Readings 29 November

Happiness and the Art of Innovation

• It is to answer ways to help increase employee innovation but a difficult one to answer in a way that leads to meaningful change.
• Personal Happiness is the one thing that leads to innovative behavior
• Sax Solo: Ask the question "How can I help each person in my organization achieve a state of happiness on a daily basis." If you help happiness bloom, innovative behavior will follow.
• Understand what makes your heart sing and intrinsically motivates you
• Intrinsic motivation often takes you to a mental place wherein times flies. It may be difficult to complete during the process, but we are happy after we do them and they are an integral part of our life
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's "Concept of Flow:" flow occurs when the complexity of the thing you're doing just outstrips your ability to get it done. It is challenging, but not overwhelmingly so.
• Innovation strives to get individuals to experience the state of flow
• The perfect work assignment for someone who needs to be innovative is one that balances clear, achievable goals with just enough task challenge to ignite fires of creativity. This also enables a state of serious play.
• Honda recognizes that people who are led towards a state of flow don't really need to be "managed," but rather you are setting them up to live in a place where intrinsic motivation is the norm.
• As a corporation, your goal should be to enable other people to be happy.
  
• Check in frequently to ensure that the initial assessment of challenge vs. ability was on target. However, if temporary setbacks and moments of personal crisis aren't encountered along the way, you've aimed too low.

This article articulated something that I have been trying to articulate for a long time. I have always felt that I was a very 'artsy' person. I can relate to the author's saxophone metaphor because I still play the trumpet every day. The trumpet challenges me in a completely different way than traditional school work. It is so frustrating at times when I'm at a plateau (as I currently am), but I know that once I overcome that plateau, the results will amaze all. I feel that organizations should support people's quirks and passions, because those are the things that make people happy. Perhaps those things make people happier than Google bouncy balls. I wish that work could be more like college: challenging yet exciting. I miss the organizations to which I use to belong. I want a corporate orchestra. It is a different way to meet people who aren't in your silo, learn from them, and leave the organization refreshed and passionate. A passionate person feels that they can change the world. This article also spoke to my own motivation. I have been bored and overstimulated; each really is crippling. I realized that I need a reasonable challenge. I love a good challenge! However, I can't feel quite overwhelmed. I need to have some sort of progress marks. Each person is different, but it is like playing the trumpet, sometimes it is really frustrating but in hindsight, it was so much fun!

How to Kill Creativity

• Creativity is unintentionally squashed daily to maximize business imperatives such as coordination, productivity, and control
• To be creative, an idea must also be useful and actionable and influence the way business gets done
• Many managers do not want accounting to be creative, but the creative process cannot be held in a narrow view. Many innovations have stemmed from accounting.
• Creativity involves creative thinking skills, expertise, and motivation
• Expertise encompasses everything that a person knows and can do in the broad domain in his or her work.
• Herb Simon's "Network of possible wanderings:" the intellectual space that a person uses to explore and solve problems. The larger the space, the better.
• Creative thinking refers to how people approach problems and solutions. It depends on personality as well as on how a person thinks and works
• For some people, creative thinking stems from disagreeing with others, turning a problem, and by incubation.
• Expertise and creative thinking are an individual's natural resources, but motivation determines what people actually do.
• Two types of motivation: extrinsic (carrot or stick) and intrinsic (passion and interest)
  
• Monetary rewards neither stifle nor encourage creativity. It doesn't increase employees passion for their jobs.
• "Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity:" people will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by interest, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself.
• Intrinsic motivation can be increased by making subtle changes in organizational environment.
• Managerial Practices that affect creativity:
• Challenge - Stimulate creativity by matching people with jobs that play to their skills in creative thinking and ignite intrinsic motivation. Make sure that they have balance and aren't overwhelmed or bored.
  
• Freedom - Let people determine how they are going to conquer a designated challenge. Make sure the challenge is designated as specified strategic goals enhance people's creativity. It enables people to approach problems in a way that makes the most of their expertise and creative-thinking skills.
  
• Resources - Managers need to determine how much time and money to give to a project. This determination either supports or kills creativity. Creativity takes time (not distrust or burnout). Adding more resources above a "threshold of sufficiency" does not boost creativity; however, resources below the threshold will. Also, it is not the size of the space but rather the "right" type of space that enables creativity.
  
• Work-group features - Design mutually supportive groups with a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. These groups need three other features:
• Shared excitement over the team goal
• Willingness to help teammates through difficult periods and setbacks
• Recognize unique knowledge and perspective that other members bring to the table
• Supervisory encouragement - Managers need to make sure they praise both successful and unsuccessful creative efforts. While not every new idea is worthy of consideration, managers need to not look for reasons to not use an idea instead of exploring it further. The culture of evaluation leads people to focus on external rewards and punishment associated with output. Culture also creates a climate of fear. Negativity also shows up in how managers treat people whose ideas don't pan out.
• Organizational support - The whole organization must support creativity. Support creativity by mandating information sharing and collaboration and ensure that political problems do not fester.
• An organization called Chemical Central Research distinguished its creative status by the quality of leadership at both the top-management level and the team level. They made appropriate matches between people and assignments. They let diverse teams determine the path to reach pre-set goals.
• National Houseware Products, conversely, possess all of the necessary creativity killers
• Creativity often requires that managers radically change the ways in which they build and interact with work groups
• It might cause a short-run monetary risk, but the risk of losing creativity can kill a competitive edge

I find it interesting that this article specifies that extrinsic motivation does not enhance creativity. While I do believe that intrinsic motivation is the key to creativity because it sparks an individual's passion and makes them happy (all components to creativity), I do not necessarily agree with the article's point of Supervisory Encouragement, particularly in regard to praise. As a child, my parents never extrinsically motivated me for good grades. They told me that my reward was in doing a job well done. While I am never satisfied unless I get good grades, I always resented that I was not being extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation, such as a performance bonus, can contribute to happiness and the creativity process. A person may be more inspired to create the account-winning add if that his prize is a bonus. The bonus cannot be dependent on winning the account, but merely an add-on, in order for this argument to work. I think that extrinsic motivation can complement intrinsic motivation to enhance creativity. I do not think that intrinsic motivation is enough.

Creative Tension

• Lina Echeverra, director of glass and glass ceramics at Corning Inc., started her career trampling through the jungles of South America studying ancient lava. As a director, scientist, and corporate manager, her purple hair surprises people.
• Corning Inc.'s glass and glass ceramics division works to understand existing glass, invent new kinds of gas, and improve the performance of pulled glass.
• At Corning, managers often stunt the creative process. Adam Ellison, senior research scientist, worked on a spool of antimony-silicate optical fiber that excited the company, but was initially turned down. "We need cowboys."
• Echeverra is a manager that can't really manage. Scientist perform best when driven by inspiration. She needs to get scientists "in the zone"
• As a group, Echeverra needs to ensure that Corning is happy since it is upon performance and results that her team is evaluated.
• With a highly competitive and fast changing market, R&D managers have to have spot-on scientific judgment, as well as the nerves of a craps player and the psychological insight of a therapist.
• Corning invests a way of producing an invention and then Corning reinvents itself.
• Once an idea shows promise, a formal five-step innovation process ensures that good ideas get the necessary attention and resources. It also enables people to find failure.
• Corning links creativity and the scientist's sense of well-being, such as his ability to get equipment and lab space
• Echeverra adapts herself to each individual personality, "customizing" the managerial experience.
• Each scientist is intrinsically motivated by something different
• LCD glass was invented in the mid-1960s and sat purposeless for two decades.
  
