Archive for: May, 2012

What’s the best way to manage creative personalities at work?

Jorge in Creativity

Fight with them. Not against them.

That’s how.

These days, we are in serious need of creative firepower. And for all the startup incubators that are popping up everywhere, there still seems like creativity is a scarce resource. For me, creative personalities are passionate people who are not happy with the way things are and that not afraid to stir the pot. And, if your culture’s values are based on combining imagination with execution excellence, you can’t expect creatives to change their ways. …

Innovation must reads of the week: Collaboration and innovation go hand-in-hand

Jorge in Must reads of the week

If you like these links, check out all the earlier “Innovation Must Reads of the Week“. And don’t forget to Follow @jorgebarba

8 Lessons from Startup Weekend Tijuana

Jorge in Innovation

Startup Weekend Tijuana is in the books.

This past weekend was fast paced and intense. Exciting. Almost 50 participants, 25 ideas, 8 projects and 3 winners. Two of them left the event with seed capital.

Here are the projects:

WachaBache. A mobile application to crowdsource the reporting of streets that have holes and make driving a miserable experience.
Indueducation. A web service that offers leading indicators to help the government with academic decision making.
Eventum. A community for public social events.
Cruzas. A mobile application that shows indicators of when it is a good time to cross the border to San Diego.
Happy Birthday 2 me. A web service to help you organize your birthday and take advantage of local business offers.
Congresoplon. Monitoring the productivity of Congress and its participants.
Pimiento. Mobile app that suggests cooking recipes based on the ingredients that you have in your home.
Instapart. Find the auto part your are looking for in real-time.

And the winners were:

Instapart
Cruzas
Eventum

Great job guys.…

Innovation must reads of the week: Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate

Jorge in Must reads of the week

3 Lenses For Innovation by @wimrampen
How Enemies Power Innovation – Fast Company
Why Innovation Dies by @sgblank
Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate – HBR
Uncommon Sense: How to Turn Distinctive Beliefs Into Action – MIT Sloan Management Review

What if you looked for “what not to do” ideas?

Jorge in Innovation

We LOVE to follow in the footsteps of other people who have been there and done that. It’s easier. It’s practical. We get this type of information from books and/or biographers.

But what book authors and biographers rarely mention, is all the mistakes that lead that specific person or company to all their successes. Nobody likes to make mistakes, and nobody likes to talk about them. Yet, that is where all the “lessons of success” are.

Of course, looking at the bright spots is a good idea. I’m not arguing that. But how about also looking at the reversal. More than looking for good ideas, I look for “what not to do ideas”. The ones that “impede progress”. I stay clear of those. …

When a system is ripe for innovation, simplify

Jorge in Innovation

Yes, that’s my browser. It had 100 tabs open at that point in time last night. Those 100+ tabs were accumulated over a week of browsing and not reading what was previously open. Not very productive, and a clear sign of procrastination on my part. The accumulation of un-read tabs is a clear sign, to me, that I need to focus.

I’m pretty sure my laptop can handle another 100 tabs, but what’s the point of having 200 tabs open? I’ll never read them. And that’s the point. At some point in time, when complexity overwhelms us, we just want to reset and start over.…

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