Quotes About Innovation

Creation is always in the dark because you can only do the work of making by not quite knowing what you're doing, by walking into darkness, not staying in the light.

I once heard about a botanist in Hawaii with a knack for finding new species by getting lost in the jungle, by going beyond what he knew and how he knew, by letting experience be larger than his knowledge, by choosing reality rather than the plan.

The revolution that counts is the one that takes place in the imagination; many kinds of change issue forth thereafter, some gradual and subtle, some dramatic and conflict-ridden--which is to say that revolution doesn't necessarily look like revolution.

Ideas emerge from edges and shadows to arrive in the light, and though that's where they may be seen by others, that's not where they're born.

The free-range chickens and Priuses are great, but they alone aren't adequate tools for creating a truly different society and ecology.

A desk is no place to think on the large scale.

Disruption has been a favorite word of the Tech economy, but old-timers saw homes, communities, traditions, and relationships being disrupted.

botanist in Hawaii with a knack for finding new species by getting lost in the jungle, by going beyond what he knew and how he knew, by letting experience be larger than his knowledge, by choosing reality rather than the plan.

often mild distraction that moves the imagination forward, not uninterrupted concentration.

Revolutions are first of all ideas.

The utopias built by citizens like Anna Holshouser are not yet on that map. But they should be. [active during 1906 earthquake and fire in SF CA]

Und so wie meine bloße Existenz mich einst weitergetragen und mir die Kraft gegeben hatte, extreme Bergtouren zu wagen, begann ich jetzt wieder zu träumen von einem Gesamtkunstwerk. Zuletzt wieder im Alleingang. Als wäre ich dazu bestimmt vorauszugehen, den Weg festzulegen, die Welt neu zu erfinden. So habe ich einst die Ziele in der Wildnis vorgegeben. Jetzt wurde eine kulturelle Aufgabe daraus.

Every human being, he believed, must do one of three basic things during his lifetime: leave something living, create something lovely, or make something better.

Certainly the shahadah contained an important theological innovation, but that innovation was not monotheism. With this simple profession of faith, Muhammad was declaring to Mecca that the God of the heavens and the earth required no intermediate whatsoever, but could be accessed by anyone.

Companies respect conformity and uniformity, but they fail to see how limiting both are. Without change and innovation, companies cannot adapt to new realities. At one time, Singer was one of the biggest companies in the United States. Today, we're not using Singer cell phones because the company was unable to adapt.

I don't want to know where Semco is headed. It doesn't unnerve me to see nothing on the company's horizon. I want Semco and its employees to ramble through their days, to use instinct, opportunity, and ingenuity to choose projects and ventures.

Once employees feel challenged, invigorated, and productive, their efforts will naturally translate into profit and growth for the organization.

The secret? If we have a cardinal strategy that forms the bedrock for all our practices, it may be this: Ask why. Ask it all the time, ask it any day, every day, and always ask it three times in a row.

Advertisements with Semco's name at the top ran in several newspapers asking for résumés via e-mail. Four hundred people replied. There were no rules for narrowing down the respondents. We didn't want a list of requirements to limit our options, so the idea was to make the process highly intuitive and to follow our gut reactions.

NEVER MIND THE CHEESE —who moved my weekend?

Semco, we abolish manuals, procedures, and policies so that people are free to improvise, to soar, and to collect the moments of happiness that constitute genuine success.

Inveniet viam aut faciet.

Most of them had not understood Blackberry's discovery of the raft and at once forgot it.

What is this stuff, do you know?" he asked. "No, I don't," said Hazel. "I've never seen it before." "There's a lot we don't know," said Blackberry. "About this place, I mean. The plants are new, the smells are new. We're going to need some new ideas ourselves." "Well, you're the fellow for ideas," said Hazel. "I never know anything until you tell me.