Innovation in Non-Profits and Churches

Through the folks over at CreatePossible, I found out about this great event called Co-Lab, for non-profit organizations and ministries.

As part of Co-Lab, there was a session entitled “The Theology of Innovation.”  It’s a great video of two people sharing the story of their church and their quest to embrace innovation and be true to their Faith (which contrary to what many  would think, and as the session presenters point out, a conflict between innovation and religious communities doesn’t have to exist.)  There are also multiple other sessions on the Vimeo Co-Lab site on Future Trends, and the future of Non-Profits to name a few. They’re worth checking out.

Even if you’re not into Christianity, it’s a fascinating insight into how people react and deal with design thinking and innovative processes. These folks even went to IDEO for assistance in this process. (Next time, just give me a call )

Looking forward to your thoughts!

(Note on the video: When the woman speaks in the presentation, her microphone level is lower so you may have to turn up the presentation at those times.)

Art, Lent(?), and Innovation

“Art, after all, is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal.”   - from The Art of Possibility by Benjamin, and Rosamund Stone, Zander.

A friend of mine read the above quote and said, “Sounds like the purpose of Lenten Services.”

Brilliant!

She juxtaposed art and spirituality in a wonderful manner.

I’m taking it one step further.

The purpose of being rearranged is so that people can improve their relationships with each other, with the Eternal and with themselves.

So, if we become open and have flight paths to the eternal, are emotionally vulnerable, become aware of others and their needs, what types innovations would we bring into the world?

“Every good painter paints what he is.” -Jackson Pollock

I would say that every person creates from what she is.  If we become rearranged as mentioned above, our creations naturally reflect that which we are realizing in our lives.

Try this thought experiment:

What would a doctor’s office look like if it were designed by the Dalai Lama? How would people be treated? What would waiting rooms look like? Would people feel more nervous or less than they do now? What would it sound like? What would the air taste like?

Every good painter paints what he is.

And that’s the key.  Whether in art or spirituality (and many would say there is no dichotomy in art/spirituality) we have to be willing to be rearranged.  If we aren’t willing to be open to going in new directions, to explore, to feel the discomfort of stepping off precipices and trusting we will fly, then we won’t be rearranged, and not only will we not be elevated from glory to glory, but the world will not experience light which only we can share.

So what does that mean?

Listen to music…go to the theater…meditate…pray…taste fruit you just picked off a tree and write a haiku of the experience…sculpt…sing a song…

…Paint the world with what you are…Show the world that being rearranged isn’t a singular exercise in destruction, but an empowering act of creation…

Think of what the world would be if each person lived as a surprising juxtaposition, an emotional opening, a startling presence, a flight path to the eternal…

…Start becoming rearranged…

…now…

 

Makers – The New Industrial Revolution (Book Review)

The other day I picked up a copy of Makers – The New Industrial Revolution, by Chris Anderson.

It’s an exploration of the Maker movement and its place on the world-wide stage.

If I could sum up this book with one word it would  be:

Inspirational

Yes, inspirational.

He makes a good case for the argument that the Maker movement is here to stay and it’s buttressed by enthusiastic people who are empowered by the democratization of manufacturing technologies worldwide.  Indeed, as one chapter is entitled, “We Are All Designers Now.”

We can all take part in designing and manufacturing products, and even help each other in the process.  The internet is the great equalizer and it enables people to reach each other, and niches that, while perhaps not in the millions, are substantive enough to enable the development and growth of business.  The internet also gives access to manufacturing methodologies such as 3-D printing, laser cutting, and CNC machining, making the machine shop as close as your laptop.

He cites multiple case studies of companies (including his own) that leverage technology and the power of crowds (which is also the power of individual dreams) to build sustainable businesses.

The book is an easy, clean read.  There is some minor redundancy in writing style but it’s not off-putting.  Also, if you already are familiar with manufacturing technologies like 3-D printing, there are small chunks of the book that won’t give you any new information.

I’ve already shared this book with a friend who is involved in artistic co-creation, and this book excited him as well.

If you’d like to learn more about the Maker movement, if you’d like to be inspired by stories of how Makers are redefining manufacturing business worldwide, if you want to understand how Maker businesses have the potential to expand and become disruptive economic machines, you do want to read this book.

Ignore it at your own risk.

