Archive for October 6th, 2008

Posted on October 6, 2008 - by Vic Desotelle

Vic on Keepin’ it Green – the Color of “Sustainable Innovation”

As most of you who clicked into this space: green is no longer a do-good concept. No, in fact it has become a manditory part of defining any business, any organization, any city … really anything that we humans have the ability to think about and create will forever be different because of the green movement and its identity with how we manage our home  – that big round house we call Earth and all the living communities that inhabit it.

Green for me, goes beyond the idea of ‘environment’. In fact, I find that most talk about the environment often separates us two-leggers with big brains; as if we lived in the environment but were not apart of it. This is a wakeup call: We are “THAT”. And this means that how we address green has to address our interconnectedness with anything that we normally discuss as if its something outside of ourselves.

So, in this section of the blog, we will be having conversations about green as essential to the way we see ourselves. From that we create what we need and what we want. This is called innovation from my view. So as we move into what many believe is a critical period in determining the future of human-kind, we will talk about things that address green (or sustainability) as a catalyst for creating next-generation innovation. This is why we have set the primary theme of this blog as ’sustainable innovation’. Join me on this journey. Give me some feedback.

Posted on October 6, 2008 - by Vic Desotelle

Vic on Team Building

Allow me to set the context for this section of my blog.

For me, team building is a highly important aspect of any organization’s development. Very few of you will argue me that.

However, I propose that it is rare to see team building as a process that is directly integrated into the work that needs to get done. Instead, team building is done using separate programs, like climbing trees together, or goofy games that create bonding. Yeah, it does that to an extent. But there is nothing better than a team that builds itself amidst the project they are working on – and doing that consciously together.

Now ‘that’ is the best way to build teams in my view.

It is a method that I emphasize strongly during the discovery process as I believe it is the way to fuel deeper forms of innovation. When team building is separate from the work at hand, it is harder to relate what happened when you were hanging 100 feet in the air from a rope when – back at the company – a statement is made by someone that just doesn’t make sense. How do you team with that?

Integrate team building with your project and get better more sustained results. Then go out and have some fun outside of the workplace together.