How can you unlock idling capacity?

This week’s Rethink is a bit different. I’m dusting off the cobwebs from an idea I worked on over a decade ago – IDLING CAPACITY.?

It’s a useful lens for businesses of all shapes and sizes to think differently about reinventing the value they can deliver during uncertain times.

A little bit of background…

In 2008, I started to sketch out this idea…all around us, assets have an intrinsic value that is yet to be unlocked. Cars that sit idle for 23 hours a day; homes with unused spaces; offices with vacant desks; stuff that sits around in cupboards and garages; cargo lorries with half loads; skills and hobbies people don’t use, and so the list goes on. It became the basis of a concept called idling capacity:

The next step was seeing how digital technologies would create two key ingredients to connect people – EFFICIENCY AND TRUST. The invention of the iPhone, literally overnight, reduced the friction, lowered the cost and created the social glue to completely rethink supply and demand.

Needs and haves could be connected in ways and on a scale never possible before.

I was fascinated by how strangers could trust one another to allow people into their homes, cars and so on. It became the basis of the so-called ‘sharing economy’, the subject of my first book What’s Mine is Yours. (You can watch the first-ever TED talk on the idea here. I know, I'm 11 years younger!)

In my mind, the real power of idling capacity was how it could potentially take the pressure off of enormous systems – food, financial, health, social services, education, government – that had become, well, way too big. When systems get too big, they start to serve the system not, the needs of individuals (I’m going to write more on the idea of scale in a future newsletter).

So what if we could take the idle resources around us and connect them through technology to create smaller, local systems?

Many wonderful ideas popped up around this concept such as the Good Gym, which connects young people that want to get fit running with elderly isolated people.

We may be tucked away in our homes but look around you; idling capacity is everywhere.

It is beautiful to see examples of people unlocking idling capacity in small and powerful ways. For instance, my 80-year-old isolated aunt who speaks fluent French realised she had the time and skill many parents and schools need right now. With a bit of technical support, she’s teaching the local kids.

That’s the beautiful thing about idling capacity, it benefits the giver and receiver.?

I have found it useful to think of idling capacity existing in three key categories:

Physical: Goods, raw materials, food, and other ‘stuff.’

Spaces:?Commercial, community, personal.

Talent & Time: Skills, experiences, knowledge, support and passions.

Here are a handful of examples of idling capacity unlocked over the past few weeks.

• Talents: My Instagram feed is full of artists, authors, filmmakers and other creatives offering free sessions with no catch. I love Oliver Jeffers, the wonderful children's author, hosting 'Storytime' on Instagram Stories daily at 6pm GMT.
• Interactive Virtual Activities: Gareth Malone, the brilliant choirmaster, has reinvented the idea of music rehearsals. He’s created (almost overnight) a Great British Home Choir all practising and singing together at the same time each day. You can sign-up here.
• Skills and experience: Talented people, like my friend Tea Uglow, who runs Google Labs, are running mentoring sessions on coping with uncertainty. You can book Tea to deliver a virtual class on topics like doubt and digital creativity here.

Yes, they are acts of generosity but at the same time, they are reinventing new categories of education and entertainment!

• Time and support: App’s like Front Porch Forum in the US and NextDoor in the UK are connecting neighbours so they can help each other.
• Spaces: The Excel convention centre could have sat vacant due to all events being cancelled. But within a few days, it was transformed into a temporary hospital.
• Services: Idling capacity is also a useful way for businesses to rethink how they create value by repurposing resources: Fresh Pastures Wakefield UK usually delivers milk and produce to schools. They've switched to an online booking service for people struggling to get to the shops.
• Materials: Breweries such as Brewdog and distilleries like 58 Gin are converting their commercial alcohol supplies (ethanol, glycerol etc) into much-needed hand sanitisers. Now that’s what I call unlocking the value of idling capacity.

Understandably, many businesses are trying to quickly figure out how to replicate their offerings in a virtual environment. Idling capacity is a way of going: Let’s not replicate, let’s reinvent.??

Rethink the idling capacity you can unlock and deliver value in new ways.?

If you’d like me to write more about this, please comment below. I’ll happily dig into my archives and pull out the tools I developed for businesses and governments to help them think through this lens.

Question (please share in comments below): What examples of idling capacity have you seen in business and your community?

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Warmly and stay well,

Rachel

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