Buckle your seatbelt...

I clearly remember where I was when John Kennedy proclaimed that the US would put a man on the moon and when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon. Those two seemingly impossible goals created a sense of wonder, adventure, and challenge beyond our wildest imaginations. And then I read about the innovations that would flow from that effort, the most impactful being the age of computerization, which paved the way for the internet, mobile technology, GPS, apps, and so much more that we didn’t yet fully comprehend. Interestingly, when we started working at the Golden Nugget, the company was opposed to investing in computers, the theory being that we were in the people serving people business. But we quickly learned the benefits that computers brought to our people business. We learned where and how to use them to compliment the business, not come between our employees and our guests (or our employees and their managers). We embedded our computer monitors in the front desk agent’s workstation rather than let it sit between them and the guest checking in and out, wrapped up the cords rather than have them tangle up work areas, and made sure that the number of keystrokes were at a minimum when completing any transactions. Things like that allowed us to use technology while also having smiles, eye contact and human interactions. If innovation is the call of the future, we need to design them in ways that truly benefit our efforts – thinking that through completely is critical to realizing the benefits of any innovative effort. And that’s done best by involving everyone in the ideation and planning phases to capture their perspectives and experiences and reduce their resistance to the changes that then occur. Involve all stakeholders in your innovative journey into the future today.

 

Kofi Atta Annan (1938 – 2018): Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.