Saturday 19 May 2007

Understanding the question gives the answer!

I have a friend that keeps asking ME the same question over and over.

'Chris,' he says 'how do you do it. How do you know all this stuff. How comes you know what I know, even though it's not your field?'

Well, I'm - ME - fed up with him asking this question (which has been going on for 15 years and more now!).

The answer is this:

If you keep asking the same question over and over, you simply don't understand the question in the first place.

Friday 18 May 2007

Learning and innovation are two sides of the same coin:

A really acute definition of innovation is learning beyond knowledge, learning beyond what we currently know or understand. Thus, without rapid and continuous learning, we'll never achieve any breakthroughs in ideas.

Further, successful innovation requires learning before output. That is, understanding the behaviors of a particular innovation in all its dimensions before its launched into market. If we don't learn before output, then there may be trouble ahead.

To accelerate learning before output, one must accelerate feedback from both tests in the lab and trials in the market. To do that, one must accelerate the design-prototype-test (DPT) feedback-cycle by investing in DPT productivity tools and processes.

As the DPT productivity increases and the cycle-time shrinks, so feedback is amplified and learning before output accelerated. Thus innovation cannot exist without learning, and learning cannot exist without eventually yielding innovation. In other words, innovation and learning are two sides of the same coin.