PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News in the Project Management World
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mr Scott Berkun Launches Asia Pacific Congress in Melbourne
Reported by Jurgen Oschadleus in Melbourne
The 2010 PMI Global Congress Asia Pacific kicked off in Melbourne on 22 February with keynote speaker Mr. Scott Berkun, former Microsoft executive and best-selling author of "The Myths of Innovation" and "Making Things Happen".
More than 700 participants representing 40 countries assembled in the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre to hear Mr Berkun share his thoughts and experiences on innovation and creativity. Using numerous examples from great inventors, designers and film directors across the ages, he challenged participants to experiment and observe, not to simply follow recipes.
Using Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station, the oldest in railway station in Australia (pictured below), Mr Berkun challenged the audience to look beyond common assumptions to learn from diverse fields and to experiment
"The
more the term 'innovation' is used," he said, "the less it's done."
True innovation is not about sudden flashes of insight, but about the
hard work that occurs both before and after. It's about having
permission to experiment (and potentially fail) when the outcomes are
unknown. It is this mindset which Mr Berkun believes is fundamental to
progress. This creative mindset is not the result of dollars being
thrown at a project team; rather it's about giving them autonomy. He
also warned against purchasing tools to creative an innovative culture.
First change the culture and reward them for operating in what he
termed the Edison Innovation Zone, a zone of high reward and relatively
low risk.
He related to organisations such as Disney, Black & Decker, Mattel, 3M and Hyatt, all of which had the origins in times of Depression or economic recession, but which thrived because of their ability to grasp opportunities for innovation. Information about the PMI Global Congress Asia Pacific 2010 can be found at www.pmi.org/AP10.
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The 2010 PMI Global Congress Asia Pacific kicked off in Melbourne on 22 February with keynote speaker Mr. Scott Berkun, former Microsoft executive and best-selling author of "The Myths of Innovation" and "Making Things Happen".
More than 700 participants representing 40 countries assembled in the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre to hear Mr Berkun share his thoughts and experiences on innovation and creativity. Using numerous examples from great inventors, designers and film directors across the ages, he challenged participants to experiment and observe, not to simply follow recipes.
Using Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station, the oldest in railway station in Australia (pictured below), Mr Berkun challenged the audience to look beyond common assumptions to learn from diverse fields and to experiment
He related to organisations such as Disney, Black & Decker, Mattel, 3M and Hyatt, all of which had the origins in times of Depression or economic recession, but which thrived because of their ability to grasp opportunities for innovation. Information about the PMI Global Congress Asia Pacific 2010 can be found at www.pmi.org/AP10.