Friday 29 June 2007

when does an idea come to being?

I was working with a lady the other day who was great fun and we enjoyed creating some interesting work together. We bounced ideas between us and seemed quite productive.
Later in the day she made a comment that made me think. she said "we make quite a good team, you and I. I come up with the ideas and you develop them"
This suprised me somewhat because I didnt think that she was coming up with "ideas" and nor was i "developing" them. The way I saw the situation was that she was talking about odd things, and I kept finding interesting connections and ideas. She stimulated my thoughts, but i didnt think that she was creating ideas. Interesting!

So if A metions something funny, and B says "Hey! that makes me think of.." is A the ideator and B the developer? or is B the ideator stimulated by a comment of A?

I guess at the end of the day - who cares?! as long as an idea breathed some life for a moment..... but what if B went on to make a million from the idea? Does A have a claim?

a matter of economics


Ive just had to fit a bracket to something; and to do the job well i needed a couple of spacers. After failing to find anything suitable in my garage, my first thought was to dash off down to B&Q and buy a couple of big washers.


.... but then I stopped and thought.....


As much as i love to go to B&Q, it is very expensive.... those 2 washers were bound to be close to a couple of quid, and then there is the petrol cost of getting there. And I was short of time too. I thought about how easily i would accept spending a couple of quid to get me out of a fix.... and then it struck me, a couple of pound coins would do the trick beautifully! and so 2 fat ones were drilled!

Now i know that defacing the queens coinage is against the law... but i figured so was the speed that i was going to have to drive at to get to B&Q in time.... and this way meant no one gets hurt and i save the cost of petrol

Thursday 28 June 2007

You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties

Ive been doing it for years.... and now someone has launched a product and called it "innovative"
http://www.springwise.com/style_design/white_goods_morph_into_whitebo/index.php

fridges make great drywipe communication spaces - and its right there, right now - where all the juicy conversation and debate happens - in the kitchen!
bigger and better than that is the patio windows - great planes of writing space - there simply is no excuse not to scribble out ideas with each other.
And for those ideas on the go, i love to use the windscreen in my car!

a quick word of warning - check that your existing fridge and other whitegoods are drywipe pen compatible - some powder coatings are porus and drywipe pens become permanent! so you'd better make sure its a damn good idea that you scribble up

Tuesday 26 June 2007

openness and tolerance encourages creativity

A colleague sent me an email about innovation and creativity (I think originally from
Management Advantage Ltd) ..... I thought the following extract was really interesting

" .......Another researcher has focused on questions of diversity. Richard Florida (Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University) studied major US cities such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago. Using something he called the ‘gay concentration index’, Florida demonstrated a close correlation between tolerance and high-tech firms. This is not because gay people attract technology companies – but rather that a place where the gay community feels comfortable is also a place where a wide variety of people feel comfortable – and it is that tolerant, open atmosphere which encourages creativity.
In a nutshell: “Cities with thriving arts and cultural climates and openness to diversity of all sorts … enjoy higher rates of innovation and high-wage economic growth.”[3] Again, innovation derives from a context, not the clear blue sky. So, if we want to encourage innovation, we should foster cultural, economic and political diversity rather than trying to find a safe haven in a predictable, unchanging and, above all, homogenous, world."

and it made me wonder where we might find these "thriving arts and cultural climates and openess to diversity of all sorts" within our own organisations? might we find these innovation hotspots within other marginalised groups?

Saturday 23 June 2007

MMail Message

(little T bags)Y dont they make half sized tea bags 4 people who like weak tea?

MMail Message

(Fire Fighting)Would fires b put out more quickly if the fire brigade used sparkling water? H2O and CO2 Surely twice as good

Wednesday 20 June 2007

MMail Message

(Walk On Glass)I am watching a man walk on glass. apparently he can do it because he has let go of his fear.. I wonde

Friday 15 June 2007

MMail Message

(Now Will B Our Past)People watching. Dont some people dress funny? Wonder what fashion is going 2 one day define this decade

What a great quote

“I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past.”
-- Stephen Covey

So easy to say, so difficult to do..... but not impossible

Incubation time

Incubation. I love incubation time me. I think that being comfortable enough to indulge your self in the luxury of incubation time is a sign of one of the highest levels of self awareness.

