The mystery needs to be solved. Who killed innovation in your office?
The answer to this question has been baffling those in the know for years, but thankfully the game called Cluedo (aka as Clue in North America) provides any worthy innovation sleuth with the requisite key to solving this corporate whodunit.
For those who have played Cluedo, you will immediately recall that it involves the solving of a murder via the careful and repetitive questioning of your five fellow players, in the ten rooms they may have occupied, armed with the six weapons potentially used by the killer.
The killer is known to you, you just need to utilise the clues provided to identify them.
The Players (6):
- Miss Scarlett (a person known for their cunningness, aka Sales)
- Reverend Green (a person of the people, aka HR)
- Colonel Mustard (a dapper individual, aka Marketing)
- Professor Plum (known as the thinker, aka Technology)
- Mrs Peacock (a person with dignity, aka Production)
- Mrs White (known to be easily frazzled, aka Quality)
The Rooms (10):
- Kitchen (a place where many sharp implements are located and hidden)
- Elevator (a place of employee containment)
- Bathroom (an unlimited source of water, paper and locked cubicles)
- Office (a desk with many sharp corners)
- Stationery Cabinet (a source of tape and other sticky items)
- Meeting Room (contains projectors with high intensity lights and microphones ideal for interrogation)
- Foyer (marbles floors on which any blood spills can be easily wiped)
- Reception (individual security checks and photo identification)
- CEO office (vast stocks of exotic beverages and other hidden stimulants)
- Ideation Room (many soft beanbags and colourful crayons)
The Weapons (6):
- Pen (an easily concealed pointy item)
- Mug (contains hot liquid)
- Biscuits (can stimulate excessive self pudgification)
- Powerpoint Clicker (can be hurtled with high velocity)
- Computer (can be short circuited to initiate the blue screen of doom)
- Boring employee (can talk you to death)
The game now begins. You ask questions. Your work colleagues respond with the truth, or perhaps a white lie, but with dogmatic persistence, you all eventually come to the logical conclusion as to the identity of the innovation killer.
The room used by the killer may change, also the weapon and their identify from game to game. But, there is one constant variable that typifies all murderers of innovation. That variable is fear. Yes, fear to try different experiences, meet new people, or to fail when experimenting with a new concept. Should you encounter fear in your organisation, then confront it, call in your Innovation Audit Team to root it out before it contaminates and slowly kills any spark of creativity. Cluedo is indeed just a game, however, don’t let the character portrayed as fear loose in any part of your organisation as morbidity and decay will eventually prevail, and nobody wants that, do they?
Thoughts that might just be useful in the future 