• Corning's R&D process works by identifying an element missing from the consumer experience and trying to create something that meets that need.
• One of the secrets to managing creativity is that it is all about the people. The challenge is to corral all egos to make sure that they don't stomp all over each other.
• Echeverra assigns assignments based on talent to ensure that scientists are attacking Corning's priorities. Scientists are driven to deliver results, sometimes they just require direction.
• A "hands-on manager" is different from a "micromanager." A hand-on manager provides guidance, coaching, and judgment about priorities.

Scientists are such interesting creatures. I found it very interesting how the best manager of interesting and interesting creatures work to channel personalities and point scientists towards the path and to say "go." However, it is odd that Corning still evaluates divisions based upon results, even though certain innovations, like the LCD screen, do not find a home for 20 years. Evaluation can extinguish creativity, so I do not always understand why Corning uses that measure. While results are important, there should be more qualitative measures such as revolutionary, impact on sales, potential uses, percent of effort. One would hope a revolutionary product would have a great impact on sales, but it does not always. However, evaluating somebody on these measures may help fuel their creativity and result in one result that dwarfs previous failures.

Readings 27 November

The Mixed Effects of Inconsistency

• Sometimes compensation strategies do not comply with innovative initiatives. This results in employee reflectance to participate in any initiatives.
• Learning by experimentation is fundamental to solving problems for which outcomes are uncertain and where critical sources of information are non-existent or unavailable.
• Tasks that are conducive to experimentation are those that allow multiple problem-solving trials and present opportunities to use knowledge gained from earlier trials to enhance learning in subsequent trials.
• Experimentation is critical to organizational innovation. Research shows that R&D teams spend almost 80% of their time on experimentation and that these experiments constitute an important source of technical information.
• Failures are unavoidable outcomes of experimentation due to the nature of experimentation's uncertainty
• Failure can have damaging costs; however, even when these costs of failure are greatly reduced, people are still reluctant to experiment due to a lack psychological safety - a belief that a group or organization will not hold a person's mistakes, errors, and failures against him.
• Upper level management needs to create messages of supportiveness and tolerance for errors to overcome perceptions of the level of psychological safety.
• Creativity is related to organizational culture, reward systems, supervisory encouragement, trust, and resources.
• Organizational variables that affect innovation behavior include both normative (established norms that define appropriate and inappropriate forms of behavior) and instrumental (formal reward systems and incentives) influences.
• One critical factor in organizations is 'evaluative pressure' - the degree to which individuals are closely evaluated and monitored on their performance. This pressure reduces psychological safety.
• Monitoring in the context of supportive coaching can increase interpersonal risk taking
• There are 4 primary differences between highly evaluated and lightly evaluated persons. First, ambiguity causes highly evaluated people to be aware of punishment and less likely to take risks; whereas lightly evaluated persons see the opportunity to learn. Second, constant evaluation creates a psychological burden. Thirdly, evaluative pressure shapes the emotional experience of coping with uncertainty. Finally, they react to emotion differently.
• One would be better to be consistently-discouraging than inconsistently-encouraging because it increases psychological safety. When individuals are exposed to consistent messages, each is more likely to be seen as credible and will then have a stronger effect on behavior. However, if an organization is inconsistent, those who are lightly evaluated, might be able to draw upon internal, psychological resources in order to support experimenting.

This article reminded me of my colleague Rita. While the company was consistent in its desire for innovation (everybody was "expected" to create a certain amount of quarterly ideas), it consistently monitored its employees to ensure that they were still performing on the core job. Rita was highly evaluated to the extent that she had very low psychological safety. She was so afraid of losing her jobs that she did not want to take the necessary risks to ensure she would keep her job. She did not want to experiment with different delivery messages because she was so focused on perfecting the core delivery message. I often felt that the managerial style was poor; so it was nice to see it reinforced in this article.

How Failure Breeds Success

• Nestle launched Choglit, a chocolate-flavored milk drink, in 2002 to capture Generation X and failed.
• As a result, Coke CEO E. Neville Isdell needs to convince risk-adverse employees and shareholders that he will tolerate the failures that will inevitably result from taking necessary increased risks
• People are afraid of failure, but failure is not a bad thing. It is important to the experimentation process.
• "Figuring out how to master this process of failing fast and failing cheap and fumbling toward success is probably the most important thing companies have to get good at," says Scott Anthony, the managing director at consulting firm Innosight
• Propose "failure parties" to recognize failure's importance in the creative process. Most companies don't spend enough time looking backwards.
• Corning combined two failed business of drug research with photonics to accelerate the testing of potential drugs and improve its accuracy
• Companies that struggle to be more innovative don't look for ways to prove that an experiment works, they try to prove themselves wrong. This forces early failure at a lower cost.

As I read this article, I was reminded of the film Elizabethtown. In that film, Orlando Bloom's character develops a brand new shoe that fails and ultimately costs the company millions of dollars and he, his own job. Of course, the film wouldn't exist if Orlando Bloom didn't journey to Virginia to rediscover his purpose in life and realize that he is not a failure at life. However, it is a shame to think that a million dollar loss can cost an innovator his job. It is hard to create a culture that will allow people to aim high and miss. My trumpet instructor use to tell me "let the chips fall where they may." If you are going to make a mistake, make a big one. At least people know you are trying hard and you are more able to quickly learn the next time.

TED: Joshua Prince-Ramus

• A hyperrational process - takes a rational process and makes people question its rationality
• This process does not have authorship and no master architect
• The most immediate need of operational costs often transcends any other possibility
• Compartmentalized flexibility - identify a series of points; whereas you gain the same perspective as you would have gained with high modernism
• Needed to convince the librarians that social rolls were as important as the books themselves. This directly impacts the design for the Seattle Central Library
• The building off-kiltered blocks that enable the Seattle Central Library to grow. Dimensions are designed for structure and to hold on to every piece of glass. Every spiral city block is stair stepped up one whole floor.
• The Seattle theatre is a rare multi-functional one, so they designed the theatre so that the stage can be changed with a push of a button, using capital costs we can achieve what cannot achieve using operational costs. This enables them to rent out the space during off season.
• Another company's desire to support contemporary art in Louisville, KY allowed them to create spaces in which the artists want to work. The center zone enables multi-use by both audiences and artists.

I am always intrigued by different architectural problem solving approaches. I have always seen architecture as art; so it is fitting that it serve as a multi-functional art form. However, I never before considered that art could also solve more functional problems than just the need for a building. A theatre I use to work at was multi-functional. However, it would have been great if it could be adjusted with the touch of a button, must like the lighting panel. To take it one step further, it would be interesting to see an adjustable seating arrangement for shows that do not sell out. Perhaps I should contact Josh and provide him with this suggestion.

WOW of the week of November 19

Guitar Hero. What a great game! Seriously. You almost feel as if you could play guitar. It is simple to understand yet provides a difficult challenge.

Bug of the Week of November 19

The toilets at Chicago O'Hare airport. The doors open into the stall, which, with luggage, makes it difficult to bring the luggage in.

