Election, smelection
Rarely does this time of year pass by when I don’t think of Tom Edison’s first invention, the automatic vote counter.
Prior to 1869 voting was done by paper ballots at best, but most often by roll call. Edison, as a young man saw the need for accurate recording of votes, so he adapted the technology of the printing telegraph to produce the world’s first ever electric voting machine.
However, he had one problem making money on his first invention. No one wanted to use it. Accurate tallies? Tamper proof system? There was no way the political establishment of this time was going to adopt a foolproof machine while they could still count on the corruptibility of a manual system.
It was the last time Edison ever developed an invention for the public sector. Through 1042 patents, America’s father of invention, a man who even became friend to many US presidents, Edison steered clear of the politics and bureaucracy of government.
Does politics and bureaucracy stifle creativity in your organization? At Before & After we have survey after survey of teams, departments and entire companies that confirms this. And these are the groups that are enlightened enough to hire a creative thinking coach to help them with their game. Hmm.