 

************

There’s a great interview with Chris Anderson, about the Maker movement, over at Wharton.

 

Entrepreneurship for the Arts and the Creativity Economy

Click to go to article

Being an entrepreneur,  building a dream and sharing it with people requires nothing less than a healthy dose of creativity.   But this really informative blog post over at StartUpOwl (with some great resource links as well!) speaks of a creative economy and how important creativity is to the future of all industries and culture in general.

Think about it, the arts can help healing, build communities, and even start revolutions.  We don’t see it in the United States too often, but in many countries, the ‘bad guys’ that go to prison are artists, musicians and writers.

That’s the power of the arts and creativity!

~~~

It’s horrible to end up in chains

 To die in captivity,

But it’s worse to be free

 And to sleep, and sleep, and sleep—

 And to fall asleep forever,

 And to leave no trace

 At all, as if it were all the same

 Whether you had lived or died!

 1845 – Taras Shevchenko, “Mynaiut’ dni, mynaiut’ nochi”

What Color is Your….

What color is your brand?

No, not the colors in the logo, but what color is your brand?  What is the color that authentically speaks and shares of its essence?

What color is your product?

No, not the color of the housing, but what color do people see when they look at your product? When they touch it? When they hear it? What color are the support services you offer? What colors emanate from your customers?

Do all those colors harmonize?

Pay attention…

Colors always speak their minds

~

What colors do you live and breathe?

Death to the Project Post-Mortem!

Turn to any business magazine, look in project management books, (Microsoft’s site even has a template for it!) and one of the best practices of project management is to conduct a post-mortem just after a project has been completed, and right before it’s officially ‘closed.’ The purpose is to get everyone on the team together to examine what went well in the project, what went wrong, and record this information so that others can learn.

Don’t get me wrong, the concept is a good one and should be practiced.  What I have a problem with, in particular, is use of the phrase, ‘post-mortem.’

By now you know that I’m a big fan of the power of words and metaphors – they shape how we solve problems and approach the world.  So it probably won’t surprise you then that my aversion to the phrase is tied to all the meaning around the words, ‘post-mortem.’

Think about it.

The term literally means: after death.  But what’s dead?  You just finished something that myriads of people put their hearts and souls into, and now that that something is impacting the world, you call it dead?  The project is closed, not dead. As a matter of fact, all projects, even those that resulting in the closing of a chapter, are births, not deaths! They are the beginning of something new.

By bringing the concept of death into the mix, there is a meaning conveyed that what just happened was not life-giving.  It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that what just happened needs to be dissected and analyzed, and perhaps even robbed of deeper meaning and import*.  Perhaps worst of all, it creates a sense that no continuity with this ‘dead thing’ is required.

On the contrary, the work of marketing, manufacturing, sales and product monitoring is kicking into full gear!

My point here is that it’s not about ending something, as much as it’s about a continuity of learning!  Sure, one project ends, another begins.  It’s a never-ending cycle. The commonality is that before, during and after a project, there needs to be a recursive aspect, a learning process that is ingrained into the culture.  That mindset only comes about if there’s less emphasis on analyzing ‘that which died,’ and more emphasis on learning each day what works, what doesn’t, and growing from that. And, for that to happen, we need to put the term,”Project Post-Mortem” to death, and replace it with a more forward thinking term.

I like: ‘Lessons Learned.’

What would you call it?

 

 

*

One day after sleeping badly, an anatomist went to his frog laboratory and
removed, from a cage, a frog with white spots on its back. He placed it on a
table and drew a line just in front of the frog. “Jump frog, jump!” he shouted.
The little critter jumped two feet forward. In his lab book, the anatomist
scribbled, “Frog with four legs jumps two feet.”

Then, he surgically
removed one leg of the frog and repeated the experiment. “Jump, jump!” To which,
the frog leaped forward 1.5 feet. He wrote down, “Frog with three legs jumps 1.5
feet.”

Next, he removed a second leg. “Jump frog, jump!” The frog
managed to jump a foot. He scribbled in his lab book, “Frog with two legs jumps
one foot.”

Not stopping there, the anatomist removed yet another leg.
“Jump, jump!” The poor frog somehow managed to move 0.5 feet forward. The
scientist wrote, “Frog with one leg jumps 0.5 feet.”

Finally, he
eliminated the last leg. “Jump, jump!” he shouted, encouraging forward progress
for the frog. But despite all its efforts, the frog could not budge. “Jump frog,
jump!” he cried again. It was no use; the frog would not response. The anatomist
thought for a while and then wrote in his lab book, “Frog with no legs goes
deaf.”

Innovation and Weeds

First on the scene – last to leave

Opportunistic

Propagate brilliantly

Efficient

Thrive where others struggle

Become the new ‘normal’

Difficult to get rid of

WEEDS

Who wouldn’t want their organization/product/service to have the above traits – to thrive like a weed in a field where others struggle?  Differentiating and proliferating, authentic and proud!

