…a phenomenon that’s been identified by Edward de Bono, the legendary creative thinker. He calls it the “creative pause.” (…)The creative pause allows the space for your mind to drift, to imagine and to shift, opening it up to new ways of seeing.
From HBS’ Jim Heskett’s research question on deep thinking to my own comments on the value of silence, the need for undistracted time and the resulting creativity is well documented.
To be or not to be distracted is an individual free choice and can’t be dictated by others, but it is always wise to look at the consequences of one’s chosen actions.
Distracted driving kills people.
Distracted thinking kills creativity and innovation.
What is innovation? Is it really embodied in a good deal playing Farmville on Facebook for hours? I found an excellent definition of innovation in a fascinating article about Bell Labs and Mervin Kelly, who, over the course of 34 years, worked his way up from researcher to chairman of the board (something few people today would consider doing—assuming they could even find a company in which to do it).
By one definition, innovation is an important new product or process, deployed on a large scale and having a significant impact on society and the economy, that can do a job (as Mr. Kelly once put it) “better, or cheaper, or both.”
“On a winter day the ball is cold, which makes the rubber harder, the air in the ball denser, so the ball doesn’t really expand and contract off the bounce,” said Ruben Acosta, 32, a hotel concierge who is known on the court as Superstar. “Boiling the balls gives them back their zing.”
While not all innovation makes money they do make waves. When large-scale corruption is uncovered it receives plenty media coverage, but how to address the endemic petty corruption that millions of people face around the world is a tougher question. In 2010 Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan and Sridar Iyengar started ipaidabribe.com, a site that collects anonymous reports of bribes paid, bribes requested but not paid and requests that were expected but not forthcoming.
Now, similar sites are spreading like kudzu around the globe, vexing petty bureaucrats the world over. Ms. Ramanathan said nongovernmental organizations and government agencies from at least 17 countries had contacted Janaagraha, the nonprofit organization in Bangalore that operates I Paid a Bribe, to ask about obtaining the source code and setting up a site of their own.
On a totally different scale is Tony Hsieh, whose dream is to fix the world by fixing cities, starting with Las Vegas, not as dictator, but as facilitator. According to his friend Sarah Nisperos, “But he wanted all these things based on happiness and merit and how nice you are. I said you shouldn’t build a strip mall, you should be downtown.”
Hsieh’s working through Downtown Project, a company he created with $350 million to spend, to seed technology startups, invest in education and attempt to build a walkable, vibrant downtown.
“You can’t dictate what the neighborhood is going to look like. But you can definitely help support and accelerate people’s dreams and visions,” Hsieh says. “That is really our belief as to what drives our culture. It needs to be organic.”
But never before has it built a citywide system integrating data from some 30 agencies, all under a single roof. It is the handiwork of an I.B.M. unit called Smarter Cities…
Innovation often borrows from the existent to create something new; that process is especially thrilling when something relatively frivolous is used to make something with the potential to truly change the world. Such is what is happening as MMOG expands to MMOC. This is one link to share with everyone you know.
Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs — a tool for democratizing higher education.
Are you curious? Are you creative? Do you jerryrig (innovate) solutions to your own problems? Are you into contests?
If your head’s been going up and down, or even if it hasn’t, do I have a deal for you.
Not me, actually, but dozens of companies in a multitude of fields are looking for you.
They are looking for you and others like you to solve their problems, but they aren’t looking for experts.
According to Karim Lakhani, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, “The further the problem from the solver’s expertise, the more likely they are to solve it.”
30% of the unsolved problems of science-driven companies posted on InnoCentive were solved by its non-expert network.
InnoCentive posts both the problem and the reward for solving it.
Interested in health?
“Another model combines smaller prizes for promising ideas with big prizes for success. The Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, for example, gives out $100,000 grants for interesting but unusual ideas for solving health problems the foundation sets out: like finding cellphone-based ways to increase vaccination rates, or creating the next generation of sanitation technologies. Entrants need only submit a two-page write-up of an idea. The money finances research, and if a project succeeds, it can win a prize of up to $1 million. Since 2008, the foundation has awarded prizes to 602 researchers in 44 countries.”