Readings 20 November

The Art of Innovation: Chapter 4

• 70% of businesspeople in a recent Arthur Andersen survey say they use brainstorming in their organization
• Many people overlook the possibility that brainstorming can be a skill
• The more you brainstorm, the more it is woven into organizational culture
• If you want to keep in shape, you need to exercise brainstorming muscles more than once per month
• Sixty minutes seems to be the optimum brainstorming session length, though occasionally a brainstorm can productively stretch to an hour and a half
• Seven Secrets for Better Brainstorming:
• 1. Sharpen the Focus
• The session will get off to a better start if you have a well-articulated description of the problem at just the right level of specificity
• Describe you problem in a way that is tangible, so that participants can sink their teeth into it without limiting possible solutions
• 2. Playful Rules
• 3. Number your Ideas
• 100 ideas/hour indicates a good, fluid brainstorming session
• 4. Build and Jump
• High-energy brainstorms tend to follow a series of steep "power" curves, in which momentum builds slowly, then intensely, then starts to plateau
• 5. The Space Remembers
• Write down the flow of ideas down in a medium visible to the whole group
• When you return to the spot where the idea was captured, spatial memory will help people recapture the mind-set they had when the idea first emerged.
• 6. Stretch your Mental Muscles
• Warm up the group when the group hasn't worked together before, doesn't brainstorm frequently, or seems distracted by other issues
• One type of warm-up is a fast-paced word game simply to clear the mind and get the team into an outgoing mode
• Frequently utilize "show-and-tell" to help a brainstormer help visual the wide variety of options and materials that could be applied
• 7. Get Physical
• Work with 3 dimensional malleable products
• Brainstormers offer team members a change to shine in friendly competition
• Six Ways to Kill a Brainstormer:
• 1. The boss gets to speak first
  
• 2. Everybody gets a turn
• 3. Experts only please
• 4. Do it off-site
• 5. No silly stuff
• 6. Write down everything

After reading this article, I start to see that most organizations typically utilize a few of the brainstorming best practices. However, they also utilize practices that kill brainstorms as well. The most prominent brainstorm-killing technique is that of working off-site. Most organizations take their executive team off-site to discuss and brainstorm strategy. Granted, one does need to be able to brainstorm in the existing environment. However, a change in environment can often stimulate the subconscious parts of our brains. Brilliant solutions come in external environments. Sometimes the change of scenery acts as our personal shower and stimulates ideas. Maybe organizations need to implement different locations, both on-site and off in order to better stimulate different kinds of innovative ideas.

The Art of Innovation: Chapter 10

• As you step through the innovation process, try thinking verbs, not nouns
• Everybody is in the business of creating experiences, so focus on the verbs, the actions. The goal is not a more beautiful store, it is a better shopping experience
• To gain finer detail, it is beneficial to write down all traditional process step. Break the customer journey into component elements and ask yourself how you can deliver a better experience
• Innovation sometimes starts with a small improvement. However, a better-designed experience often comes about when you can transform a niche product to something broader that resonates with your customers
• Companies such as Nike, Disney Store, Warner Bros. Studio store, and Steelcase transformed their bricks and mortar store into an experience to gain consumer interaction and increase sales.
• Companies can learn from the Las Vegas and create a customer experience
• Breaking the mold of standard aisles, Central Market created a yellow brick road-like path that winds through the store, creating more shelf space and giving customers a grander view of its bountiful product, diverse foods, and lavish displays
• We all crave good experiences. By turning your product/service into an experience, you might find a market you didn't know existed
• Designing new experiences is usually about figuring out a way to connect to people
• Tell a story. The best stores draw us in with "stories," whether romance, nostalgia, or mystery
• Provide a solution to an existing problem
• Designing new experiences is about striking a balance. Be careful not to toss in to many new features
• The best products and services aspire to the classic design principles: "Make simple things simple and complex things possible."
• By studying badly designed experience, you can find a solution called the "small d." These designed experiences don't have to be about primary products or services. They are just solutions to badly designed experiences.

When I recently listed my list of top 10 target companies for which to work, I realized that I was attracted to all of them because they created an experience. In an increasingly competitive market, an experience is difficult to duplicate. It can be a sustainable competitive advantage even when products are duplicated. Experiences interact with consumer emotions. These emotions may not introduce the customer to your company, but it will keep them returning. One of my target companies, Lush, has done just this to the fresh handmade cosmetics industry. The others, Starbucks and Google, have quickly developed due to the unique experiences that they provide. A lot of this deals with viewing problems as verbs rather than nouns. Perhaps this is why MBAs do this with items such as 'actionables' and 'deliverables.' It may not reflect innovation, but it creates a mindset better attuned to innovation.

The Art of Innovation: Chapter 13

• When real innovation stalls, feature creep often sets in
• We're all in search of the "Wet Nap Interface." We want products built to be used as simply as the directions on Wet Naps: "tear open and use"
• When design is done by committee or the goal is fuzzy, one can see that feature creep isn't far behind
• Try "driving" your own products and services as if you were trying them for the first time. You'll most likely find something missing you will want to incorporate in version 2.0
• Simplicity in design is like clear directions. Give customers fewer turns in the road and they'll most likely lock onto their destination
• Almost every industry has established thinking about which features are or are not necessary. To refine a product, one needs to challenge that status quo.
• Version 2.0 can be an ideal time to streamline instead of adding bells and whistles
• People want more integration and simplicity
• The best products understand the fundamental concept that you need to spend the most design attention at the place where you touch the product the most
• Jeff Hawkins of Palm V, handled a prototype Palm throughout the design period to fully understand its usage patterns and physical feel. This resulted in the discover that a slightly concave button felt better on your finger. He also designed to use aluminum for the Palm, but without using screws
• Genuinely new designs don't just challenge your customers' perceptions of what your product should or shouldn't, they also challenge your partners
• Refinement involves asking what you don't need, even if at a glance it appears that you might
• How to create great products and services:
• 1. Make a Great Entrance
• one of the hallmarks of first-class service is that people address you by name
• 2. Make metaphors
• 3. Think Briefcase: It's a great way to help you think about products that bridge the gap between work and home
• 4. Color Inspires
• 5. Backstage Pass: Let your customers know what's going on behind the curtain and they'll reward you with business and perhaps, even loyalty
• 6. One click is better than two
• 7. Goof-proof: Nearly every product could use a real or virtual "White-Out"
• 8. First, Do no Harm: Take the pain and struggle out of your products or services and you'll not only win over customers, but likely, you'll beat out the competition as well
• 9. Checklist: Fail a critical compatibility test and you'll flop. This is one element of product development that is unforgivable
  
• 10. Great Extras

Simplicity creates a complex conundrum. One wants to deliver a product that is easily understood and utilized by consumers. However, consumers want several features. Sometimes, innovation requires seeing beyond the standard and removing unnecessary items. It is much like removing the problem's appendix. Does the appendix do something? Sure it does. Do we really need it? While developments are being made, we probably don't. Every innovator is also a consumer. I fully believe that every innovator should 'drive the wheels of his own car' and then have his family drive it as well. This allows you to hear other people's opinions of what they like and dislike about products. However, I do believe that the experience needs consistency. Granted, attention should be spent on the most-touched point. However, I have visited many websites, like www.nd.edu, where the face page looks amazing, but the supporting pages do not. Give a backstage pass that is consistent with the front-page's excellence. It is the innovative aspect of Integrated Marketing Communications.

