New Technology for Problem Solving

Many of the standard practices that we continue to apply to this day in the field of business information technology are leftovers from the days of the Industrial Revolution. They are all about leveraging labor. Its ironic that we approach an activity as distinctly modern as the application of information technology to business systems in the same way we might have approached shoveling sand 150 years ago. We manage tasks. We manage time. We give little real thought or effort to the things that actually create value and ensure our successcreativity and innovation.

The new technologies of our modern economy are those required to leverage knowledge for creativity and what Peter F. Drucker called systematic innovation. These technologies or disciplines are the discipline of trust, the discipline of clarity, and the discipline of process. As creativity and innovation become increasingly vital to value creation, effectively leveraging the brain power and inherent creativity of people becomes paramount. Effectively means productively, repeatably, and predictably. Though the focus of this book is primarily on the area of information technology, these principles apply to any knowledge-based activity where groups of highly-specialized and knowledgeable individuals must collaborate effectively to invent.