While tidying some paperwork I came across this doodle I scrawled during one of those boring and pointless meetings. You know the one’s, no agenda, no identifiable aims or deliverables, the biggest ego in the room does all the talking and at the end of the meeting there are no agreed or delegated next steps, and everyone else present had limited opportunity to contribute. After an hour you leave the room or call thinking ‘that’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back’.
Back to the doodle, I vaguely remember thinking at the time about the relationship between the type and frequency of supervision versus the ability for employees to apply free and creative thinking in their everyday work. If the supervision is too controlling, restrictive and applied at a micro level, the majority of employees are unable to present new, fresh and innovative ideas.
Wikipedia defines “innovation” in its modern meaning as “a new idea, creative thoughts, new imaginations in the form of device or method”. Innovation is often also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation on 21 January 2020
The H and L’s stand for each end of the spectrum being High and Low. The circle indicates the degree of balance between ‘the level of supervision’ and the ability for an employee to ‘free think’. Too much application of supervision restricts the level of free thinking and vice versus. The main thing is it’s important to understand this relationship and get the balance right according to each specific situation and workplace.
When you think about it, this can also apply to raising children. Are we giving our children enough rope to develop innovative thinking skills or are we conditioning them with the tapes given to us by our parents, peers and teachers? Many of which are out of date. Makes you think.
Oh well, back to throwing out old paper.