Whether you’re talking invention or innovation, it’s important to remember that it’s often the simplicity of a solution, as opposed to complexity, that makes it truly elegant. Along with simplicity, practicality is important, as seen in the MYCOmmunity Toilet, and focusing on plain old common sense can create a viable business by addressing American bias against ugly produce.

Here are a few that actually have world-changing potential.

Following up on yesterday’s idea to re-freeze the Artic is best described as ‘back to the future’.

A California-based company called SkyCool Systems is in the early stages of manufacturing a cooling system that’s more energy efficient than anything humans have used for a century. It’s doing it using radiative cooling, a concept that was used in the Middle East and India hundreds of years ago.

Inventions like this are potential game-changers as the world stares down a growing climate crisis, spurred by emissions pumped into the atmosphere by human activity. Globally, about 12% of non-carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to refrigeration and air conditioners, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

There is a lot of the talk about “food disruption,” mostly focused on new ways to grow food, plant-based protein, etc. But ending food waste would go a long way to feeding the world’s population.

Europe is way ahead of us when it come to reducing food waste.

Nearly 2 million tonnes of food is wasted by the food industry every year in the U.K. alone. Of that waste, 250,000 tonnes is still edible, equating to roughly 650 million meals. When you consider the 8.4 million people in the U.K. struggling to afford to eat, there’s obviously a problem.

And that’s where the Danish-born Too Good To Go app comes in. The app, which is available in 11 countries in Europe, is simple: it connects users to stores, such as supermarkets, restaurants and bakeries, that have unsold, surplus food.

Getting a job when you’ve been in jail is beyond difficult, especially when 40% of the FBI data base is incorrect. Now there’s an app for that. Teresa Hodge and Laurin Leonard came up with a way for companies, landlords, etc., to get more accurate and nuanced background checks.

R3’s software assesses criminal records, as well as credit histories, employment experience and information self-reported by individuals, and produces a numeric indicator for each individual predicting future trends. Scores run from 300 to 850, to mimic the standard framework for conventional credit histories. The higher the number, the less risky the person.

Finally, on the lighter side, innovation women will really appreciate — convenient and safe.

Gina Périer and Alexander Egebjerg have designed an industrial-standard female toilet for festivals and outdoor events that allows people to pee sitting down quickly and safely.

Named Lapee, the pink plastic structure has three urinals arranged in a spiral, with curving back rests that provide privacy while allowing the user to remain aware of their surroundings.

All of these, even Lapee, have the potential to create major change in our world.

Image credit: Fritz Ahlefeldt (Hiking Artist)

There’s enough career and how-to-be-successful advice to fill a stadium. It goes back decades; some is out of date in a digital world, but the best stuff isn’t.

• The lesson: Go in with big eyes, big ears, and most importantly don’t be a jerk.
• You can be the most talented and skilled at your job, but if people don’t like you, your success will be limited.

Such was the advice that was given to Corey Burns 12 years ago by a mentor.

He recently gave it to a colleague and it’s just as relevant now as it was then.

It’s also one of the true pearls of wisdom that, if we are paying attention, we each collect in the course of our lives.

The best advice, such as this, is so simple it can be offered in less than two minutes and understood almost instantly. (Click the link for a detailed explanation.)

But practicing it seems to be the biggest obstacle for a lot of people.

Watch, listen, don’t be a jerk.

• Make it your mantra; the thought that guides your words and actions;
• surround yourself with like-minded people; and
• avoid those who scoff and do the opposite, especially in the workplace.

Simple.

So, as Nike would say, just do it.

Image credit: Aaron Gustafson

It’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.

There’s not a lot of commentary to add to this oldie. About the only thing I see changed is that complexity has increased and simplification has fallen further out of favor.   

Read other Golden Oldies here

I’m a coach, so I spend a lot of time discussing challenges and situations and then offering ideas, suggestions and, sometimes, specific advice.

I do my best to jar my clients’ thinking, not necessarily to have them follow my lead, but to nudge them out of their comfort zone and into a more creative space.

Basically, I’m a bit lazy in as much as I don’t do any more than is necessary and I avoid complexifying anything.

So when I do offer specific suggestions they’re based on what I consider common sense and are aimed at simplifying whatever is involved.

I often get a ‘wow!’ reaction and lots of excitement.