Mind of the Innovator

• In a room of bomb squad detectives, not a single one considered themselves an innovator, but all considered themselves problem solvers


• People need to stop thinking about innovation as an outcome and start thinking about innovation as a process


• Great ideas and viable solutions are chased down from the ground up


• Seven Sings of Solutions are traps of traditional thinking applied to the expensive shampoo case


• #1: Shortcutting (Leaping to Solutions)


• This method almost never leads to an elegant solution because it does not address deeper causes


• Shortcut in doctor diagnosis after 2 symptoms leads to 20% of medical errors


• #2 Blindspots: assumptions, biases, mind-sets, and reflective thinking


• When our brains make their pattens based upon experience, we have to really focus to consciously break the pattern and 'think different.'


• If you spend more time thinking about the 'why?' behind the what, you would have been better able to frame the problem properly without making unwarranted assumptions


• #3 Note Invented Here (N.I.H.): lack of perspective. We do not trust other people's solutions.


• #4 Satisficing: The space between conflicting goals, causing creative tensions. Too often people think that the optimal solution is a luxury.


• The ability to properly frame an issue or problem goes far in avoiding the typical pitfalls that limit our ability to reach the elegant solution. Sometimes you need to hold the tension.


• #5: Downgrading: Twists the facts to suit our solution. The second option is the 'revised stimulate.' Each solution gets us most of the way there and then sells the upside and downplays the downside.


• #6 Complicating: We are hardwired to complicate things and cost as a first course of action. Let limitations drive creativity; it will eliminate complications


• #7 Stifling: Seniority prevents those with ideas from stepping forward. We second guess the ideas of others in favor of our own.


• IDEA Loops: Investigate, Design, Execute, Adjust


• Hansei is the Japanese word for reflection and the rigorous review conducted after action has been taken. It is a sobering reality check of the project's outcome. It fosters real learning and insight about the outcomes.


• The key to innovation is a quiet mind. This stimulates neural workings of our brain that are hidden from our awareness.

Everybody brings a different perspective to the table. The difficulty in innovation is adjusting that perspective and personality to contribute to a wider solution. I know that I am guilty of seeing tension between conflicting goals. For me, the only way to find a solution that will inevitably ease that tension is to quiet the mind. It is also difficult to keep a 360 perspective with necessary constraints that help guide the innovation process. Perhaps group meetings need more practice than assembly. Group meetings should practice innovative thinking. It is too easy to follow instructor directions, which can inhibit innovation. I know that I have reeled in those who are off topic or not quite on the 'A' path. Practice may help generate 'A' paths that productively result from off topic thinking

Documentary: Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry has changed the look of a very conservative feel. Mixing the free-wheelingness of arts with the laws of physics to form creative architecture

• Artists take risks that nobody has done before


• Provide personal expressiveness in industry's that make stringent commercial demands


• Not too many architects mixed with artists. Many of Frank's colleagues made fun of him.


• Frank suddenly found happiness when he stopped creating projects he did not like


• Frank uses art as inspiration for architecture. One example includes the concept of 'compositions.' Its disconnect provides inspiration.


• Most architects feel restricted by rules. If you do something, it is no longer architecture.


• Sometimes ideas come from "flipping the plan" or seeing another perspective. In architecture, everybody has a distinct role, but that role generates ideas and results in teamwork. Teamwork then results in great ideas.
• The architect/client discussion does not involve questions. It involves experiencing the client: smell, expressions, preferences. Frank is always molding sculptures
• The concept of multiple models often shows up with Frank. The basic idea is to have multiple ideas in prototypes in various forms. It is more illuminating to look at a variety of views. The model is constantly undergoing change. See the model as a direction, not as the status quo.
• Frank says that they will be in a "liquid stage" for a lot of the time in order to take advantage of opportunities that evolves with client and world inputs.
• If you freeze or refine an idea too quickly, one becomes attached to it. The crudeness of initial models is deliberate to prevent attachment and stimulate constant refinement

As I watched Frank Gehry in action, I was reminded of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. In that book, the main character combines Frank Gehry's non-traditional style with the previous articles emphasis on simplicity. Why should a building be build with unnecessary but ornate fixtures? It is interesting that architects normally do not explore outside of the 'white building.' Buildings are art and I find it interesting the Frank Gehry gains composition ideas from art. The arts have long been related in this manner. Music would reflect literary concepts, such as the Byron hero, in Wagner. Literature reflects politics. Art reflects music. Looking outside of the realm for inspiration often creates it in a more productive way then rules ever will.

Bug of the Week of 13 November

Notre Dame Webmail. Don't even get me started. After using Gmail or Yahoo, Webmail is antiquated, is not integrated, and lengthens email time.

WOW of the week of November 13

Band-aid Blister Block. Absolutely amazing! One Thanskgiving oven burned thumb now only needs one band-aid in order to heal.

Readings for November 15

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 6

• Symphony is the ability to put together the pieces. It is the capacity to synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to develop specific answers; and to invest something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair
• Those with the ability to see the big picture have a decided advantage in their pursuit of personal well being.
• When the left brain doesn't know what the right is doing, the mind is free to see relationships and to integrate those relationships into a whole. This is the key to Symphony.
• People who hope to thrive in the conceptual age must understand the connections between diverse, and seemingly separate, disciplines.
• The next 10 years will require people to think and work across boundaries into new zones that are totally different from their areas of expertise. They will not only have to cross those boundaries, but they will have to identify opportunities and make connections between them.
• The ability to make big leaps of thought is a common denominator among the originators of breakthrough ideas. Usually this ability resides in people with very wide backgrounds, multidisciplinary minds, and a broad spectrum of experiences
• Metaphor is another important element of Symphony often excluded from the domain of reason in Western Society. However, human thought processes are largely metaphorical

As a music minor, I am exceptionally familiar with the concept of symphony. I always joke with my friends that when I listen to a symphonic work, I always close my eyes. It helps me hear better and in doing so, I generally can follow 5 voices at a time. I never considered that this was the right brain listening to items in context. Nor did I consider Symphony to relate to the collision of different fields into one masterpiece. However, while working on the Whirlpool Interterm, the most valuable technique I gained was exactly this concept. The Whirlpool Innovation tool has people take two separate cultural trends and mash them together. I found it very easy to come up with amazing ideas just by using Symphony. Also, I found it captivating that those persons with multiple experiences are more innovative. However, at Google, we were told to express what we did for fun and our high school experiences. At the time, I thought that they wanted to see only a more dynamic picture of our personality. However, people's extracurricular activities add creative layers to a company because of their diverse range of experiences. I now am certain that it is important I continue to list my extracurricular activities on my resume, especially my musical ones.

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 7

• Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's position and to intuit what that person is feeling
• Empathy isn't feeling bad for someone else, it is feeling with someone else
• Empathy was often considered a softhearted nicety in a world that demanded hardheaded detachment
• Charles Darwin wrote in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (and Paul Ekman proved in 1964) that facial expressions are universal
• "Just as the mode of the rational mind is words, the mode of the emotions is non-verbal" - Daniel Goleman
• The vast majority of women cradle babies on the left side because the right side of the brain interprets the empathy requires to properly care for a child
• Computers are great at math, but autistic when it comes to interacting with people
• The work that is not outsourced will demand a much deeper understanding of the subtleties of human interactions
• Seven basic human emotions have clear facial signals: anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt, and happiness
• A smile of true enjoyment is called the "Duchenne smile," and require two muscle contractions: one of these we can control and one we cannot
• Empathy is an essential part of Design, because good designers put themselves in the mind of whoever is going to experience their design
• Empathy is related to Symphony because empathetic people understand the importance of context
• Empathy also includes story
• A patient's health was more likely to improve with an empathetic doctor; however, empathy test bore no relation to scores on the MCAT
• To systemize, you need detachment. To empathize, you need some degree of attachment. This is why women generally are more likely to be more empathetic than men

I read the book Book, which discussed Paul Eckman's technique. I have also read Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. Both describe the importance of being able to interpret emotion and facial expression in order to better manage people. People work better when they feel that their manager 'understands them.' Managers are equally more effective at motivating people when they understand them. To often, people use the 'suck it up' technique. The 'suck it up' technique is not nearly as effective as a manager who takes a minute to give an employee an e-card. It is also interesting that the essence of design is empathy. In order to effectively innovate, one needs to empathize with the consumer during the discern and observe phase. Without this phase, one cannot effectively innovate.

