Sustainably Neurotic – The Problem Of Where Ideas Go Once We Leave
Posted on 17. Nov, 2008 by Jared Degnan in B-School, Collaborative Blog Management, Strategy, Web 2.0
Last night I was coming back from the 16th Annual Net Impact Conference and thinking a lot about sustainability and what it means to my own {future} job description.
Sure, we know that “green consumers” are a $209 Billion market segment, but are there bigger things we can do to create sustainability in our organizations beyond creating green products and attempting to save paper? Since none of us can live forever, how can we make sure our ideas and our changes last longer than we do?
Personally, I am still trying to find an answer to this. Heading into my last few months of being an MBA, its become a regular occurrence to parse my options and see how I can pass things like OwenBloggers onto the next generation of doe-eyed bloggers.
The problem comes down to the fact that we bring our own personal talents to the table to make our ventures work. We come up with great ideas, based on our own experiences and want to pass on that gained knowledge to help others. We know that if our successors can just mind-meld with us, they can avoid paying for the same intellectual ground we may have already covered.
Frankly though, that knowledge is a part of the journey and as marketers, creative vision is something that not only drives us but is only attained through personal discovery. Plainly stated and as much as we want otherwise; we have to find the right people and then let them make their own mistakes.
Does this make the job of finding replacements any easier? Not in the slightest. All we can do is find ways to divert our neurotic tendencies. Manifested, in my case, by a redesign of the blog. (Side Note: like it?)
If you have ways to successfully transition your ideas onto others, let us hear them!
