunities Gap.’

Consider but one technology – drones. This is but one technology of thousands of technologies. One idea among hundreds of thousands of ideas. One innovation possibility among millions of innovation opportunities. The fact is, innovative new ideas, concepts, inventions, or innovations involving drone technologies can be found in virtually every single industry. (I write about drones as an example, because my oldest son works in this industry.)

Consider what’s out there.

There are drones for firefighting.

Drones for crop spraying.

Drones for medical and pharmaceutical delivery.

Drones for product delivery.

Drones for crowd and security management.

Drones create data that can be fed into sophisticated digital imaging/mapping/project management software programs.

Drones for utility / electrical line/infrastructure inspection.

There are even drones that will do the inspection automatically, without supervision, on construction and other sites.

Note the headline – BVLOS stands for Beyond Visual Line of Site. it means the operator doesn’t need to see the drone, which dramatically changes the scope of the opportunity for this technology. In that context, watch this video – which was just released yesterday – as a drone flying a BVLOS pattern that provides a view of the rise of Mt. Everest.

Now think about the gap.

This is but one fast-moving technology, with massive opportunities for innovation, disruptive thinking, changes to methodologies, and more, for companies, industries, professions, and careers.

‘All of which are being missed because of the ‘Opportunities/Action Gap.’

You are falling behind.

Should you?

Mind the gap!