A Whole New Mind Chapter 8

• Madan Kataria believes that laughter can function like a benevolent virus
• "When you are playful, you are activating the right side of your brain.The logical brain is a limited brain. The right side is unlimited. You can be anything you want" - Madan Kataria
• More than fifty European companies have brought in consultants in "Serious Play," a technique that uses Lego building blocks to train corporate executives
• Joyfulness is demonstrating its power to make people more productive and fulfilled
• America's Army is one example of how the U.S. military is giving recruits a feel for the reality of military service, "substituting virtual experiences for vicarious insights"
• Half of all Americans over age six play computer and video games
• In the U.S., the video game business is larger than the motion picture industry. Americans spend more on video games than they do on movie tickets
• Games can be the ultimate learning machine. They encourage good principles of learning that are often better than those instruct and drill taught in school.
  
• Learning is not about memorizing isolated facts. It is about connecting and manipulating them.
• Several universities now offer an Entertainment and Technology Center, a collaboration between College of Fine Arts and School of Computer Science
• If the MFA is the new MBA, soon the MET might be the new MFA
• The right hemisphere plays an essential role in understanding and appreciating humor
• Humor embodies many of the right hemisphere's powerful attributes of putting things into the large contextual picture
• The most effective executives deployed humor twice as often as middle-of-the-pack managers because it signifies higher emotional intelligence
• Jokes that people tell at the workplace can reveal as much about the organization's culture than surveys
• The goal of laughter clubs is "thought-free" laughter. If you're laughing, you cannot think. This is the same objective achieved in meditation.
• Happiness is conditional; joyfulness is unconditional. Look for laughter within
• Games are teaching a variety of whole-minded lessons to a new generation of workers and have given rise to an industry that demands several of the key skills of the Conceptual Age

The more I read this book, the more I realize what an amazing place Google is to work for. I never quite understand why we had gaming rooms filled with Wiis. Since I worked on the business development side, my team rarely had time for play. However, my team generally was more right minded. My job was to empathize with the consumer and to observe their experiences in order to improve upon them. I often thought that the engineers used game rooms because they were socially awkward. However, perhaps games are a way for them to expand beyond their systematic way of thinking in order to develop the innovations that define Google. Since they rely on the business end for end user information, games may help them develop a contextual way of thinking and problem solving. After reading this chapter, I do think that companies should make time for laughter and joy. Joyful people change the corporate culture and improve corporate performance. It also makes people more receptive to new ideas and makes them more innovative. So why not have a laughter club at work?

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 9

• Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning argues that "man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in life."
• Frankl's approach is called "logotherapy"
• Meaning can grow from suffering, but suffering is not a prerequisite.
• The search for meaning is a drive that exists in all of us
• "Spiritual inequity is not as great of a problem as material inequity, perhaps even greater. People have enough to live, but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning." - Robert Fogel
• There is a shift from Materialist values to Postmaterialist priorities, which emphasize self-expression and a quality in life
• Science and Buddhism are very similar. They both explore the nature of reality and have the goal to lessen the suffering of mankind.
• Spirituality is a fundamental part of the human condition
• The merging of spirit and health is used to treat each patient as a whole person rather than as a receptacle for a particular illness
• Companies that acknowledged spiritual values and aligned them with companies goals outperformed those that did not. It often helped companies meet their goals.
• "Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue" - Viktor Frankl
• Happiness depends on biology and to items such as engaging in satisfying work, avoiding negative events and emotions, being married and having a rich social network. Also important are gratitude, forgiveness, and optimism.
  
• A calling is the most satisfying form of work because, as gratification, it is done for its own sake rather than for the material benefits it brings.
• When people walk a labyrinth, they shift consciousness from the linear to the non-linear. The ideal life is more like walking a labyrinth, where the purpose is the journey itself

Organization behavior aligns with this chapter. Part of the human condition is the need to belong and to understand meaning. In a recent conversation at ND MBA's Diversity Conference, I had the honor of sitting at the head table with Dean Caroline Woo and Ms. Punan Mathur, SVP of Corporate Diversity at MGM Mirage. In our discussion, I expressed that I feel that 22 is one of the hardest ages. You leave college with all of these ideas and you start to question "who am I?" and "what do I want?" We want meaningful jobs. We want meaningful lives. We want to know that earning very little money is going to mean something to us in the future. But most importantly, we want to find our calling. One of my previous managers said something very meaningful to me. She said, "If you don't love what you are doing, you're in the wrong business." That line has stayed with me as I pursue jobs. I fully believe that if you do not see meaning in your job, you will not be happy at your job. If you are not happy at your job, you will not be able to be creative and innovate. Perhaps more companies should employ labyrinths or yoga sessions to give people an opportunity to get in touch with their spiritual side while still being religiously ambiguous. It may help those seeking meaning find it.

The Beauty of Simplicity

• innovation's biggest paradox is that consumers demand more from the stuff in our eyes but we increasingly demand that it be easier to use.


• The technology that powers Google's search engine powers an algorithm that includes 500 million variables to rank 8 billion web pages


• Google has the functionality of a really complicated Swiss Army knife, but the home page is our way of approaching it closed.


• if the equation T (technology) + E (ease of use) = $ can be proven, the time may be right for the voice of technologically challenged who can't operate their remotes to be heard


• 87% of people said that ease of use is the most important thing when it comes to new technologies.


• "Less isn't more; just enough is more" - Milton Glaser.


• it's easier to market technology, than ease of use


• making product simpler can start by simplifying your company


• Royal Philips Electronics christened "Sense and Simplicity," required everything Philips did to be technologically advanced, but it had to be designed with the end use in mind and be easy to experience.


• a company should see how user's use the product to see how they can make the product more simple

This concept of simplicity is not a surprising one for me. Google's competitive advantage is simplicity. Its mission is to make the world's information universally and easily accessible. Part of the ease lays in its simplicity. Making technology easy to use can be difficult, especially as Baby Boomers start to age. I like to think that 'classic' products are those that are the most successful. 'Classic' products have a very clean and sleek look. It is usually aesthetically appealing and all the hard work is done on the inside. Apply the 3 deep webpage to products to allow maximum choice with the easiest use. It also would be beneficial if instruction manuals were easier to follow. All of these items help make products more simple.

TED Video: Chris Bangle

• Auto-mobiles are automatic things


• Cars are an avatar. They are an extension of yourself. If you feel sexy, the car is sexy. If you are full of road rage, your car is like a rock.


• The original cars are all hand sculpted


• There is a sense of doing something new with a sense of obligation to sculpting the car


• Sculpture should always give an impression that stems from within


• Car sculptures are interested in finding form that is more than function


• BMW decided to assemble a team of designers, Deep Blue, to determine the next trend after the SUV. These designers would intermittently work independently and together. However, the designers went different places


• Determined that engineers solved problems and BMW was asking them to create problems. The engineers were waiting for designers to bring them problems and threatened to walk out. The designers then created a presentation to illustrate ways to increase communications.


