Category Archives: Creativity
Weekend innovation tip: Create new products and services using subtractive thinking
How do you create new products and services that deliver new value?
Using subtractive thinking by:
Additive
+ Create: Develop by designing from scratch
+ Improve: Build upon by enhancing what already exists
Subtractive
- Reduce: Minimize by taking down to the bare essentials
- Eliminate: Remove by doing away with entirely
Subtractive thinking applies to Business Models, Product Design and Brand Development. Here are some successful examples:
- Saturn removed negotiations from the car buying experience.
- Subway removed the traditional kitchen from the fast food restaurant.
- Netflix removed the storefront from video rentals.
- Little Caesar’s removed the restaurant from the pizzeria.
- Apple removed complexity from the user interface.
- Yellow Tail removed the pretension from selecting wine.
Credit: Black Coffee
A Halloween experience to remember
Halloween is tomorrow. Are you ready?
This was my costume a few years back. The idea came from a wallpaper login I had of a green goblin with symbols in it’s face, I decided I wanted to replicate it but instead of having a green face I would use red.
My ex-girlfriend laughed at the idea and said she would create the masterpiece you see in the picture, she shaved my head (which is the only time I’ve ever done it!), painted my face red and drew the symbols in my head with her makeup.
Material Girls move Driving was the most fun and I took full advantage of it by showing my tongue any chance I could at other drivers hahaha, feeling my skull for the first time was equally interesting.
At the end we laughed a whole lot, I won a couple of contests and had a blast!
Have a Happy Halloween!
Where do new business concepts come from?
How did Apple come up with the idea of the iPod and later iPhone? How did Google come up with a way make money from their search engine?
While there are enough books that can tell you the story of how it happened, they won’t tell you what happened inside the minds of the people or individual who came up with the idea.
While I was pondering this question I also posted it on Yahoo Answers to gauge people’s opinion, here’s the best answer I got:
New business concepts come from people. Those who have the ambition and where with all to discuss open topic issues with others, those who are willing to step outside the box of comfort and ask questions, research and try to think as if they are in the other persons shoes. Putting yourself “out there” and being focused at the same time while trying to figure out how your idea can benefit from your thoughts.
So where do new business concepts come from?
The profound insight doesn’t come out of any strategic planning process nor does it come from some brainstorming session, it comes from a mix of individual desire, curiosity, ambition and need. But there also needs to be some foresight, a sense of where things might go.
Key Takeaway:
New business concepts come out of a mix of unexpected problems, novel experiences, random conversations and newly discovered facts. The fact is there is no predictable and mechanical process for creating a bold new business concept.
Where do you think new business concepts come from?
Imagine the future and enhance your creativity
Looking beyond the obvious has it’s rewards according to new research on how imagining an event in the future enhances our creativity:
This research has important practical implications. It suggests that there are several simple steps we can all take to increase creativity, such as traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places), thinking about the distant future, communicating with people who are dissimilar to us, and considering unlikely alternatives to reality. Perhaps the modern environment, with its increased access to people, sights, music, and food from faraway places, helps us become more creative not only by exposing us to a variety of styles and ideas, but also by allowing us to think more abstractly. So the next time you’re stuck on a problem that seems impossible don’t give up. Instead, try to gain a little psychological distance, and pretend the problem came from somewhere very far away.
“True innovators are never bound by what is; instead they imagine what could be.”
The elegantly simple way to turn ideas into brilliance
I just finished reading The Genius Machine by Gary Sindell. This is the shortest, most simple, useful book on creative thinking that I’ve ever read!
As Gary puts it, his work is to help people think.
This is not a book with yet another creative thinking technique to add to your arsenal, you can get those elsewhere. What this book gives you is an 11 step process to help you think through your ideas and turn them into reality.
A process he calls the Endleofon.
According to Gary, in order to develop our innovations to their highest possible level and to facilitate their acceptance by the people who would benefit most from our creations we need to answer The Endleofon questions which I share with you here.
11 steps that turn raw ideas into brilliance
1. Distinctions.
What do I see? New ideas are the result of perceiving new distinctions.
