1.1 Introduction
Let me begin with an important comment, namely a comment as to what this book does not intend to be: this is not a book on innovation, how to innovate, or even remotely an attempt to tell the reader how he or she may become an innovator. Apart from my belief that these are topics that can be discussed, but cannot be taught, there are probably many books out that cover such topics.
This book wants to be all about practical hints, personal stories how you may be better prepared to win the end game of how to succeed with one's innovative ideas, one's inventions and creations in the consumer space with regards to products and services. The book will mainly draw upon personal stories, good ones as well as bad ones, based on my personal experience. I shall attempt to add stories from other innovators, not only in the area of food, but shall approach some more âunusual suspects,â trying to find out about their success stories and the recurring elements necessary to become a successful innovator. Again the emphasis is not on âinnovatorâ but âsuccessful innovator.â
However, I should say right in the beginning that I have no intention to write about a number of elements necessary to become a successful innovator, but rather have the ambition, or hope, that the reader will draw his or her own conclusions from the stories I am going to tell throughout the entire book. I should also say that all stories, good or bad, success or failure, positive or negative, boring or exciting, inconclusive or conclusive, indifferent or moving, are all lived, be it lived by myself or by other people who I plan to introduce throughout the book. Their names may have changed, the location may have changed, but the situations will be for real and will hopefully inspire you, the reader, and help you, with guidance of this book, to find your way through to a successful and meaningful conclusion of your own innovation journey. It's not going to be an easy journey, because there are so many elements involved, but I can promise that it will be a worthwhile journey. In the end, it should be an eye opener for you and hopefully help you to better manage and ultimately tell your own success stories.
Does your company have a complex? Or is it just complex?
I have been thinking quite hard and trying to define what I mean by a âcomplex organizationâ but finally came to the conclusion that it is almost self-explanatory and is not necessarily only defined by the size and structure of an organization or a company, but by the complexity of the interactions between the different players.
So, in my eyes, every organization that has more than one member is by definition already âcomplexâ as its functioning depends on many more factors, such as definition of roles, mutual respect and understanding, expected outcomes (what and when), dealing with obstacles and drawbacks, enjoying successes, recompensating everyone's efforts, and probably many more. In other words, when I refer to complex organizations, I do not only refer to large ones, but every company that deals with and through human beings, small or large. So, it is extremely likely that the company you work in, whatever its size, is complex and has issues linked to this. In this book I shall attempt to tell stories that are relevant as well as entertaining so that you can profit from these and get a better answer to the question of how best to navigate through this complexity and come out successfully like a phoenix from the ashes, or, to use a less destructive metaphor, like the winner of the intra-company iron man.
I personally hate lengthy introductions. I feel that oftentimes they are almost an excuse for not getting started yet. So, let's cut it short here and get right into the topics that this book will discuss in detail.
1.2 The workspace: heaven or hell?
What's this all about? Why all the fuss? Why do we put so much emphasis on our workspaces? Some companies even install playgrounds and try to lead us back to pre-school or even kindergarten. There are many who say that the workspace should be as playful and inspirational as possible and then there are many others, probably the majority, who, in the name of efficiency increase and cost saving would pretend that the workspace should not even be defined, but a shared and open environment, almost the stand-up desk of the accountant in Scrooge's Christmas story. What is true and what holds the test of time and long-term success? It probably depends on your industry and your company and how the time that you spend there is officially organized. I say âofficiallyâ as the âunofficialâ time management is the really interesting topic, and we will discuss this in more detail at a later point.
For now, let's look in more detail into your workspace and especially what it has to do with becoming a better, a more successful, innovator. I put emphasis on this topic, as very often the kind of workspace in which you will find yourself at work is often quoted as a âturn-downâ for innovation, one cannot be creative in âsuch an environmentâ and âI would really be successful, had I only a better and more conducive work space and work environment.â
The ideal work space should be fun
It is important to realize that your work space has a lot to do with your ultimate innovation success, but, at the same time, from personal experience, I have to say that, at the end of the day it has very little, sometimes even nothing to do with your success. Why is that so and why can I come up with these two totally opposing points of view? Well, it is really lived experience: some people are workspace sensitive, whilst others are not. It's like some are allergic to peanuts and others are not, if you allow me this comparison. So what's the ideal workspace? From my own experience I can say that for me the notion of the ideal workspace has evolved during all my years in the industry, and, to be honest, this ideal is still evolving. When I started in industry as a research scientist working in a lab, I believed that it was best to have my work desk very close to the lab space where all the action was, ideally even in the lab itself.
When I found this setup in my first personal work space in my company, I really was happy and believed that it couldn't get any better, or let me rather say, any more efficient. You should note that as a young research scientist one is still very much conditioned by the university or college years, when it was the rule â at least in my university â to have a desk to write ones thesis in the lab in which one made the discoveries. This was practical, as this allowed us the space and time to discover card games with other students as well as drinking beer or coffee and discuss the very serious matters that were laid out in front of us. It almost sounds like the ideal workspace has to include some coziness, some homely familiarity, and some cave-like security that guides us along the difficult problem solving tour de force during the learning, discovering, and applying times in our professional lives.
Can I auction off my space?
Now, when I say âcave-likeâ then this obviously is totally the opposite of the âopen spaceâ workspace/office/lab approach. I am personally still wondering, why the open space was invented; it could not just have been for the reason to save a few bucks for having to put fewer walls and doors, or could it?
My suspicion is that companies rather wanted to give their employees the spacious coziness of a fraternity (or sorority) house where everyone can see everybody else and is in constant communication and contact with their neighbors. My further suspicion is â and I am far from being a conspiracy theorist â that open workspaces are perfect for exerting peer control: it's very difficult for me to play Solitaire on my latest office computer without being found out by my neighbor ânext deskâ and thereby becoming the next chat topic around the watering hole called the coffee machine. So, does that improve efficiency? I am not so sure. Depending on your line of work, playing games may actually be very inspiring. As this book is all about innovation, about innovative and creative people and how they can become truthfully successful, I would like to focus on workspaces that are typically found in such environments.
So, we are back to the wish for playful workspaces, or are we not? The short answer is: there is no one solution and really good companies should realize this. It could be a nice and possibly ground-breaking move to allow people a very large portion of freedom in designing their own workspace, perhaps in collaboration with experts in the field, and to do this within the required safety and possibly regulatory confines that need to be applied for the workspace in question. If I can have a say in the design of my personal workspace, I am typically much more motivated to go to work every day, to go to my âother homeâ and feel a very strong and stimulating connection with the place that I am working in at least several days a week. The reader may argue that this costs money and, even more importantly, what happens if the employee leaves or is transferred somewhere else and the new person has a different taste? Good questions, and I have no real answer other than the following assumption: the extra investment for creating such a highly personalized workspace in the first place and having to re-design it every so often is by far outweighed by the greatly improved and increased efficiency and the increased frequency of successful innovation created by the innovator who has the chance to work and thrive in such an exciting workspace.
My brother-in-law can sleep just about anywhere, I need a good bed
I stated above that some people are sensitive to their environment, whilst some are less so or not at all. This may make for a good statement, but based on my own practical experience I can say that a large majority of innovative and creative people in the industry that I know, which is the food industry, belong to the workspace-sensitive group: they want to have a well-organized, well-designed, functional, yet to some degree personalized, work environment. Companies would be well advised to take this into consideration, certainly much more than some already do. I do not pretend that every company should become LEGOLANDÂŽ, DisneylandÂŽ, or Universal StudiosÂŽ or any other theme park that is out there. However, if you look at the situation of today's corporate work environments, some of them do show a certain resemblance to a theme park, ...
