Hurry slowly! Give innovation time, if possible. Manu De Bruyn, Gerrit Jan van de Pol, Arjen ter Velde (ECCI, oct. 28-30 2009, Brussels) A. Introduction: hurry slowly! We don‟t like to hear that „slowing down‟ or „rest‟ can sometimes be more efficient than „speed‟ and „haste‟. We prefer identifying with words as dynamic, vital and energetic. We associate „slow‟ with boring and „slowing down‟ with going backwards. Yet we were already warned centuries ago: the Roman historian Suetonius (70-130) posited the winged words „Festina Lente!‟ This Latin proverb means „Hurry slowly‟ or „Hurry carefully‟ and it carries a powerful double meaning for each innovator. On the one hand, as an innovator, you have to speed up numerous innovation processes. You shouldn‟t let anyone steal your thunder. On the other hand this has to be carried out in a cautious manner, active and involved, but cautiously. Both facets are important, but in this story we want to point to the importance of the „thoughtful‟ side of Suetonius‟ proverb. We all know that wine has to „mature‟, dough has to „rise and meat has to „marinate‟ or „dry‟. Nature shows us the facts every year: in winter plants and animals recuperate in silence. Speeding up, slowing down and rest have a distinct function in nature. We know all this, but we are often blind to it when managing innovation. Through this narrative we want to illustrate on the one hand, why an entrepreneur sometimes instinctively wants to accelerate, while slowing down is sometimes appropriate. On the other hand, we will take the reader through the different phases of the innovation process and point to moments when rest or slowing down can be beneficial, ranging from inserting incubation time, processing feedback to the creation of acceptance. B. The reminiscence effect Does this situation apply to yourself or one of your colleagues?
„You‟re an idea person. You always see possibilities, you like to nose in books and surf the Internet. You talk to clients, you‟re enthusiastic, you see advantages rather than disadvantages and you bounce ideas off your colleagues. Then you receive a good-natured smile (That‟s how we know you!) and everyone gets on with his or her daily business. You ask yourself desperately: why don‟t they go along with it?‟ People sometimes „experience‟ the same „absolute‟ time in a completely different manner. When our brain has to process a lot of stimuli, it seems as if time speeds up. It also works the other way around: if our brain only has to process a small amount of stimuli, time seems to move more slowly. This is time as we experience it in the moment. However, if our memory looks back on time as we experience it afterwards when we recall he moment, something peculiar happens: exciting times, that left a lot of recognition marks in the memory, take up a lot of memory space in the brain. In retrospect it seems as if the period lasted a long time. Periods with little variation are compressed in the brain: the days are so much alike that they are interchangeable. Looking back you have the impression that the period of time flew by. This phenomenon is called the „reminiscence effect‟ and it is important for anyone who wants to stimulate innovation in an organization to take this into account. A nice example is „the week of vacation‟. Every day your brain processes new information (a new house, an unknown supermarket, interesting sights, new roads,...). The days seem to fly by, but if you return to your work after a week, it is as if you‟ve been gone a long time. The colleagues
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