Imagine walking away from an unsolved problem confident that at some stage a minor miracle will have occured in your head that will lead you to the solution. I see this the ultimate trust in yourself and the universe.

I have just fixed a domestic electical problem that has been casting a dark shadow over my general happieness for over a week now. Im not an electician, but i can lay and connect wire as good as anyone else, so when the consumer panel RCD started to trip whenever i switched anything on in my office, i was confused and deeply disappointed.... i really didnt need the hassle.
I spent a little time trying to get a clearer overview of the problem, and then i walked away from it. I knew i could trust my head to do some unconsious thinking on the challenge (and I also knew that if i stayed with the frustration, my heart might make me do something regretable or dangerous - or maybe both!)
Although the cloud hung over me during the week, i didnt DO anything about the problem, though I did spend a bit of time learning about how an RCD works.
And so today I calmly walked back to the consumer unit in my garage and looked at the challenge again - this time with less emotion, a bit more knowledge, a lot of incubated thoughts and a whole load of fresh eyes. A bit of rewiring and within half an hour all was fixed. Everything in the office now works and the RCD does what its supposed to do.
Sure its a luxury to take time to think (even more so if youre not even thinking about the challenge at hand) but when you can trust yourself to come up with the solution - and it works - this is a very very sweet way to live your life :-)

..... and now i shall go and incubate on something equally important at the pub!

Thursday 14 June 2007

MMail Message

(Treats)I wonder what the ROI might b of a free-vend ice-cream machine in an organisation of low morale staff?

MMail Message

(Flipcharts)Y dont they make flipchart paper a bit thicker so u can use both sides... Or maybe less inky marker pens?

Doing it with style

Its all very well, understanding the theory intellectually – actually, its hardly intellectual, its more like common sense – but can we really put the theory into practice?
Of course we all understand the importance of being tolerent of people who have different approaches to things than we do; after all, creativity aside, its simply good manners. And when all is sunny in the garden, its quite easy to practice this tolerance.
However, ive noticed that its not such a rosy concept when im in a situation of high stress.

The case in point recently was when working with an associate who was very focused on working out the fine details of a problem, while I was happy to see what might emerge from a more open / chaotic(?) approach. Neither approach was any better or worse than the other and both would have solved the problem quite adequately, and under normal circumstances we would have talked it through and solved the situation in good spirits. However in this case, we were under pressure of the view of the client and a group of stakeholders… time and reputation were at stake.
As the more “relaxed” of the partnership, I sensed that I should back off and let my associate lead and fix the problem (I certainly didn’t want the client to sense a panic or dischord). The sequence of events that followed were a fascinating insight for me into my own style and ability to accommodate the style of others

Even though I had “withdrawn” from the problem in order to minimise the number of cooks who could potentially spoil the broth, I could feel the tension in the air as my associate pressed on to calculate the fine details of a solution and was not going to let go it until complete. The stress was becoming obvious and I was beginning to absorb it. Not only did I not agree with the approach, I was also receiving the stress of someone elses elusive solution in front of our stakeholders! Arrgh!

What should I have done? Well on reflection we should have explicitly acknowledged our differences, taken a deep breath and asked ourselves if there might be a 3rd alternative? A combination of our approaches or a completely new approach?
Styles. They really can get in the way of solving a problem sometimes. And when we are stressed as well… we need to invest great effort in controlling our run-away minds as they naturally and unconsciously try to revert to our natural style

Monday 11 June 2007

do you want that with options?

