Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Let's face it, my professional geeks, we love it. We also need it – hey, how many of us work to push the envelope or even get beyond envelopes entirely (we must not bow to the envelopes). For that matter, these days, innovation is needed both in a changing world and to deal with old ways of thinking and producing.
We are all about innovation.
The problem is innovation is often about leaving things behind.
So last column I mentioned that some businesses and companies were probably only surviving (perhaps even poorly) because they had simply become social institutions. We are used to these companies, and that keeps them from evolving–or dying off appropriately. So I asked myself, what companies and so forth were probably surviving due to a large part of sheer familiarity? The answer was pretty illustrative.
Here are a few I came up with. This is in no way the end all-be-all.
Aspiration.
It's a funny word, really, not one we use a lot. We talked casually about aspiring to something, having aspiration, but "aspiration" isn't one of those words people use a whole lot. It’s just a funny, useful words that we take out occasionally, like a special tool we use only under certain circumstances.
I've been thinking about this word lately, as I do; language fascinates me. Thinking about it, I realized that what a lot of people actually lack in their careers is aspiration. Maybe one of the reasons we don't use this useful word is because we don't experience what it means very much in our lives.
Aspiration. Aspiring to something. Directing ourselves towards something and hoping to get there. It's really a lovely word.