Toilets, Innovation & Carp ... Day #41

Don't Fix What Is Not Broken...
After at least three missed connections Victor the Plumber appeared.  Of course I/we could not get the water inflow part of the toilet to leak.  "This is old stuff. You don't know what's going to happen when you start taking it apart.  My gut tells me to leave this alone."  After trip out to the plumbing truck to get a better understanding of the 'spud' and the spud removal tool, I, too, agreed that we should not take this apart.  There are a couple of good plumbing rules: 1) don't start a plumbing project on SAT afternoon 2) don't take old stuff apart if you don't know how it's going to end.

Victor is wise. 

Organizations, too, need to focus on big problems, not small ones.  The best advice often comes from workers who have inadvertently dug a deep hole.

Innovation...
During my leadership of the lean process improvement initiative we focused on big problems, the process challenges that could result in major decreases in loss.  Later leadership, and executive leadership, chose to focus on low-hanging fruit.  When you focus on low-hanging fruit you never get to the hard work.  Do not back off from challenges.

I'm re-reading "Ten Types of Innovation" by Larry Keeley.  He identifies a range of innovation opportunities, companies that have succeeded within single and combinations of those ten types.  When faced with a multitude of opportunities and strategies it's best to not be over-whelmed but to pick some doable but difficult challenges.

Carp...
Along with the opportunity of throwing a dog a bone and the dog's happiness

with that, we can also consider that people will stand in line for 'trash fish.'  The opportunity is all about packaging and price.

Logistics...

• using your smart phone as a hotspot is expensive
• headed to a couple of WI stops on WED, the final day of the road trip
• made a couple of calls in regards to one open opportunity
• moving to CA might not be in the cards for right now