{"id":6321,"date":"2013-10-28T20:19:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T20:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidewaysthoughts.com\/blog\/?p=6321"},"modified":"2015-02-15T06:48:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T06:48:49","slug":"breaking-business-as-usual-what-the-fox-say-about-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidewaysthoughts.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/breaking-business-as-usual-what-the-fox-say-about-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking business as usual – what the fox say about innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"what<\/p>\n

We all experience Business as Usual, or more succinctly BAU.<\/p>\n

BAU can be a curse word in organisations searching for growth and progress. BAU can be seen to smother change, bury innovation, and hinder leadership.<\/p>\n

BAU is not all bad, however. BAU provides stability; without BAU we would not have steady revenue streams and security. An absence of BAU combined with a leadership deficit opens the door for chaos and anarchy.<\/p>\n

There is a natural tension between BAU and innovation. On the one hand we work to create stability and a steady and sustainable income for ourselves and our organisations. On the other hand, there is a drive for growth and progress that forces us to challenge convention.<\/p>\n

We are presented with conflicting messages to \u201cBe bold\u201d and \u201cStay safe\u201d, when being bold can feel anything but safe. We celebrate heroes who take chances while we create structures around us that minimise the chance of uncertainty. We know we need change, but are cautious not to \u201cthrow out the baby with the bathwater\u201d.<\/p>\n

People who create new things do not typically set out with BAU in mind. Quite the contrary, many launch themselves upon the world to challenge convention. BAU is a condition that we carefully construct with one hand while we reach for the next rung of the ladder with the other. If we are not careful, there may come a point when both hands are so busy maintaining BAU that we forget we were ever climbing.<\/p>\n

Yet we know that it is when we take chances that we feel most alive. In his book Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes about the Shushwap Indians who would move their entire community every 30 years to allow a new generation to feel the challenge of creating a new environment. Fast forward to modern times, I see a big difference in people who are afraid of losing their BAU job compared to those who step out into the unknown to start something new.<\/p>\n

A fox says challenge BAU<\/h2>\n

This may seem like an odd segue into a viral music video that recently hit the Internet: What does the Fox Say? by comedian duo Ylvis. If you have not been exposed, I will warn you not to look for any hidden meaning. The video, which has received over 153 million views, really is just talking about what a fox says. Indeed, according to this interview<\/a>, the video was intended as a \u201cso bad its good\u201d experiment that got a bit out of control.<\/p>\n