Last week I had the great fortune to meet up with Carl Honore, author of the inspiring books, In Praise of Slow and Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children From the Culture of Hyper-Parenting. Carl was the very first member/anchor tenant at the fabulous coworking space in Battersea Park, London, called Le Bureau. I spent the day at Le Bureau and had lunch with Carl and Le Bureau’s owner/impresario Peter Spencer.
Among other things and movements that have been inspired by Carl’s lucid and insightful writing has been the web site/consultancy, Slow Leadership. An obvious follow-on to the slow-food movment–living and buying locally, mindful of our ecological footprint, and living within the naturally livable–the slow leadership/management movement is important, I think.
Innovation at InnovationCamp
In the purely corporate environment, innovation is all about growth, revenue, etc. As it should be. Interestingly, at our first InnovationCamp in Austin last weekend, much of the conversation centered around things non-corporate. Social entrepreneurship. Management of water policy for the public good. Educational innovation for at risk kids. How to create collaborative workspaces that bring out the best in people…
Regardless of how jaded we may be (and believe me, I’ve got that part nailed down), let’s face it: Some things are more important than others. Indeed, profitable enterprises drive much in our society, and without them we would be screwed. However, as InnovationCamp 1 showed us, there are LOTS of people interested in innovation who aren’t out to produce new varieties of day-glo widgets. I’m not sure the phrase Slow Innovation is worth coining, but there! I said it…
On these grounds, I call InnovationCamp a success.
From a very, very, very slow rural France…
The Butcher
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