Business Management

When Merriam-Webster announced in July 2007 the twenty new words that had been accepted into the dictionary, I was delighted to hear "ginormous" had made the cut. What a great word! An obvious merger of "gigantic" and "enormous", it far more accurately conveys the sense of hugeness neither of the other words adequately communicates alone.
The word handily describes the humongous untapped innovative potential within any organization - the power of passionate employees working together.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, breakthrough ideas come from collaboration rather than a genius working alone. The light bulb, for example, came from the creative efforts of everyone on Thomas Edison's laboratory team who shared the same vision and passion about creating something brand new.
In a June 2007 U.S. News & World Report article, Keith Sawyer, author of "Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration", was interviewed about his research that spawned the book in which he talked about the need for a shift in current management thinking that would enable the unleashing of this innovative spirit.
Envision, if you can, a culture filled with a brand new vocabulary:
Full autonomy freely given to small groups of talented people and an absolute willingness to accept and embrace the surprising and ingenious outcome of uninhibited collaborations.
Now, consider what might be possible in your organization! A recent study cited in the same US&WR article showed 14 percent of the "substantial innovations" that come out of small groups account for 61 percent of all profits.
What do you think would happen if you were to remove every barrier that prevented employees from forming collaborations on their own to come up with solutions to your most vexing problems and develop new ideas? Do you know what your employees are passionate about? Do you have a clue about what they love and excites them about getting up every morning? If you were to discover employees' passions and connect them to their jobs, you'd have the key to making work effortless joy! I believe you'd have something truly rare and totally... ginormous!