Rumi Shivaz Innovation Blog

The Net vs The Garden

Let's say money is like butterflies.  Most of us will wake up every day, grab a net, go out there and try to catch some butterflies.  Some days will be good, some days will be bad.  Few people get lucky and catch heaps of butterflies without too much effort while most of us will struggle to catch enough. We buy bigger nets and improve our skills in butterfly catching. We can build a cage and store some butterflies for a rainy day.  Sometimes, the cage may accidently open or someone will steal your butterflies. This is a very tiresome way of making a living.  Sooner or later, it will get you down.    

Rather than catching butterflies, start to build a beautiful garden. Yes it will take longer to prepare, sow and nurture, but once your garden starts to flower, the butterflies will start to come in droves. The better you look after the garden, the more butterflies will come, and this will create a virtuous cycle. You don't have to worry about someone stealing or losing your butterflies, because there are always more coming. 

Apply this concept to your career or business. Get out of non-rewarding careers or exhausting businesses and start to build something close to your heart. 

  

Public Sector Innovation - A New Wave

It’s almost 2 years since I started to focus on public sector innovation.  At that time, there was very little interest or good quality reference material on this subject. However, things have changed for the better, and interest on this topic is increasing, both in New Zealand and around the world. 

 In my view, here are some key reasons for this change.  (New Zealand context)

• Change of government … prime minister and number of key ministers with entrepreneurial backgrounds.
• Directive from Treasury to chief executives of government agencies … to cut their operating budgets, think outside the box and deliver more value for money.
• Increase of high calibre people joining the public sector … number of previously self-employed professionals and private sector employees have accepted senior management positions in public sector.  
• Demand from ‘smart citizens’ to improve level of service … we are getting used to extraordinary service level’s from private sector organizations and we want public sector organizations to lift their game.

Expecting a whole government agency to become innovative is wishful thinking.  However, it is possible for this to happen at a business unit level.  Once a business unit start to think and work like a close-knit entrepreneurial team and create a few ‘wow’ services to their customers, over time, that energy and creativity is likely to spread to other parts of the organization.

While there are a number of ingredients required for a public sector team to embrace an innovative culture, the key ingredient is an “innovation champion” with the following attributes.  

• Someone who believes his/her organization could be so much better
• A genuine desire to fulfil customers articulated and latent needs
• A ‘yes – let’s figure out how’ attitude rather than ‘no – here are the reasons why’ attitude
• Willingness to tap into external networks to complement capability and capacity of internal team
• Courage to engage and work with ‘smart citizens’ to co-create public services

As a nation, New Zealand desperately needs more ‘innovation champions’ in the public sector, who are prepared to re-imagine the future, go the extra mile, uncover hidden opportunities & create services that can add huge value to its customers and the economy of New Zealand

Strategy vs Adventure

The word 'Strategy' and all the management jargon/presentations wrapped around it, can put many people in an organization to sleep.  Here is an excerpt from "The Art of Engagement" by Jim Hauden ... a valuable insight for leaders who are responsible for communicating the strategy to win the hearts and minds of their people. 

STRATEGY IS AN ADVENTURE; EVEN MORE, IT'S A PURPOSEFUL ADVENTURE.

Consider the difference in the answers you might get if you asked a business leader these two questions. 

"What is your company's strategy?"

"What is your company's adventure?".

Let's face it: strategies, whether stated verbatim or some translated form, just aren't very stirring. Even worse, they're often couched in some jargon that makes them difficult to decipher unless you're in the select group of people who gave birth to the codes and nicknames. But as adventure? Now, that's exciting!. An engaging leader could tell you a story filled with drama, and you'd be able to tell from his animated comments and gestures how passionate he was. 

Strategies, if shared correctly, are true adventures. There are good guys and bad guys, and the journey is rampant with struggles, setbacks, and barriers. There are accomplishments, disappointments, and refocused dreams ... all with consequences that have a real-life impact on the lives of people. A strategy story, told properly, is an adventure that invites others to join ... to be part of something bigger than themselves, to feel as if they belong, and to see clearly how everyone's efforts contribute to the organizations success. 

Old Box vs New Box

Over the last few months, I have been noticing a steady increase of people that I personally know who are losing their jobs due to a re-structure or by organizations moving to survival/cost cutting mode. 

