Month / May 2007

by Roger Dennis

Large scale workshops

Just finished a large scale workshop at the end of last week and starting to feel like my life is returning to some sort of pattern once more after weeks of preparation.

It was a three day event for an organisation which employees 8000 people and has an annual spend of NZ$1 billion. We had a mix of people ranging from the CEO right through to front line staff.

This week is time to make some post-event reflections and observations :
– graphical facilitation still blows people away when they see it for the first time
– I still enjoy seeing people making connections across seemingly unconnected sectors.
– physical space is critical – you either have to strike it lucky (as we did) and find a great space, or you have to add a lot to the budget to make a lousy space work
– if you have the right team of people on board you can make an event soar for the participants.
– running on adrenaline is a great substitute for coffee

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

by Roger Dennis

Intelligence on planes

It’s a little off topic, but while in London a couple of weeks back I had an interesting chat with Matt Webb about trying to work on planes.

We developed a theory, which basically says that the longer the journey, the more likely you are to end up watching Die Hard 3. I have called this – wait for it – The Theory of an Airline Passengers Diminishing Intelligence.

I know – it’s catchy.

No matter what my intentions are – whether it’s to write the next book chapter, read that interesting paper or write that very cleverly worded email reply – I always end up watching bad movies after a couple of hours.

My dimishing hierarchy goes something like this :
– read article that requires serious thought
– write emails that need some consideration
– reply to emails that don’t need consideration
– try to read the book that I’ve packed
– listen to a podcast

By this time I surrender to inflight banality and plug into the movie channel. And what’s more, it’s usually not a good movie I select. Last week I found myself watching Eragon (feel free to add a melodramatic gasp at this point).

If that’s not proof of my theory, nothing is.

by Roger Dennis

Failure is essential for innovation

It dates back to December 2006, but the message in this article is very relevant for a culture of innovation :

…it’s nearly impossible for companies to develop breakthrough products, processes, or approaches without encouraging the kind of trial and error that inevitably generates failures as well as successes. The challenge is to craft incentives that will make creative people comfortable with thinking big and taking risks.

This link comes from the now defunct Business Innovation Insider.