When asked, I explain the basis of my thinking and suddenly the reaction becomes ‘that’s simple, anyone could think of that’.

It’s a lot like magic tricks. They’re very impressive when you see the magician do them on stage, but when you know how they are done they often become drab and mundane—the magic is gone.

As a result, I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut; I don’t add a lot of mystique, because it feels like a con, but I don’t have to say that my mind always goes for the simplest approach possible, because essentially I’m lazy.

So the next time you’re faced with a challenge try looking for the simplest way to solve it and wow those around you with your brilliance.

Image credit: brenbot

Is your team psychologically safe?

As a boss, no matter the level, it’s your responsibility to foster a psychologically safe culture for your team.

First, you need to know that it’s a relatively simple concept.

Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.^[1] In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected. It is also the most studied enabling condition in group dynamics and team learning research.

But not that simple to implement.

It’s also something that is highly unlikely to happen by accident.

If you are interested in the concept why not learn from Google as they set out to build the perfect team.

Flickr image credit: JC

I wrote the following in 2008 and, based on a number of recent questions/conversations I think it’s time to post it again, with some light editing.

The Vision Thing

Whether you head a company, run a department, or lead a team, you are responsible for that ‘vision thing’ as it applies to those subordinate to you.

It’s your responsibility to clearly identify (if you are the CEO/Prez/Owner) or articulate (at all other levels) the goals of the company.

Then it’s up to you to involve your people, working with them to turn those goals into specific actions for which they are responsible.

Most people are vaguely aware that work isn’t done in a vacuum, but often individuals, teams, or even departments, fail to truly understand the domino effect created by allowing their schedule to slip.

You can minimize this problem, and improve the quality of your workforce, by making certain that they understand how their own goals, their colleagues, those of the company and its customers and vendors interact.

The biggest rewards at all levels (using whatever incentives are available) should go to those who understand the company’s goals, and ethically do whatever is necessary to achieve them—especially when they put the company’s goals ahead of their own.

None of this is rocket science. 

It’s simple enough.

No matter your level, if you’re the boss communicating the vision to your team and aligning their actions with it is your responsibility.

Otherwise, the vision becomes a dream.

Image credit: Wordle

Entrepreneurs love to talk about disrupting.

Most recently they have been disrupting finance.

Harvard’s Jim Heskett posits the idea that tech itself is ripe for disruption, especially if you agree with Clayton M. Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Tech is ungainly for many of us.

Too much of it is developed by the young for the young

Both hardware and software are built by techies in love with the bleeding edge for early adopters and people captivated by potential — whether they will ever have use for it is incidental.

We’re told that the typical user of information technology today utilizes less than 5 percent of the capability made available by today’s hardware and software. A small number of basic functions repeatedly are put to good use by the typical user. They are the need-to-have functions. The functions thought by designers to be nice to have may enhance marketing efforts and satisfy software engineers’ desires to make complex things, but they largely go unused. For some, they even make access to “need to have” functions more confusing.

While many companies add (expensive) bells and whistles to drive growth, others work to provide a more minimalist approach that crushes competitors.

Heskett uses Intuit as an example of a company that focuses on consistently making its software simpler.

It did it by providing simple and inexpensive solutions to everyday problems. Scott [Cook, Intuit co-founder] likes to say that Intuit had 47th mover advantage, in part because it adopted a strategy that identified the pencil as the company’s most important competitor.

Does Heskett’s idea have legs? Is tech, in fact, ripe for Intuit-quality disruption?

If you have strong feelings or thoughts on the subject be sure to add your thoughts to the open forum; Even if you don’t comment it’s worth following; Heskett’s ideas always draw eclectic, well thought-through responses from his audience.

Image credit: Harvard Business School

Few question the idea of emotional contagion.

It’s not a problem when the mood is upbeat, but what to do when it’s not fills volumes.

I found a way to short-circuit ‘emotional contagion’ decades before was named, defined and discussed.

I learned about it in my early twenties in a book by Napoleon Hill and it’s since been reiterated by others in various forms.

I’ve used and shared with clients and it rarely fails when done whole-heartedly and not just with lip service.

“Act enthusiastic and you will become enthusiastic.”

Sounds simplistic, but simple is often best — because this isn’t about finding the cause of your negativity, but preempting the contagion.

