'Connecting the Dots' requires lots of dots...

Steve Jobs during his Stamford University address famously talked about the need to follow hunches, and about how he always found connections between the experiences his heart lead him to and the products he wanted to create.

Whist this may seem like its pretty obvious, with many other people who have researched the area (such as Steven Johnson) coming to similar conclusions, it really got me thinking about one of the fundamental difficulties of doing this in a large organisation- Namely that its actually pretty difficult to get the time and space required to cultivate the variety of 'dots' (i.e. experiences) that are worth connecting -this may also be the reason why Johnson's research suggests that it can often take years for these ideas to form, after sufficient experiences have been gained.

You can just see how this translates on a corporate day to day basis- 'Sorry boss, that report you were after is gonna have to wait as  I need get experience of something totally unconnected with our work  under my belt...'

Nobody in corporate life has the time to play the innovation game slowly,  but there has to be a smarter way of dealing with the rigours of working in the big company innovation space and still maintain a stream of diverse, unique and creative thinking which continuously improves the work we do.

My own personal rule of thumb which I've kept true to in corporate life has been to continuously engage a new people in the work that I'm doing.  Not only do they bring different approaches, you can never underestimate how their own experiences with work can merge with your own to provide a broader tapestry of dots to be connected. Of course this can only happen through getting to know them, but I would argue that the opportunities for learning are there, we just can be too busy to miss them...