Few things irritate me more than the response “Because that’s how we’ve always done it.”
You might as well say “I’m not creative enough to imagine better processes.”
One major part of “corporate” work that needs innovation, as anyone who’s spent up to half their day in them knows, are meetings.
Don’t get me wrong; some meetings are necessary and productive. But most of the time, they are filled with four-page-long, bullet point agendas that leave half of the people in the room scrolling through social media and the other half with such a blank stare you consider checking their pulse. Either way, people miss out on the point of the meeting, which has to be rehashed at least five times.
Apps such as Slack and Asana have dissolved the needs for most meetings. But the companies that insist on daily meetings should institute rules to help everyone involved: 1) no cell phones allowed 2) Everyone stands.
Each gives participants skin in the game to escape the meeting quickly.
Often while I sit in the second hour of a meeting contemplating the work I could have been doing while one person explains a new rule to someone else who had been watching dog videos during the first explanation, I consider how a world without innovation would look.
One in which people spend hours of their day doing laundry by hand. One that requires people to travel by cab (think present-day Austin), depending on drivers to pick you up, waiting minutes in the cold only to get into a cab with a stranger whose car is dirty, without knowing an exact price or proof of the trip’s destination.
One in which business people have to budget each month with a calculator instead of using excel, or tracking their spending in Mint.
One in which you have to tune into radio shows at a precise hour of the day instead of streaming at any time using podcasts.
One in which requires waiting through long lines at the grocery stores instead of using a self-checkout and then leaving.
One in which cars didn’t exist, and living in different states could quite literally separate people for life.
One in which you have to pay close to $100 per month to watch a few TV shows.
One in which parents losing multiple children before the age of 20 was normal.
One in which living in a certain part of the country meant lacking certain nutrients and food that sustain life because no supply chain existed.
A life without innovation is not a good one. And that’s why creativity, thinking outside the traditional sphere of life, and always striving to better yourself and processes is so important.