You just need to describe your idea—having the skills to make it happen has nothing to do with conceptualizing it.
So click here and start putting your creativity to work now!
The topic isn’t new, but there is more and more proof that creativity flourishes more in a single mind than in a group, but it doesn’t have to be an either-or function—a better approach probably lies in a combination of the two.
I do a lot of brainstorming with my clients in the course of naming products, creating investor presentations and developing marketing material.
Much of my work is done alone, but my own creativity is substantially enhanced by the feedback I get and the new directions that happen when we discuss what I’ve done or they respond to my questions.
Often the most valuable questions I ask are based on my ignorance.
Why?
Because I have no knowledge base from which to make assumptions clients are forced to drill through their own in order to respond. Doing so often results in an entirely new thought process or direction, which, in turn, sparks yet more creative ideas.
It is an exciting and satisfying process.
It’s important to be aware of how your organization approaches innovation. Here are seven questions to ask yourself when you want to juice creativity.
Does your company/team use brainstorming as part of its innovation process?
If so, do you do it together or individually?
If individually, do you come together to review/discuss/question the new ideas?
Do people feel safe sharing what are usually still-fragile thoughts?
Do the questions/discussion lead in yet more creative directions that no one thought of previously?
Do you investigate the new directions with an open mind?
And probably the most important aspect,
Is the process about the best possible idea or who gets credit for it?
An “expert blogger” at Fast Company wrote a post about what large companies can learn from startups (next month she’s writing the flip side, i.e., what startups can learn from large companies.)
Here is her advice in a nutshell,
Startups are flatter; if you can’t flatten, delegate and empower.
Startups have tighter timelines; a mandatory deadline is a pretty good way to shut up any last-minute hesitations.
Startups value disruption; when a company is setting out to define their corporate culture “risk” should make an appearance right between “honesty” and “respect.”
All well and good, but not exactly new information.
At Davos, John Kao, who advises corporations and governments on innovation, said that training and discipline and improvised creativity are the yin and the yang of innovation and used Google and Apple as examples of the two approaches.
Useful information and stuff you can put to work in your organization, but not particularly electrifying.
One problem is that so much of the talk about innovation cites either startups or technology companies as examples of risk and creativity.
Yes, Esquire; a print magazine in an industry that most experts have written off as dead.
In 2011, a year when the magazine industry was flat to down a bit, Esquire was up 13.5 percent in ad pages from the previous year.
To put that in perspective, consider that in 2009 it lost 24.3% advertising pages as compared with 2008 and the brand was predicted to disappear in 2010.
What happened?
Esquire’s editor in chief, David Granger did lay off 20% of his staff and substantially reduce editorial pages, but what he did not do was fire the big name talent in favor of younger, i.e., cheaper, staffers.
He did not, as they say, throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And the staff responded with an outpouring of creativity.
For its 75th anniversary issue in 2008, right about the time magazines were heading off a cliff, he and his designers put together an “E-Ink” cover that flashed, right there on the newsstand. (See video below.)
On almost any given day there are dozens of articles on how to juice innovation and creativity, but I think the Esquire article stands out.
Not because it gives you a list of what is wrong or spells out what to do, but because it proves that just because the “experts” say that not just you, but also your industry, are dead doesn’t mean they are.
What truly innovative companies have in common is a culture that embraces a willingness to live or die by risking failure.
I’ve read a lot about Sam Palmisano and previously written about him.
That said, I still found Wharton management professor Michael Useem’s interview with Palmisano covering his 40 years at IBM, including the last decade as CEO, interesting and informative.
It’s a long interview and, if you prefer, you can use the link to read it or download an audio version.
Most importantly, be sure to read the comments, most by IBMers, which, by and large, are anything but flattering.
Do you agree that his focus on the company screwed the employees or did he get it right?
