Make most of what you have got

We haven’t discussed about innovation for quite sometime. Today lets talk about dealing in innovation with limited resources. This is the case quite often too. We feel the spark of great ideas but then we let it go due to a seeming resource crunch. Seldom its money. Mostly its time that we say we don’t have. But I am not going to talk about time management. That’s one topic beaten to death. So lets focus on the other important issues.

So the crunch you would generally feel, other than time, will be either be money or technical know how. The money is not so important. We will come back to it later. The technical skill is a much bigger hurdle than generally anticipated. And later you discover it, the more it hurts. Because it completely blocks you. No amount of time or money will then help.

Now obvious thing to say would be to update your skills and keep learning and blah blah blah. I prefer different approach.

Just in Time learning

Basically, you don’t learn something, until you know you will need it soon. It doesn’t mean you wait till the very moment you need it, then block the work and start learning. Its Just in time. Just when you anticipate its the right time to update or acquire certain skills. No bullet lines Use common sense. Evaluate you learning speed, available time, etc and figure it out.

This way you can mitigate the risk of technical know how to a certain extent. But some time the JIT learning will tell you that the time required is not feasible or perhaps, the technicalities are way too complicated for you. In such case, I suggest you extend your team. Or build one, if one is not there already. Its better to collaborate with subject matter experts, rather than trying to learn and become one. But to ensure control over things, I suggest you acquire basic knowledge, even if you are taking services/help of an expert.

Now about the money. Well that’s where the real test of innovation is. Before you start looking for innovative ways of raising funds. Spend some time over what resources you have at hand. What can be borrowed feasibly. Brainstorm over ways you can implement your idea with whatever you have got. You will find mostly you can use inexpensive ways to simulate the actual implementation. This would help you gathering funds because you will have a working proof of concept.

 

Don’t be cannon fodder

Last night we discussed the importance of updating the skills. I guess I missed to iterate on what will become of you if you miss updating your skills. Well, my dear friend, you become cannon fodder.

You become cheap labour and dispensable. In any industry, you are just a resource. If you want to feel better, I will call you human resource. Now, I am not going to feed you the same old vague story of moving up the value chain. What I am highlighting today is the Darwin’s theory of Survival of the fittest. If you are fit. And skilled. You will survive. Its all about adapting with change and blah blah blah.

But what happened to our idea of last night, that keep learning the skills of your interest so that you move towards it. If I tell you to adapt and for sake of it acquire the skills to survive. You will end up just like any other blind mice in the rat race.

Learn at a brisk pace. And always run your own race.

Survival is must. So that goes without saying that you need to do what it takes to survive. But beyond that, don’t just keep changing with time. Change the time. Be the Agent of Change.

Change the circumstances of that you don’t just keep chasing your dreams. Change the hurdles so that you can realize the dreams and what always interested you. Off course, this never going to be easy. But the easy thing is to chase, not change.

So don’t be that 80% that is fed to the cannons of difficulties so that the skilled 20% can then win the war. Be in that 20%, so that you go and win your war.

 

Skills are like money

Skills are like money. If the are not increasing, then they are depleting.

Which ever industry you are working in. Whatever domain. Skills are the best and mot important investment. They control your relevance. Your reputation. Your compensation. So never discount their importance. Updating skills is important and keep learning new skills is even more important.

Time generally leads the list of excuse we make for not updating our skills. Everyone gets the same 24 hours each day. If you are not getting enough time to update your skills then perhaps time management is the first skill you should go after. I am not scoping just the technical skills. Technical know-how is just a fraction of the skills you should be looking to acquire.

We often neglect the importance of soft skills. Communication skills are as vital as technicalities of your work. A job well done is not worth enough unless you are able to communicate the success to relevant people. We communicate through various media – voice conversations like debates, discussions, presentations, interviews, etc to written media like electronic mails, papers, articles, instant message conversations, etc. Each media warrants certain level of skills to be effective. so identifying the common modes of communications you use and acquire necessary skills to become effective with them.

Many times you are stuck in work which is not in agreement with your interests. Though it is very important to follow what interests you but many times either is not feasible or not as easy as said. Such circumstances need special handling. And off course extra hard work. If you are going through such scenario then what I would recommend for you is that you to focus not just towards the skills that interests you but keep upgrading on your work related skills too. Basically, you keep improving in the work you are doing besides keeping yourself up with the skills you wish to shift to. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.