Executive Thought Leadership

It's a Good Day for Innovation

After 25 years in the communications business, I’ve come to a few conclusions about innovation. Today, the most interesting thing to me is not that we innovate—humans are inherently creative. It’s how we innovate. If, as some claim, the process and pace of innovation is accelerating, it occurs to me that what is actually changing is not the desire for, but rather the environment of innovation.

One benefit of my role at Cisco is exposure to a better-than-average amount of leading edge technology. And over the past few years, as the network has grown in both capability and importance, I’m finding it easier than ever to explore new challenges and participate in areas outside my comfort zone. New tools help me harness my creativity and be more effective at my core job, and new avenues of collaboration have expanded my ability to contribute to other teams’ innovation.

Lately the line between business technology and personal technology is blurring, sometimes to great effect. Instant messaging, easy-to-navigate file-sharing programs, and blogs are all finding roles in the workplace. I can use this more intuitive—I call it consumer grade—networking technology more easily than some of the cumbersome, purpose-built business applications that preceded it, so I tend to use the network more often and more effectively. Communicating ideas has never been so fast or simple.

Social networks permit communities of interest to form around ideas quickly and easily, and they allow people like me to participate in creative efforts that we normally wouldn’t be exposed to. People with new ideas used to spend months shopping them around. Now, with a few mouse clicks, I can find them instead, then provide them with my insight and opinions. And the boundaries of collaboration have expanded from close geographic regions to the far corners of the globe. The person I’m discussing my ideas with today might just as easily be in Hong Kong as the building next door.

During the preparation of this issue of the Executive Thought Leadership Quarterly, I worked on a project with a professional writer in Australia. Despite being in different time zones halfway around the world from each other, the network-based tools we share allowed us to communicate freely, in real-time when appropriate, share our thoughts, create content, and enrich each others’ lives. This ability to collaborate without boundaries is a tremendous aid to creativity.

Look also at the advantages that collaborative workspaces offer. Shared, networked applications that create a secure, communal work area that all participants can manipulate make creative brainstorming sessions much more accessible and simple. Because the participants are interacting in real time, thoughts are shared more easily and clearly and the creative process isn’t blunted by time and interruptions. Instead of forwarding a document or chart by e-mail and waiting, sometimes days, for edits—and then integrating multiple overlapping suggestions—I can see edits in real time and know when and by whom changes are made.

All of these new technologies combine to create an enhanced environment for innovation, and we are all beneficiaries. In this new environment creativity flourishes, and the boundaries of what is possible expand dramatically.

Roger Farnsworth<br> Executive Editor<br> Executive Thought Leadership Quarterly