Subscribe Feed (RSS)I recently took part in a discussion which asked the question “are there any differences between Ideas and Suggestions?” My contribution was to propose this metaphor:
…that suggestions are seeds, ideas are seeds that have sprouted, and innovations are plants in full bloom.
Here is a short parable based on that metaphor. It has the current financial crisis in mind and I hope it prompts us to think about how we might respond.
Click here (for pdf): Parable of the Beautiful Town (495)
The shory is in a pdf file. Click the link above and it will open in a browser window. Right click the link and “save target as” if you’d like a copy or wish to share it with others.
A Parable for Modern Times: I’d like to acknowledge contribution from the following people who each provided elements for this story in the original discussion: Prakasan Kappoth, Senior Manager KM, Systematic Innovation Facilitator & Innovation Consultant at MindTree; Kevin Paylow, Innovation, Knowledge Management & Strategy Activist; Nigel Collin, Business Creativity Speaker & Consultant; Grant Bosnick, Chief Executive Thinker at YES (Your Empowering Solution); and Marian Thier, Owner, Expanding Thought, and Professional Training & Coaching Consultant.
I’d love your feedback. Please leave a comment or contact me directly through the “Contact Me” button under my photo.
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Tags: Ideas, Learning to Think, stories
Steve, I’m a great fan of “Story telling”, especially for a complex change management process like Innovation and Effective thinking. What you have done here is actually creating a simple, beautiful, and powerful story about this interesting dilemma, we will see organizations struggling to find solutions for in the future.
Thank you for making this an excellent knowledge sharing overall. I was wondering if you would like to provide a link for the same in the LinkedIn discussion thread..
Best
Prakash
[...] Steven Swann, un consultant en créativité, et quelques autres, ont apporté une partie de réponse à la question de Prakasan Kappoth: “Les suggestions sont des semences. Les idées, ce sont les semences qui ont germées. L’innovation, enfin, c’est la plante en pleine floraison”. [...]