A front-page article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal illustrated how important it is to periodically revisit the assumptions behind an idea.
The article described how several years ago, the head of Sacramento’s regional planning agency started to push developers to concentrate growth in defined areas rather than furthering suburban sprawl. The argument hinged on lowering pollution and fostering economic development.
Of course, with the price of oil shooting up, today the idea looks remarkably prescient.
I wonder, however, how many planners rejected similar ideas because they couldn’t imagine people making living decisions based on the cost of commuting, and how many now wish they started dusting off those rejected plans when signals emerged suggesting that circumstances had changed.
On the other hand, sometimes circumstances change in ways that undermine ideas that once seemed credible. Consider Motorola’s daring, and ultimately doomed, venture to provide satellite-driven mobile telephony.
Read the rest on Scott's Harvard Business blog, Innovation Insights.