"Sperm In The Air"

The term was coined by Sigmund Freud when he described Vienna. Up to around 1939, Vienna had a long history as a center of creativity and innovative thought. Freud thought Vienna and the intellectuals living in Vienna produced a kind of magic that led to tremendous advances in our collective knowledge and creative space. The term is a great way to look into the innovation puzzle faced by so many companies. Every organization wants new live - - they want to see the "sperm in the air" as you walk into a conference room or down the hall. The questions are key in the long run - - How does your company generate new ideas? Once you see the sperm (and Freud's observation is dated - - it needs to read "Eggs and sperm in the air") and sparks - - How do you turn these new ideas into products and services?

Some organizations see innovation as a supply and demand problem. Google, 3m, Nucor, and several others give their employees time to think big thoughts - - Google expects employees to spend 20% of their time on their own projects. Other organization have recognized that their business model is one of exploitation and not one of exploration - - regardless of the lip service surrounding innovation goals embedded in corporate value statements. If their current model is one of exploiting existing relationships and knowledge - - the primary goal in exploitation is efficiency, predictability, and reliability. But innovation and "sperm in the air" are unnatural acts that organizations struggle with - - acts that are uncertain, unpredictable, "breaking all the rules", and "asking for forgiveness rather than permission." They understand that their organizational structure and business model is an impediment to effective innovation.

Organizations need to look strongly at separate innovation structures and specific individuals that have an innovative mindset, collaborative skills, external vision, and a multidisciplinary approach to problems solving. Separate, but not too separate - - the goal is to integrate innovative ideas throughout the company.

Consider the emerging technology of augmented reality - - better known as AR - - in the context of civil engineering. The September issue of National Geographic (Innovation Tip - - read and observe widely) has two pages (30 and 31) that demonstrates the potential power of AR. The power of AR lies in the ability to superimpose computer generated images on the real world, courtesy of a cell phone camera. In the context of civil engineering, imagine the world and ability to see the location of underground utilities on a real world picture as you stand on the street corner. Imagine the ability to see traffic data, demographics, or the location and directions to the nearest subway station. Get a copy of the magazine and think about questions, answers, and creativity - - a world of multidisciplinary connections between the old civil engineering world of concrete and the new world of greater efficiencies, data, networks, and computer science. Think about how you would integrate innovative technology such as AR into a profitable service or product for your clients and customers.