At one time or another, we have all worked at organizations that touted their mission, vision, and values and expected staff to be able to recite them at any time, on the spot. If you have ever worked at a hospital, you were often threatened with “The Joint Commission might ask you in the hallway and you have to know.” Thirteen years later, no Joint Commission surveyor had ever stopped me to inquire of such information. All that memorizing was for naught. Harvard Business Review examined this kind of situation in their article, “Vision Statement: A Taxonomy of Innovation.”
The vision for taxonomy of innovation could have used planning as intense as a Joint Commission survey since the link isn’t consistently working and according to the comments (a.k.a. rantings) at the bottom, some feel that alone is part of the “plan”. One determined soul found the active link and shared it so we can all look at the beautiful infographics.
If it sounds like I am picking on them, I apologize. However, I, like so many of you, have sat through all too many synergy-filled meetings where we are all going to think outside the box and plan to win. This taxonomy reminds me of those meetings, and from a taxonomy standpoint I am unsure as to its quality since it feels, well, redundant.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
