Celebrations

It has been an eventful few weeks.  Needless to say one of the key events here in the Philippines was the destruction that typhoon Yolanda wreaked.  Thankfully Manila was unaffected physically but emotionally Yolanda has left her scars.  Of course the International Aid that was forthcoming will make a significant difference in terms of helping those affected as well as helping to rebuild the area.  Many collection points and donation points have sprung up everywhere in Manila in order to help the typhoon victims.  Local support can be seen almost everywhere.

Christmas comes early to the Philippines; on the 1st September Christmas festivities begin.  What is heartwarming to witness is that many Filipinos have elected to either cancel or significantly scale down their Christmas work parties and donate the money to the Yolanda funds.  The spirit of helping is definitely alive and well here.

This Sunday sees the celebrations for the students of AIM who have successfully navigated their way through their programs of study and are graduating with their well-earned degrees.  It will be a proud moment for the students and their families.  The celebrations will be appropriate and enjoyed by many.  I wish the graduating students continued success.

Manila

The world of work: A child's perspective

The world of work: A child’s perspective

I have recently returned from the UK visiting friends and family and have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our grandchildren.  One day whilst I was getting ready to travel to London for a business meeting, my 3-year old granddaughter asked where I was going.  I explained and she responded, “So are you going to be working like Daddy?”  “Yes” I replied.  “What does Daddy do at work?” I asked.  “Well”, she replied, “He does numbers, letters and drawing”.

I thought about what she said and of course when you boil it down, that is really what most business is about.  We manipulate numbers that turn into spreadsheets or financial reports; we arrange and organize letters into coherent sentences, paragraphs and logical arguments that inform our decision-making and we might add in a few pictures and visuals to help convey our messages.

If clarity is our goal, keeping things simple is important. We can become overloaded with information and our judgment can become clouded.  Innovation is sometimes driven by the need to do something in a simpler way, so by looking at a problem or challenge through the eyes of a child whose world is simple and uncluttered, might help us achieve the breakthrough we are looking for.

Of course, it was the last comment my granddaughter said that made me smile the most.  In addition to doing numbers, letters and drawing, according to our granddaughter, our son’s work also involved “cuddling teddies”!  What a lovely working environment that would be?

Manila

13 September 2013

 

 

Innovation Behavior and the External Environment

As organizations continue their quest for developing the skills of innovation, one of the areas they need to focus on is how to pay attention to the external environment.  However, in these days of data overload and accessibility I wonder what strategies people use to keep in touch with what is going on within their chosen areas of interest.

As Level Seven is involved with developing innovation behavior for leaders, we try to keep up to date with what’s happening in our specific field.  One simple, daily habit I am trying to cultivate into a routine is to look through Google alerts for ‘innovation’ and to systematically scan through these each day to look for interesting bits of information.  But what is it that makes me look at some stories and not others?  Clearly, if something in the headline jumps out then I look into that story further but sometimes I just ignore other headlines.

However, it is not always the story item in the alert that is of most interest but what that piece of information links through to.  For example this morning I clicked on a story in the blog section that was entitled: QS Intelligence unit, the global innovation index: a guide for students.  I might well have passed up the opportunity to look into this further but when reading the blog entry the idea of the global innovation index seemed like an interesting concept, so I searched this out and found an interesting resource, link below.  Sometimes the items that are tucked away turn out to be most fruitful.

http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=gii-full-report-2013

Reflecting on my actions this morning has caused me to think about the notion of “associations” and how the act of making associations can help not only with the creative process but also with the innovation process, particularly when trying to associate concepts, components or ideas that do not have any obvious relationship or compatibility. 

A leader of innovation has many pathways to follow within their specific external environment.  Some pathways may be known, others will be less known and some even unknown.  We may never know what we have missed by keeping to the known pathways and we may be unsure of which of the unknown pathways will yield better results.  However, developing an ‘intuitive nose’ and developing the discipline of maintaining habitual routines could help to open up more useful and insightful opportunities.

Manila Diaries

3 August, 2013:  33 degrees C, Cloudy, Humidity 84%

 

 

Manila Diaries

Japanese culture

20 April 2013:  34 degrees C / 93 degrees F, Cloudy, Humidity 46%

I recently visited Osaka in Japan to present a paper at a conference.  It was my first visit to Japan and I was looking forward to experiencing another aspect of Asian culture.  My first impressions were that it was a very orderly and clean city.  Much of everyday life seemed to take place underground.  Once we had mastered the subway for getting around, we found ourselves walking within the labyrinth of walkways and tunnels that connected one area to another.

