Grade Guide

Innovation Sourcebook	Notes	Reflections	Collected insights, bug, and wow lists	Summary Model	Heart of Creativity
	5	5	5	5	5
Class Participation	5
Project	8
Learning	30
Journal Score:	25
Class Participation	5
Project	8
Learning	30
Total Score	68

The Heart of Creativity

"We are the music makers, And we are the dreams of dreams. . . Yet we are the movers and shakers of the world for ever. it seems. . . One man with a dream, at pleasure, Shall go forth to conquer a crown; And three with a new songs measure, Can trample an empire down." ~ 6. Ode. Arthur O'Shaughnessy.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy's Ode translates my personal values statement into my creative inspiration and execution, for I am a music maker and I am a dreamer of dreams. My Personal Values Statement upholds the following:

• Commitment
• I will uphold all commitments that I make to the best of my ability.
• Integrity
• I strive to conduct myself and my communication with the utmost integrity.
• Excellence
• I strive to continually improve at everything I undertake in an attempt for excellence.
• Justice
• I try to be objective towards all people and all within reason.
• Wisdom
• I pursue the acquisition of wisdom and open my mind to its various sources.
• Humanity
• I assist others both before and upon recognition of a problem.

As I continue to develop and innovate myself, I realize that my inspiration and values both are influenced and reflected by my beloved arts. Art is a primary product and source of creativity. Traditionally, the arts reflected each other: musical themes painted in art or art and literature expressed musically. The arts, and in particular music, stimulates all of Daniel Pink's high-touch, high-capacity aptitudes that I possess to contribute to my essence. The elements that touch and spark my personal values simultaneously design a story that engages my imaginative symphony to play while simplifying complexities that relate to my personal values to create additional meaning and inspire imagination. Momentarily, the following artistic moments both have reflected my personal values and inspired me to implement them through creative ideas:

Film: Orange Revolution. This film demonstrated how a country overcame a societal plateau by acting out all of my personal values. I left the cinema inspired to challenge the status quo that has created gaps for specific users and have thus far participated in creating two Notre Dame groups that cater to minority students.

Musical: Rent. "There's only us. There's only this. Forget regret, for life is too short to miss. No other hope, no other way. No day but today." Rent blends alternative rock with modern musical and traditional opera to complete a Pulitzer Prize winning symphony that also expresses and develops my statement of values. When I find myself constricted by past traditions or searching for innovate ideas, I use this musical model to motivate and ideate.

Symphony: Dvorak: Symphony No. 9. Composers used specific chords and musical keys to elicit emotion and create a story. The end of this symphony's 4th movement creates a clash chord that triumphantly resolves. This symphony musical captures my personal values, but reminds me that inspiration sometimes stems from conflict.

Song: We're All in the Dance by Feist.

"Life's a dance, we all have to do
What does the music require?
People are moving together
Close as the flames in a fire

Feel the beat; music and rhyme
While there is time.

We all go 'round and 'round
Partners of lost and found
Looking for one more chance
All I know is,
We're all in the dance"

This song reminds me about one innovation's keys: to not fear the unknown. When I fear that a problem is unsolvable, this song's soothing and inspiring lyrics reminds me that everything has a reason, we just may not know it yet.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. The arts tap into my personal values to inspire me to see the world differently and create solutions that the world needs.

Summary Model of Innovation and Design

WOW of the Week of 9 December

www.SFMuni.com. I am a huge fan. No longer do I have to go to the bus stop to determine how much longer I can wait. It completely reduces my transition time.

Bug of the Week of 9 December

Foil on the top of wine bottle. There has to be an alternative that will seal the cork without causing agony to those trying to remove it.

Collected Insights and Ideas

This whole semester, I have been updating quotes on my Google Chat. In fact, people started to ask from where they came. They stem from friends, books, Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, and class. Quotes often change the way I view the world, and in that changed perspective, I am inspired to innovate. As the semester winds down, I have summarized the quotes and experiences that I collected throughout this module.

29 October: "Defying Gravity" - from the musical Wicked
"I'm through accepting limits, cause someone says their so. Some things I cannot change, but till I try, I'll never know. Too long I've been afraid of losing love I guess I'd lost. . . . I think I'll try defying gravity, kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity, and you can't pull me down. . . .So if you care to find me, look to the Western Sky, as someone told me lately, everyone deserves a chance to fly. And if I'm flying solo, at least I'm flying free. To those who ground me, take a message back for me: Tell them how I am defying gravity."