When something unexpected happens, or something you feared that could happen finally happens, your mind starts to do crazy things, so I thought of sharing this valuable life lesson I learnt few years ago.  

In February 2003, I crashed my last company in epic scale. I was technically bankrupt, but due to a strange co-incidence which I still find hard to believe, I avoided bankruptcy.  Weeks following losing my company was a tough time since I was getting lots of conflicting advice from people who have been in the same situation as I was. Keeping a clear head, maintaining a positive mindset and looking for a way to put some food on the table was extremely hard.  

Fortunately, I got this invaluable piece of advice from John Selby, a senior partner in PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Wellington. Since then, I have passed this on to many people who have faced an unexpected loss, whether it may be a business, job, close relationship etc. 

John said to me "Create two boxes in your head, every-time a thought comes to your mind related to your last company, put it in the Old Box and let someone else handle it. (i.e in my case, lawyer and accountant). Force your mind to spend time thinking about the New Box ... possibilities and avenues for you to generate some income and get back on your feet".  

While this sounds simple, it's actually quite hard to do, because your mind will constantly wonder about the loss and lot's of things that you should or shouldn't have done.  It took me few days to get control over my mind so I can quickly shut down any thoughts related to Old Box and direct my mental energy to the New Box.  

Please share this story with anyone you know who is going through a difficult situation. 

 

 

Public Sector Innovation & Service Design

I have been focusing on the public sector innovation opportunities for the last two years.  At the start, most people (including me doubting my own intuition) felt trying to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in a slow moving, hierarchical, process driven, public sector organizations would be an utter waste of time. 

However, I’m grateful to all the people who have given me an amazing amount of support and encouragement to pursue this “road less travelled”.  A special thanks must go to Deryk Whyte from NZTA (NZ Transport Agency),  who had the vision and courage to become my first client,  without his support,  I would have struggled to get this idea off the ground.

Government agencies around the world spend most of the operating budgets to maintain status quo.  I’m urging chief executive’s in government to allocate a small percentage of funds, even as tiny as 1% from their operating budget to foster a culture of innovation. 

Most of the ideas fail not because we don’t have enough money, but we fail to attract the right talent.  It is extremely important to get a balanced team to drive your innovation initiatives, which must be made up by internal and external players.  While there is a truckload of published material on this topic,  a great starting point is two books from Tom Kelly,  “The Art of Innovation” and “The Ten Faces of Innovation”.

The other key ingredient required by people in public sector is to develop a “Servant Leadership” culture.  Without this, you will never be able to create the kind of service innovation that is required to meet the high level of “service experience” expected by today’s discerning citizens. 

The following video clip is a great example of service design & innovation. I urge you to pass on this link to every person you know that is holding a leadership role in a public sector organization. 

The Bootstrapper's Manifesto

I came across this great piece of writing on one of Seth Godlin's articles on changethis.com.  This is for all of us, who are trying to make a living by doing something different, rather than getting lost in the sea of sameness. 

"I am a bootstrapper.   I have initiative, insight and guys, but not much money.  I will succeed because my efforts and my focus will defeat bigger and better-funded competitors. I am fearless.  I keep my focus on growing the business, not on politics and other wasteful distractions.

My secret weapon is knowing how to cut through bureaucracy. My size makes me faster and nimble than any company could ever be.

I am a laser beam. Opportunities will try to cloud my focus, but I will not waver from my stated goal and plan until I change it. And I know plans are made to be changed.

I am in it for the long haul. Building a business that last separates me from the opportunist, and is an investment in my brand and my future. Surviving is succeeding, and each day that goes by makes it easier for me to reach my goals.

I am the underdog. I realize that others are rooting for me to succeed, and I will gratefully accept their help when offered. I also understand the power of favours, and will offer them and grant them whenever I can.

I am a guerrilla. I will be persistent, consistent, and willing to invest in the marketing of myself and my business. I will measure what I do, and won’t lie about it to myself or my spouse. I will set strict financial goals and honestly evaluate my performance. I’ll set limits on time and money and won’t exceed either. 

Most of all, I’ll remember that the journey is the reward. I will learn and grow and enjoy every single day."

A Great 2 Minute Video Clip On Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Regardless of which country you live, a great deal of change and new thinking will be driven by people who have migrated to that country from somewhere else.  From New Zealand point of view, vast number of innovations/change programs will be lead by migrants or Kiwi's who have returned home after a long overseas stint. 

