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May 12

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How genius works

The Atlantic magazine has a project called “First Drafts: How Genius Works.” The interviews with novelists, chefs, architects, and musicians are a creative process x-ray. Here are a few excerpts that resonate with me:

Frank Gehry on how our creations are a reflection of ourselves, “Some people may say my curved panels look like sails. Well, I am a sailor, so I guess I probably do use that metaphor in my work—though not consciously.”

Tim Burton on the need for space, “I don’t sit down and try to draw a character. I attempt to reserve some time each day for myself to sit and do nothing—stare off into space or doodle or whatever–just be in my own head. That time is very precious for me, and sometimes the characters will strike me in these quiet moments.”

Grant Achatz on iterations before putting food on the table, “We do different tests of every dish. Someone will have an idea, work on it, and put something in front of me. I’ll taste it and make comments and suggestions. We’ll continue the process until we all think it’s where we want to be.”

I invite you to explore the project and let me know what inspires you! 

Can imagination be taught?
Getting unstuck

May 11

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Commit to disruption

Diego Rodriguez pointed out this quote from Richard Foster this morning:

I’m convinced that for an existing company to innovate, they must first make the decision to get rid of something. Unless you get rid of it, it will always be more a more compelling argument to improve the old rather than commit to the new. That small decision over time adds up to a total deflection, and you are never as motivated to innovate as the unencumbered new entrant.

I’m reading Onward by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, who also sees disruption as a primary challenge, “Icons disrupt themselves before others disrupt them.”

So how do you creatively disrupt your own patterns? Begin by asking questions such as how can we improve our customer experience? What did we implement 10 years ago that we are holding onto – just so we don’t have to change? What one new way can we tangibly show our values in our customer interactions and in our community? What will we do that will make our employees proud to work for and with us?

Act. Do one thing today differently than you’ve done in the past. Do another tomorrow…

Out of the ordinary
Idea for reflection – 26
Discovering differences that make a difference

May 9

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Idea for reflection – 31

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
   – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Through the window
Idea for reflection – 30

May 6

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Meep, meep …!

Growing up, I liked to get up before 7 a.m. on Saturday morning to watch the Bugs Bunny Road Runner hour. Every cartoon followed the same plot with the Road Runner constantly outwitting Wile E. Coyote and his unlimited supply of tricks purchased from Acme Corporation. The cartoon had its own law of gravity – Mr. Coyote could not fall until he looked down. And, no matter what he tried or how he planned, the Road Runner would shout, “Meep, meep!” as he zipped away into the sunset.

How often do our organizations run off a cliff and just keep going? The reports that no one has read for the last five years, the processes that are 90% workarounds of the original checklist, the employee that stopped contributing to the team two years ago – all things that are easier to ignore. We continue on as if we were standing on solid ground.

How often do we keep looking outside of our organization for the answers? Or look for quick fixes like the newest technology or the latest business fad. We continue on as if buying the same solutions will create a different outcome.

Looking down and falling leads to pain. Ending the ordering of new quick tricks from Acme requires change. We prefer to avoid pain and change. But the good news is that like Wile E. Coyote, we will live to fight another day. The only question is whether we will keep doing the same thing over and over again, or do the work of drawing a new cartoon.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Apr 30

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Through the window

The window has forty
panes, forty clarities
variously wrinkled, streaked
with dried rain, smudged,
…
The window is a form
of consciousness, pattern
of formed sense
through which to look
into the wild
that is a pattern too,
bearing along the
shapes of the mind
…
The windy day
on one of the panes
a blown seed, caught
in a cobweb, beats and beats.

  – Wendell Berry, excerpted from Window Poems 3

Idea for reflection – 30
Can imagination be taught?

Apr 25

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Can imagination be taught?

I’ve been writing about the Stanford d.school and their design thinking process. In a new article in the Stanford alumni magazine, President John Hennessy is quoted,

It’s much harder to teach creativity. [It involves] multiple routes, multiple approaches and, obviously, it’s virtually impossible to test whether or not you’ve succeeded. The measure of success is likely to come long after, not unlike many of the other things we try to teach: To prepare students to be educated citizens, to prepare them for dealing with people from diverse and different walks of life. Those are things that play out over a long time, whether or not we’ve done a good job.

But the core curriculum supports just that: learning to be imaginative and creative. Students learn techniques for “interviewing, observing, suggesting, tinkering, reviewing and then perhaps completely restarting two, three or four times.”

