Discussion: Challenging Your Status Quo

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

– Henry Ford

When Henry Ford began revolutionizing the automobile industry with assembly line production of affordable cars for the public, the status quo for most people around the world was still transport by horse. You can just imagine the questions Henry Ford might have asked as he looked around at the status quo of the time. Perhaps he asked "What if I could mass produce a type of transportation that everyone could afford?" Ford's innovations in business process allowed him to create a series of radical changes which would help to create what we recognize today as a modern lifestyle. Ford identified and challenged the initial resistance to changing the status quo that he faced.

Is there a status quo in your work life that you think could be changed? In this Discussion, you will cultivate some of the important skills needed to challenge the existing state of affairs in your work life. Start by looking around your current workplace or envision the workplace at an organization with which you are familiar and start thinking, "What if?"

Postby Day 3the following:

• Ten questions that challenge the status quo at your current workplace, or one with which you are familiar. Be sure to place this list at the beginning of your Discussion post.

• Then, select one question for further analysis and provide a rationale as to why this question is important, why it poses a barrier to innovation, and why it challenges the status quo of the organization. Finally, select one of the five discovery skills from Dyer, et al. (2009), https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/services/proxy/content/20331266/20331395/246c1fd2ba1c8b324a7d7c2afdf6ffe4and provide a rationale for why this discovery skill would enable you or the organization to drive innovation and overcome creativity barriers and the status quo that prompted your question in the first place.