Brilliant! ive just booked a hotel in London. I wanted to keep the budget down so was delighted to find "EasyHotels" - i'd never come across this division of the Stelios empire (though on reflection, its a bit daft of me to not have guessed it existed)
I thought £48 for a central london room was a pretty good deal (even if the room is only 6 meters square) and at that rate I could even afford to splash out a bit on the £5 option for the TV remote!

This lead me to think about other service options....
- Perhaps Sainsburys could give away thier cans of beans, and if you ever wanted to eat them you could buy one of their expensive can openers
- maybe a first class stamp could get a letter as far as a delivery office, and for a premium a nice person would actually bring it to your house
- or how about allowing kids to look at all the sweets in the sweetshop, and if they ever wanted to taste one, they could pay for it!

knowing when to give up

ive never been very clear on when i should give up on a bad cause. I admire people who can maintain thier motivation and vision through even the most difficult of times.

I hate that feeling of dispair as you begin to realise that the idea simply isnt going to work, and yet you so much want to find a way to bring it round. And then comes that nagging question of "should I bail out yet?" "should i cut my losses yet?"
There is always someone to remind you of Edison and his thousand ways NOT to make a light bulb or Dyson and his hundereds of prototypes of vacuum cleaners, but you never hear about Norman No-body who dedicated his life to developing rubber nails or glass tyres or coloured air etc etc

So when should I stop persuing a pointless idea? and when should i just go that extra mile?

Sunday 10 June 2007

How do you eat an elephant?

I have a grand plan. the end result of which is going to be brilliant. So brilliant it will be that sometimes i cant sleep at night just thinking about it. This dream, this vision of a completed project is what drives me, it gets me out of bed while i could be snoozing and it keeps me working through my lunch times and late into the evenings.... its all very exciting.

There are parts of this project which if im honest are a bit dull. they are essential to the completed thing, but they are tasks that really dont float my boat. And ive been avoiding them in preference of far more exciting things.... however, the time came this weekend where i couldn't avoid them any longer; the project cannot be completed without these irritating little tasks being addressed. And so this week end was a weekend to focus on the stuff that i'd been avoiding... and if im truthful, I feel quite fulfilled for completing them

the point is, I guess, that whatever we might be engaged in, there is always going to be a scale of very exciting things to do through to dreadfully dull things that need doing. It took some effort on my behalf, but i had to focus myself on the fact that these seemingly dreary tasks were all essential parts of the bigger picture, without my dream could not come true. with this in mind i settled down to a "one step at a time" mentality and methodically progressed myself through the tedious task list. Taken like this each little task became a little challenge in its own right and a joy to complete and tick off.

so how DO you eat an elephant?
.... one slice at a time :-)

Thursday 7 June 2007

Fresh Eyes

As i sit here at my kitchen table, i can see from the kitchen through the hall and into our lounge. Ive sat here many times before - most evenings i'll work at my laptop on the kitchen table, and tonight is no different, other than the fact that i need to write something about discovering my creative self.
I cant think what to write. I havent done or seen anything particularly remarkable today.

As i sit here looking across the floor of the kitchen, hall and lounge, I am suddenly struck by the untidyness and quantity of cables. yes, cables. theyre laying everywhere. From where i am, looking in one direction I can see 7 cables (headphones, laptop powerlead, fairy lights, telephone power, telephone wire, portable CD player, phone charger) And when i really look at the scene, they are really really untidy (and im guessing potentially pretty dangerous!)

I know for a fact that these cables and attached items have been where they are right now for weeks, if not months - none of them are new additions to our world. The thing is; Ive never actually noticed them. I guess ive stepped over them, but ive never really seen them.

This sudden realisation raises 2 questions for me
1) what else am i "blind" to? what am i not noticing around me? what opportunities / problems am i not seeing because im simply "used" to them?
2) I wonder what visitors think of our family when they come into our house? With such mess, they must think we're tramps!

Who'd of thought that trying to learn about my creative self would have me telling the wife to do more tidying up? ;-) (joke) (really, im just joking)