Nuturing INNOVATION

I recently found the post below on McKinsey & Company's blog site. It is stunning to see a mirrored reflection of the driving principles that have informed our FutureWave effort. We feel so passionately that as a nation, we must CHANGE THE CONVERSATION. We're talking VISION ... but not vision as in the typical tactical corporate exercise that spawns just another "to do," often accompanied by a roll of the eyes. We mean the VISION that truly sets the course for creative destruction and new opportunities. We're talking NATIONAL CULTURE CHANGE. And CREATIVITY, often deemed soft and unmeasurable, and MIA from the line items in a job description. We know the GENIUS is in the room, and the exercise is unlocking the abundance that we all carry with us.

I love that McKinsey was so bold to use the words "nurture" and "innovation" in the same sentence. This tells me that the times, they are a changin'.

"Can humankind find its way to a world that is cleaner, safer, and fairer than the one we inhabit today---and can we do it with 50% more people? The answer is, possibly. It will require a complex interaction of vision, innovation, and policy all coming together at precisely the right moment. We will need leaders who have the foresight, financial wherewithal, and public standing to set the stage for global change. Just as important, we'll need grassroots activists around the world working on innovative small-scale projects and implementing visionary technologies. Perhaps the most important thing policy makers can do is allow those efforts to flourish."

Read the full McKinsey & Company article, "Nurturing Innovation"