
Innovation without delusions - dredmorbius
http://peterstrempel.com/2016/01/02/innovation-without-delusions/
======
NotWilliamTell
The opening of "If I told you that contemporary ideas about innovation and
disruption were driven mostly by ideology, ignorance, and marketing hype,
would that seem controversial or extreme?" left me intrigued. Yet there is so
much to digest (which I am still doing -- having read the complete post 3
times. Now it is time to explore the citations)

That said, a statement in Peter's summary resonated deeply when he noted:

"We should think about all the variables an outsider might bring to our
attention, and then about how to embed that outsider perspective as an
integral part of our organizational culture."

How many times has this question been asked, with the common answer of "We do,
and then ignore or dismiss 'the outsider'"??? Far more than most care to admit
I suspect.

Yet it is this very statement that has led me personally down the
"platform/software/technology agnostic" road. Repeatedly.

~~~
language
>"We should think about all the variables an outsider might bring to our
attention, and then about how to embed that outsider perspective as an
integral part of our organizational culture."

>How many times has this question been asked, with the common answer of "We
do, and then ignore or dismiss 'the outsider'"??? Far more than most care to
admit I suspect.

What makes this so interesting to me is that this seems to a property of
social systems in general (individuals included). There is a constant
push/pull of "maintenance of identity" and "importing novel information from
the environment." Take "human conversation" or "argument" as an analogue of
this situation and you come to the same conclusion: people prefer to maintain
their identities/boundaries/opinions/perspectives/etc.

And you're right, the answer to that question is overwhelmingly negative in
reality: that seems like the point that the author is making. Something about
how "innovation" involves the way that organizations and outsiders generate
interdependencies/come into conversation.

Very interesting article (I need to read this a couple more times).

------
dredmorbius
A long but worthwhile piece. From the introduction:

"If I told you that contemporary ideas about innovation and disruption were
driven mostly by ideology, ignorance, and marketing hype, would that seem
controversial or extreme?

"If my proposition were true, though, would it change the way you think about
innovation?

"It changed for me. I came to my conclusions over the Christmas-New year
break, when my reading list contained an unusually dense stack of essays and
articles about innovation. The common features were about undefined buzzwords,
and formulaic models that avoided coming to grips with innovation, often
missing even of a workable definition.

"So let’s start there...."