2. Identity
Who am I? Why are these ideas important to me, and why am I driven to share them with the world? Have I made my identity clear to my audience so they know where I am coming from?
3. Implications
Reverb move When the Wind Blows dvdrip
Where do my ideas lead? If what I am saying is true, then what are all the consequences I can imagine?
4. Testing
What am I blind to? Have I imagined how my ideas might impact a variety of situations, places and people? Have I questioned everything about my assumptions? What would prove me wrong? Can I create a model of my work and find precise analogues?
5. Precedent
Who else has seen something like this? By asserting that I have something to say, I am entering into the great conversation of ideas that stretches back through the centuries. We cannot know everything that has been said about our area of focus before we began our work, but we must try to be aware of important, precedent thought.
6. Need
Who needs this knowledge? If what I am saying is so, for whom would this knowledge be valuable? This question forces us out of focusing solely on our own area and may lead us to find the universals in our thinking. Understanding who needs us most will also help us in crafting what we say.
7. Foundation
Are there underlying principles? What is the world I’m working in? What are the underlying values expressed here? What are the applicable rules or structures that obtain here? Can I pull these together into a coherent group or body of law?
8. Completion
Is everything here? If the idea or product is valuable for someone, am I giving my audience everything they need for it to be useful? If everything they need is not here, have I explained what other information they will need in order to know enough to take action or teach others?
9. Connecting
Who am I addressing? Do I understand my audience’s frame of reference? Am I writing for my readers, speaking to my listener, carefully guiding the experience of my user?
10. Impact
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot hd Where do I want to go? In creating this work I have launched an alter ego that will eventually take on a life of its own. If this development or body of knowledge succeeds in the marketplace of ideas, will it help me fulfill my goals for my life? Are the identities of creators, the creation and the users aligned?
11. Advocacy
Am I supporting the adoption of my ideas? My thinking stands for me. Now I must stand for what I have created.
Help yourself in developing your breakthrough thinking by reading this book, it’s easy to read and simple to put to use.
You can follow Gary at his blog where he continues the exploration of the Endleofon innovation process.
UPDATE: Listen to this Businessweek podcast with an interview with Gary talking about his book.
The Qualities of a Creative Genius Mind
So you want to think like a genius?
I gave you a head start on the last post I wrote 8 ways that anyone can use to think like a genius, which I hope you’ll find handy.
Not enough?
If you like mind maps like I do, you need to check out Adam Sicinski. He uses mind mapping methods to create visual IQ matrixes of the information he presents on his blog posts. Sweet!
He has a developed a very useful mind map of the essential qualities for outside the box thinking in a blog post titled The Mindset of a Creative Genius.
I’ve put the qualities of a creative genius mind below for your thinking pleasure but read the full post, it’s good stuff!
- Flexibility: A Creative Genius is flexible in thought, opinion and in the decisions they make on a daily basis. Flexibility naturally encourages “outside the box” thinking which expands possibilities and opportunities.
- Possibility Thinker: A Creative Genius persistently thinks about the possibilities that are available to them at any one moment in time. They fully understand that focusing on “possibilities” will expand opportunities, conversely, paying attention to “limitations” will only attract a greater array of problems into their lives.
- Risk Taker: A Creative Genius fully understands that without “risk” there can be no worthwhile rewards. They therefore take risks by thinking differently, by taking chances, and by utilizing creative techniques and strategies in a unique, untried and unorthodox manner.
- Focused: A Creative Genius is fully focused and locked mentally on the goals they seek to achieve. They dare not break this lock until the moment their objectives are fully realized within their physical reality.
- Imaginative: A Creative Genius utilizes the full capacity of their imagination to bend the laws of reality to find the answers and opportunities they need to overcome the challenges in their life.
- Dedicated: A Creative Genius is fully committed and dedicated to the outcomes and objectives they seek to achieve. They simply will not allow distractions or circumstances to push them off course. If however they do get sidetracked, than they are quick to adjust their sails to the changing winds and alter their course accordingly.
