Charlie Bess at EDS has a partial explanation of a ritual the EDS Fellows undergo when they’re indoctrinated (Charlie’s word) . It’s called a thinking expedition. As part of the post, Charlie references the Rogue Project Leader. While it scores nil points for RSS (ahem), RPL scores a maximum for erudition and a complete lack of discernible EDS pumping. I like that.
Ray Ward has a great story called No Boundaries where he describes the now in terms of the children who are growing into adulthood. He provides lessons from which all of us can draw. For instance:
[Tom] Peters estimates that 80% of white collar jobs – as we now know them – will either disappear entirely or be reconfigured beyond recognition in the next 15 years!!! …that is staggering …. but then Peters quotes the Chief Executive of General Electric who says that “75% of GE administrative and back-office jobs will disappear within 3 years!!”
I believe the massive cultural challenges that are created by this information technology revolution should be faced head on and celebrated. There is simply no point in denying the existence of the new order of things.
This is interesting in light of a discussion I had with Sig Rinde where, in thinking about the management of tomorrow, I said that we should not be too keen to turf out the structures that have served business very well over the last 50 years. Except where it matters most. I referenced GE.
Much of what’s written at RPL is at worst entertaining and at best thought provoking, demanding of a response. So why don’t we see too much evidence of this kind of thinking coming out of the projects EDS talks about? I wonder whether, in having achieved the pinnacle of intellectual stimulation, the Fellows have lost track of the need to ensure their collected, distilled thinking actually reaches the troops. That’s the problem with top down stratetgy – it rarely reaches the parts where it would make the most difference. It’s how innovation gets stifled.
Technorati Tags: EDS, innovation, thinking
