Saturday, May 6, 2023
We have thousands of trees and bushes on our property, and some begin to bloom in early April if the weather is warm enough, but some don’t bloom until late May regardless of the weather. We always think that some of them have died, but they simply have their own schedule.
Some people “bloom” more slowly than others. That doesn’t mean they’re “dead,” but rather that they bloom when the conditions and environment are most productive for their continued growth. Don’t always assume the individual is at fault or is deficient.
My original doctoral dissertation was turned down because I had tried to prove (using three Fortune 500 clients) that certain behavioral predispositions produced more innovative results on the job. I actually proved the opposite: Despite one’s behavioral norms, people became more innovative in environments that fostered and rewarded innovative behaviors, and didn’t innovate at all when the environment didn’t support it. In my career, I shifted my approaches from “training” in innovation for individuals to educating management in how to create more innovative organizational polices and environments, which was far more successful.
Incidentally, Tokyo, Boston, and New York were voted the top three innovative cities in the world in 2021, and they all have huge temperature variations!)