Des que, el 2008 en un article a The Atlantic i més tard a The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr va posar sobre la taula que Internet modifica l’estructura neural del nostre cervell, desconcentra i impedeix que treballem molta estona en un únic tema, per a alguns, la qüestió de la productivitat passa per tancar finestres, tancar el Facebook, tancar el Twitter i, en definitiva, fugir de qualsevol input digital que ens allunyi de l’objectiu laboral, posar-s’hi o molt d’hora o molt tard, fer “parades productives” i no abandonar fins que s’ha acomplert la tasca.

En canvi, per a d’altres, com Alexander Kjerulf, autor del llibre Happy hour is 9 to 5, treballar més hores no vol dir necessàriament treballar més ni millor, i deixar tasques per a un altre dia no té per què ser negatiu. El més important per ser productiu, diu, és “ser feliç a la feina“.

Però, tot i els llibres i les recomanacions de gurús, molts executius confessen tenir la seva pròpia recepta, personal i instransferible, per ser productius. Arianna Huffington, cofundadora de The Huffington Post, assegura que li va bé “parar i dormir“. Richard Branson, fundador del grup Virgin, afirma necessitar “fer exercici físic“. I el vicepresident de la cadena Starbucks, Stephen Gillett, remarca que es distreu una estona amb jocs multijugador per “potenciar la capacitat de prendre decisions i solucionar problemes”.

D’altra banda, durant la seva xerrada al BIZBarcelona, el CTO d’Amazon, Werner Vogels, va assegurar que la clau per tenir equips productius raïa en la seva mida. “Han de ser com les pizzes americanes”, va etzibar. Jyri Engeström, de Ditto, va parlar de “motivació”, i va recordar que “probablement”, per a un emprenedor, té més a veure amb “crear sentit” que amb “fer diners”.

Són totes fórmules diverses, però amb una base comuna. Tots coincideixen que tenen l’objectiu final clar i que són disciplinats, fins i tot a l’hora de descansar. La qüestió aleshores és: com s’aconsegueix aquesta disciplina? Amb “esforç,  passió per la feina… i una mica de cafeïna!“. Un cafè, sisplau!

“Inspirational leadership makes innovation work”

Highlights

• Innovation travels from one place to another.
• The spirit is to create something that will endure.
• Innovation is a hot topic today.
• Innovation is the only way we are going out of recession.
• If you want new ideas you have to be open to all kind of ideas.

Imágenes exteriores generales y sesión de networking con emprendedores e inversores from Hit Barcelona on Vimeo.

There are 5 lessons essential to innovation, called “The 5 Fs”

1st: Focus

• They should be highly focused, but not focused on their business portfolio.
• They should be focused in a mission that unites the entire company for innovation.

2nd: Flexible

• Flexibility means to be flexible with respect to rules and processes. Every company needs to have the flexibility to take their own course separate from the rules that had been established.
• The lack of flexibility kills innovation more than anything else.
• Without flexlibility there is no innovation.
• Before becoming the right idea is someone’s crazy idea competing.
• If an idea looks really good means that we understand it, which in turn means it’s not so innovative.

3rd: Fast

• Companies should not bound to large hierarchys.
• “We don’t want boureaucracy anymore”.
• Companies should be more organized around projects than around bosses.
• You have to move fast because of the flexibility. Any team has a focus, every team that is flexible can move quickly, then they start to operate like companies, without burocracy.
• Everyone can and should self-organize.
• If you want to move fast you want everyone on your company to volunteer.

4th: Friendly

• It stands for collaboration.
• In order to success people have to enlight partnerships, internal and external.
• CEOs have to suspend their egos.
• Any company willing to learn from its parters is gonna get the best.

5th: Fun

• If it’s not fun to go through demands of innovation, nobody’s gonna do it.
• If the organizational culture doesn’t make it fun, it won’t succeed. It’s motivation that makes work fun.

Other highlights:

• Kanter’s Law: any project can look like a failiure in the middle. Specially when the ideas are very new. Persisting and persevering is the only way to get through it.
• One of the secrets of innovation is innovators have more success but also more failure, and that is just because they tried more.
• Every innovation often requires secondary innovations to get the primary innovation off the ground: innovation is also important in the processes and not just in the product.
• Innovation never drops itself in.
• People won’t let business stay without values.
• The thinking should be “I have two jobs: one at .. and the other to save the world”.
• ”Be the change that you want to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi.

Extract by Josep Oriol Ayats and Guillem Mateos.