GrowinG Future innovators - ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative ...

Photograph courtesy of
the Foundation for Art and
Creative technology (FACT),
Liverpool, UK.
194 Booth (2009)
assume or necessitate large or difficult
change. Many things can actually be achieved
through modest adjustments that tap the
existing competencies and resources of the
organisation. “The real art of change is about
identifying specific things that will have this
influence of re-direction over time,” says
Booth. To illuminate, he refers to the ‘trim
tab’ metaphor first used by the engineer
Buckminster Fuller. Attached to the rudder of
a ship, trim tabs are a small piece of ingenious
technology that helps to guide or turn a
large vessel around with minimal effort or
disruption. Reflecting on the use of ‘trim tabs’
for organisations, Eric Booth asks, “what is
one thing we can change that can be quietly
radical and promote whole new directions
of thinking?” 194
Growing future Innovators: a scoping study 63