• Determined that one can't have a premise that dictates. They need trust.


• Trust and love contributes to the design.

Love is indicative of passion. Passionate people are those who continue to look for new and innovative ways to develop the items about which they are passionate. Violinists search for ways to improve their technique. Car enthusiasts work to better their cars. I believe that innovation depends upon passion. If a designer doesn't love what he does, it will show in the final product. That is not to say that that designer cannot create great new concepts. Rather, that great concept would be a spectacular one, if infused with passion.

Readings for the Week of November 13

Anthropologists Go Native in the Corporate Village

• Corporate anthropologists elicit the cultural patterns of an organization. What rules do people have of appropriate and inappropriate behavior and how do they pass it on?
• Big name businesses are trending to hire corporate anthropologists to understand their workers and culture better and to help design products that better reflect emerging cultural trends
• Anthropology's holistic approach that looks at evolutionary, cultural, linguistic and biological perspectives match the growing business complexity
• Can gain three insights: respect for cultural differences within and between organizations. 2) the ability to quickly identify the core organizational culture, and 3) the ability to recognize natural leaders

This article was very interesting. I always felt that I would do well as an anthropologist. I think it is important for organizations to understand how their employees work. I think too often people implement ideas or try to make an environment creative without actually knowing if it will. I think the anthropologist perspective gives a little bit more direction behind what the problems are and why people work in that way. However, there may be a gap in translation. The anthropologist may be able to identify why people are having a hard time working together, but it may be hard to change (depending on whether or not it is at the companies core)

The Evolution of Design-Inspired Enterprises

• today, the word 'design' denotes the totality of activities and competencies that gather all relevant information and transform it into a new product or service
• design creates competitive advantages by invoking emotional meaning in products
• evolution creates a design-focused enterprise, an organization that uses consumer-centered product development to move quickly from consumer knowledge to need satisfying product and service offerings
• traditional research asks people what they want, but consumers cannot reliably express their higher-order needs and aspirations, which may call for radical redesign or new offerings
• design-focused companies use design research to gain high-order need insights
• the best practice in design is to integrate people from different backgrounds into design research teams
• design research teams start with a variety of 'ethnographic techniques,' watching and recording what people do in real life
• design research also employs 'psychophysiological techniques,' such as bio-feedback, eye tracking and facial coding to understand the emotions underlying observable behaviour
• design researchers also use 'brand personification' to get the consumer to relate the brand to both a person and another type of product
• The following are useful design research techniques
• issue mapping, metaphors, consumer archetypes, work-flow mapping, storytelling, bulletin boards.
• most design-focused firms see the value in making as many mistakes as possible in the front-end phase, when they could learn the most at the lowest risk and cost

My promotions strategy class is actually discussing this topic from a different perspective. We are learning its from the ELM perspective. Again, consumers cannot express their motivations for purchasing a product. Motivations tend to lie in the subconscious. I think most people would find that few people actually know what they want in life, let alone in a product. Advertisers and product designers need to know what people actually want in order to better meet their needs. I like the concept of building the product from the consumer up. In fact, creative solutions stem from finding the concept that strikes peoples interest. For example, for banks, it isn't about the bank, it is about using money to live. When you start discussing money and life, people get excited. When one speaks about banks, people are only somewhat interested. It might also benefit design-research teams to just stimulate group discussion with a few seemingly unrelated topics to see what sparks their imagination. The best way to do this is probably by using metaphors. Get them talking about the metaphor and what they like about it. You can then translate many of those likings to the new product.

Virtual Anthropologist

• trend watching is a mix of curiosity, open-mindedness, and a fascination with manifestations of the new
• numbers are important, but more as evidence than a starting point for new products
• 'observing' and 'inspiration' at the core of trendwatching is like 'diet' anthropology
• corporation are hiring anthropologists to immerse themselves in the business world to discover latent needs, which then inspire new products
• one can live amongst the consumer by going online to webcams, blogs, etc. People are giving real-life testimonial to what they are thinking. They want to connect, to share, to create, and to show off
• virtual anthropology is about finding out what consumers want, not what you could or should do next to better serve them. It is not about spying on consumers to selling directly to them.
• you should share some findings with online population to return the favor
• live the lives of your consumers: games.textamerica.com, shangartgallery, whatsinyour fridge pool on Flickr, flickr.com/photos/tags/whatsinyourbag
• Look at blip.tv, youtube.com, castpost.com, vsocial.com, and don't forget blogs: postsecretblogspot.com
• roam the world's most inspiring places: londonist.com, shanghaiist, parisist, gawker.com

I always wished it was easier to find trend spotting sites. However, I am more intrigued with all that these consumers can give you online. I especially am captivated by visiting the world's most inspiring places to see how people dress, how they shop, and what they want. It is direct observation only using the internet. I am surprised that they didn't recommend social networking sites. I feel that companies are trying to understand the latent needs of their consumers. Images and videos are a great way to do that. However, I think some of the most powerful information can stem from social networking sites and blogs. People say a lot more to a blog than they would to a real person. It has a certain anonymity to it. You can also better target consumers that way. I would recommend anthropologists utilize those sites to gain a little bit more perspective on their target market.

TED Video: Charles Leadbeater

• it is when internet combines with inspired consumers that you get an exposion of creativity. Out of that you get the need for new kinds of organizations
• special people in special places think up special ideas
• radical innovation that effects a large amount of people are attached with a great deal of uncertainty. Payoffs are the highest here, but uncertain as to how it can be applied. It is only when that technology reaches the user that you know how it can be applied
• most creativity is cumulative and collaborative
• users are the source of big disruptive innovations. If you want to find new ideas, it is hard to find them in mainstream organizations. Big corporations have a tendency to support past success.
• information that use to be only be accessible to the elite, is now accessible to everybody
• patents are now being used to prevent innovation from taking place
• first critical challenge is to ask if we can survive on volunteers if it is so critical. Shouldn't it be organized? What kind of changes would we need to make that possible? Will see intelligent closed organizations moving to be an open organization
• this is about companies creating open communities
• open models multiple productiveness because convert users into consumers

The concept of open sourcing a corporate to gain consumer insight is an interesting ones. Several corporations have started to create consumer challenges. Google often created these challenges for things like Google Art and Designs. It was a way in which they could see what consumers wanted and how consumers used the product. Many innovative corporations are actually founded upon this concept. The founder of Jansport started Jansport because he wanted a product that could do certain things that no existing product could do. However, somehow, many companies lose that spirit. I think often we are so constrained by trying to continually do better that it doesn't happen naturally. Isn't that the way of life? Only when we get feedback from others do we finally overcome specific plateaus. I also agree with the concept that patents are preventing innovation. Economics discussed that patents create market costs because not everybody can benefit from the solution. However, companies also want to gain a competitive advantage. I think patents are good to have, but there has to be a way to promulgate creativity. Or, let your consumers play with your patent to see how it will best apply.

WOW of the week of November 6

I am always amazed by my Esquire Watch. I have never had a problem with this watch. It runs so efficiently that the first battery lasted 6 years.

Bug of the Week of 8 November

Trumpet spit. Currently, when you play a brass instrument, your breath builds condensation in the instrument that needs to be released, via a trigger. As a result, when you sit in the brass section, there are small little spit pools anywhere. There has to be a better way to empty the horn. Maybe there is a different type of steal that could use the heat of the breath to evaporate the condensation. Or perhaps one can make performance floors heated so that the spit evaporates. It is just kind of disgusting and slightly messy. Hence, my bug this week!