Not only were we appropriately discussing Wicked problems, I realized that this song reflects what people want to do once they realize they have been too afraid to try. One must dare to defy gravity, knowing they might fail, in order to solve this Wicked problem.

4 November: The Notre Dame Symphony Concert Performance of Aaron Copland's Rodeo Suite. I have played the trumpet for 12 years in various musical organizations. This week Daniel Pink discussed the importance of storytelling for innovation. What I love about the arts is the integration of various arts into various forms. There is one movement of Rodeo that tells such a story. Copland weaves the traditional nighttime sounds into a late-night Waltz. This Waltz is one that for me tells a tale of two lovers who circumstances continue to separate. Music composition uses the right side of the brain, because only when you can hear the music in context, can it play the story for you. It is in that story that one can find meaning. Copland then integrates musical play within his Rodeo suite to help better tell the story in a beautiful symphony. Music that is not innovative is forgotten. Copland is definitely not forgettable and his suite moves me to stretch my right brain and see the entire picture.

11 November: The film Linda, Linda, Linda. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQQUEicr6d8. This Japanese film about 4 Japanese girls that decide to perform in a rock concert within a week, focused on the Korean foreign exchange student that the girls have asked to be a ringer in the band. Speaking very limited Japanese, she quickly demonstrates 'corporate anthropology' within the band. She 1) gains respect for cultural differences between cultures, 2) quickly identifies the core organizational Japanese rock band culture, and 3) recognizes natural leaders. The film follows her throughout her discovery of Japanese culture and shows how she is able to both assimilate to, influence, and finally exalt in the joy of innovative success. These girls did not innovate the song, but they innovated their culture.

18 November: The film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. This week we discussed brainstorming success strategies and pitfalls. This film imaginatively illustrated what the Art of Innovation expressed: we all crave experiences and the key to designing a new experience is about figuring out a way to connect to people. Usually this method is via story. This film playfully explored a manner of meaningful connection. Children never limit their imaginations. They continually dream, express, draw, and explore. This Wonder Emporium fulfills a child's imagination. All the main character must do is believe in her idea. It is in this concept that she is able to make complex items possible. Innovation requires that one not limit themselves by constraints. Believe in the impossible. That belief creates 'magic' in innovations.

25 November: "Our greatest prejudice is against death. It spans age, gender and race. We spend immeasurable amounts of energy fighting an event that will eventually triumph. Though it is noble not to give in easily, the most alive people I’ve ever met are those who embrace their death. They love, laugh and live more fully." ~ The Way I see it #251 Starbucks. This week we discussed the importance of failure and trying to seek it. This quote very much speaks to that concept. People who seek failure, or in this case, embrace death, are able to better innovate because they no longer fear risk. Too often our lives are inhibited by fear of failure. If those close to death can embrace it, why can we not embrace failure? It is only then that we may be able to succeed.

"Happiness is sharing chocolate with a friend." ~ Dove Dark Chocolate Promise. Happiness not only raises your sugar levels, enhancing mental levels of creativity, but happy people are more likely to innovate. This week we discussed intrinsic motivation. For people like me, my effective manager is one who knows that it does not take a lot to motivate me and make me feel happy. Happiness, for me, really is as simple as sharing a chocolate with a friend.

3 December: "Self Destruction is inherent to letting go of the future you imagined" ~ My friend Heba. This week we discussed how to tap into employees' intrinsic motivation to inspire creativity. As we previously discussed in class, happiness and meaning are key to inspired innovation. My friend Heba asked me what I thought about this quote. As we discussed, I realized exactly how critical it is to understand what motivates people and to help inspire them to reach the future that they imaged. People who feel that future is unattainable and who are unable to find meaning in their current job, slowly do self destruct. The quality of the work may not be there. They may cause low morale throughout the office. The less obstacles in their way and the more attainable that future, the better an employee will perform. The more creative the future, the greater the obstacles. If we can remove those obstacles, think of the impact it could have on employees and their resulting ideas impact on society.

9 December: Free Hugs Campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4. This week we discussed how to pitch a creative idea. This man in England decided he wanted to bring more love to the world and started offering free hugs. When ordered to cease, he obtained thousands of signers to a petition. After the competition of this YouTube video, Free Hugs spread throughout the world. I believe that people need to feel love in order to find meaning, meaning, design, symphony, play, and empathy. This video demonstrates all of those. Here is a man who is an artist who successfully inspired a hugging trend.

WOW of the week of 3 December

Southwest Airlines new boarding system. Number + letter = I can use the restroom before boarding the plane and still not have to sit in the middle.

Bug of the 3 December

TSA Airport Security Process. Do I have to strip and take everything out of my bag every time? There has to be an easier way to secure airports without feeling like we are in lock down!

Reading 11 December

How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea

• The buyer tends to gauge the pitcher's creativity as well as the proposal itself. Any judgements of the pitcher's ability to come up with feasible ideas quickly can overshadow the idea's worth


• Humans categorize others in less than 150 milliseconds. Within 30 minutes, they've made lasting judgement about character


• Catchers do not have objective measures for assessing creativity, so they watch for subtle cues


• Have three prototypes of pitchers: showrunners, the artist, and the neophyte (young, inexperienced, naive)


• Nancy Cantor and Walter Mischel demonstrate that we use sets of stereotypes called "person prototypes" to categorize strangers upon meeting


• Overcome stereotyping by involving the pitcher in the creative process


• Artists are passionate, but more awkward. They appear to have little or no knowledge regarding the details of implementation, but they command the catcher's imagination.
• The Artist engages catchers in "thought experiments" and invite catchers into imaginary worlds
• Artists, who consist of 40% of successful pitchers, are the most creative
• Neophyte's present themselves as eager learnings and score points for trying to do the impossible
• Beware of individuals who convey creative potential, but lack the real thing and gain prominence
• Real creativity isn't easily classified. Many creative types are very practical, and have cognitive flexibility, a penchant for diversity, and an orientation towards problem solving
• A catcher needs to ensure that he tests the pitcher. Test previous experience, ask for prototypes prior to hiring

As I read this article, I tried to characterize my own presenting style. I realized that I am the showrunner. I certainly would love to be the artist, but for some reason, I feel that my talents are better used in support of the arts, rather than creating the arts. That is the gift I have been given. But that does not mean necessarily that we should restrict our specific styles. I would be interested in those persons who are successful because they are able to play all three roles, depending on the catcher, sincerely and honestly. Are there ways that we can reach that level of presentation style? How can I engage the artist and imagination or help people dream rather than wowing them with skill? Companies that can find these people are going to be the ones that pitch the most successful ideas the most frequently. I would love to see this concept explored more in depth as I travel my own innovative career.

Readings 6 December

When Collections of Creatives Become Creative Collectives

• Research is often the production of a group, yet research on the individual is conducted at the individual level.
• This paper focuses on the fleeting coincidence of behaviors that trigger moments when creative insights emerge. It then focuses on insights that emerge in the interactions between individuals.
• Conceptualizing a way to use IV bags to prevent splints connected by multiple contributor experiences created the Reebok Pump.
• Four interrelating activities appear to precipitate moments of collective creativity: help seeking, help giving, reflective re-framing and reinforcing.
• This study focused on innovating the old, not conceptualizing the new
• Analogical problem solving occurs when an individual recognizes similarities to new situations to old problems
• The same mechanism that interprets new ideas in terms of old ones, causes people to not see them as opportunities for creative insights
• Organizations benefit when people come together and bring ideas from other industries
• Only individuals can contribute to a group, but the collective mind differences, because it inheres the pattern of interrelated activities among many people
• While there is potential for moments of collective mind to enter a group, need to heed interrelating and mindful engagement of individuals in the social interrelations of the organization. The collective mind resides in the interrelations between individuals and the social system.
• Collective creativity relies on moments when people's perspectives and experiences are brought together to create new solutions.
• This study examined Accenture, McKinsey & Company, Hewlett-Packard, Boeing Company, IDEO Product Development, Design Continuum
• Help Seeking: participation in a problem-solving process depended on who was invited to do so. It is flexible and help-seeking behaviors play a role in who joins the collective effort and what knowledge they bring.
• Target companies have group meetings to discuss problems and gain ideas
• "Tapping into personal networks" hallway interaction often spur further interactions because they create a unique and unexpected path across the office.
• Help seeking is often inhibited by threat of failure or individual accountability
• Billable hours prevent people from giving help in the hallways
• Reflective reframing re-frames the problem into a better one. It validates previously irrelevant ideas and solutions.
• Two reinforcing behaviors exist: 1) individuals pursuing collective moments are reinforced by any positive experience that results from helping. 2) reinforcing activities stems from shares values and beliefs of organizations
• Effectiveness of larger and more explicit organizational practices may depend on microinteractions and their embeddedness within the social systems of the organization.
• Creative behavior is the result of domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant skills, and task motivation.
• Collective creativity differs from collective mind, because the focus is on the processes that generate creative disruptions from the established order as opposed to maintaining order in the face of disruption.
• Individuals perform better than groups on creative tasks, but minority dissent and high participation among group members increase innovation. An organization that reinforces behaviors of help seeking, help giving, and reflective re-framing expects social anxiety and normative pressure to participate in collectively creative interactions.
• Case study databases cost significant organizational investment and yet they are not valued by the people they are meant to serve

