Innovation at Work

It’s about time that most of us would have joined work. We would have got used to the processes at work and probably even started getting frustrated seeing some of them. We might have even cursed ourselves that how we are a tiny fry in a big organization.


We have also heard the tales of how some organization are innovative and entrepreneurial in nature while others have none of these qualities. People would go all lengths to be part of these organizations. So is innovation restricted to only the likes of Google or 3M. We can delay it into eternity by thinking that our time for making the changes will come when we reach the place of CXO’s.



Alternately we can do something which is being advocated by Robin Sharma in his latest book” Leader without Title” and try to make small but incremental changes in our work place irrespective of our position. Well appears easy but is it difficult to implement?



I found a live example of some one trying innovation from unexpected corner. Every day while going back from office to home, I would face a traffic jam at the Hope farm circle. It is not due to heavy traffic but a specific reason.



All along the square are four lane roads except for the one going to Chanshankara, which is two-lane road. There are no free left turns at the square. Just on the beginning of the road is the assumed bus stop for passengers who wish to board the bus going towards Chanshankara. Since this road remains narrow throughout and has heavy traffic there is no space for making an alternate bus stop ahead of this one. As a result when the buses going towards Chanshankara stop, to take the passengers, traffic behind them going towards Chanshankara comes to an absolute halt, most of the times on the very square itself. So even when the light turns green for the other sides of the square the vehicles cannot move due to blocked square. Many fellow commuters and I have seen this scene, honked in agony and many a times curse the people who travel by bus, as if they had a bus stop choice. The traffic policeman standing there would turn a blind eye to this episode which plays itself many times over in the day.

 

It is here that I saw an example of ingenuity and leadership at grass root levels. Some of the policeman tried a novel idea. Since shifting the bus stop was not in their power they devised a solution keeping it a “hard constraint”. They started halting the traffic coming from Chanshankara much before the traffic signals equivalent of two buses length from the signal. Under this arrangement the bus would stop at the bus stop at the beginning of the road. However other vehicles would move from the side of the bus, traveling in the opposite lane for a while before they would cross the bus and reach ahead of the bus and follow the normal lane. Incidentally, keeping the traffic light of their side green for an additional 10 seconds compensated the traffic, which was halted much short of traffic signal. Though the solution defies the traffic laws (of moving in your lane), it offers the best solution under the given set of constraints. I was really amused with this simple solution, which was put forward and implemented by just two things – Common sense and a willingness to make a difference.