Develop a ‘bifocal’ mindset that balances between
- Operational dimension: emphasizes on efficiency, safety and accuracy
- Innovation dimension: requires experimentation, risk taking and challenging of the status quo.
Assumptions:
a. Innovation is everybody’s business
b. We read your mind… “no time, I scared if fail how, where got $$, can challenge policy meh*#!@%!!”
Still don't get it????
I once heard a very wise leader comment that innovations of organisations can be broadly classified into innovations for today (ie. improving on products/services provided currently) and innovations for tomorrow (ie. new ideas that have potential to address future needs). She opined that most officers are probably focussed on “bread-and-butter” innovations and even making time for these can be a challenge as it is. We may have to look at carving out time for innovations for tomorrow and integrating it as a part of our job-scope and not just a “good-to-have”.
Now, what are your thoughts on how we can innovate for today and tomorrow?
- Operational dimension: emphasizes on efficiency, safety and accuracy
- Innovation dimension: requires experimentation, risk taking and challenging of the status quo.
Assumptions:
a. Innovation is everybody’s business
b. We read your mind… “no time, I scared if fail how, where got $$, can challenge policy meh*#!@%!!”
Still don't get it????
I once heard a very wise leader comment that innovations of organisations can be broadly classified into innovations for today (ie. improving on products/services provided currently) and innovations for tomorrow (ie. new ideas that have potential to address future needs). She opined that most officers are probably focussed on “bread-and-butter” innovations and even making time for these can be a challenge as it is. We may have to look at carving out time for innovations for tomorrow and integrating it as a part of our job-scope and not just a “good-to-have”.
Now, what are your thoughts on how we can innovate for today and tomorrow?
4 comments:
We are so busy polishing the present products and processes. But to stay competitive we have to think of future innovations. My suggestion is if we can set aside a day each term to sit and trash out issues which will have an impact on education, maybe we can have potential ideas that will be future innovations.
Kokilavani Vassou
CPDD - LLB2 - TL Unit
It's normal for people to focus on their current job, hence the focus on innovations for today.
I think innovating for tomorrow requires a future-oriented mindset which needs to be cultivated. Some ways to do so:
1. As Kokilavani suggested, sit around and talk. The value of such discussion is sometimes underrated, precisely because it is not focused on the 'here and now' issues and problems. create time for discussion
2. But to have things to talk about, we need to be aware of what's happening in daily life around us, so we need to take time to observe how society is evolving. This means keeping abreast of much broader trends than just those in education. create time for research and reflection
3. Looking at societal evolution addresses the kinds of needs that are current but not met in society. Thinking across disciplines will help to uncover human needs that could be met in newer and better ways, which would then give birth to innovation (because necessity is the mother of invention). promote inter-disciplinary work, perhaps along the lines of Tinker 1
4. Look beyond people's limits. Very often we fall into the trap of thinking that a person is only good at one thing. In fact, we can all be good at many things - we just haven't discovered/developed all our talents yet. create opportunities for officers to be exposed to or try things different from their normal areas of expertise
Definitely a good idea. BUT, the organistaion NEEDS to create time for this. Its just like how hospitals need to reduce patient load of doctors if they want doctors to have time to go into R&D.
R&D is very big in corporations because sales of products are involved. MOE needs to set aside time for thinking about future needs too.
Secondly, parameters need to be set up. E.g. What areas of innovation are we looking at? E.g. maths curriculum, Use of IT, organisational processes. Just like how Phone companies focus on new phone designs, telecom services focus on communications services, we need specific areas to look into. Creativy without structure and order will just lead to chaos.
I like Benjamin's idea of "looking beyond people's limits". It is easy to fall into a trap of labelling people as "creative people" or "not creative ones". In fact, research has shown that there is no profile for the creative person. In addition, there is no test for determining the ability to be creative and there is no correlation between IQ and creativity (Harvard Business Essentials 2003). However, to do something innovative, it helps to have technical depth, an advanced degree, or intense concentration of study.(White, S. 2002)
As such, in order for one to think across disciplines, it is essential to build the expertise that enables one to perceive patterns of order or meaning that are invisible to the novice. On the other hand, expertise can inhibit creativity as it is hard to see beyond well-established patterns (Harvard Business Essentials 2003). Therefore, it is good to have a team made up of veterans and newcomers so as to produce new ideas that are feasible or practical.
Chong Siew Fong
LLB1
Post a Comment