innovation is a waste of time!
Five lessons from a lifetime of improvement
There’s a bin in your kitchen. Probably under the sink, or tucked in a corner. And when you scrape your plate into it, you don’t touch the lid. You press a pedal with your foot, the lid swings up, and your hands stay clean.
You’ve done it thousands of times without a thought. Which is an interesting point.
Because someone did think about it. Someone who spent their life watching how we move, counting every reach and grasp and wasted step. Someone who even had a unit of measurement named after her.
And almost nobody knows her name.
For a long time, I didn’t either.
Her name is Lillian Gilbreth. And perhaps it’s appropriate that she’s widely credited with the idea of the pedal bin. How we handle kitchen waste. Because her life was one long – and very effective – campaign to reduce or eliminate waste in so many walks of life. It may not be glamorous but it certainly made a difference. She certainly qualifies as an early but long-term resident of that part of any ‘Innovation Hall of Fame’ in the section reserved for Mothers of Invention.
Comments