When technique gives way to innovation
 I was watching Gary Numan on the BBC's red button device. He was talking about his music and how electronic music differed from what had cone before. Something he said struck me. With playing a piano or guitar the emphasis is on technique and how many notes you can play in a millisecond. Electronic music, on the other hand, was about the sound. And it didn't matter how much - or little - technique you had as long as that sound was good.
Which struck me as an interesting analogy. Business has become a little too much about technique. We focus a little too much on processes and procedures and risk assessments. What we lose sight of is then whether our "music" sounds interesting and fresh and exciting.
Perhaps this has to do with size. An orchestra cannot function without technique. It needs that emphasis on the skill of playing the perfect note to produce the sound it does. Yet those sounds, no matter how creative we think they may be, are heavily scripted and come down to a question of interpretation.
On the other hand the small business can be that purveyor of electronic music and focus on the sound that it makes, no matter how it gets there. Of course there will be failures, sounds that don't quite come off or die a miserable death. And there will be fads. But there will be experimentation too.
Of course, even the innovator has to conform. Eventually the fans will expect the soloist to perform "just as they did on the album.". They will be forced to focus on their technique and on interpretation. They maybtry to reinvent themselves, but eventually they will be absorbed by what they first stood against or at least apart from.
The moral of this tale? By all means focus on your outcomes and your innovation now, but remember that greatness and longevity comes from eventually mastering technique.
Previously on this blog...
the global leader in Contact Center Consolidation 2.0
2.0 has become a meaningless addition to already poor tag lines.
A dozen beautiful images of Saturn
Wired presents a dozen of the best images from the Cassini mission
Setting up shop in a new country: beyond the website
Building a website for multiple languages is not just about translation. It is a critical business decision that has to be taken carefully.
Why call centre staff deserve your respect
If call centre staff set the first impression for your business, why do we treat them so badly?
Becoming a Specialist? A hard decision to make ...
Specialising requires hard strategic decisions to be made about your business.
When good people move on
Losing a member of staff to another company is not necessarily a bad thing
The quest for quality in Agile Software Development
Why quality assurance remains a central part of project management, regardless of the use of Agile methods
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