Friday 13 January 2012

Innovation for Dummies?

Over the past weeks I’ve been eagerly anticipating the post-holiday season to indulge in “new music” releases.  As an amateur musician, I appreciate when an artist provides an alternative version of their song. A quick search on YouTube and presto I have an acoustic version of a favorite song that I can enjoy on my iPhone or Blackberry. (we're Bilingual in Canada)  Nothing compares to the capturing the raw essence of a live acoustic performance.  It is honest, organic and innovative (unique from the original)

Speaking of live performances, have you ever been to a concert that was lame? Did they just mail it in? Was it a recycle of their old hits? With all respect to Sammy Hagar the 2004 w/ Van Halen tour was dismal.  Blame it on poor health, band tension, greedy ticket sales or pitching recycled hits – still lame from the seventh row. However, I am awaiting the new album on Feb 7th – A Different Kind of Truth =-)

Back in October of 2011 several of the world’s greatest musicians performed at Steve Job’s memorial service for Apple Employees. (Coldplay, Norah Jones and Yo-Yo Ma to name a few)  Even if you are not a fan of Coldplay, Norah and Yo-Yo – they continue to innovate beyond their initial success. Music like technology begs us to continually embrace change, requires thought, acknowledges the nimble and unconventional – and above all - rewards companies that continue to innovate.

This past my week my colleague Craig Dunk tackles the topic stability comes (acknowledging) change  He provides some great technical insight by reflecting and thinking of unique development opportunities with new insights. He concludes…”In the versioning of APIs and certain stability or perhaps more accurately “resilience” comes from acknowledging change and being prepared to respond to it. “



How are we encouraging innovation in our classrooms, at our work place, engagement with our clients and at home with our children? Where do we find the next Steve Jobs, Zack Zuckerberg, Mike Lazaridis and Eric Schmidt?  We need more world class organizations like Communitech that foster great ideas and encourage early stage incubation companies through mentoring, peer to peer engagement and tight alignment within our local technology community.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be announcing some exciting initiatives that embrace the challenge to create collaborate and innovate.  We are pretty fired up about the unique opportunity to engage with future tech super stars. By encouraging innovation we hope to showcase and share some thought provoking ideas that can - and will impact change.

Who inspires you?
How do you continue to innovate?
Are we embracing and supporting the benefits of mLearning?
What does create and innovation mean to you, your company or institution?
Do you mentor and share your wisdom (life lessons) with your team, community or co-op students?

Sage wisdom from Winston Churchill: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

Best,

Shawn

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