We are constantly asked to facilitate (or train people to facilitate) meetings with creative process to increase efficiency and/or productivity. We do so and are always successful. It's a simple thing really. But.
A provocative book review I was pointed to this morning by dialygood.org got me thinking about a tension that exists between efficiency/productivity and longevity/robustness. It was reviewing a book by Andrew Price entitled: Slow-tech: Manifesto for an Over-wound World I haven't read it... yet.
The review, published by Resurgence Magazine, starts with the following:
"A central pillar of our society is the drive for efficiency, extracting the most in the shortest period of time is the motivation behind the vast majority of actions in the modern world. As a concept, efficiency is so ingrained in our consciousness that to call it into question can seem counter-intuitive, if not completely ridiculous."
Now that's just the kind of provocation that energizes my innovative brain.
We can facilitate a creative process session that will net gain within a very short time. There is always low hanging fruit, even in the leanest of organizations. But I wonder.
In the search for the short term gain, do we get ourselves so focused on the quick win that we lose our perspective on long term systems? In the quest to satisfy the shareholder and analysts with quarter on quarter growth, do we end up gutting the system that made our company the great thing it was and feeds its potential to be even greater in the future?
I think this happens. And its a slow subtle change that we don't notice. One of those boil the frog by gradually heating the water kinds of things. But I think we can do something about it.
