I have to laugh! In 1996 when the web was young I had stood up my own web page in the company. At the time, I was working with people all over the country, so giving people information about me and what I was doing was important. I had proposed to the web governance council at the time that we allow anyone to have a personal web page and add those to an existing directory of web resources. The response was swift and strong - no way! People might post inappropriate content! Here, 12 years later, personal pages are a multi-million industry to the point where the current generation feels out of it if they don't have one!
This isn't so much about how these people screwed up, but the dynamic of innovation. How did this happen?
1. A general fear that people will do something wrong, isn't a reason not do it. There will always be people that will do wrong stuff intentionally. Identify the specifics and brainstorm on possible solutions.
2. Ideas don't stand or fall based on their own merits, they typically fall because of the people we 'think' need to approve. This is the hard part - we've got to go find the people that can sponsor an idea, and that usually will not be someone higher in the organization.
3. Know the role of your organization in the overall company. Is your organization responsible for operations, program management, policy, etc.? Probably not the place to start. May want to find an organization whose financial model benefits from innovation.
4. You'd think the IT organization would be the place for IT related innovation. Don't assume that.
I'm still laughing!
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