Technology and Organizations

Windows Phoenix Team at Red Bull Flugtag from Terri Griffith on Vimeo.

John Hagel recently highlighted Aaron Saenz’ Are We Too Plugged In? Distracted vs. Enhanced Minds in his Facebook stream.  John chose this quote from the article: “Prioritize down time. Enhancing your mind sometimes means knowing when to give it a break.” I have evidence to support this summary (even some that’s rigorous): The energy and innovation in evidence at Red Bull Flugtag and academic work on the value of some forms of work interruptions.  My take away is that we need to be realistic and thoughtful about the value of play as we design it into our work practice.

From Saenz’ article:

It is apparent, however, that unplugging from the internet, removing yourself from all distractions, is beneficial. [New York Time columnist Matt Richtel] took a team of scientists on a rafting trip away from all connectivity. Even the skeptics noticed a profound difference in their own behavior after a few days unplugged. We seem to have a finite amount of ‘working memory’ in our brains, removing distractions may allow deeper thoughts and reasoning to use working memory taken up by information overload.

I spend most of my work time thinking about how best to weave technology tools, organizational practice, and human capabilities into a powerful, appropriately balanced, whole.  I call people who have the skill to do this balancing “systems savvy managers” and I’m fortunate to get to highlight their examples in this blog.

Aaron Saenz puts this balancing in the context of down time.  He notes:

As neuroscientists explore the brain we may be able to better design the flow of data to optimize our mental performance. We may find that productivity is maximized when we check emails three times a day, when we only have four windows open on our screens at once, or if we limit texting to times when we’re not driving. Until we have that precision guiding our online behavior, it’s up to each of us to figure out how best to plug into information technology. But take my advice: prioritize down time. Enhancing your mind sometimes means knowing when to give it a break.

Many management scholars would agree.  Jett & George, for example, provide an overview of the role and types of interruptions in the workplace.  Great summary of negative distractions versus helpful breaks that can recharge energy and enable creative ideas to incubate. Mainemelis & Ronson tell us “ideas are born in fields of play” and present a framework discussing the practical relevance of play.  But Karl Weick says it best for me, “Play is important not because it teaches some new skill, but because it takes activities that are already in one’s repertoire and gives one practice in recombining those into novel sets.”

It’s the practice of recombination, a skill critical to innovation, that provides me with the best evidence for the value of play as down time.  There are areas of management research (e.g., work on transactive memory in teams, pdf) that point to the value of teams working on job-specific tasks and with their job-specific teammates.  However, in the case of innovation, I believe that recombination is the job-specific skill and there is benefit to being off-task as noted by Jett & George and Mainemelis & Ronson.

Richtel took scientists rafting to force them into disconnected down time.  How about the team of Microsoft Business Group employees who took part in the Long Beach, CA Red Bull Flugtag? In Flugtag, a team builds a craft that theoretically can fly from a 30’-high pier.  Four pushers and a pilot are allowed on the pier and the whole craft, including pilot, can weigh up to 450lbs. Quoting from one of the pushers, “this is about as Microsoft a project as you could get – you have a bunch of super-smart guys and girls playing with polycarbonate, power tools, and CAD [computer-aided design] programs.”  For two months, eight Microsoft employees spent their free time designing the Phoenix.  In less than 12 seconds, the craft was off the ramp and floating in the water.  Not a record flight, but a valuable experience:

• They got to practice a different kind of innovation than typical in their work
• They got to connect with new people at Microsoft — the team was built by emails to a diverse set of employees
• They got to take a break

Finding systems savvy ways to weave play into your life can be more than just fun — though Flugtag is GREAT fun — it can have innovation value for your organization.

Yesterday was the World Electric Aircraft Symposium sponsored by GE Aviation. Craig Willan chaired a full day of visionary perspectives and technical updates from Burt Rutan (Scaled Composites), Bertrand Piccard & Andre Borschberg (Solar Impulse), Chris Van Buiten (Sikorsky), JB Straubel (Tesla Motors),  Erik Lindbergh (Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize), Randy Babbitt (FAA), Robert Iorio (Ford), Chet Fuller (GE Aviation) and others.

