Understanding innovation

In this column last week our appetite for nostalgia was discussed. Nostalgia has its place but it can be a source of stasis or inertia. This is not the time for either. Now is when we must be thinking like mavericks if we are to overcome the multitude of setbacks of the last two years.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence that we in TT, as citizens, have grasped the significance of what has happened and how the world has changed. I see a deep and discouraging desire for a fullscale return to old ways, which the discerning among us know to be past their sell by date. It is all around us – people trying to block others who they feel are stepping out of line by attempting to do things differently or are thinking in a challenging way about what is being done and why. We are surrounded by people who are so process driven that they lose sight of the objective. By process, I mean how it should be done because it has always been done in a particular way. They refute a result because someone moved a left foot instead of a right one first. They are oblivious to the fact that the same point was arrived at. They are ruled by rules which they glorify rather than see the reason for and follow because they are relevant to the circumstances.

It happens at all levels of authority. For example, the bored and autocratic customs officer at the airport who insists that, with no one ahead of you or behind you, you should still walk along an empty lane and up another empty one with your heavy suitcase when you could easily take a short cut. Or the man in the queue to renew drivers’ permits who lambasted me for filling in the form while waiting in line, considering it correct to stand aside and then join the queue. You can scale that up a few notches to arrive at the levels of blockage that exist in business. Groupthink is dangerous and we must resist it because it steals our individual power and robs us of the ability to move ahead.

There is a lot of talk about innovation but few people understand that turning an idea into a reality is where innovation truly lies, not just in the idea itself. Most environments are not conducive to genuine innovation because they are driven by the status quo, and they do not actually welcome people who are innovative. I recently witnessed a case in which an employer preferred to rely upon the results of a psychometric test, which is only an indicator of potential, rather than upon the proven innovatory skills of an existing employee, when those precise skills were being sought for the advancement of the company.

Fortunately, some people really are engaged in innovation. Exciting developments are occurring in the cocoa industry, with private individuals taking calculated risks in adding value to our cocoa production by investing in chocolate making and chocolate products. A brand new chocolate cream liqueur, Tobago Gold, was recently launched here and is now on supermarket shelves, but it is also on the market in Mexico and South Africa and has several European distributors lined up. The new product is leveraging our well established tradition of mixing cocoa, rum, spices and milk to create an internationally appealing brand. It is not an extraordinary idea but the production methods, financing and marketing strategy are all innovative, overcoming the numerous pitfalls and constraints of operating in this difficult-to-do-business country of ours.

We might not consider innovation as belonging to the field of diplomacy, but I heard a short tribute by Foreign Minister Dr Amery Browne to recently deceased retired TT ambassador, independent senator and assistant secretary general of the Organization of American States, Christopher Thomas. It struck me that to have had such a long, varied and illustrious life in national and international public service, Thomas must have had very good judgement and capacity for new thinking. We know from Reginald Dumas’s autobiography, The First Thirty Years, that belonging to the early cadre of TT diplomats, Thomas would have had to create foreign policy on the hoof since there was little direction coming from WhiteHall, and he might even have had to creatively defend the status quo at times when personally at odds with the government. So that while diplomacy might suggest groupthink it requires independent thought and actions to solve critical problems, not attempting to impose a single logic on an array of complex situations that involve diverse countries and peoples with often conflicting priorities.

We should consider the role of leadership in allowing innovation, which leads to transformation. Whatever the field, good leadership is about knowing your own limits and letting others do what you can’t and they excel at, in an environment of mutual regard. We need dynamic leadership in every aspect of our life and work at this moment, and we should fast-track the people who can take us forward, not restrain them.