November 8 Readings

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 1

• Science recently created functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture pictures of the brain in action.
• Researchers ask the subject to do something inside the machine and then track the parts of the brain to which blood flows
• when the user looks at scary scenes, the brain called in support from the left side
• As far back as Hippocrates, physicians believes that the left side of the brain was the essential half of the brain
• Language is what separates men from animals. Language resides on the left side of the brain.
• The right side of the brain is found to be superior when it comes to performing certain kinds of mental tasks
• "Drawing is not really very difficult," says Betty Edwards. Seeing is the problem. The secret to really seeing is to quite the left side of the brain.
  
• 4 key differences between brain hemispheres
• the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body; the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.
• the left hemisphere is sequential; the right hemisphere is simultaneous
• the left hemisphere recognizing serial events
• the right side of the brain interprets things simultaneously. It is the right side that interprets faces
• the left hemisphere specializes in text; the right hemisphere specializes in context. The left hemisphere interprets the words, the right hemisphere reads tone and expression to interpret feeling.
• languages that require the reader to supply the vowels by discerning the context are usually written from right to left
• the left hemisphere analyzes the details; the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture
• L-Directed thinking is the form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain
• R-Directed Thinking is the form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain

My previous perspective of right brain and left brain is that the right brain controls creativity and the left brain controls logic. In the gifted and talented program, we did activities to stretch each side of the brain. Certain people are weighted towards the left brain and others toward the right brain. However, I never understood how these concepts relate to our behaviors. My mother always says "What God giveth, God taketh away. The brain only has so much room. The smarter you are, the less social skills." I always found truth in this, but perhaps now, I can back it up with science. If you are more left brained, you have great analytical skills, but you aren't necessarily able to see the big picture and to see things in context. People who lack Emotional Intelligence aren't able to see the context. I wonder if it is possible to train the mind how to be more creative. I would be interested to see what creative exercises could do to a group of scientist's social skills.

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 3

• There are 3 Ages in the past 150 Years
• Act I, Industrial Age. Cardinal traits were physical strength and personal fortitude
• Act II, the Information Age. Central figure in this was the knowledge worker proficient in L-Directed Thinking
• Act III, the Conceptual Age. The main characters are the creator and the empathizer who is a master of R-Directed Thinking
• Companies must ask 3 questions
• Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
• Can a computer do it faster?
• is that what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?
• Need to supplement our abilities with abilities that are high touch and high concept
• Other cultures, such as Japan, are pushing on students to "educate the heart"
• MFA is the new MBA. Corporations are hiring painters, poets, and comic book creators.
• The Rainbow Project, which tests peoples ability to do creative work, has been twice as successful as the SAT in predicting how well students do at college. IQ only accounts for 4-10% of career success
• As people mature, cognitive patterns become less left-brain oriented and more right-brained, resulting in a sharpened sense of reality, increased capacity for emotions, and enhancement for their own sense of connectedness. As a result, meaning is the new money.
• There are six specific high-concept and high-touch aptitudes
• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning

When I returned from working in Dublin, I decided that I wanted to work in marketing for a theatre company. I did a lot of networking and I remembered that several of my contacts suggested I get an MFA. They said that the MBA was becoming a dime a dozen, but an MFA was hard to find. Not only that, but the MFA said that you were creative. I actually highly considered it. I found it interesting that IQ does not equivocate to career success. I certainly think that it helps though. But IQ needs to have some ideas. Perhaps more programs should educate those with high IQs to give them more of a career boost.

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 4

• Design is a class whole-minded aptitude that combines utility and significance
• Utility is akin to L-Directed Thinking; significance is akin to R-Directed Thinking
• Good design use to be only accessible to the wealthy, now it is in target
• Design has become a means of differentiation to businesses
  
• CHAD (Charter High School for Architecture & Design) provides art to underprivileged kids and in doing so, has the lowest crime and dropout rate in Philadelphia
• Design has been democratized in terms of Nokia phone plates and types of font
• Decent quality and reasonable price have become merely table stakes for businesses. Many companies compete on design.
  
• For every percent of sales invested in product design, a company's sales and profits rise by an average of 3-4%
• Design impacts results such as the presidential elections, improving test scores by 11%, helping medical patients recover faster

I have actually always thought that design is a major selling point. This also streams with the concept that attractive things work better. However, I was very interested to see the scientific results regarding room design. I think design on mundane things, like a sidewalk, are more likely to create a performance impact than design on products. There are some great products that can't afford to have a great design at the onset. I also was really surprised about the amount of creative design items that I actually do. I already read a lot of design magazines and design museums. What I am poor at is actually implementing it. I love art, but don't consider myself an artist (even though everybody can be). What does that mean for society? How can we channel art lovers into bettering corporate design?

A Whole New Mind: Chapter 5

• Stories are easier to remember because that is how we remember
• In the Conceptual Age, minimizing the importance of story places you in professional and personal peril
• What starts to matter more is the ability to place facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.
  
• The essence of the aptitude of Story is context enriched by emotion
• There are never new stories, just the same story retold. The Departure, Initiation, and Return of the hero
• Persuasion - advertising, counseling, consulting - accounts for 25% of Gross Domestic Product
• There is "organizational storytelling" which aims to make organizations aware of the stories that exist
• Storytelling is a way that individuals can distinguish their goods and services in a crowded marketplace

I love telling stories. In fact, I've been told that it is one of my strengths. In business, we discuss having reference stories on hand. The reference story better illustrates the context of the problem. However, other than that, I have hard time understanding how employee story telling can better the business. Now, advertising clearly demonstrates story telling, depending on the type of ad. But, online advertising doesn't tell a story. Maybe it would perform better if it did. I wish this article would have teased out how employee story-telling can impact the organization, not the interpretation of other's stories.

Attractive Things Work Better

• People find that attractive things work better because it makes them feel good and therefore, more creative
  
• Emotions change the way the human mind solves problems. It broadens the thought processes and facilitates creative thinking
• Human attributes result from three different levels of the brain mechanism: the automatic, pre-wired layer, the viseral level; the part that contains the brain processes that control daily behavior, the behavioral level; and the contemplative part of the brain, the reflective level
• the behavioral level allow the mind to operate certain muscles automatically while focusing its attention on something else
  
• occasionally one level plays off of another, such as a visceral angst competing against reflective pleasure (e.g. roller coasters)
• "bottom-up" processes are drive by perception and "top-down" are driven by thought. The result is that everything you do have both a cognitive and an affective component.
• Design requires creative thinking followed by a considerable period of concentrated, focused effort. As a result, one starts brainstorming by telling some jokes to get them in a good mood. Once the ideas are transformed into real problems, one needs to focus. One technique to stimulate this focus is to establish deadlines.
• One can creative a mood that can change from invoking a positive affect to invoking a negative one through several manners. One is through the use of sound (pleasant to shrill)
• The visceral level is the most simple part of the brain, but the most sensitive to conditions
• we all have multiple personalities appropriate for the individual situation

This article again made me think about innovative corporate cultures. Innovative corporate cultures are those that make its employees happy. While I never really had previously thought about the relationship between happiness and creativity, now that I do, it doesn't surprise me. However, I do not necessarily think that one needs to feel negative emotions in order to gain focus. Happy people, I find, generally can have more focus. They are not stressing about deadlines. As the author said, different people work in different ways. I would say that I am a happy person who can focus. I also have been suffering from negative emotions and written creative essays. I also would like to hear more regarding the perception that attractive things work better. It could be legitimate, in that happy people thought more creatively about the overall product, and not only does it work better, but it is also attractive. However, I would be more inclined to think that it is a perception. People have a hard time believing that something ugly or something that tastes bad, can be more effective. I would be interested in seeing how one can creatively impact the audience rather than the designers.