This is a great Video clip that resonates with that thought. 

Using Conversations To Beat The Winter Blues

I started to notice that the energy levels are pretty low at the moment so thinking about few different ways to re-energize ourselves. Here is a simple idea you can try/apply to beat the winter blues. 

1.  Out of the heap of work/non-work related projects you are working on, pick one or two projects that are most important to you. 

2.  Think of one or two people who are the driving force behind these projects. (ie champions) 

3.  Now do some lateral thinking and identify few people that are currently not involved in these projects but has the potential to make a huge contribution.

4.  Arrange a time to meet with these new people and your current project champions. Rather than booking a traditional one-hour meeting, try and book at least 90 minutes.  

5.  At these meetings, share your vision with the new players, and try and explore ways these new people/energy can contribute to your project.  In addition to practical and realistic tasks, try and uncover some crazy ideas.  

Most of us can't see the value and potential of the opportunities right under our nose. Engaging in energizing conversations is a great way to beat the winter blues and re-charge ourselves. 

Google Takes Street View To An Awesome New Level

SInce actively starting to use Twitter, it's being quite hard to keep this blog up-to-date. I'm sure Twitter must have caused a rapid decline on personal blog posts. 

I came across this idea from a Tweet, and thought of posting it here for the benefit of Non-Twitter people. 

This is such an amazing tool, can't wait until it is fully deployed world wide enriched with "user generated images". 

Watch this Video to see an overview of the problem and the solution Google team has come up with. 

You can get more information about this tool from the Google Earth/Maps Team Blog.  

 

Next 5000 Days - A Great Presentation by Kevin Kelly on Web 3.0

I just came across this fantastic presentation by Kevin Kelly on the TED Site.  It's 20 minutes long but really worth watching. 

March V-Club Event - "Eli's Greatest Hits"

We had the March V-Club session at Vodafone Boardroom on Wednesday 25 March.

The guest presenter was Eli Weir from Air New Zealand Innovation ventures. I met Eli about 3 weeks ago when I visited his Auckland office with Deryk Whyte from NZTA and really enjoyed the presentation he made to us, which was called "Eli's Greatest Hits". 

So I invited him to the March V-Club session and had the privilege of listening to that fantastic presentation again. While I had seen it once, listening it to the second time helped to highlight couple of important things, that's really worth sharing.

1.  It's not about "You". 

This is a huge mistake we all do.  We get so focused on designing and perfecting a product or service, we totally loose the plot about "who" that product is meant to serve, the "Guy Who Pay's" for that God damn product or service. Time and time again, companies sink money dreaming up and making stuff that "they" think the customer need, while the investment and effort should be really focused on uncovering the spoken and un-spoken needs of the customer. A good example is Vodafone website. While they have spent millions of dollars on all kinds of gizmos on the site which I really don't care about, it can't give me the most basic thing I expect from the website;  ability to Sign-on Just Once to check Mobile and Home Broadband accounts. (at the moment, you have to login twice to do this which is a pain in the backside). 

2.  Be Lazy

Rather than keeping focus on providing value to customers, people ... especially those of us in the IT Industry, try to re-invent the wheel all the time. When you are designing a solution for a customer, break it down to components and see what can be outsourced to specialist providers, rather than trying to build the whole solution yourself. A very good example is the IT Infrastructure space, where people still waste time and money buying their own hardware, while you can easily solve the problem by using the Infrastructure As A Service model.

Thanks to ...

1. Eli and his lovely wife Dawn for coming down to Welly for this session 

2. Brent Spicer from Vodafone for providing the boardroom and drinks

3. Jeremy Blandford for creating the Photo Montage of attendees

If you attended the session, please feel free to share your thoughts on the value you got out of this presentation. 

Another Great V-Club Session - Topic : Use Of Social Networking Tools For Business

 Mike Riversdale

Yesterday we had the first V-Club session for 2009. (If you are wondering what V-Club is, then click the V-Club Tag on the right hand side bar to see couple of earlier postings). 

V-Club is a great example why you need to make a start on an idea although you may not have a clear understanding what the value could be.  My first V-Club session was quite complicated, it had too many topics/presenters/people and didn't have enough conversation time. When planing the second session, I made it completely opposite to the first session; it had one topic and only about 11 people.  Yesterday was the 3rd session ... again one topic, one presenter and 10 people. It was fantastic. 

