Standing on your own shoulders

"If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

He was referring to the early scientists that came before him and using their work as a foundation on which to see, understand and go further.

Here we are roughly 300 years later still building on the ideas and accomplishments of our predecessors. But frankly it just isn't enough to rely on the shoulder of past giants.

Today's technology changes have to be consumed and turned into action faster than ever. Its not about generational progress, it is about quick results that can inform and build on the next idea.

Standing on your own shoulders starts with… experimentation, progress without iterative experimentation amounts to a whole lot of guessing.

Standing on your own shoulders requires… documentation, results need to be tangible to be actionable.

Standing on your own shoulders is measured… not in successes but in earnest results (whether those results are good or bad).

In practice, this is something that many people do all the time. You see someone do something, you have an idea on how it may help your organization and start to experiment yourself.

Organizations that seek this type of innovation only need to create the incubator (time + space + attention).