Do you ever feel like this?

As the digg submitter said, "I'm betting on the camel".

This image got me thinking about how this is allegory for bringing new ideas to old organizations. In a thankfully distant past job, I found myself in exactly this situation, trying to innovate where it was nearly impossible to do so. It's hard when you come up against a camel - they're hard to move when they don't want to, but when they want to, they do, and good luck stopping them. It doesn't matter at all how shiny the car is that you happen to be driving.

My advice to those driving cars in this post's allegorical world is simple - find a different road. You're not going to get the camel to leave or move on your own. If there happens to be a camel-wrangler around, you may be in luck, but they have to agree with the direction in which you want to go.

Save that sadly rare scenario, if innovation and newness is important to you, go find some newness somewhere else. I wish I had followed that advice sooner!

Feb 14th, 2008