Innovation means thinking or doing something new, but a concept that always coexists with
Innovation is change.
Change is Letting Go These were obviously people who were willing to let go. We have also previously discussed how the U.S. still has many of the components needed to drive
innovation. The question is whether we are still ready to embrace change and let go of the past in order to move forward when the opportunity is presented. What is the point of talking about change? Why do you need to be willing to embrace change? Well, the answer to that question is simple; change is coming. It is inevitable and those who are not ready to ride the tide of change will probably be swept under by it. The constant innovation that takes place in the world of business and the resulting change means changes in people’s lives, including their work and jobs. There was a time when operators where needed to run elevators and to connect phone calls. What jobs will be obsolete next? Customer service representatives? Cashiers? Accountants?
Only the most wise and most foolish of men do not change -Confucius
Change Is Coming Fighting the natural force of change can be like trying to keep the sun from rising. Information systems, robotics, wireless technologies are really just starting to change our world, and the changes will likely start to come even more fast and furious. Changes are coming, and most likely they are coming to your field resist?
Learn to Embrace Change How can you be ready for change? Start changing now. Start with small changes. Try a new type of food, change you hairstyle, travel somewhere you have never been, learn a new language. Learn to embrace small changes and you will be on the road to embracing the larger changes to come. Think outside the box! Without a willingness to let go of the past and embrace change, innovation can never take root and grow. Everywhere in the world we are counting on innovation to take us forward, just as we have counted on it in the past to bring us to where we are now. What is your role going to be? First, let’s consider what innovation means to an
organization by considering a macro example – the United States. Innovation has been at the core of the U.S. from the beginning, and even before. The first settlers found innovative and resourceful natives, and in turn, the pioneers found new ways of doing things themselves to survive in the new world. This tradition of innovation has certainly played a role in the development of the U.S. as a world leader. Their willingness to embrace the new and the different, to embrace the impossible as possible, has changed the face of the U.S. and perhaps even the world. For more than a century the U.S. economy has been based on manufacturing - an ability to produce tangible things like cars, appliances, clothes, and equipment. Their economy has now shifted to the point that is now based on consuming things, not producing them. Now a days : middle-aged blue collar workers who are often left wondering why their good-paying job disappeared.
Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. -William Pollard It is a much more difficult change psychologically. As they left their family farms and moved to the city no one was plucking the rich soil from underneath us to move it off shore. The fertile land stayed in place and was utilized; it was just tilled and harvested by much fewer people. Those losing their factory jobs frequently endure seeing their tools of production crated and shipped away. Sometimes they even have the unpleasant task of training the foreign workers that are taking their jobs. While the shift away from manufacturing jobs has been predicted for sometime, many envisioned a change that was more analogous to the shift from agriculture. Factories would remain here, but would be automated and manned by exponentially fewer workers. Instead of reducing labor, manufacturing companies are relocating to find cheaper labor. Then there is the important consideration that what has made the U.S. a world leader was the ability to innovate and change. Our willingness to look forward without clinging too heavily to the past will enable us to continue our leadership role. It must be in the American blood, because whether it was the 1700s or the 1900s, modern America is built by people who left traditions and homes behind to seek new and different futures based on the belief that the new can be better than the old. Does your organization fearfully avoid change (and therefore avoid innovation), or does it eagerly seek changes that lead to continuous improvement? How will your organization manage changes in the market place that are inevitable? Survival sometimes means not fearing change, but embracing it. THINK ABOUT IT SERIOUSLY!!! I bet the article of mine will open your eyes and you would begin thinking about bringing some small change in your organization, your family, your society, your city, your state and finally our own country - India!