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Good Morning Thinkers!
Archive: October 30, 2000

Greetings to all of you ... especially to those of you who have been around since this message began in early 1995 ... which makes us very, very old in web years.

We've always tried to practice what we preach and, as a result, the InnovationNetwork is now in the midst of a complete reinvention (I'm sure some of you sharp-eyed folks will notice that we even lost the space between Innovation and Network! I'm sure there's a deep philosophical meaning behind that but I think it was more because we liked the look of it.)

To paraphrase our friend Dickens: it's the best of times; it's the worst of times. But, it's only the worst of times because someone decided that a day could only have 24 hours ... and part of those have to be spent eating, sleeping and remembering that we have a life outside of work.

In case you're interested in the "why" of this reinvention, it was prompted by a powerful stimulus for change: failure. Over the past several years, we've seen some incredible innovation programs flourish and then die when the champion left or the organization experienced some type of reversal. This was very disheartening but turned out to also be very stimulating.

This failure helped us see that in order for innovation to live, it has to become deeply embedded in the organization. Every member of the organization must understand what it is and how to do it. It made us realize that it's critical to build dynamic innovation communities that can form a ground swell in an organization. And, that it's also critical to provide a platform of information and activities to stimulate interest, conversation and action. Fortunately, technology supports this need because almost every major organization has an intranet that offers its employees access to information and dialog.

This reinvention was prompted also by the failure of our chosen business model. In 1993, we organized ourselves as a professional membership association, thinking that was a way to bring people together to share ideas and create an open forum for change. It wasn't a bad idea but it turned out to be weak, especially in the financial arena. It did not create enough financial viability to do the things we envisioned and to make the difference we truly want to make in organizations and in the world.

This failure prompted us to completely rethink our business model and what it would take to help organizations develop a core competency of innovation. We killed all the sacred cows, challenged all of the assumptions, and I think we've come up with some truly remarkable stuff.

Anyway, all of us here at IN are very excited about our new directions but to make them happen, we need to take a slight break from our current processes ... such as creating this message every week. For the next 2-3 weeks the messages you receive will be gleanings from some remarkable internet places. We think you'll enjoy these messages but we will be delayed in getting the list of books you shared to you.

Some time in the next few weeks, you will be invited to our new website which we think breaks new ground ... but you'll have to decide that for yourselves. We will also tell you about a powerful new series of web teleconferences and workshops and some ways that you can create innovation communities in your own organization.

We appreciate your patience in this rebuilding process and we hope to invite you over to our new place about mid-November. Thanks again for joining us on this journey.

Joyce Wycoff, Ruth Ann Hattori, Andrea Woodward