Interesting post. Makes absolute sense. I wondered if you have had similar thoughts in the context of social networks, such as Twitter, where information is streamed in real-time i.e. there is no retrieval per se but contextually based and rendered in a non-linear way such as a “workspace”? Typically, these linear streams are those that I choose to receive but, because timelines are rendered in a linear way, become increasingly difficult and tedious to manage. So, in the event of an increased rate of flow of information, organic or otherwise, there is a directly proportional difficulty and frustration in managing it.

I have just been able to complete my research on how to best do this and I have a description at http://personati.wordpress.com

The first idea here is Persona or a mask that people can wear or remove. The mask is made up of stories and processes to provide a unique perspective to those who wear it.

Marketers are served by using a Persona perspective as it helps them remember that people change quickly and for their own reasons. Different people can also act the same way regardless of which marketing label attached to them.

The second idea is that success with customers requires a product or service to be matched to what they want or need today, not what we believe they bought yesterday. Combine this with a Persona and we have started to create measures and perspectives that will help us succeed.

The third idea is the Story Lens which is described on my Scenario2 website.

Stories are the core of who we are and what we will accomplish–Tell a Story twice and it is a Process, tell it again and Software is written to accelerate processes, tell it again and Brand Value is created and tell it again and a measure is created.

The fourth idea is the concept of Creativity being the core of Innovation and that Innovation only happens when Creativity is supported by Processes. If a company cannot support Creativity with old or new processes Innovation doesn’t happen regardless of how many brilliant ideas you document. Creativity is simple and implies that something is created, not just more ink on paper.

Now let’s put all four ideas together and look at them from a business perspective and consider this question.

How do we Innovate in an environment where we have severe business stress, mergers acquisitions and most companies are cautious or worse?

Let’s start with Creativity and think about it in a way that applies to other business change as once we know where we are and understand where we want to go then why we decided to change doesn’t matter anymore. We just do it!

Creativity requires the support of processes to manifest value from ideas and it is easier if we understand the skills of the people we work with everyday. My suggestion is to think about what people can do and when I do it formally with an inventory I call it a PEP or Persona Expertise Program where I substitute expertise for product when I describe how I think about Persona.

Persona Expertise Programs or PEPs can be used to inventory the expertise elements across a company and its value chain to understand what is available to manifest innovation value from creativity.

Think of a Persona Expert as an ideal combination of process expertise needed to manifest value from creative inputs. We employ the concept of a Persona Expert to identify where the expertise needed to perform the new processes resides.

Once we know the combination of experts needed to transfer expertise identified with the Persona we might help the client with setting up processes to transfer that expertise to the people tasked with the new processes–EAT. Expertise Acquisition & Transfer.

Let’s EAT!

Cheers,
Nick
http://www.scenario2.com