whether the relentless emphasis on efficiency had made 3M a less creative company. That's a vitally important issue for a company whose very identity is built on innovation. After all, 3M is the birthplace of masking tape, Thinsulate, and the Post-it note

Efficiency programs such as Six Sigma are designed to identify problems in work processes—and then use rigorous measurement to reduce variation and eliminate defects. When these types of initiatives become ingrained in a company's culture, as they did at 3M, creativity can easily get squelched. After all, a breakthrough innovation is something that challenges existing procedures and norms. "Invention is by its very nature a disorderly process," says current CEO George Buckley, who has dialed back many of McNerney's initiatives. "You can't put a Six Sigma process into that area and say, well, I'm getting behind on invention, so I'm going to schedule myself for three good ideas on Wednesday and two on Friday. That's not how creativity works." McNerney declined to comment for this story.

The results show that while the success rates of traditional innovation processes average 17 percent,

includes traditional success rates and sources.

The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.

“Hackers Believe Something Can Always Be Better

The story of every company begins with a clever hack.

”The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.

this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times.

good summaries and reviews. I love the fun / hedgehog and abstraction stuff.

articles and RSA video.

The Times article - has the major ideas.

video

HBR article

great case studies: iPhone vs blackberry, apple vs sony

“When the theater is empty I like to go out on stage. It’s lonely and beautiful. I look at your empty seat and think about you being in it. … Then I practice. I often practice stuff you’ll never see. For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a hundred-year-old trick called the David P. Abbott Ball. It is a very, very hard trick, almost like juggling. I put in an hour almost every day. I try to get the tricky moves so deeply into my muscles and brain that I can forget I’m doing a trick. Soon I’ll know whether the ideas I have for this trick are possible. But I won’t know that till I learn all the moves and invent my own. If the trick doesn’t work out, you’ll never see it, and I won’t be sad. I had fun every second I was working. I love the stuff you never see.”

can be overlaid on the flux flex model?? Very robust - observationally based. Phenomenological.

he short term results of falsification tend to be increased irritability, headaches, and difficulty in mastering new tasks.
*
the long term results of falsification include exhaustion, depression, lack of joy, a homeostatic imbalance involving oxygen, the premature aging of the brain, and a vulnerability to illness.

Benziger’s observations and thinking are supported by the research of Dr. Richard Haier of San Diego. Using PET scan studies, Haier demonstrated that the brain needs to work much harder when not using the person’s natural lead function (which he establishes as an area of exceptional natural efficiency).

Haier estimated that the brain may need to work as much as 100 times harder when an individual is developing and / or using skills outside one’s area of natural efficiency.

business analysts - high tolerance for ambiguity, pulling order from chaos and synthesising masses of complex info
project management - low tolerance - needs to get things done
Distinction b/w ambiguity and uncertainty