In this month’s SI ezine (http://systematic-innovation.com/assets/iss-229-apr-21.pdf) I introduce the seven habits of highly effective innovation project manager acronym, NEPTUNE. Navigator, Empath, Plate-spinner, Transcender, Umbrella, Ninja, Umbrella. It sounded like a weird distorted version of the NATO phonetic alphabet. Which then made me wonder whether it might be possible to make a whole alphabet of similar innovation-relevant words. Here’s the long list of candidate words I managed to compile:
A AntiFragile/Autonomy/Altshuller
B Belonging/PlanB
C Contradiction/Competence/Chutzpah/Cockroach/Cybernaut
D Diamonds (Diverge-Converge)/Duende/Disrupt/Diversity
E Empath/Elephant/Emergence
F Function
G Grit
H Hairball/Hero’sJourney
I Ideality/IFR
J Jugaad/Jazz
K Komorebi
L Leapfrog/Lagom
M Moonshot/Meaning
N Navigator/Ninja
O Outcome/Orbit-Shift
P Plate-Spinner/PlanB/Pirate
Q Quintessence
R Riptide
S System/SkinInTheGame/S-Curve
T Transcender/Tipping-Point/TRIZ/Turtles/10x
U Uniter/Umbrella
V Value(s)
W Whakapapa
X Xenomorph/X-Factor
Y Yarak
Z Zen
Hopefully, most of the words are self-explanatory. The NEPTUNE ones get explained in the aforementioned Seven Habits article. Here are the ones that perhaps need a little more explanation:
Hairball: from Orbiting The Giant Hairball, an off-beat innovation classic text. Subtitle: ‘a corporate fool’s guide to surviving with grace.’
Jazz: if operational excellence looks like an orchestra playing a score, innovation is a jazz combo improvising.
Jugaad: a colloquial Indian word, referring to a non-conventional, frugal innovation, often termed a “hack”. It could also refer to an innovative fix or a simple work-around, a solution that bends the rules, or a resource that can be used in such a way. Indicative of the perennial innovator drive to obtain the maximum amount of learning from the minimum amount of resource.
Komorebi: a word I first learned in Peter Fisk’s recent book, Business Recoded. Picture a hot sunny day, lying in the shade, and seeing the few streaks of light hitting the grass through the branches of a leafy tree. That’s the perfect place to be during the Japanese summer: komorebi. Like Ideal Final Result only more poetic.
Lagom: one of Sweden’s three great contributions to the English language (the other two being smorgasbord and ombudsman :)), lagom translates to “not too little, not too much” or “just right”—and in Sweden it represents the art of living a balanced, slower, fuss-free life. The first time I heard the word defined, I was told a story of warriors sitting around the dinner table passing around a bowl of stew and lagom was the uncanny ability of each person to know how to take just the right amount to ensure that all the other warriors would get their fair share. Which still feels like a good metaphor for what needs to happen inside any innovation team.
Quintessence: the most rich and best example of something. The perfect embodiment. Another IFR end-goal pointer.
Riptide: defined in the dictionary as either a dangerous area of strongly moving water in the sea, where two or more currents meet, or a strong negative feeling or force that is difficult to control, riptide felt like a useful metap
Whakapapa: a Maori word defined as the “genealogical descent of all living things from the gods to the present time. “Since all living things including rocks and mountains are believed to possess whakapapa, it is further defined as “a basis for the organisation of knowledge in the respect of the creation and development of all things”. Whakapapa also implies a deep connection to land and the roots of one’s ancestry, and the idea of leaving a great legacy: ‘plant trees you’ll never see by being a good ancestor.’ Another word from Peter Fisk’s book, Business Recoded.
Xenomorph – not necessarily a real word, but used post movie franchise, Alien, to describe the Alien, ‘a highly aggressive endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species’. The Xenomorphs are vicious predatory creatures with no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the destruction of any life that could pose a threat to them. Not quite a perfect metaphor. Except for the bit about protecting their own and the ability to morph into different forms at different life stages. This is the word I think I’d be most likely to vote into any NATO suggestion scheme to change the classic phonetic alphabet.
Yarak’ – a Persian falconry term meaning ‘super-alert’, hungry-but-not-weak, and ready to hunt. Without this kind of mindset and these characteristics, in a critical mass of its people, a business will not succeed. Discussed at some length in the Hero’s Start-Up Journey book.
Zen – the parallel need for calm, mindfulness and a beginner’s mind.
And so, finally, here’s the proposed short-list…
