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December 7, 2006

Great Line

How can you expect innovation and creativity from an organization that demands Return On Investment (ROI) analysis from $30.00 expenditure? This was an interesting comment from Seth Godin on a Padcast on Net Concepts Weblog. Not sure if I totally agree with the statement but he has a point. The greatest barrier between corporate stagnation and politics is fear. Fear of getting fired, fear of standing out, fear of being different and being judged for that. I tend to think of my children in pre-school where someone steps out of line; the quick response in order to ensure command and control is to say Get Back in Line. I am always drawn to the story by Gordon MacKenzie

How many artists are there in the room? Would you please raise your hands. FIRST GRADE: En mass the children leapt from their seats, arms waving. Every child was an artist. SECOND GRADE: About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher. The hands were still. THIRD GRADE: At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand, tentatively, self-consciously. By the time I reached SIXTH GRADE, no more than one or two kids raised their hands, and then ever so slightly, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a ‘closet artist.

Posted by Todd at December 7, 2006 2:10 PM