{"id":689,"date":"2011-10-31T00:49:23","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T00:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nusum.wordpress.com\/?p=689"},"modified":"2024-09-06T00:55:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T00:55:15","slug":"689","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strategyguy.com\/NuSum\/2011\/10\/31\/689\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions and Answers with @Thumbtackhead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is the second in a series of guest posts by\u00a0@IM4Ward<\/a>, on\u00a0behalf\u00a0of the PS Engage planning committee.<\/p>\n

The PSEngage<\/a>\u00a0conference is happening November 22, 2011\u00a0and the line-up of speakers is inspiring.\u00a0 To give more insight to the knowledge and interests of the speakers we sent them each a set of questions tailored\u00a0to their individual experience.\u00a0 We will be posting the questions and their responses over the next few weeks, so please keep checking back regularly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Today\u2019s interview is with\u00a0@Thumbtackhead, John Weigelt,\u00a0 National Technology Officer at Microsoft Canada.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s participation at PS Engage 2011 will be to share examples of government 2.0 activities across jurisdictions.\u00a0\u00a0 If you\u2019ve read John\u2019s bio and his blog, http:\/\/www.thumbtackhead.ca\/<\/a>, you\u2019ll realize quite quickly that John has an interesting approach to innovation.\u00a0 Innovation for John is not a wishy-washy process, but rather something that requires rigour and structure to bring out, explore and ultimately exploit creative ideas to achieve the objectives.\u00a0 Perhaps this comes from John\u2019s military training.\u00a0 Read the questions and answers below to come to your own conclusions.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Q1: Your biographic information says you went to military college \u2013 Do you think military training influenced your approach to innovation? If so, how?<\/em><\/p>\n

A1: \u00a0I think that my military training influenced my approach to innovation in several ways. \u00a0The best way to consider this is to try to imagine the crosswalks between a military operation and a business process.\u00a0 For both it is critically important that leaders select and maintain the objective.\u00a0 By describing their objectives leaders can empower entire communities to innovate to help attain the broader goal.\u00a0 Military training also helps people think about broad and often innovative approaches to solving a complex challenge.\u00a0 When encountering a tough adversary, a military leader will consider a wide variety of factors, probabilities and build out several scenarios to test an idea.\u00a0 Rarely will the effective leader choose a single approach to victory.\u00a0 Full campaigns will include a main action, perhaps several auxiliary actions, feints, special forces etc.\u00a0 All must be performed with creativity and innovation, lest the adversary gain the upper hand by being able to predict what may happen.\u00a0 With innovation, it\u2019s important to look broadly across the problem space to seek out new approaches.\u00a0 Finally, one last thing that it helped me appreciate is the concept of Exercising Empowerment. Sometimes people in very structured organizations like the military, government or large businesses project a sense that there is little room for independent thinking.\u00a0 I would suggest that it is actually the opposite and that great ideas are always welcomed.\u00a0 Not that I would encourage everyone in uniform to pick their own pace when on parade, but there are opportunities to innovate within all structures.<\/p>\n

Q2: Technology is driving a lot of innovation and change \u2013 What can business leaders do to understand the innovation options presented by technology without becoming a technologist.\u00a0 What are the types of questions business leaders should be asking?<\/em><\/p>\n

A2: I think that the business leaders need to consider the outcomes from innovation.\u00a0 The Boston Consulting Group identifies 5 outcomes from innovation:<\/p>\n