Blue hair and rainbows; zombies and smart companies

A friend of mine, Kate Boyd, wrote a recent LinkedIn post about her five-year-old daughter saying “blue hair is just pretty cool.” She went on to talk about that her daughter, and son (blue cupcakes), have both proposed blue-related activities: “Why? Because it was cool. Neither are blue fans. These were not costumes or themes. There was no deep commentary on their personal perspectives on life. There was no ROI on the blueness.”

Why? Because it was cool. Neither are blue fans. These were not costumes or themes. There was no deep commentary on their personal perspectives on life. There was no ROI on the blueness.

When I look at zombie organizations I don’t see much blue hair and cupcake thinking. The reasons for that are pretty clear to me:

• Our schools kill any "out of the box" thinking - see this wonderful TED talk by Sir Robinson (https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity )
• Our organizations are set up to keep everyone in their "box" - so we have zombie organizations shambling forward in a straight-line

The result is disengaged employees (almost 70% according to Gallup). And that contributes to the inability of companies to adapt quickly enough to the changing, digital, world around them.

I say we need more blue hair and cupcakes. In fact, I think we need more colour on (and in) everything! But to do that we need smarter schools and to build smarter organizations where a rainbow of thinking is not just accepted but treasured.