In years past, brands with the strategic and forward-thinking eye have gone from evolving with the times to pioneering as a stand-out player in the field to being concerned with ‘future-proofing.’  If you’re at ‘future-proofing’ or prior phase today, we have some news. You see, as we speed into the tech future at the speed of light (that’s a lot of speed in one sentence -it’s progressing as fast as it’s progressing), it’s completely changing the way human beings interact, grow, lead and blend human life and tech life.  

Jobs are changing, industries are changing, what people want out of their work and life is changing. After all, we only need to take a gander at elon musks’ robots to really get a sense of what’s coming our way. It’s exhilarating, intriguing and look, if you’re having a little panic about where to start with it all, we have your back. 

Many people wonder how they will ride the wave of tech development when they’re not in the business of tech. It’s a brilliant question. But, this question only answers half of the equation. You see, contrary to popular belief, the tech expertise required is only one part of the pie in the tech future. The other two-thirds of it brings together what Brene Brown terms as the movement from ‘muscle to mind to heart’ (the muscle is the industrial, system, processy bit).  

In the rush to implement AI, chatbots and other technology and tech security into businesses, many leaders are forgetting about the strategy and people alignment required to not only survive the tech future but thrive within it.  

In previous times we have relied on project management offices to manage the tasks and change. Then, we realised that a key to success in change is engaging human beings so we tasked HR teams with change management. The outcome is for a while now we’ve had the project people managing the tasks/processes and the change people managing the people, but this has become rather clunky and slow-moving for the modern world. By the time we get through one change, everything has changed again and many organisations have felt in a constant state of flux.  

It’s not that the tech people, project people or the people people aren’t doing a great job – they are – within their own remit. Now as we face the wind to the tech future, we’ve moved beyond the current format. We’ve outgrown it and the rise of a changing skillset is defining how we master innovation.  

This isn’t to say that we don’t still need the tech people, project people or the people people, but they now form part of a new concept electro: has dubbed ‘the innovation office.’  

To understand the innovation office, we must step back a little bit to the pillars of future-ready businesses. If you have no clue what these are, please do not panic, as electro: has designed a future-ready business model to point you in the right direction. 

The success of your organisation in the tech future relies on 3 key pillars:  

• How you scale with tech (scalability). This is really about scaling intelligence. 

• How you connect humans. This requires transformational leadership skills. 

• The quality of your thinking + strategising. This is about integrative thinking. 

This is the nuclear of any innovation office and incorporates muscle, mind and heart skills.  

While this will include the traditional tech, task and people people, the cherry on the top is the strategy and innovation practitioners to lead and facilitate the transformational change from concept > feasibility > strategy > execution > leverage. The key with these roles is to have the out of the box thinkers fully closing the innovation loop and evolving you with the world.  

Now, why do we think an innovation office is super important? Because you’ll otherwise get left behind. It’s that simple. Integrated innovation is key to any future-ready business.  

If you’re sitting here feeling a bit overwhelmed about having to work out how to design and build your ideal innovation office, or you don’t have the budget for an in-house one, electro: can help you to design or can step in as your innovation office, helping you scale.  

Cool, huh?