Yesterdays topic was "How Can We Use Social Networking Tools For Business".   Mike Riversdale (MiramaMike)  did a great presentation and there was heaps of interactions/conversations/ideas flowing in the room. 

Some of the things I learnt was ...

1.  Don't try to promote a sub-standard product or service ... it will be killed by the community in no time.

2. You need a genuine story that your audience can connect with and see value ... otherwise the word won't spread ... It's just a waste of time. 

3. You need to have courage to engage through social media, because you can't control what people say about you, your organisation or your products. As long as you are making a genuine attempt, the community will forgive your short-comings. Nobody is perfect. 

4. If you are a public sector organisation, then you better start engaging through this medium asap. (I can see the horror in the face of traditional corporate comms people). If you don't do it, then the community will start a blog or twitter account and talk about how pathetic your services are. 

5. While there are truck load of tools around, I got a sense of what the best tools to use for my own business and for my clients. 

Thanks to everyone who attended the session. Please leave a comment on something you learned or the value you got out of the session. 

Special Thanks to Shane Mercer and Herik Jondell from Core Technology Limited for providing the venue, drinks and nibbles. 

Answers vs Questions

 

During most of our lives, we run around like headless chooks trying to find Answers for Questions imposed by other people. At school, we Answered Questions from teachers and exam creators.  At work, we are trying to Answer Questions from the bosses, fellow workers, customers or board of directors. As we are caught on this "Answering Treadmill", we have forgotten the POWER OF QUESTIONS THAT WE NEED TO ASK OURSELVES.

Here is an example from my own life.  I left IBM in 1997 to start my first business. It was a simple idea (exporting software made in NZ/Australia to the world) but the business got very complicated, I made a truck load of mistakes and crashed it BIG TIME in 2003, loosing lots of money and all other heartaches that happen when you loose something really important to you. During the period of July 1997 to February 2003, that is 2190 days, I didn't smile.  Sad but true. 

Then I did a sales job for couple of years to recover financially and emotionally, and got back in to building another business in August 2005. Looking back, this is the most valuable question that I asked myself at that time.

"How can I design another business, so I can work with some amazing minds from NZ and around the world, do something that doesn't feel like work, and somehow make a living doing that ?"

The answer to that question has unfolded over the last three years and now I have a simple business, work with incredibly fantastic people and live a very happy life. 

Please feel free to leave a comment with your own story, where you managed to take a break from the "Answering Treadmill" and asked a powerful Question from yourself, and the rewards you gained by doing that. 

Happiness & "Other People"

Listening to number of conversations that are going around within my circle of concern prompted me to write this post. 

If you speak to someone who is unhappy and if you ask them why, it will be always due to someone else like Horrible Boss, Bad Partner, Lousy Customers, Crappy Suppliers and so on.  There is always someone else. 

If you depend on other people and other things to feel happy, then rest assured, you will always be unhappy. 

Happiness is a state of mind.  Every day above the ground is a gift and you can choose to be happy regardless of what the conditions surround you are.   

I love this statement ... "There is no such thing call bad weather ... you are wearing inappropriate clothing".

Like most skills in life,  you can learn to how be Happy. Here is a book that I highly recommend. 

Cost Cutting vs Increasing Revenue

It's amazing how much talk is happing on doom and gloom, cost cutting, losing jobs and so on.  

I guess cutting costs is the easy thing to do ... being creative about how to increase revenue is not so easy to do.  Because ...

a,  Cost cutting requires "Doing" mindset ... there are plenty of doers out there. 

b,  Increasing revenue requires "Thinking" mindset ... and trying stuff that others in your industry are too scared to even think about.  Most people don't have the courage to do this, especially in tough economic times. 

Recession is a great opportunity ... pick-up the courage and do something different.  It's lot more rewarding in the long term than the easy option. 

 

Risk vs Courage

I gave a speech a couple of weeks back at the IMC NZ (Institute of Management Consultants) Wellington branch meeting.  My topic was "Personal Innovation" ... in another words,  re-inventing oneself is one of the hardest but most rewarding things someone can do.  

So I have a new statement "Personal Innovation = Mother of All Innovations".  

Phil Guerin from Hague Consulting was in the audience. We had a chat after the meeting and agreed to meet for a coffee later on the week.  This idea came from the coffee meeting Phil and I had at Perretts Corner Cafe. 