~~~

When I was younger we were on a family camping trip.  In the morning we went on a hike, escorted by a local ranger.  He would point out various plants and say, “Weed, or wildflower?” His point was that depending upon the context, one person’s weed was someone else’s wildflower.

Weeds are in the eyes of the beholder.

What do you think  Hewlett-Packard thinks Apple is?

Four Insights Into Great Innovation From Ernest Hemingway

 

Courtesy of PBS.org. Click on the picture to read about Hemingway.

 

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.”–Ernest Hemingway

I came across the above quote from Hemingway and it dawned on me how you could substitute “Innovators” for “The best people”, and it still make sense.

This quote is a great reminder that without…

…a feeling of beauty, there is nothing to inspire us to create more beauty.

…courage to take risks, great innovations are never achieved.

…the discipline to tell the truth, there is nothing upon which relationships with people and our environment can be built.  Innovations occur when well-disciplined sharing of truth guides decision-making.

…a capacity to sacrifice, innovations often flounder in various facets of incompleteness.  Sacrifice here is more than simply personal giving, it’s sacrificing short-term gains for long-term impact.

 

Do you think sustainable, enriching and kind innovations are possible without the above?

Want to Innovate? No Excuses, Make it Happen!

I recently looked at some simulation software to help me do some analysis for a project I’m working on.  I wasn’t looking for a full-blown exact solution. I was instead looking for possible directions – ways to help me ’zero in’ on ways to attack the problem.

I looked at three tools, all very similar, with each software package having its own advantages and disadvantages.  The problem was that I knew each software program couldn’t solve the problem exactly.  So, I sent a sketch of the problem to the owner of each software company and asked them this question:

“How would you do this?”

Two of the three wrote back with variations of this response: “Our software can’t handle that problem. If you have $10,000 I’m sure you can find software that can.”

The third took a totally different approach: “If you model the top half and do trial and error scenarios, you can zero in on the answer. Double check how the material behaves to make sure that your scenario is accurate.”

 That’s what I was looking for.  Someone that would work with me and find a way to make it happen.

I used his proposed solution and built upon it.  The result?

I understood the problem more thoroughly and was able to come up with multiple solutions (which made my client very happy!)

That’s what innovation is about:

Making the most of the tools one has.

Finding ways to look at the problem from different perspectives.

Acting “as-if” the solution is accessible, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first.  This means not being afraid of trial-and-error.

Collaborate with people who exemplify the above traits; dig in and make it happen, and your innovation machine will be unstoppable.

The Fragile Muse and Respect for Creativity

Over at the Looper’s Delight group we were discussing what to do with ideas that don’t grow the way we expected, or wanted them to.  Richard Sales of Glasswing Studios and Good Nature Farms (A farm/Creative sanctuary) then said the following:

We have a policy at our house that, when someone is in the creative moment, we tiptoe, we close doors quietly, we are very respectful of the presence of the Muse – that lightning fast butterfly. When we accidentally barge in, we dont’ make conversation and apologize etc. Everyone is trained.

This is such a great practice to follow!

Everyone puts such a great emphasis on collaboration nowadays, we assume that the best results will only occur when everyone is open to everyone else.   Businesses try and force collaboration through architecture, work flows, etc.

Yet, how often do businesses respect the need for people to seriously engage their muses; to afford people the silence to hear the silent whispers of inspiration within?  How often to we tread lightly when approaching people who are immersed in their creative moments?

How can businesses and people structure the environment, or create rules, so that individual creative moments are free to blossom?

Beautiful, amazing, new, hybrid plants are possible through botanical cooperation – the collaboration of multiple flowers.

But before this can occur, each flower needs to bloom on its own…