Archive for: June, 2010

Reimagine how you imagine

in Creativity, Innovation

Alright it seems to me that the word ‘imagination’ doesn’t fit in a business context, unless you’re an ad agency it’s been completely banned! The mere mention of ‘let’s use our imaginations’ gets people nervous as if saying ‘what’s that?’ Ok Ok I get it, there are alternatives though and to battle that I use the word ‘reconfigure’ to talk to non-imagine people.

Take for example, an interior designer who might be adept at Custom furnishings, his/her job is to reimagine the interior of your house. They take what you have and reconfigure it in another way to arrive at something different. They tweak, move, shift, turn your living room in all sorts of ways sometimes by moving the objects already in place or by bringing in new objects from the outside or a mix of both.

The interior designer in the examples below focuses on ‘using what you already have’ to reimagine your living room. The objects might not be new but the small change in the arrangements makes the living room not just look different but also feel different.

 

before and after

before and after 2

before and after 3
This is what imagination is all about.

You don’t have to drink tequila to loosen up (although it certainly helps), you just have to ask ‘what if’ we take this and move it, remove it, turn it, twist it, shake it, etc and see what happens. So if you’re in the process of reimagining how your business will have to work in the future but lost your imagination on your way to being an adult, just put yourself in the interior designer’s shoes and start reconfiguring.

Innovation posts of the week: Why creativity is dangerous for business innovation

in Must reads of the week

  

 

Innovation Groups on Linkedin You May Want to Join by @solutionman

in Innovation

I got this in my inbox from the by Gerald Haman and thought I should pass it along:

I have formed other Linkedin Groups to help innovators connect with other people who have similar interests or passions. Check out the following list that contains the group name, number of members and a convenient link to click to join or learn more.

 

Follow on Twitter if you aren’t already and while you at it you can also 🙂

 

Relate-to-Innovate

100,200 Members in Marketing, PR, Sales & Word-of-Mouth Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/MarketingPRLinkedin

12,415 Members in Green & Sustainability Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/GreenSustainabilityLinkedin

12,303 Members in Twitter Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/TwitterLinkedinGroup

10,823 Members THIS InnovationPeople Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/InnovationPeopleLinkedin

4,120 Members in Brand Innovators & Branding Leadership Expert Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/BrandLinkedin

3,690 Members in Learning & Education Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/LearningEducationLinkedin

2,476 Members in HealthCare Innovators, Medical, Pharma & Biotech Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/HealthCareLinkedin

2,390 Members in Sales & Selling Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/SalesLinkedin

2,354 Members in Leadership & Change Management Expert Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/LeadershipChangeLinkedin

2,328 Members in GTD Innovators – Users of David Allen’s Getting Things Done Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/GTDLinkedinGroup

2,143 Members in New Product & Service Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/ProductServiceLinkedin

1,991 Members in APP Users & Developers for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android Phones Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/APPinnovatorsLinkedin

1,376 Members in Meeting & Event Design Professionals Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/MeetingEventLinkedin

1,176 Members in Fundraising & Philanthropic Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/FundraisingLinkedin

1,118 Members in Facebook Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/FacebookLinkedinGroup

1,069 Members in Communication Innovators Expert Network Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/CommunicationLinkedin

717 Members in Association, Convention & Conference Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/AssociationConventionLinkedin

551 Members in TRIZ Innovation Network Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/TRIZLinkedinGroup

488 Members in Very Innovative People Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/VeryInnovativePeopleLinkedin

416 Members in YouTube innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/YouTubeLinkedinGroup

406 Members in Experience Economy Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/ExperienceEconomyLinkedin

379 Members in Futurists & Anticipatory Scientists Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/FuturistsLinkedin

379 Members in Chicagovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/ChicagovatorsLinkedin

376 Members in Innovative Networkers Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/NetworkersLinkedin

178 Members in Government & Political Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/GovernmentPoliticalLinkedin

135 Members in KnowBrainer “Trained Brains” Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/KnowBrainerGroup

128 Members in SolutionPeople Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/SolutionPeopleLinkedinGroup

96 Members in Innovation Idols Network of Innovators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/InnovationIdolsLinkedin

50 Members in InnovatorsDigest.com Innovation Network Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/InnovatorsDigestLinkedin

32 Members in Innovation Trainers Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/InnovationTrainersLinkedin

15 Members in Innovation Facilitators Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/InnovationFacilitatorsLinkedin

13 Members in Innovation Coaches Group
JOIN: http://bit.ly/InnovationCoachesLinkedin

To create change don’t be afraid to shake things up and take charge

in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy

“For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently.” – From the book Switch: How to change things when change is hard.

 

If you want your team to do things differently just send them an email right?

Just merely saying ‘let’s be different’, ‘let’s innovate’ in an email is not going to cut it. If you don’t like the present situation and see no end in sight, don’t wait for your boss to give you permission to do things differently. You already have the tools, all you have to do is take off your ‘it’s not my job hat’ and do something about it.

There are rahrah! people who will try to pump people up and then go and hide in their caves thinking they’ve just inspired even the company mascot and that all will be taken care of, and then there are the quiet ones who just make things happen. Which one are you?

Take an opposite approach to everyone else’s behavior and make it your responsibility to fight ‘sameness’, you’ll piss people off but that’s what it takes to do things differently.

 

 

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Remove the associative barriers that hinder new ideas

in Creativity, Thinking

Model of hydogen bonds in water in English.

Image via Wikipedia

Last week I mentioned that the is the ability to free associate, to make connections between dissimilar things. I just stumbled into post on the where she probes further into the concept to which I left a comment:…

Why purpose matters

in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms –  to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl

A big part of strategy making, is differentiating your business from others. Being able to help people notice what’s different between your product or service and mine.

In the beginning of the movie Dark Night, when Batman has just fought off Scarecrow and a group of Batman wannabes, an interesting conversation takes place:…

The no. 1 innovation skill you need to master

in Creativity, Strategy

A friend of mine who recently visited this blog made the observation that I make a lot of reference to sports. I thought this was kind of cool because he noticed it, and understood what I was trying to convey. This is an important observation, because as we’ve mentioned before, one of the key skills that distinguishes innovators is the ability to ‘associate’, to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas.…