TED Video: Paul Bennett

• need to reconcile what the 'big' wants with what the 'small' wants
• empower the corporation to make creative changes to integrate the 'big' with the 'small'
• creative ideas stem from noticing real life problems
• looking at the peripheral is an interesting place to find opportunity
• people use the world around us to design their own experiences (using a pole on the street, wrapping the tea bag string around the cup handle, use a pencil to hold up their hair)

I have had a hard time contemplating the phrase 'look at the peripheral.' It is a theme that continues to arise. However, this video finally put it in perspective for me. For me, the peripheral include the things that we modify for our use everyday, especially outside. Telephone and street poles serve as a great place to tie up a vespa. Sunglasses can be used as mirrors. Cell phones can be used as flashlights. I think that if people were to pay attention to what they do and assume automatically, it would be a natural source of opportunity.

WOW of October 29

Pandora.com. It is such an amazing way to introduce oneself to new music based upon existing preferences. Plus, I now can actually determine why I like the type of music that I like.

Bug of the Week of 29 October

Water fountains at Notre Dame. Seriously, how hard is it to create a water fountain that won't get water all over your face or cause you to touch your lips to the spigot? Why has another alternative not yet come along?

November 6 Readings

Your Point of View

• User + need = point of view
• You need an understanding of the user group and insight into that group’s needs
• Two tools can help you find a point of view
• Focusing tools help you narrow your field of view
• Flaring tools expand your field of view generating new concepts and frameworks that deepen your thinking
• Techniques within Flaring
• Always start with space saturation to get ideas out in the open
• Change your perspectives using the Powers of 10 to back up 10 steps to zoom in on the problem. Instead of buying shoes, focus on the shoe/skin interface, for example
• Create diagrams that map either journey (experience vs. time) or spatial (presence vs. space)
• 2x2 and pick two parameters and map them against each other, such as mood and the number of cups of coffee consumed daily. An empty quadrant marks an opportunity
• Techniques with Focusing
• Find patterns to put images and articles into ‘buckets’
• Composite character profiles that embody your current understanding to enable you to related to them
• Draw conclusions from multiple observations
• Put insights into action in order to get close to forming a point of view
• The seeds of great ideas start at the beginning of the point of view process, when one understands and observes
• Powerful ideas take root in observations about the real world
• The more abstract and bigger the scope of the idea, the farther your idea will go
• POV is getting good when your team is speaking its own language

This article again reiterated the importance of observation. While the authors’ tools were designed to help you develop a point of view, I felt they were similar to Whirlpool’s innovation tools. Whirlpool’s innovation tools are designed to stimulate ideas, rather than bring the user and their needs together. One item of particular interest is the 2x2 mapping. In Whirlpool innovation, my personal favorite innovation stimulus was mapping two seemingly unrelated consumer trends. I think innovation is best found when you take these observations about the real world and pair random observations together. Because you are already starting with two abstract ideas, I think it is easier to gain a greater scope of idea and a more abstract idea that will get you farther on the spectrum.

Building Your Company’s Vision

• Great companies understand the difference between what should never change and what should be open for change
• The ability to manage continuity and change is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision
• A well-conceived vision consists of a core ideology (defines what we stand for and in what we believe) and envisioned future (what we aspire to become, achieve, create)
• Most visionary companies only have between three and five core values
• When defining core values, push yourself to determine which core values are absolutely central and essential to your company. Ask yourself if you would keep that value if people were penalizing you for having it. If you say no, then it isn’t a core value
• Purpose should not be confused with specific goals or business strategies. A purpose is like a guiding star, unattainable but by which you guide yourself
• One powerful method at getting at the purpose is to ask the 5 whys. Ask why what you do is important five times to get to the fundamental purpose of the company
• Many purposes fall into ‘guide’ and ‘inspire,’ not ‘to maximize shareholder wealth’
• Ask what core values the company truly and passionately holds. Don’t accept values you want the company to have, but rather the values the company already has.
• Need to employ persons who hold your core values and purpose
• If it’s not core, change it!
• BHAG – big, hairy, audacious, goals
• A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as a unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a catalyst for team spirit
• An envisioned future requires translating words into images that people can carry for the long-term
• Passion, emotion, and conviction are essential parts of the vivid description
• It doesn’t make sense to analyze whether an envisioned future is the right one. With a creation, the task is creating the future, not a prediction. Did Beethoven create the right 9^th Symphony?
• Be careful not to suffer from the ‘We’ve Arrived Syndrome,’ keep pushing yourself
• Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment

The most relevant part of this article was the latter half, regarding the envisioned future. Innovators and their innovations help achieve these BHAGs and aim towards your core purpose. Somebody once said that a purpose is like a star, it is unreachable, but one should chart their core by it. I think that too often companies restrict their own visions. To borrow a learning from B2B marketing, they can’t see the actual transition vision. Visionary companies are able to work in that dreamspace and use alignment to get there. I also fully support what this article’s point regarding letting your core values and purpose come from within the company. For me, that consists of the actual employees. Google was very much this way. It hired people who not only dreamed big, but who were not afraid to actually chart their course by the big dreams. That is how development happens. Oddly enough, I don’t think that CEOs actual innovate products, but rather, they innovate ideas. When a company continues to drive towards innovative ideas, it is going to push the company further and make it more successful.

MIT Video, Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

· Design thinking is the way that company’s create their future

· Design thinking finds new ways to connect with customers, especially in service industries

· Think of people, technology (feasible) and then business (what is viable and sustainable. When you create something, what value does it create?)

· Design thinking is supported by different processes and roles that people play

· Design falls into 3 phases: inspiration (from where do ideas come?), ideation (having good ideas), implementation (doing something good with them)

· Use the world as a source of ideas

· Insights come from extreme users. People are most predictable from the middle of the bell curve

· It is hard to be inspired unless you ‘get out there’

· Learn by prototyping, not unusual to create hundreds of different prototypes

· Prototypes don’t have to be physical, but they do have to be tangible in order to help people figure out what they learn, especially in the nature of services

· Some ideas don’t survive because they can’t make it through the politics of the company

· The easiest way to survive the politics is through the concept of storytelling because it scales and frames the problem

· Need to synthesize information about projects by putting it visually around you and you need project rooms in order to do this

· Have an idea wall for when you come up with something

· Design thinking is a humanized process of inspiration

There were two points from this video that provided me with a value added. The first regarded from where you find your insights. It is true that we look at the people in the middle of the bell curve. I found it interesting to think that innovation comes from the extremists. However, now that I think about it, it is the same concept as finding people who use your product in a way other than for that which it was intended. For example, Baking Soda reduces smells when refrigerated and bakes cookies. It may be the same as the type of talent from which innovators stem. Innovators don’t fall in the ‘mean’ of people. They fall on the extreme. So when an innovative innovator matches wits with a similar minded customer, perhaps that spurs on innovation more than just brainstorming in a room. That is more of a basis for humanized process of inspiration for me.