While ideas are plentiful in peoples minds, innovation won't happen until an "Idea-Transforms-From Thought-to-Form". This requires courage to take a risk and make something new happen. 

As a nation, we spend truck loads of money on Risk Management activities & conference.  Phil's questions was, "Why don't we have a Courage Conference ?"

I thought it was a great idea ... and almost all of the people I have spoken about this have agreed it's a great idea.  I'm thinking of getting this idea off the ground in the new year ... keep it small (say 100 attendees and 10 presenters) and do it by March 2009.  

I would love to hear your comments and feedback for this idea. 

Goals & Writing vs Dreams & Speaking

 

There are zillions of articles and books written about goal setting and writing the goals down.  

I personally don't fancy the word "Goal" ... it's ok for short term tactical stuff but when you want to make a transformational change, the word "Goal" lacks emotion and a deep burning desire that comes from your inner-self.  

Dreams are powerful ... but most of our dreams, both personal and professional are buried under a massive heap of day to day stuff life throws at us. 

So here is a question for you to ponder about ...

"If anything was possible,  what is something insanely great that you can do with your life ?".

It will take some time for you to answer this question; weeks, days, months or even years. Once you find an answer, rather than writing it down, start talking about it to as many people as you can.  You will find that, every time you speak to someone, your Dream will become clearer and clearer, and the magic of "Cosmic Energy" will start to guide you in unexplainable, random & strange ways towards your dream. 

PS.  I learned the term "Cosmic Energy" from a book called "Embracing Uncertainty" from Susan Jeffers.  Great book to read if you are going through a huge change (planned or unplanned) in your life. 

What The Hell Is Your Value ? - I'm a Zero Gravity Thinker

Just finished reading this great book by Cynthia Barton-Rabe. (Cindy)  

She talks about how the weight of what an organization know, especially what they collectively know, holds them back and stifles innovation because of the GroupThink and ExpertThink syndromes. Words cannot explain how elated I was reading Cindy's research, because now I have published material to back-up and demonstrate two things.

1.  There is a huge value for organizations to involve crazy guys like me if they want to foster a culture of innovation. (Thanks Cindy for coining the term "Zero Gravity Thinkers" - Now I use it this term a lot in my conversations).

2.  The book is a great reference for my future clients to understand there is a method behind my madness. 

Click Here to visit Cindy's website and read more about this fantastic book.  

More People vs Less People

I had my 2nd V-Club (forum for innovative thinkers) meeting on Monday at NZTA Boardroom. I enjoyed it a lot more than my first V-Club session few months back. 

Last time,  I invited about 50 people and around 30 showed up. There were a number of short presentations around Innovation. It took lot of organization and I was really stressed out. 

This time, I invited only 20 people and 10 people came to the session. There was only one topic, "Innovation Opportunities around the iPhone".  

I showed few random You-Tube clips of some current applications and got a conversation going to spark few ideas. It was very satisfying to see a conversation flowing amongst a bunch of people that hardly knew each other, and few great ideas emerged from the discussion.  Fantastic !!!

We try to get as many people as possible for gatherings and events. We feel that for an event to be successful, we need a lot of people to turn up.  

For my future events, I will invite as less people as possible ... as a organizer and facilitator, it's less stressful but hell of a lot more enjoyable and productive.  

PS.  20 Nov 2008.  Just learned useful tip from Tom Peters.  That is ... "If you think you are going to attract only few people for your event, then hold your meeting in a phone booth. It's great to have only standing room and people struggling to get in the door".  Great tip ... Thanks Tom. 

Robots Inspired By Nature - A Really Cool 2 Minute Video

I came across this great video about how scientists are observing animals/insects and innovating new robots by cross-pollinating/combining ideas between Biology and Technology. 

Fast Thinking vs Slow Thinking

We are living in a world that expect instant gratification and satisfaction. 

I have been noticing that many people expect you to give quick answers to their questions. If the question is simple enough and you can answer it with without hesitation, yes go ahead and give an instant answer.  

But if its a valuable question, then don't rush into answering the question. 

When I stumble upon this situation, I say "I'm a slow thinker.  Your question is very valuable so I'm going to pass it on to my subconscious mind and let it do it's magic.  I would love to share the answer when I get it". 

Powerful questions are extremely valuable so don't rush and waste that opportunity.