I’m nearly at the end of Youngme Moon’s, Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd. It’s been a fairly good read so far. She’s been able to make even the most obvious of business ideas seem fresh.
There are a number of ideas/quotes that have stuck with me that I plan on sharing with you. To start:
Great ideas, novel ideas, original ideas…are tenuous at birth. And the reason for this is that, early on, they are often indistinguishable from crazy, impractical ideas.
…if we want innovation to happen, we need to suspend our disbelief enough to let it happen.
I’m a firm believer in this statement. I’m sure you are too having encountered the naysayers within your organization. The challenge – whether you be a start-up or struggling not-for-profit – is to create an environment, an organizational culture if you will, that is at minimum non-hostile to new ideas. Once you’ve established this type of environment, the next step is to create a culture of support. This is when fledgling ideas really take root, grow and proliferate.
What steps are you taking to change your organizational culture to be supportive of new ideas? I’d love to know.
RockHealth Report: A glimpse into the state of digital healthcare entrepreneurship
The first start-up I joined was an ehealth company called MCard Inc. It was 1995 and we were attempting to bring consumer medical records to the smartcard. We were a bunch of young Stanford grads with big dreams of making a difference. An exciting time. Obviously, our company didn’t survive as the personal health record business was many many years away from becoming a reality. It’s great to see a new generation of entrepreneurs attempting to tackle this challenge and others in the digital health arena. The RockHealth report is a short read that provides some insight into today’s challenges, opportunities and attitudes.