If your
read the book "Sapiens A brief History of Humankind" it will give you an
extraordinary view of our development as a cognitive species. One thing I would
like to write about, inspired by the book and by working with innovation is what
happened to a person that fell asleep year 1000 and woke up year 1500?
Imaginary of course, but that person would maybe find that ships were a little
bit different, some new swords, tackle and rope. New emperors and empires but
not much of a shock.
Now let´s imagine that same person falling asleep again
the year of 1500 and wake up again 500 years later. Now it’s year 2000. What a
change!
So we have
to ask us, what made this leap happen? If we want to make it short, we admitted
that we knew nothing. Before year 1500 nobody admitted they did not know, every
explanation was written down with religious explanations mostly. But once you allowed yourself
to draw maps with white fields for the unknown somebody had to go there and find
out.
So in all
this talk about innovation, especially in big organisations, let’s create a
culture where we can admit that we know nothing about most things.