Clearly, we stood out as tourists in the city and on a few occasions when we were considering which direction to take, we were approached by a Japanese local and asked if they could be of assistance.  One experience that we will remember and seemed to epitomise the generosity of the Japanese people towards foreigners was one evening when we were looking for a particular bar where live music was playing.  Unfortunately we did not have the exact address and so were not in a position to really ask the way, however, in desperation as we walked past a car park entrance I asked one of the two attendants if he knew where this particular bar was.  He smiled and said he did not speak English very well.  I too smiled and thanked him and we were just about to walk away when he indicated we should wait.  He then made a phone call on his mobile phone.  The only English word in his conversation was the name of the bar we had asked directions for.  He then indicated that we should follow him; we did and he lead us through the familiar tunnels underground and after about 10 minutes of walking we arrived at the bar.  He just bowed, smiled and walked back in the direction from where we came.  We just stood there, slightly dumbfounded and pleasantly amazed at how courteous and generous he had been towards us.  There was no expectation of anything he wanted in return.

As I reflected on that experience I wondered if we had put him in a difficult position by asking him something he couldn’t answer and the concept of “Loss of Face” meant that he felt he had to respond to our request positively.  Alternatively, he could have just been a very nice person who wanted to help two strangers in town that were clearly lost!  Either way the impact he made on us and how we will always perceive Japanese hospitality will always be a very positive one.

When comparing how we might have been treated had we been foreigners in our home town of London, we were saddened to think this experience would probably not be replicated.  I have vowed to myself that somehow I will try and replicate this generosity on my return to our home in the UK.

One small gesture can have a tremendous impact.  It reinforces my view that it’s often the little things in life that can make the biggest differences.

 

Experimenting with Novelty

Manila Diaries

Experimenting with Novelty

11 March 2013:  31 degrees C / 87 degrees F, Cloudy, Humidity 66%

It has been about 2 months now since I decided to start a personal experiment.  It was pre-empted by being asked to include a session on leading change within a management development program.  So I thought it would be useful to remind myself what it is like when being asked to change something.  I decided to change the habit of a life-time by starting to wear my watch on the opposite hand to my usual hand for more years than I care to remember! 

Ever since I began wearing a watch as a child I have always worn it on my left-hand.  I seem to think the reason for this was I am right-handed and I was told that it would ‘get in the way’ when I was resting my hand on a table and writing with a pen or pencil.  Now in the days of rarely using a writing instrument and using a keyboard to write it probably doesn’t matter which hand a person wears their watch (but that’s probably a blog for another day).

The novelty of wearing my watch on my right hand has been interesting.  At first, I was particularly conscious of both the weight and feel of my watch on my right hand.  Each time I wanted to check the time, I automatically looked at my left hand; although I must admit that those incidents are becoming less and less.  At the start of the experiment when I looked at my new watch-wearing hand, my hand did not look familiar to me even though my watch is familiar to me.  After a few days I decided to wear a bracelet to counterbalance the fact that something was missing from my left-hand.  That didn’t seem to have any effect; I was still aware that something was missing from my left-hand.

So what are my reflections on this experiment so far in relation to novelty and change?

1.       Motivation to change is a strong factor in continuing with the novelty that change brings about for a person.  Managers can help people to embed the newness of change by helping people to identify what personal benefits they will achieve from the new situation.

 

2.       Looking for something that is still familiar about the new situation that was present in the old situation can be helpful in the early stages of implementing change.  However, whilst avoiding the cliché: Familiarity breeds contempt, it is important that people do not then just try to re-create the old situation and ignore the change around them.  This might be a useful strategy though with people who are particularly resistant to the change.

 

3.       The counterbalance effect is interesting. Just like seeking something familiar in the new situation can be comforting, it might be more helpful to get people to identify what they see as the gains and losses of the change and then have open discussions that will help people to minimise the losses and maximize the gains.

I have refrained from returning to my old ways and just wear the watch on my ‘usual hand’ and will persevere and continue to wear the watch on my new hand until it becomes second-nature so that I am not sensitive to the weight or feel of my watch and the change is now the ‘old situation’.