Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of working on and off with Stephen Heppell, a stimulating visionary who also does stuff (he’s current involved in a pilot of a learning platform in China, a ‘pilot’ with 25m participants). One of his recent moblogs sums up his eye for seeing the metaphor that makes sense. At Dubai Airport he notices the different approaches to using moving walkways:
Some get on, keep walking and make great progress. Others get on and, mistaking their relative progress, stop walking thus holding up everyone behind. Still others keep well away from the “new fangled devices” and walk alongside, but are constantly flustered and exhausted from trying to keep up. A few arrive early, and wait nearby rather than getting on - but then suddenly realise that the moment has passed and miss their flights. Some get on, relax, don’t look where they are going and hurtle off in diametrically the wrong direction.
He’s right in his assertion that this is also how people approach innovation. As we prepare to open the floodgates to submissions for 4iP projects in the next couple of weeks I wonder how many of each variety we’ll see. There’s more. Which one are you?
JB on Wed, October 08, 2008 at 9:44 said:
Hi Ewan, I guess the key to being a real innovator is realising that you can step on, step off, or hurtle off in a direction that many will think is wrong but which you know has some good potential to get you to where you want to go.
There are plenty of flights out there at the aiport, but question is where do people wanna fly to and how many paying pasengers are there?
In my experience there are many industry pilots who dont know the jet engine has really been invented yet, or realise the potential of the new aircraft.
:O)
Tuija on Sun, October 19, 2008 at 2:27 said:
Nice analogy.
I am usually one of those hurrying along the moving walkway. But sometimes it’s great to have the transportation while being ble to concentrate on texting with the mobile, too.
Just learned about your project and subscribed the feed - good luck, enjoy!
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