I read this recently from Seth Godin on innovation and the status quo…
“Too often, we’re persuaded that initiative and innovation and bypassing the status quo is some sort of line jumping, a selfish gaming of the zero sum game. Most of the time it’s not. In fact, what you do when you solve an interesting problem is that you open a new door. Not only is that okay, I think it’s actually a moral act.
Don’t wait your turn if waiting your turn is leaving doors unopened.”
See the full post here.
It’s quite true that so often we don’t innovate or try to solve problems because we know that there are people out there that want the solutions to be neat and tidy and want them to originate within the current structures and culture of “how things are” and “how things work.”
We fail to innovate not because the innovative act is beyond us, but because it’s too much dang work to innovate when other forces are working to keep things under control and as is. The hairball is at work preserving itself. Ever noticed how innovation from the center of a hairball tends to look an awful like the hairball itself?
If you are in an organizational culture that choosing the status quo or “neatness” over real transformation and solutions that are obviously NEEDED, what does that say about your culture and environment?
How do you know when it’s time for you to jump the line?
