MANAGEMENT INNOVATION
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Howmany companies tell staff to think aboutwhat they have for breakfast be- fore they come to the office? When somebody is energised because they’ve had the right breakfast, they can come up with ideas, they can work a bit faster, they see things a bit differently.”
POWER OF READING He also stresses the role of reading in improving creativity. “People stop reading the minute they leave college. Companies should have reading pro- grammes. They should say, ‘Here’s a list of 10 books,wewant you to read at least one within the next two months’. “If you hire somebody today and
they don’t read a book for the next two years, they’re still the same person you hired two years ago other than what they learned in the company. You need people to be bringing new information and ideas back to the company.” And he’s not just talking about busi-
ness books. “You could read HGWells and get an idea. So, it can be amixture. I would recommend you read a busi- ness book and then maybe some sci- ence fiction.” One or two companies in Ireland
have adopted a version of the approach he advocates, notably Google, with its canteen and ‘20pc time’, where em- ployees can use up to a fifth of their workingweek on projects unrelated to their normal job. “But they don’t adopt it fully,” says Lawler. “It’s only 20pc for
‘In Irelandwe have a history of creativity.We’ve been at the cutting edge of all sorts of things. Even the original moon landings – therewere Irish teamsworking on the original Apollo’
the engineers. The people in sales aren’t into the whole innova- tion side of things. They consider themselves ordinary sales guys in an ordinary sales role. I’ve tried to convince them they could be doing so much more. Because you’re in sales doesn’t mean you can’t be innovative. But they’re not thinking like that. And if they’re not doing it atGoogle, you can imagine the rest of the companies.” Lawler contends that people have become akin tomachines in
many businesses. “People can be machine-like anywhere. Any country can have 500 people sit in a room and do these boring tasks all day long.What we can deliver is the creative stuff. In Ireland we have a history of creativity.We’ve been at the cut- ting edge of all sorts of things. Even the original moon landings – there were Irish teams working on the original Apollo. “I think it’s vital for Ireland to get in touch with the creative
side, let people think creatively, forget about this machine way of doing things. The value is in coming up with the new ideas. “If we want Ireland to be innovative and creative we need to
think as a fractal. The companies that make up Ireland need to be innovative and creative and the peoplewhomake up the com- panies need to be innovative and creative.”
Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 69
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