Can Data Be Innovative?

March 20, 2012 • Blog, Thoughts • by
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Inherently, data is a collection of the past. It is a summation of events that have already happened. We use data to help predict the future but data is inherently about what has come before. Can data then, be innovative?

I began thinking about this question after reading a post from Fast Company Design entitled, To Innovate, You Have to Stop Being a Slave to Data. The article talked about how companies are more and more using customer data as they develop new products and since people are inherently averse to change you can’t actually create anything new. I believe it was Steve Jobs who was the mindset that you shouldn’t ask customers what they want when developing a new product but should create something that they don’t realize they want. I think that is a good idea to think about when innovating.

So how can data play a part in innovation? First, I think data helps organizations understand their current reality. They can see what is currently resonating with consumers and what is not. Second, data can help predict what tomorrow might look like, thus helping innovators know what might be around the next corner.

At the end of the day though, I think data cannot produce innovation. I think it can play a huge role in the process of innovation but it is not at the steering wheel creating the next great product, idea, or organization. It cannot be ignored but you must also understand that it is fundamentally a relic of past events which is not always a good indicator of the future.

Social Impact Bonds: Moving in the Right Direction

March 5, 2012 • Blog, Public Policy • by
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I believe that for many of our biggest social problems the answer derives from the ability to attract private capital to the problem. When there is the opportunity to make money solving problems you will attract higher talent, more competition, increased innovation, and more. One of the new, innovative structures attempting to do just that our Social Impact Bonds. While they began in the UK, the United States has begun experimenting with them.

The idea is simple. The government outlines a problem; recidivism, homelessness, etc and says that they will pay organizations to solve that problem. Often times there are clear criteria and such. I would imagine that the deals could be structured in a whole variety of ways. Why not follow the private sector’s lead and if an organization can do something cheaper or more efficiently reward that employee by splitting the difference. So if an organization can address homeless at 50% of the cost why not financially reward them for that. Social Impact Bonds are dipping their toes into that kind of water.

If you want to learn more read this great introductory article from Fast Company.

What I Learned from Foie Gras

January 6, 2012 • Blog, Business, Ideas, Leadership • by
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It’s been said that foie gras, the liver of a goose that is fattened up by having a tube stuffed down its throat, is the most abusive food to produce. Yet for many chefs, it is the most iconic and sought after delicacy in the world. Quite a predicament.

That was until Eduardo Sousa came along claiming to have found a way to produce foie gras naturally. No tubes. No abuse.

Many in the culinary world found this impossible to believe and yet when chefs tasted what his geese produced they found themselves completely surprised to find the most tasting goose livers they had ever eaten.

Eduardo Sousa raises his geese in the countryside of Spain. Here they live in a goose’s paradise with plenty of tasty and fattening things to eat. What Sousa realized is that as the weather turns cold, geese will stuff themselves, making there no need to stuff a tube down their throat. However, they will only do this if they feel they are wild. As soon as a goose felt domesticated they would not indulge in this behavior.

To that end there are no fences on Sousa’s farm. All the geese are free to leave at any point. Very few utilize this freedom though. Since Sousa has created such a paradise for them they choose to stay until their death.

What’s most amazing though, is that as flocks of geese fly over Sousa’s farm, his geese call up to them, apparently sharing how wonderful the farm is, and these completely free geese join his flock on his farm!

Let that sink in for a minute. He has created such an enticing environment that his geese that are heading to the slaughter are calling completely free geese to join their ranks.

Think about this from the perspective of an organization. Do you have the kind of organization where those working feel no desire to leave and in fact invite others to join the team? While we all know the stories of tech companies like Google that create lavish work environments, I don’t think that the average organization has taken this lesson to heart.

In today’s economic environment it is even increasingly tempting to sacrifice environment and organizational culture at the altar of austerity. Managers and executives might say to themselves, “There is a line of people outside who are more than willing to take anyone’s place who chooses to leave.”

This is certainly one model, but how much more productive would your organization be if everyone who works for you felt appreciated, served, and in an environment conducive to productivity? Your organization would attract and retain top talent far better than your competitors and even in today’s world, talent is the ultimate productivity.

So how can you follow Sousa’s lead and create a goose’s paradise?

Management vs Leadership

October 22, 2011 • Blog, bloggers, Leadership, Thoughts • by
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Seth Godin had a great post this morning on the difference between leadership and management.

“Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.

Leaders, on the other hand, know where they’d like to go, but understand that they can’t get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.

Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.”

I definitely think that people confuse the two and I think they are two distinct roles and often require two very different kinds of people. Managers tend to see incremental change where as leaders dream of innovation.

In the nonprofit sector I think we have an over-abundance of managers. Many executive directors are trying to incrementally change there programming year over year, when, to really solve problems, we need drastic innovation.

The Creative Pause

October 17, 2011 • Blog, bloggers, Leadership, Thoughts • by
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Fast Company posted a great short article on the need for “creative pauses” in our over-connected lives. The article succinctly laid out the current connected landscape.

“Interruption-free space is sacred. Yet, in the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the Internet, people, and other forms of distraction. Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world’s information at our fingertips.”

I completely agree, we live in a world that might just be too connected too much of the time. Isolation and interruption-free space is sacred and necessary. People need to think.

It’s no surprise then that many of our world’s most successful people knew how to put down the iPhone and get away. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking with former Chicago Mayor Daley. He spoke about his need to unplug on Sundays and how he would spend hours just reading a book and thinking.

In a world obsessed with short-term productivity there isn’t always room for just thinking but in a creative and innovation based economy, like America’s, just thinking is vital to long-term success and growth. So figure out ways to unplug and let your brain run free. It’ll pay off in the long-run.

To Profit or Not

August 29, 2011 • Blog, Business, nonprofit, Stories • by
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There is only one thing that identifies a non-profit, the inability to distribute net income. That’s it. If a non-profit makes more than it spends it cannot give that excess income to anyone. It must remain in the organization. To help induce people to give money to nonprofits they are given a tax deduction for their gift but in today’s tough economy it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract that capital.

So some non-profits are becoming for-profits.

For example, Forbes reports that the non-profit Couchsurfing, which connects travelers with free places to stay, has changed to a B-Corp and raised $7.6 million in venture capital. That’s right, they left their non-profit status behind and got a nice $7.6 million check.

This does raise the question though, why was Couchsurfing a non-profit to begin with? Or did all of those people that gave to Couchsurfing while they were a non-profit receive a tax-deduction for a gift that later resulted in profit for a for-profit organization? The questions could go on and on.

What we are seeing is a blurring of the lines. Non-profits are becoming for-profits. For-profits are buying non-profits (see GOOD buying Jumo). In a lot of ways I think this is a good thing, social missions are not relegated to the left-over economy of the non-profit world. But it is also an example of innovation moving faster than regulation and the tax implications of this emerging gray space needs to be figured out.