Discussion – Week 7

Discussion: Challenging Your Status Quo

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

– Henry Ford

When Henry Ford began revolutionizing the automobile industry with assembly line production of affordable cars for the public, the status quo for most people around the world was still transport by horse. You can just imagine the questions Henry Ford might have asked as he looked around at the status quo of the time. Perhaps he asked “What if I could mass produce a type of transportation that everyone could afford?” Ford’s innovations in business process allowed him to create a series of radical changes which would help to create what we recognize today as a modern lifestyle. Ford identified and challenged the initial resistance to changing the status quo that he faced.

Is there a status quo in your work life that you think could be changed? In this Discussion, you will cultivate some of the important skills needed to challenge the existing state of affairs in your work life. Start by looking around your current workplace or envision the workplace at an organization with which you are familiar and start thinking, “What if?”

With these thoughts in mind:

Post the following:

• Ten questions that challenge the status quo at your current workplace, or one with which you are familiar. Be sure to place this list at the beginning of your Discussion post.
• Then, select one question for further analysis and provide a rationale as to why this question is important, why it poses a barrier to innovation, and why it challenges the status quo of the organization.
• Finally, select one of the five discovery skills from Dyer, et al. (2009), and provide a rationale for why this discovery skill would enable you or the organization to drive innovation and overcome creativity barriers and the status quo that prompted your question in the first place.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

Respond by Day 5, to two or more of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

• Select a question offered by your colleague that he/she did not use and suggest potential ways that your colleague or the organization might drive innovation and overcome the barriers and status quo.
• Compare your colleague’s findings to those of others and your own. If you see similarities, explain why the status quo might appear similar across different workplaces and industries. Do not limit your responses solely to budgetary or resourcing constraints.
• Identify any challenges at a colleague’s workplace that seem unique or that you have not encountered before. Offer your ideas about why you think those are important and which discovery skill from Dyer, et al., would best enable your colleague and/or the organization to drive innovation and overcome the barriers and status quo. Be sure to provide your rationale for your choice.
• Offer your insights to your colleague about the value of this process and importance of using it to identify opportunities for innovation or opportunities to challenge the status quo.

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