There is an aside in Tom Kelley’s “The Ten Faces of Innovation” called “Fixed Opportunities.”
The aside is about the flexibility of people in adapting technology to our lives: Post-its on copiers that tell us how to avoid frustrating little problems or “the handwritten sign taped to the front of the reception desk.” These are immensely important clues for the Anthropologist in an organization looking to improve on the last go around. They can even be hints that a market is being underserved or not served at all.
Kelley challenges us to spend a day noting all of these fixes we encounter. I was still finishing the paragraph when my brain wandered to thinking about any that I encounter regularly. I couldn’t think of any, so I finished reading the aside and looked up from the page. There, just below my monitor at work, the person who had last occupied my desk had cut off a stack of about ten post-its so that only the sticky strips remained and placed the one thick strip over a distracting and unnecessary green LED.
The hunt is on.
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