The point is that real innovation doesn’t have to be flashy, it doesn’t have to use bleeding edge technologies, it doesn’t have to be a new product or business unit, it doesn’t even have to be new - something nobody has done before. Somehow we discount simple ideas for being playthings, for being too small to be worthy, not recognizing the surprising power hidden in what seem to be our smallest decisions. If those simpler, smaller, ideas were set free, the effect would be as potent as any grand theory. Instead the cause is a simple idea prevented by bureaucracy, killed out of ignorance, or buried under incompetence. The lack of progress or greatness isn’t because there’s a grand idea missing. The problems that plague organizations, or hold them back from greatness, are often small things that happen to be consistently overlooked. There’s good evidence for a counter-argument. There’s a myth at work here: the assumption that big results only come from radical changes. But when you look back and see that it is one of the most transformational changes ever for the livestock industry, it’s very obvious that it is major innovation. And it sure doesn’t seem like innovation when it’s implemented. Mopping up the puddles in a cattle chute doesn’t seem like innovation when it’s conceptualized on the barnyard whiteboard. Real Innovation is Often Only Seen as Innovation in Hindsight Her innovations were simple: she cleaned up the chute by removing loose chains, water puddles and other stressors, and she redesigned the chute into a curved shape, so that cattle could no longer see the end of the line (and cattle actually tend to instinctively walk in big curves, so it felt more natural). Getting out of the chute, she determined to improve this system. She looked ahead and saw the black emptiness of the barn and the escalating chaos of the cows up ahead of her near the entrance to the barn. She noticed water puddles in the middle of the track that cows were very intentionally trying to avoid. She noticed chains hanging from the ceiling that were clinking and clanking back and forth against the metal walls of the chute. She knew that there had to be a better way, a more peaceful method that left cattle less anxious, a more humane method to herd livestock.Īs the cows rushed forward through the chute, she followed. She watched cattle in the chute ram into one another, slip on the wet ground, and try to spin around - sometimes injuring themselves.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |