What is not different, is not strategic.
This past weekend I went to Ninjutsu camp (Otompo) for two days of training and war. First we train with some training weapons and at night we play war games that are meant to test our creative and strategic thinking as well as our hand to hand combat skills all under the light of the moon.…
Just had one of those exchanges where a business owner said that his business offers the best customer service, but can’t really tell me what exactly is ‘great’ about what they do. Hmmmm……
Or should I say, how do you start moving in the direction of making something better? First of all, don’t outsource your creativity to someone else, you already have it. Innovation is a habit, get this in your mind because you WILL have to make some minor changes in your routines.…
in Creativity, Strategy
“Everything we create is just a product of recombination.”
What’s the inspiration behind the Air Jordan 2010?
The ability to see through your opponents and keep your intentions hidden. Just like in the world of design, in the world of Air Jordan’s the word inspiration comes up a lot. It’s safe to say that every single new Air Jordan has a distinct feature that borrowed from previous models to create the new one, and that is a key to their business strategy:
They’ve mastered the art of recombination.
Not only do they do it with the newer models but also with all the other extensions they’ve build around the Air Jordan’s such as the retro’s, TEAM and individual player models. I think the Jordan Brand is to the sneakers industry what Apple is to the tech industry mainly because both companies set out to reinvent whatever they do. Jordan’s reinvent the basketball shoe and Apple reinvents mmm well everything it comes into contact with.
Jordan’s are also about performance and with every new model there’s some innovation in that department but this focus on recombination has made Michael Jordan the first athlete to $1 Billion dlls. If you don’t believe me check out the history of the Air Jordan’s and you’ll see what I mean, a lot of transformational inspiration.
If there’s one thing you can learn from Air Jordan is they borrow ideas from themselves and from other sources and then combine them to come up with something entirely new all while maintaining a focus on style and performance.
Ask yourself: How can I make recombination part of my business strategy? Who can I borrow ideas from that can help me reach x objective?
in Creativity, Innovation, Strategy
Chaos, where brilliant dreams are born.
Do you ever get this feeling that when you read the same stuff over and over and then you try to read something completely unrelated you become bored very easily? Well that’s a very bad problem to have if you want to get into the business of ‘doing innovation’ because breakthrough ideas rarely come from looking in the same place.
You want some new ideas everyday? Read stuff that’s unrelated to your field. John Jantsch calls this ‘the single best way to discover innovation’ and he’s right, the best ideas come from the intersection between ideas from different domains.…
in Creativity
I’ve got a really fresh brain after this weekend because I read Jack’s Notebook by creativity and innovation expert Gregg Fraley, it’s my first time reading a literal business novel so it was refreshing to have a book put my visual senses to work and putting me in the story. Jack’s Notebook is essentially about a guy named Jack Huber and his friend Manny who is a professional problem solver that helps Jack get his life straight through the use of CPS (Creative problem solving) to solve his work and personal problems.
So what is CPS? It’s a technique developed by Alex Osborn who coined the term brainstorming and it basically helps you have more ideas and therefore more solutions to any problem you encounter. CPS brings order to the chaos that is solving problems, it’s a systematic process of creating lists and then making decisions. That simple!
Like business and life, the story has twists and turns and the problems that Jack faces are solved using CPS in a very simple way. This leaves you with this feeling of ‘uh that was easy!’ and I think this is really the big takeaway most people will get from the book…solving problems doesn’t have to be hard, it can be fun!
So if you’re stuck in a corner and always seem to do the same thing over and over again with the same result because you try the same old ideas then I recommend you read this book. In fact even if you think you’re pretty fly at solving problems already and don’t think you need anymore lecturing, you should read this book because most likely your brain has gone stale and need some refreshing…we all do!
Mr. Fraley has given us a notebook with all his secrets and he wants to help us solve our problems in a fun way and the plus is it’s also a great story. Get it. Read it. Start your own notebook.
Once you’ve read it, follow Gregg Fraley on Twitter and tell him what you think.
P.S. Thank you Mr. Fraley!
Ah yes, the Super Bowl is here and we have one of the greatest quarterbacks in the game playing in it: Peyton Manning.
Peyton Manning is unlike any quarterback. He operates a no huddle offense that relies on reading the defense and making adjustments before the snap. This helps create confusion for the defense, so they don’t really know what’s coming at them. What makes all this possible is his great use of the OODA loop, which stands for observe, orient, decide, and act.
This happens so fast, that opposing defenses have a hard time making a play on him. Because the ball leaves his hands so fast, that they’re left guessing where he might throw the ball. This enabled him to be sacked only 10 times this season!
What this means, is that he had more opportunities to throw the ball to his receivers for plays.…