Repurposing

I heard a radio program the other day that interviewed a scientist leading the search for possible treatments for COVID. The approach his team was taking was to check existing drugs to see if they might be useful.

Apparently, there are around 8000 drugs in your local pharmacy. They have been tested and are known to be safe. It’s possible some could be an effective treatment.

This isn’t a new approach in science. But do we apply this in our workplaces?

What’s already there utilized that could be applied in another context? Maybe it’s a system, process, model, tool or even skills that your people have that you may not be aware of?

ONE THING it might be interesting to ask is, do we automatically seek the new, or can we repurpose? What upsides and downsides do you see?