Oh Brave New World – Singapore?

“O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!  How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world!  That has such people in’t!”   – Miranda, The Tempest, Shakespear 

I write this post while on holiday in Singapore, visiting friends.  In the first few days I am struck by the difference in culture, and an immedieate feeling that this is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  It certainly has more than enough shopping malls to satisfy the most dedicated consumer.  It also has a high control/obediance culture.  This means low crime and decent homes, a good standard of living for most, and a powerful economy.

However, one friend complains of lack of creativity at work from Singaporeans.  This fits well with things I have read, that mark the local culture as good at getting things done in an organised and efficient manner, but poor at the sort of indivdualistic innovation we see more of in the West.  Another friend here said “it all looks nice, but scratch beneath the surface and there’s no history”.  Everything we see is new, as if the past has been deliberately obliterated. 

So low crime, good standard of living.  Yet this country of cleanliness and order makes me think of Australia, another good time culture, but where the vicious past and maltreatment of the Aborigines was hidden and largely ignored.  Not that I know of any darkness hidden in Singapore.  Its just that my internal bias kicks in to link the two.  If I had to pick a reason, its that I value chaos and creativity and dissent more highly than order, material satisfaction and community.  My bias probably.

Yet I am left with the question: “Is it better to be Socrates dissatisfied?” (J.S.Mill)

Innovation – failure and success

I have led two similar innovative projects for not for profit organisations, one of which was implemented, and the other of which suffered prolonged delays.  While many innovation projects stumble and fail, working on two similar projects gave me a chance to compare factors that may have contributed to getting through the planning stage to implementation.

First, I asked myself if it was me?  The projects happened at roughly the same time and I don’t think my approach was significantly different.  In both cases participants were very enthusiastic and I paid insufficient attention to some of the powerful stakeholders involved.

Next, I considered how they differed in scope.  The one that suffered the most delay was more ambitious and involved greater potential innovation.  This made it harder to persuade the powerful stakeholders to approve implementation.

However, the most significant factor appeared to be the forces driving the need for change.  The delayed project had powerful business drivers, but they were not as acute as in the other case.  In addition, the CEO set a clear deadline for the one that went successfully through to implementation, forcing other stakeholders to make decisions.

I’ve drawn several tentative lessons from this:

1. Projects need a powerful champion who can ensure barriers to timely implementation can be overcome.
2. Pay attention to powerful and interested stakeholders, even if they are only going to be involved in a final review and sign off – the importance of persuasion and politics.
3. Outside forces help promote change.
4. Smaller step by step adaptations are easier to implement than more ambitious innovations.
5. A big change requires either a very pressing need and powerful champions, or involvement of as many interested stakeholders as possible.

These lessons apply to my work in the not for profit sector, where the involvement of all potential stakeholders is widely expected and risk can often be treated conservatively.  Note that I am only thinking about getting a project through into implementation here, not about the quality of the final result.

Point 5 links to reasons why it is so hard for organisations to change and innovate in a timely way, and why strategic drift may be so widespread.  Innovation changes culture, culture can represent a mindset that it is hard to step out of, so perhaps the biggest job for any significant innovation is to manage powerful stakeholders so that they are ready for change.