As this article developed its model, I began to think about times when I have been inspired and what I do when I am stuck on a problem, as an individual. I ask for help. More than once has somebody had a similar experience that enlightens me or has somebody, just by re-framing the problem, turned on my personal idea light. The Problem Solving class confirmed this concept. The professor says she has three people that she calls when she is stuck on a problem to gain just these moments of insight. It is a shame that organizational culture and performance evaluation systems prevent hallway interaction from occurring. In the article, a McKinsey consultant mentioned that he only posts enough information for the recipient to want more. This prevents a group for taking full credit. Innovative organizations should be open and not secretive. This type of organizational culture prohibits its innovators from developing to their full potential.

The Agenda - Total Teamwork

• The Mayo Clinic meets together to discuss patient treatment
• The Mayo Clinic is different from traditional hospitals. Professional greets ease new patients through the paperwork, they great patients by name. Doctors see patients in private, but cozy, private offices
• Mayo doctors refer to colleagues as "consultants" to remind them of their role
• Mayo doctoral team assembly depends on the nature of the problem, the skill and experience of available specialists.
• Mayo doctors do not compete because they have a set salary.
• Consultants know that recommendations will be carefully scrutinized
• Mayo Clinic is a very horizontal organization, that may take them more time to make a decision, but has served them well long-term
• No one is big enough to be independent of others, teamwork is part of the culture, language matters, money also talks, the customer is part of the team

Multiple readings on innovation have focused on the medical profession and its fault. Daniel Pink advised doctors to engage in storytelling to help the right sides of their rather analytical brains to hear the patient's full story in context. Mayo Clinic takes a different approach to innovative solutions. It uses a group to gain a different perspective and understand a bigger context. What this article did not emphasize is the effect that shared information and consulting has on individual egos. My understanding of the medical industry is that many of its professionals have an ego complex. This may be one reason why they are hesitant to seek advice or ask questions. Failure impacts this person's professional reputation, making him unhappy, and possibly inhibiting his personal creativity. However, those without egos are able to remain happy and reap the benefits of collective advice. Ego-less doctors also are better able to engage the customer and maintain the customer. The better quality the overall service and solution, the better the business.

WOW of the Week of 26 November

Google Docs. Now not only do I not have to schedule group meetings as often but it reduces my email quantity.

Bug of the Week of 26 November

Media Flight Plan. How can a software program take 6 hours to complete and not copy months properly?

Readings 4 December

The Weird Rules of Creativity

• Creativity does not stem from fun, low-stress workplaces, where conflict is held in check and managers keep a close watch on how money is spent and how people spend their time.
• Managing by getting out of the way is often the best approach to gain creativity
• Weird ideas work by increasing the range of the company's knowledge, causing people to see old problems in new ways and helping companies break from the past.
• Traditional practices help gain short-term income, which is often the company focus
• Weird Ideas that work:
• Decide to do something that will probably fail and then convince yourself and everyone else that they are certain to succeed
• Forget pass success
• Use job interviews to get new ideas and not to screen candidates
• Seek out ways to avoid, distract, and bore any stakeholder who wants to discuss money
• Reward success and failures, punish inaction
• Think of some ridiculous or impractical things to do and plan to do them
• Ignore people who have solved the exact problem you are facing
• Find some happy people and get them to fight
• Hire "slow learners" of the organizational code, people who make you uncomfortable and may even dislike, people you don't probably need
• Encourage people to ignore and defy their bosses and peers
• The more people are exposed to something, the more positive they feel about it
• Ignorance can be bliss because you do not know how things are suppose to be.
  
• Managers that provide vague encouragement for employees to work on what they want and don't demand to know the details helps the innovation process
• Provoking happy people to fight does not include provoking personality conflicts or relationship issues. That will kill innovation. Rather, get those who loves their work to defend it.
• Creativity is a function of the quantity of work produced
• Committing to a project wholeheartedly is the best thing one can do to increase the likelihood that a project will succeed
• Random selection is the most unbiased way to determine which risky projects to pursue

It is said in business that one should hire people based upon their potential and yet, so often, companies hire people based upon their past experience. If a company was truly innovative, wouldn't they want to gain the potentially unnecessary skill-sets and unbiased or experienced mindset new hire can bring? If that is the case and an employee truly wanted to work for an innovative company, what would be the point of declaring a major? One of the keys to innovation is happiness and passion. Hiring needs to tap passion and drive without experience. Perhaps more companies should encourage students to major in the arts and tap into their passions, yet ensure them of their ability to remain employed.