How does a CEO balance the legacy needs of employees against the needs of the company to survive in a different world?
What would you have done differently to achieve the same success?
I have often heard managers refer to their job as “herding cats;” this is especially true in technical fields where much of the work requires individual efforts.
Scientists are probably the most difficult, since they often come from an environment where publish or perish is the mantra and egos are super-sized.
This was the difficulty that David Ferrucci faced when he set about building the team that created Watson for IBM. He not only had to herd cats he had to hire cats.
As most of the world knows, Ferrucci’s team was wildly successful and created a computer that won playing Jeopardy against its two top past champions and is moving on to far greater challenges.
He says, “In the end, the hero was the team, not any individual member or algorithm.”
What do the researchers think? This comment from one of them pretty much says it all, “Compared to the way we work now, it’s like we were standing still before.”
These scientists are all considered ‘stars’ in their respective fields, but none of them could do anything close to Watson on their own.
Nor could they have done it if their egos and desire for personal recognition had stayed their driving force.
“As for the members of the original Watson team, they’d tell you that never in a million years could they have imagined what we accomplished. Just like Watson itself, we all learned that the sum is much greater than the parts.”
Hiring and herding cats is the true talent of a great manager/leader and absolute proof that in today’s world the boss needs to be both.
And Watson is proof positive that the only stars worth having are the ones who join the team.
Today is the first day of the rest of MAPping Company Success’s life and there are changes for 2012, some of which involve you.
As most of you know Jim Gordon simultaneously got married and retired from drawing mY generation. I have two excellent Creative Commons sources from which to draw comic commentary, however, I would much rather invite one of you.
If you feel an affinity to drawing a comic based on your experiences in the workplace please call 360.335.8054 or write me. And remember, it’s more about your sense of humor, irony and irreverence than your drawing skill!
I’m also looking for guests who want to share their own experiences in areas of interest to my readers. These include culture, management, motivation, people acquisition and retention and startups in all their gory glory. Whether you are a boss (at any level), a worker or a founder and you have an interesting story, lesson learned or anything else to share please contact me.
Readers seem to have a preference for shorter posts, 300 to 500 words or less; what I’m not interested in are thinly veiled promotional posts, whether for products or services, although I will include links in your (brief) bio.
Wordless Wednesday is history, although Miki’s Rules to Live By will randomly continue as before. If you have a great rule of your own please send them to me, I am always looking for additional useful, pithy and/or irreverent rules to live by.
Also, don’t hesitate to share any suggestions you have for making MAPping Company Success more relevant and useful.
Personally, I’m looking forward to more input, commentary and interaction with my readers.
I hope you had a great holiday and accept my wishes for a happy, healthy, wealthy and successful 2012.
not all startups are Net startups – Net startups get most of the press, just as they did the last time, but the idea that the only companies worth funding or working for must be engaged in providing some consumer service that requires massive numbers of users and often relies on advertising for revenue (assuming it has a revenue model) is not only inaccurate, but also ridiculous;
‘find a need/nitch and fill it” can change the world—even if it only changes small pieces at a time it often does it in a way that flashier models don’t;
intrapreneurship is not only alive and well it’s also extremely successful, as shown in the Wall Street Journal article—or just think ‘Apple’, ‘Intel’, ‘IBM’, the list is endless;
As the Wall Street Journal article points out, real-world happenings, especially disasters such as hurricanes, inspire both innovation of existing products and the creation of totally new ones; both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.
Whether it’s disaster or downtime, you need to keep your mind as open as your eyes.
What is innovation? Is it really embodied in a good deal playing Farmville on Facebook for hours? I found an excellent 
Are you curious? Are you creative? Do you jerryrig (innovate) solutions to your own problems? Are you into contests?
I have often heard managers refer to their job as “herding cats;” this is especially true in technical fields where much of the work requires individual efforts.
Today is the first day of the rest of MAPping Company Success’s life and there are changes for 2012, some of which involve you.
Subscribe to MAPping Company Success 