Modern business runs on innovation, wise decision making, cooperation and timing. Obviously the speed at which this is done can be advantageous. But speed isn't always the most important thing... Yes in warfare, in sports and in a very competitive business environment it is, but what may be important to most is doing things better tomorrow than was done yesterday... Or better next month than last month... Or better next year than last.
With the current business environment it seems small businesses are being edged out of the marketplace by much larger corporate structures. This may sound like a big problem... but to a non-linear thinker, the bigger the problem... the bigger the opportunity.
If you look at the food industry for example, corporate chains have proliferated the market... the mom and pops of old have, for the most part, disappeared. Even as the market is expanding, as more people are dining out with both parents working, the competitive edge of mass production of food and food service has given corporate chains a distinct advantage. Thus most small mom and pop restaurants have disappeared.
Corporate systems in general prescribe to linear thinking. These processes streamline production but rarely lead to groundbreaking innovation. As Gen. Van Riper points out below in the second video (Leadership Part 1) he mentions the second law of thermodynamics... that all closed systems trend toward entropy(chaos). For the small businessman, the non-linear thinker, this also means an opportunity. What opportunity I'm not sure... I'm not in the food business. But an innovator in that business can surely tell you.
Some questions you will be able to answer after viewing this information.
What is a OODA loop?
How did Prego crack the spaghetti sauce market?
What does 3M stand for? And what is their 10% rule?
What is the 10,000 hour rule?
Why Computers will not rule the World?(This one is going to be a very welcome to most of us...)
Computers only operate on a linear path. An aircraft is an example of linear system. The aircraft has a purpose and all it's pieces serve a function that supports that main purpose. The individual pieces have very little room or tolerance for variation. However... most of the world... is non-linear! Despite the many attempts to simplify everything into rules we can live by, life and many of it's pursuits have millions of inputs that make the linear function in-computable. The variations, the millions of inputs, and random events all combine to thwart any attempt to simplify things into a linear rule. Imagination does not compute! Thus wisdom, imagination and creative problem solving are necessary... and the only people that have that ability are you and me!
The OODA loop. OODA stands for Observe - Orientate - Decide - Act. The first video gives a very good brief explanation in simple terms. On the ancient battlefield... the commander could see the entire battlefield (the conditions, the enemy and friendly forces), he would then orient those forces in an attempt to gain victory, then formulate the decisions and execute his plan. The time it took to do all that would encompass one OODA loop. Because once the opposing enemy saw activity they might initiate their own action which would start another OODA loop. The action alone had created a change in the environment. The army that could observe, orient, decide and act faster (with wisdom) would have a distinct advantage.
Col. John Boyd the OODA loop and soccer (5 min)
General Paul Van Riper (Retired)refers to "In command and out of control" pushing decision making down the chain of command by putting purpose behind tasks and effectively shrinking OODA loops (gaining an advantage). Instead of information having to flow up from the bottom, making a decision and then having that order flow back down... the idea is to instill a basic purpose and reason why and let lower levels of command make decisions... and relay only information that is essential for higher command. (Each segment ~ 6 min)
Thinking outside the box - This is a little article by Hiren Shah that talks about lateral thinking (non-linear). What he points out as important is the fact that thinking is not something that is predetermined... but is something that can be learned. He also mentions, as Van Riper points out as well... wisdom comes from more than just experience and knowledge... but also ethical/ moral and spiritual health (more things a computer just can't grasp).
Decision makers can be innovators... as groups push the responsibilities and decisions further out from a central figure, the potential for innovations that can change the entire environment expand. In the business world these can be productivity improvements, groundbreaking new ideas and products, improvements in understanding and communication...just to name a few. Obviously, prosperity from these new developments would be expected.
Scott Berkun, author, speaker and innovator presented to Google in 2007. He shares some interesting ideas on innovation and "the myths of innovation".(60 min)
Innovation usually happens with groups or an individual has input from others that leads to a new idea.
He makes an interesting point on innovation... taking two good things and putting them together to make something ...better. Peanut Butter and chocolate!
He also talks about the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) 10% rule... innovation institutionalized. 10% of personnel's company time dedicated to their own ideas on innovative concepts and problem solving.
Expertise. Malcolm Gladwell on the 10,000 hour rule. (18 min) Expertise as a rule is almost always after an individual or group has spent a significant amount of time in practice. 10,000 hours! (We also learn that people as a whole like three kinds of spaghetti sauce...a third like chunky...and at the time of the discovery no one in the industry realized it... Prego introduced a "Chunky" spaghetti sauce and the rest is history).
Edward de Bono on Creative Thinking (4min) He discusses some of the aspects of lateral thinking and the infinite potential we all have.
"How to" stimulate creative thinking! (They missed one) (2 min)
John Boyd's Destruction and Creation. (pdf) An exercise into innovation. The dialectic engine. Deduction and Induction. Breaking wholes into parts and then reassembling those parts into new entities.
Boy...a lot to think about! The bottom line is the future is bright if we learn that non-linear thinking is just as important as trying to put our experiences into some sort of linear pattern.
I hope this serves as a leaping off point for my readers into success in whichever way they might imagine it.
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