Thoughts on Thinking about Workplace Innovation

…or, “A Desk is a Dangerous Place from Which to View The World!”

Ideas are good, but not every idea is a good idea. And a desk is one of the places where ideas are identified and considered.

What is missing is often the hands-on reality of how things work and the reality that the ideas are already IN the wagon, not in need of identification but merely implementation. People DOING the job are generally the best informed about how to IMPROVE systems and processes. Just ask them!

One of the captions for the cartoon that derives from this first illustration is simply called, “One Less Bump Per Revolution.” It is about making things more difficult but measuring it as actual improvement. Dangerous, for sure!