Today is the first day that my peers and I are sitting down (independently) to create and develop new concepts for the company. This "Innovation Day" as it's been titled, was suggested by our CEO based on her reading of Daniel Pink's book, "Drive". In full disclosure I haven't gotten to the part of the book that discusses the innovation day concept, but I'll get there soon. The concept is pretty simple, give employees time to disconnect from daily work to explore the new ideas, activities, topics, etc. that excite them and then report out on the efforts of the day.
So as a QuickStart/FactFinder (according to the Kolbe Wisdom) exploring concepts and taking risk are right up my alley. So I'm really enjoying the day and exploring some concepts that I simply haven't had time to explore in the last nine months. But for all of those peers of mine who are Kolbe Certified Consultants, we know that some people simply don't want to do this for a whole host of reasons. For those unfamiliar with the Kolbe concept, it is a tool used to identify people's unique abilities and strengths. In particular, it identifies how people will naturally take action when left to their own devices.
What I am finding so interesting is how people with a range of Kolbe strengths approach the day, or don't. In particular, as a QuickStart/FactFinder I have no problem generating a ton of ideas. Just please don't ask me to go into micro detail as to how the idea would be implemented. I'll leave that to my stellar team of FactFinder/FollowThroughs :) But what happens when you ask a FollowThrough (who has a need to categorize and define processes) to create new ideas? Or a FactFinder (who needs to get into the research and details)? Or the Implementor (who needs to see it in tangible form)? What part of the process of innovation do each get bogged down in?
It's fun to watch, not only from a QS innovator perspective, but to watch my peers and how they simply approach the day. What is also going to be fascinating is when my peers (mostly FactFinder/FollowThroughs) have to dive into the vetting process. How quickly will they want to pull the plug on ideas before concepts are even fully explored? Or will they so fully explore something that needs to be canned that they get into information overload? Or will their inquisitive fact finding and categorizing actually get us to quicker go/no-go decisions?
We will soon find out. The first debrief for today's activities is on Monday.
