September 11, 2008

A little bit of disorder, randomness and failure is a good thing

Last night, I was reading an article on a new book from Don Peppers and Martha Rogers called "Rules to Break and Laws to Follow" that had a wonderful quote:

"An efficient execution requires order, routine and uniformity.  Creativity and innovation is about disorder, randomness, experimentation and failure."

I couldn't agree more.  I have to add this book to my list (and the list is getting longer...).  What a great thought.  Order versus disorder... process versus randomness... ok, there are strategic frameworks that assist in the innovation journey and there are proven research techniques that validate assumptions and correct the course.  But it's also a process that requires an amazing amount of intellectual curiosity, unorthodox thinking, experimentation and a lot of failure. Pure and simple trial and error.  I always ask myself and my team if we're experimenting enough, questioning ourselves enough... and yes, failing enough.


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