What are you taking time to observe? Who are you interviewing to understand their perspective on working or doing business with your organization? What will you try, test, and re-design until you get it right – a new product, an improved process, a customer experience? Who you do you meet with regularly who is outside of your industry or discipline that can stretch your ideas and imagination?

Sparks Fly: Can imagination be taught?
d.school – Bootcamp Bootleg
d.school – Research by Design

 

Apr 21

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Organizational antiques

An interesting conversation thread from the current Friends graduate cohort began with the statement, “I’m reflecting on the buzzphrase ‘historical perspective’ (something I hear a LOT and use often myself) and wondering if a bias toward “from this point forward” is more relevant. [sic] ” The discussion has proceeded to consider motives for using the phrase and how it influences outcomes.

I added my own questions: Is the phrase being used to stifle new ideas? Or, is it a preface to telling a story that spurs action? Further discussion questions motives in using the phrase: Is the motive to protect or justify a position? Continue the status quo? Is it a fear of change?

What are your organization’s antiques?

What are the processes that don’t support your goals? What are the decision-making methods that repeatedly lead to the dead-end road? What are the reports that no one has read in years? What equipment needs to be retired?

Which antiques are so valuable that you’ll pass them down to the next generation?

Apr 18

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Mutually assured distraction

One of the questions I am frequently asked in workshops is, “How do we deal with people emailing and texting in our meetings or presentations or training sessions?” This is not easy to answer, especially when the person using the smart phone is above you in the organization. Using smartphones 24/7 to text, email, or use social networks happens constantly – and not just at work. It happens at lunch with colleagues and friends. It happens when I’m on a walk in the evening with Jon. It happens (illegally in Kansas) while people are driving.

It is a scientific fact that we cannot multi-task. We can only do one thing at a time. The more we jump from task-to-task, the lower our productivity and quality of work becomes. And yet we allow our meetings and personal conversations to be constantly interrupted – distracted by the technology at hand.

One workplace strategy is to use ground rules in meetings. One of the ground rules might be: Show respect by giving full attention to our discussion; if you have to take a call or email, excuse yourself from the meeting. In classrooms, I state that I expect students to give their full attention to the dialogue and activities; if they have to take an emergency call, I ask them to leave the classroom. During time with family and friends, I often choose to turn my phone to vibrate or off, which allows me to focus on the experience we are creating and sharing.

When any of us choose to allow constant interruptions of conversations, activities, and even decision-making processes, we are chosing to function at levels that undermine our goals and relationships. We are practicing “mutually assured distraction.”

Apr 13

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Resource: More design thinking from the d.school

The Stanford d.school has released a new toolkit for organizations involved in design thinking. As Tim Brown says in Change by Design, “You have to start with observation because it’s the only way to illuminate the subtle nuances about how people actually get things done (or don’t get things done), and it’s these deep insights that lead to powerful new ideas.”

Here are some of the focus areas addressed in the new toolkit:

  1. problem finding and framing
  2. multi-disciplinary team building
  3. ideation/brainstorming
  4. prototyping/testing
  5. storytelling

Download the new d.school toolkit; explore and research!

Previous d.school Bootcamp Bootleg

Apr 7

Where do we start?

Less than 7% of the Eastern Screech Owls in the United States live in Kansas. Discovering a rather unusual visitor requires dedicated observation on our part and support from friends who watch for his arrival. But his regular return requires the right resources (temperature, hollow tree, water and food, etc.) and trust as people walk past his home and take his picture.

I recently wrote about building a better boss. One of the resulting questions that has prompted an ongoing conversation between Jon and I is, “Where can our organization start building?”

Organizational environments are as complex as natural ones that support the life of this owl – someone would argue more complex because they include people. Yet we return each day to our work and the opportunity to start anew.

The place to start is always with yourself. Here are some questions that I ask our coaching clients that will jumpstart your thinking:

  • Have you identified your personal values and vision?
  • How do these fit with the values and vision of your organization? Of your team or work group? (Note: organization and team values might be somewhat different!)
  • Do you trust others in your organization and do they trust you?
  • What are the top three things that you want to focus on for learning and growth in the next six months?

Starting with leading and managing yourself lays a foundation for successfully leading and managing others. In an age of immersive connections, the first question is, “Are you connected to yourself?”

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