I am looking forward to the Conversation Cafe Ellia Ryan is facilitating on Wednesday evening at Hale's Pub. It will deal with a vital current question, prompted by Yahoo! CEO Marrisa Mayer's decision to curtail telecommuting in favor of promoting face-to-face interaction in the office. Mayer's explicit goal is to boost innovation at Yahoo!, one of the original internet search companies whose once lofty share prices have been brought down to earth by its failure to innovate as often and successfully as Google and other rivals.

For innovation is the issue of our time. It is increasingly evident we are rapidly moving beyond the industrial Era and entering a new Knowledge Economy, based on the need to constantly innovate. In this new era, companies that demonstrate the ability to constantly innovate will grow and prosper. Those that don't will fall further and further behind.

The stakes are huge. A recent survey by Accenture showed ninety-three percent of CEOs of large companies in the U.S., Britain, and France agree with the proposition that “the long-term success of their organization’s business strategy depends on their ability to innovate”. Yet “fewer than one in five chief executives believes his strategic investments in innovation are paying off, and that this poor track record is starting to discourage companies from taking risks".

Clearly, the folks in the C-suites are admitting they don't know how to innovate, even as they acknowledge innovation is crucial to their firms' future prospects. Give Ms. Mayer some credit here. At least she is willing to try something along the lines of a natural experiment to see if she can jumpstart innovation in her company.

National ASTD in its 2011 white paper, "Learning To Innovate", stated clearly that "The learning function can and should play a critical role in developing and sustaining the innovative culture that is the hallmark of successful organizations." Then National made the message even clearer by revising the CPLP standards by making innovation a foundational skill for WLP professionals.

Meanwhile here at home, Washington state has officially adopted innovation as its official economic development strategy. The first "pillar" of the strategy is "talent development".

Which takes us back to the Conversation Cafe and the very human dimensions of this important topic. Is telecommuting a product of the old industrial production culture, where productivity is measured in widgets per hour (such as lines of code produced)? Is face-to-face interaction truly necessary for innovation? How do we achieve work-life balance in this Brave New World of the Knowledge Economy?

There are a lot of straws in the wind telling WLP professionals it is time to gear up for the new world that is rushing at us. And I can't think of a more genial venue for a lively debate than Hale's Ales. It promises to be a great event and a good time. I hope to see you there.