I was attending given my interest in the innovation infrastructure side of the story, and the fact that I think an electric airplane (i.e., quiet) sounds like heaven.  I’ve been talking with people from the emerging electric aircraft world for the last 9 months or so and was thrilled to hear that the symposium had to be moved to a larger venue given greater than expected registration.  This is the first time I’ve seen an innovation community from near the beginning.  Thank you to Bob Waldron for the heads up!

I also was interested in what, if any, advice I could give to the leaders around how to support the community.  The players are diverse, ranging from EAA (the membership organization that puts on AirVenture, Oshkosh), the burgeoning firms (see my prior posts on Yuneec, Sonex, and Cessna/Bye Energy), standards committee members, foundations (CAFE, Creative Solutions Alliance), NASA, and individual enthusiasts.  Or at least I thought that was the community.

By the end of the symposium I’d decided that thinking only about the people and organizations interested in electric aircraft was too narrow.  The speakers came from across the world of electric propulsion.  GE, Ford, and Tesla all have deep connections to aviation either through history or personal interests, but their expertise is much broader than just aviation. The community is one of “electric propulsion” or perhaps “high reliability/light weight electric propulsion.”  The answers won’t come from a narrow perspective.  In fact, the common theme throughout the day was the necessity of government, industry, academic, and enthusiast collaboration.  Solutions will come from across the systems needed to make this work.  There is no single hurdle to overcome.

I’d first chosen to include this picture just because it made me laugh. That’s a Southwest 737 (with the new navigational capability installed) lined up with a USAF C5 Galaxy (one of the largest military transports). The caption provided by the photographer was “Think she’ll fit?” Cracked me up, especially as I’d done a walk-thru of the C5 yesterday.

But then I realized the picture related to my thinking about the electric aircraft community.  We shouldn’t be trying to shoehorn the community into a particular space.  Instead we should be letting the innovation flow across the components in a more synergistic way.

I’m going to let the events of the last week settle a bit.  I look forward to continuing the conversations and have as some homework re-reading Huggy Rao’s work on enthusiasts in innovation. His ideas of “hot causes” and “cool mobilization” may speak to how to best limit or open boundaries around this community.

How can you follow the development of the electric aircraft revolution?  Follow the prizes:

E-Flight Prize
LEAP
NASA Green Flight challenge

Electric aircraft aficionados: are there questions you’d like asked?

Wired’s Aug 2010 cover has Will Ferrell in a white skin suit with the title, “The Future That Never Happened.”  I’m going to where the future IS happening (hybrid planes, flying cars, personal electric aircraft, and all): AirVenture.  For the next week or so I will focus on electric aircraft and any other whiz bang innovation I can get a picture of.  I’ll be fighting over 550,000 other enthusiasts through the mud and aircraft noise to see what Boeing, GE, Airbus, NASA, cutting-edge vendors, and 1000s of homebuilders have to offer.

AirVenture is the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual convention, airshow, and meetup.  From July 26 to Aug 1, 2010, Oshkosh, Wisconsin will be the heart of innovation — as well as the busiest airport (yes, busier than Atlanta given that the OSH control tower can handle over 3,000 flights in 10 hours).  I’m going to leave the Silicon Valley behind and focus on innovations you can get inside.

Electric aircraft had some exposure last year, but 2010 is a major milestone —  GE Aviation is sponsoring the World Symposium on Electric Aircraft as well as the Aviation Learning Center.  I’m looking forward to daily themed forums (search here with keyword: electric) and Friday’s full-day event:

Demo flights are on Sat, but I’ll be on a commercial flight home unless I can find a better ride… hint… hint.

Hope to see you there.  I’ll be wearing shirts with either Santa Clara University or N58PP logos — say, “Hi!”