उतू नको मातू नको घेतला वसा टाकू नको

One of the poems I liked. I don't know the name of the poet of this poem, please let me know if you do. I searched all over the web, did not find the name of the poet.

एक मंत्र मनात धर चिलखताची छाती कर,
धुंद निधड्या अश्वासारखं एक वादळ श्वासात भर.

समशेर निस्फृह कर्तव्याची मुठीमध्ये तळपत ठेव,
एक ज्योत दिव्यत्वाची मनामध्ये तेवत ठेव.

असणार उन असणार पाऊस रस्ता कदाचित खडतर असेल,
पाऊल फसेल कधी नशीब रुसेल जग पण कधी तुला हसेल.

भिऊ नको हटू नको ध्येयापासून ढळू नको,
उतू नको मातू नको घेतला वसा टाकू नको.

अथांग हो नभासारखा धृवासारखा रहा अचल,
मार टाच शुरासारखा जेता होऊन पुढे चल.

पिसे होऊदेत रंगीत सुंदर पंखात विजेचे येउदे बळ,
डोळ्यात तीक्ष्ण भेदक सूर्य काळजात दयेची राहू दे कळ.

Innovation of Innovation

Question 1: What would you do if you are made the prime minister of India for 2 mins?
Answer 1: I will prepare Maggie noodles. :-)
Question 2: What would you do if you are made the prime minister of India for 10 mins?
Answer 2: Wow, now I can make Maggie noodles for me & 4 other friends and enjoy some good time together..
Question 3: What would you do if you are made the prime minister of India for 5 years?
Answer 3: I am sorry, first answer this: who will eat that much Maggie noodles?
:-)

Jokes apart, I just wanted to set the stage for the topic at hand.. How do we prick innovation? How do we ensure that what we produce is innovative? How do we bring it out in the open from the abyss of our subconcious intelligence?
Do we need to be:
1. Unit driven - mins, years?
2. Team driven - 5 friends?
3. Idea driven - Maggie?
4. Size driven - Small to Large (2 min to 5 years)?
5. Role driven - Prime Minister?
6. Goal driven - To eat something?
7. Resources driven - time, money, utensils, plates, bowls?

In my opinion, it has to be a combination of all of these.. However, whenever I attended any innovation related talks, people talk about generating ideas (the more the better) and seeing how much each idea is worth in terms of "savings" or "dollar value" or "time saving" or "efficiency improvement"... and then rewarding the person who submitted the idea which has the highest dollar tag. Yes, this may be innovation, but how many people innovate using that approach? I think the first thing that stalls innovation is the inherent assumption that it has to save money, or provide tangible financial or time benefit. Was iPhone built to save money, or time or provide a tangible financial benefit to someone?

Coming to the point, I think we need to change the approach of how we expect the innovation to happen.. how about just giving people freedom to innovate whatever they want without putting the constraints of tangible "savings" or "financial or time benefit". Of course they should innovate on a particular problem at hand, and not wander away from the goal that it has to provide "some" "unprecendented" way of doing "something" differently towards the goal of either solving the problem or dampening it. Lets not even define the "problem". Let them solve whichever problem they want (related to work of course, I think we already innovate a lot in our personal lives :-) )
1. Unit - mins, years? Freedom to use any unit..
2. Team - 5 friends? Freedom to team up with others or set out alone..
3. Idea - Maggie? Freedom to submit any idea related to work..
4. Size - Small to Large (2 min to 5 years)? Freedom to not constrain the idea within set size limits..but usually start small and then grow big..
5. Role - Prime Minister? Freedom to assume you have all powers..
6. Goal - To eat something? No definite goal.. solution of any problem through innovation is the only goal..
7. Resources - time, money, utensils, plates, bowls? Freedom to assume that all resources are available..
Something like this may foster innovation...

Measuring and rewarding innovation

An old quote by someone that I do not fully agree with: "Necessity is the mother of invention". Instead, I think "Necessity is the mother of innovation", and "Timepass is the mother of invention". Newton did not have a “necessity” to know why the apple fell down, he was just doing timepass sitting beneath an apple tree. I wonder why he did not think about gravitation while attending the nature’s call (:-) sorry for a gross reference, but I think Newton must have sat in the bathroom more often than beneath an apple tree).

Inventions happen because people are curious to know about something.. Innovations happen because people are curious to solve some definite problem.. that is just my take..

Anyway, whatever your definition of innovation may be...

the question that I am thinking about right now is: How should an innovator be awarded? Here are my few ideas about it:

Rewarding Innovation
1. Intrinsic reward: As I mentioned, an innovator innovates out of necessity of solving a specific problem at hand... and the solution of that problem itself is an intrinsic reward available to the innovator.
2. Extrinsic rewards: An innovation benefits a lot of people at large.. and an innovator should be able to capitablize on the use of his/her innovation by other people. So, the innovation should be measured on multiple parameters and the best one should be rewarded in terms of:
            a. Annual Appraisal Goal Fulfilment: A goal should be set on everybody's goalsheet for the FY 2013 and employees should be given goal fulfilment scores based on their innovations
            b. Cash rewards:
            c. Promotion:
            d. Title, and Power: A person with great innovations should be given the title of Innovation Shaktimaan, and given responsibility and powers to direct some fixed funds annually towards making some of the innovations possible.

These are just few ideas, your innovative comments and suggestions are most welcome.

Measuring Innovation
But how do we judge the usability or popularity or utility of a particular innovation.. should we put a dollar value on it? should we measure its popularity quotient? or should we have a set of 4 or 5 different parameters on which people should be able to vote for that innovation?
In my opinion, we should list down all the innovations and give them grades on different parameters like
a. utility (how frequently will I use this innovation daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually),
b. popularity (how much do I like this innovation Very high, high, medium, low, very low) etc.
c. respect (how much respect do you have for this innovation for its creativity, is the innovator a Steve jobs, or just an average Steve) - very high, high, medium, low, very low.

All these parameters should be averaged, and there should be an aggregate score given to the innovation based on which the innovation's potential should be guaged.

These are just few ideas, your innovative comments and suggestions are most welcome.