Accomplishing that means you need to stay aware of your own mood.

Long ago I realized that judging my mood based on its effect was a bad idea—by the time I had the feedback the damage was done.

After a lot of trial and error I found the easiest and most accurate method my mood early was to stay conscious of my facial muscles, wrinkled brow, smile, frown, etc., because my muscles react long before I’m aware of the mood that is affecting them.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to realize that, except that the obvious often zips right by us.

Image credit: ganeshaisis

Globally, 2.5 billion people don’t have access to a toilet.

1 in 6 people don’t have running water.

Problems like these cry out for innovative solutions, but innovative doesn’t necessarily mean technically sophisticated.

A few years ago Cynthia Koenig saw the water problem first hand in South Africa.

Koenig launched a nonprofit organization to help distribute a locally available water transportation tool. In order to address the issues of poor quality control, corruption, and limited geographic distribution, she soon found herself at the helm of Wello. The social venture manufactures and distributes the WaterWheel, a 20-gallon drum that moves four to five times the amount of water possible using traditional methods of collection and carrying.

Simple, inexpensive and can even become a micro-business for an owner.

In contrast, five years ago the Gates Foundation issued a toilet challenge, with daunting parameters.

Make sure it takes in the bodily waste of an entire family and outputs drinkable water and condiments, like salt. And while you’re at it, make sure that the toilet is microprocessor-supervised and converts feces into energy. And all this has to cost just pennies per person per day.

That description is akin to a silver bullet, not a toilet.

The results, to date, are sophisticated, costly and unsustainable ideas, with prices north of $1000 per toilet.

How different from an available solution that, while it doesn’t do everything, does solves the basic problem and is amazingly cheap.

The Peepoo bag, which inexpensively (less than 2 cents per bag) sanitizes waste before turning it into fertilizer, are huge improvements. They can also be critical in saving lives after natural disasters.

Just think what a few thousand cases of these would mean right now in the Philippines—or in Illinois, for that matter.

Too often, sexy and elegant ends up being complex and expensive, whereas plebian and boring equates to simple and affordable.

Flickr image credit: bjornmeansbear

Are you a list maker? If so, you have a lot of company.

We’re living in the era of the list, maybe even its golden age. The Web click has led to the wholesale repackaging of information into lists, which can be complex and wonderful pieces of information architecture. Our technology has imperceptibly infected us with “list thinking.”

Remember Day Timers? Those fat loose-leaf notebooks in which you organized your work, not to mention your life?

Then to-do lists migrated to PDAs and more recently to Siri, but paper is making a comeback.

I don’t find this strange because I never migrated to digital.

The reason is simple—“out of site/out of mind.”

I can write to-do lists, reading lists, all kinds of lists digitally, but they have no staying power—and it’s not just me; experts are finding the same thing.

Paper, says the productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten, he said. Some of his clients are returning to paper planners for this very reason, he added.

Further, the idea that a person can grasp the complexities of a multi-part project plan by reading it on a smartphone screen or tablet is just plain laughable.

So the next time you are chided for writing (with a pen or pencil) a to-do list, making notes (in the margins) or reading hardcopy you can email or text the above URL and tell your tormentors that you are being efficient and they might try doing the same.

Flickr image credit: Jayel Aheram

Does the name Robert Fulghum sound familiar to you? No?

Does “All I really need to know… I learned in kindergarten” ring a bell?

Robert Fulghum wrote that book and several others.

The first quote of his I remember seeing was decades ago on a poster in my sister’s home. It said, “It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber.” True then and truer now.

He said something else that has been useful in keeping the downs of my life in perspective, “If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.” Fortunately, I’ve had very few problems in my life.

There are a lot of people who consider Fulghum ideas simplistic, but I find that his thoughts make sense and are easily applied to the workplace.

Think how much nicer your workplace would be if your colleagues, not to mention your boss, followed this advice, “Play fair. Don’t hit people. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.”

Bosses would do well to keep this bit of insight firmly in mind, since it applies equally well to your team, “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”

And the next time you’re looking for a way to jump-start your team’s creativity, consider tweaking this cogent advice, “If you want an interesting party sometime, combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.”

Finally, and most importantly, think how much nicer the world would be if corporations, governments, organizations and just plain people lived by these five words, “Clean up your own mess.”

Image credit: Wikipedia