Let My People Go Surfing

• Patagonia's Founder, Yvon Chouinard, believes that business can do good things and make a profit without losing its soul
• Work needs to be enjoyable daily. We need to be surrounded by friends who dress as they wish. There needs to be flexible to pursue enjoyment and create better work-life balance
• The company originated from Chouinard's mountain climbing passion and realization that the status quo did not meet his needs. However, from the mid-eighties to 1990, sales skyrocketed from $20M to $100M
• However, they continued to fail to provide proper training for new company leaders and the strain of managing a company with eight autonomous product divisions and three channels of distribution exceeded management skills as they grew at 40% annually.
• After letting 20% of staff go, Jerry Mander created an 'ecology' of values that could mitigate the environmental and social crisis of the time. It expressed thinking as it applied to different parts of the company: design, production, distribution, images, human resources, finance, management, and the environment.
• The sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to "have it all" the sooner it will die.
• Employees are so independent, that they would be considered unemployable in a typical company
• Get independent people to align through strong communication and lack of offices
• Despite the challenges involved, Patagonia found that every time it elected to do the right thing, even when it costs twice as much, it's turned out to be more profitable

In honesty, I felt that this article articulated more of the innovative difficulties that "being yourself" presents to companies. I think it is very true that the sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to "have it all," the sooner it will die. This is one of my key take-aways from my brand strategy class. However, I think Patagonia needs more than a few philanthropic trips to help inspire it to innovate environmentally solutions. It considers too much of the restrictions on the product and not enough about the ideas. The company needs more than just a Zen Master to help it sustain its growth. It needed somebody to innovate new managerial techniques (not training) to help sustain business. Hire those people who are unfamiliar with the industry and are from untraditional companies. As long as they are passionate about Patagonia and its beliefs, innovation will then flourish.

Managing for Creativity

• A company's most important asset is its creative capital
• Professionals whose primary responsibilities include innovating, designing, and problem solving, make up a third of the U.S. workforce and take home nearly half of all wages and salaries
• Creative people are intrinsically motivated and respond to similar motivations.
• Corporate creativity depends upon a firm's "absorptive capacity:" the ability of its R&D units to not only create innovations but to absorb them from outside sources
• SAS's success stems from its ability to harness the creative energies of all of its stakeholders, including its customers, software developers, managers, and support staff
• SAS has 3 guiding principles:
• Help employees do their best work by keeping them intellectually engaged and by removing distractions.
• Make managers responsible for sparking creativity and eliminating arbitrary distinctions between "suits" and "creatives."
• Engage customers as creative partners so you can deliver superior products
• Long-term relationships between employees and customers adds to the company's bottom line by increasing the likelihood of "productive accidents."
• SAS realized that its developers thrive on intellectual stimulation: as a result, it sends them to industry and technology-specific conferences to learn, stages expos so they can teach, and encourages employees to write articles
• Creative people do not like obstacles. The more distractions a company can remove, the more its employees can maximize its creative potential.
• Creative people can be trusted to manage their own workloads, their inner drive to achieve compels a high level of productivity
• Managers need to work alongside team members in order to for employees to know that the boss actually understands and respects the work that you do.

The SAS environment reminded me very much of my job at Google. Innovation clearly is significant for Google. Employees have all of the perks that this article mentioned. In fact, salary compensation is less than industry average because of them. The article was exact regarding hiring processes. I met a number of people who want to work at Google for the perks and the fact it is the #1 place to work in America. Hiring should screen out those people and hire only those who want the work. That being said, the articles that we read discuss designers and engineers, not necessarily business people. In AdWords, we played by traditional business rules and hours while engineers were playing volleyball after rolling in at 10:00 a.m. and working on their 20% project. How does one inspire business people to be creative? As an account manager, I worked with many advertisers, but felt I could only add my idea to the company Ideas Page. While the ideas were encouraged, I felt that the managers were interested in numbers with an idea ad-on portion. Furthermore, how do you serve clients who work in traditional companies? I think you need to have the right people, which Google does. However, it distinguishes between the innovators and the implementers. Implementers need creative management as well.