Prototyping the future – a disruptive leap in to the unknown, and back again….

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I usually blog in my native language but I will write this post in English as the day, called ”Prototyping the Future”, was conducted in English from start to end.

The world is changing, the rules of client engagement has changed in the last couple of years and even though we change the way we act in our personal lives, few of the corporations we serve have adapted to the change.

Everybody knows that we have to start acting differently, but when the going gets tough, when the numbers keep coming in red, we ask our colleagues to run out there and keep doing what we used to be doing, just more of it and faster! The wheels are spinning faster and faster and red flags are being raised everywhere but we still use the same fuel as before to throw on the fire…

Voices might be raised: “We need to think outside the box!”, “Let’s gather our closest colleagues that we get along with, go into our most comfortable conference room and let us brainstorm…” Do we really expect innovation to come out of that?

After our unique meeting on November 8th, where we – IBM together with Protothon and a selected number of our clients – took our real problems with us into a room of unknown talents, unknown to us but well known for their innovative mindsets, not colored by the companies rules and routines, it appears crystal clear to me: true innovation requires letting go of prejudices, open minds and lateral thinking, courage, and a leap into a sometimes uncomfortable unknown.

This makes me think of another quote from an unexpected source, “If you have a problem with plumbing – call a poet.” (Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden lead singer).

Or ”If you are a gourmet chef and want to invent your own specialty soup, you can not keep using the same ingredients, or you will have the soup come out tasting the same.” (Anonymous Prototyping the Future participant)

To summarize the day, in this blog of quote’s galore, I think Joe Coppard of Protothon said it best; “It was DISRUPTIVE.”

We embarked on a journey together. Marketing and technology, colliding with creativity in workshops and meetings that opened up our minds. It was an extraordinary experience. My thanks to everybody that participated and made this day unique. May we continue this journey together in the future, too!

”There is no magic, and there is no luck – the difference between a winner and a loser is that the winner seizes the opportunity and capitalizes on it.” (Charlotta Wark, November 12, 2012)