- Patient: A Creative Genius realizes that creativity is a process that involves patience and careful preparation. They don’t try to force answers, instead they proactively make slight adjustments in their approach to open up new perspectives and understandings that will unlock the solutions and opportunities they have been searching for.
- Proactive: A Creative Genius is constantly moving forward towards their objectives. This doesn’t mean being “action oriented” 24/7. However, it does mean focusing your body and mind on tasks and activities that keep you moving forward towards your goals consistently every single day. They always ask themselves “Is this activity taking me closer to my goals, or is it pulling me away?” The answer redirects their thinking and actions towards their creative objectives.
- Courageous: A Creative Genius is courageous in action and thought. They are always willing to try new things and break the rules and boundaries limiting the average mind. And it is for this reason that the impossible becomes possible within their perspective of reality.
- Independent: A Creative Genius is an independent thinker and doer. Yes, they seek other perspectives, ideas and opinions, however in the end, it is their independence that allows for the flow of unique, insightful and creative ideas.
- Intuitive: A Creative Genius is a very intuitive soul. They fully understand that some answers can only be realized when they have an intuitive understanding of the world and the problem they are facing.
- Persistent: A Creative Genius is fully aware if they persistent long enough over a consistent period of time, that every problem can be solved in a surprising and creative way. For this reason they bring forth a resilient attitude to every challenge confronting their reality.
- Curious & Playful Nature: A Creative Genius approaches every task or activity in a curiously playful manner. Reminiscent of a child learning something new for the very first time. A Creative Genius fully appreciates that only curiosity and playfulness is able to relax their mind and bring forth its fullest creative potential.
Check out Adam’s blog for more useful mind maps!
8 ways that anyone can use to think like a genius
Genius sees the answer before the question
- Robert Oppenheimer
Michael Michalko, who is a consultant on creativity and is also the author of Thinkertoys, made a special investigation of the method’s that history’s greatest creative geniuses have used to generate their ideas. The result was a list of eight ways that anyone can use to think like a genius, or at least come up with creative ideas. Here they are:
- Look at a problem in many different ways. Leonardo Da Vinci believed that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased toward his usual way of seeing things, so he would look at a problem from one perspective, then another, then another; with each change, his understanding would grow. Last week I wrote of a technique to help you to look at a challenge from different angles.
- Make your thoughts visible. Galileo used diagrams to explain his ideas, whereas his contemporaries used only conventional verbal and mathematical approaches. Diagrams can be a powerful way to present ideas and stimulate new thinking. MindMeister is a great online mind mapping tool you can use for this purpose.
- Produce a lot. Much of what geniuses produce is worth little, but since they produce a lot, they are more likely to produce real winners. Thomas Edison held 1093 patents, still the record. He gave himself a quota of one minor invention every ten days and a major invention every six months! Asimov, who was described as a writing machine, wrote more than 450 books before his heart failed him at the age of 72. Mozart produced more than 600 pieces of music before he died at 35.
- Combine things in new ways. Einstein’s famous equation E = mc², brought three well known concepts (energy, mass and the speed of light) into a new relationship with each other. Combining different elements leads to innovation.
- Force relationships. Samuel F.B. Morse was trying to figure out how to produce a telegraphic signal strong enough to transmit all the way across the United States. One day he saw horses being exchanged at a relay station, and that gave him the idea that a traveling signal could be given periodic boosts of power.
- Think in opposites. This seems to be a very common trait among the super creative. They constantly turn thoughts inside out: What if we grew younger rather than older? What if we had to eat dessert before the main course rather than after?
- Think metaphorically. Aristotle thought people who had he capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence had special gifts.
- Prepare for the benefits of chance. While Edison was looking for a way to make carbon filament for his electric bulb, he happened one day to be toying with a piece of putty, turning and twisting it. Suddenly the answer hit him: twist the carbon like rope. In October 1879, after more than 1200 experiments, Edison lit a lamp with a carbonized thread as its filament. The following year, his electric light bulb went into commercial use for the first time.
So there you have it, this is all we need to start thinking like a genius.
Have you discovered your genius yet?
Photo Credit: Silver ArTiSt
