Jascha IS Me

A very interesting talk about ideas from William Baumol and Sir Harold Evans. Being that idea maturation is one of my prime research interests this discussion is especially of importance to me. The video is almost 2 hours long but well worth a watch even in increments.

I have worked for over 15 years in the technology sector and consider myself a student of idea maturation and innovation. Mainly in terms of fostering teams to create innovative approaches to problem solving. While creating a company culture that is conducive to improving upon and generating new ideas.

Some of my more recent experiences in the last few years have encouraged me to sit down and write this post regarding the things I have seen that “management” does to hinder innovation and adversely impact company moral unintentionally (of course).

Negative traditional management actions:

• Lack of communication
• Leaving the “troops” out of decision making
• Creating a wall between management and workers
• Walling off project by stake holder (producer/manager)
• Pigeon holing

One of the main things I have noticed is the lack of general communication with the teams that actually do the work. You have management communicating with other management. But at the same time leaving the developers or other workers in the dark as to even the most simple knowledge in regards to the business and how well (or poorly) it is doing. I have spoken with many people who have no clue how a product is doing because they are not told. So they may make the wrong assumption and be looking for another gig when where they are is actually doing well.

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Looking forward to reading Steven Johnson’s book.

Also checkout his TED talk: