Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking?
My answers:
1. In my car. I’m a working musician and I spend a lot of quiet time in the car driving to and from shows. This gives the mind a lot of time to roam and connect concepts. Long trips are ideal, especially if I’m sharing driving duties with my wife and will have time to write after thinking when she takes a turn driving.
2. While hiking in the woods, again alone. Another rather mindless activity, gives me a lot of opportunity to think great thoughts.
After thinking alone in either of these settings I like to jot my thoughts down in bullet form or in a mindmap. When I form enough mental connections I post things here and elsewhere. I think I would benefit by having a Dictaphone for when I’m driving alone.
3. After visits to new places with others, especially places focused on innovation. This is an ideal opportunity for sharing initial thoughts and ideas while they are fresh. During the visit I soak up as much information as I can and think about what everything means. At the end of the visit I sit down with my party and conduct a focused ’hot wash’ to identify everyone’s issues, challenges, opportunities, novel ideas, and points of clarity in writing. We take turns talking about what we have written and allow each other’s ideas to influence our thinking. I’ll collect everyone’s writing and commit to Word, categorizing if possible in order to facilitate making connections. Usually it’s easy to identify problem areas that warrant novel thinking. After identifying a few problem statements I’ll write down whatever ideas come to mind, rapidly. Often they develop in clusters. I might stretch my thinking with a few creative thinking tools, generating more ideas. At some point I’ll share the end product with others in the party to get their feedback and influence their thinking.
Your turn.
Sphere: Related ContentPowerpoint in the Pulpit
I’m helping a priest friend of mine start a new outreach program. There’s a large new upscale housing development by a golf course in our area and the developer or whoever is letting my friend’s church start a worship service program in the community center. Taking the church to the people is a bold act of innovation, and shows creativity in thinking. But success or failure will depend on what he does with this opportunity. He’s not going to install stained glass and an organ in the community center - he’s going to have to implement new and different.
I’ve been thinking about the modern tools used in contemporary worship services like this. Powerpoint has become common in a certain kind of service - usually accompanied by modern music and other multimedia. Contrast this to the traditional services still practiced today - older liturgy, organ music based on classical compositions centuries old, operatic choirs, formality. Yet the modern style churches seem to be flourishing in our area. Powerpoint in church services is change, and thus innovation.
Right now the use of Powerpoint spreads by direct copying. Church A visits Church B, sees Powerpoint, is duly impressed, and buys a laptop and projector. But at some point there had to have been a small group of alpha innovators, the first ones to use Powerpoint in a worship service. Who did they copy? Rather, what connection did they make between the world of business and the world of religion that lead them to the conclusion that Powerpoint in church would work?
I think the answer is that they found a direct analogy between the two worlds in the area of communication. What is the essence of Powerpoint? Communicating information in a visual manner, appealing to our cognitive functions. Powerpoint is a proven means of communicating information in a clear, concise manner, and if used properly holds your attention. So if people respond to Powerpoint positively in a business setting, why wouldn’t they do so in a religious setting? Both the briefer and the preacher are trying to convey concepts and inform/persuade the group. Aren’t words reinforced by images and video? Why would modern people expect to get information one way in church but another more effective way everywhere else? Although the trappings are different, the essence of communication is the same in both worlds.
My thinking is that my friend will be successful if he and his congregation continue to make such connections with other, not so dissimilar worlds and create a truly novel worship service, something that the people have never experienced before.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Nature of Innovation - Part I
Innovation is change. Most people think of innovation in terms of breakthrough, revolutionary new products and technologies - the things that change the way we live and work. But innovation is more comprehensive - it takes innovation to improve as well as create. Think of innovation in two broad categories:
- Doing things better (evolutionary change) - making things more efficient and/or effective, making general improvements, eliminating unneeded things
- Doing things differently (revolutionary change) - copying and adapting technologies/practices across industry, doing things no one else is doing, making the impossible possible.
Thinking of innovation in this fashion, consider now how innovation ‘flows’ from novelty to ubiquity.
1. Someone creates a new technology, or transfers technology in a novel way (doing what no one else is doing, doing the impossible)
2. Others copy the technology directly or adapt it to new uses (copy/adapt)
3. Over time, others improve it (make it more effective, more efficient, integrate with other existing technologies, eliminate now needless aspects)
A great example of this is inkjet printing, which is currently in all phases of change. In the late 80s, inkjet printing was a novel new technology that provided color printing far cheaper than other technologies like thermal dye and laser. It has become better and cheaper over the years, to the point that the printers are offered ‘free’ with new PC purchases. It’s made more expensive technologies obsolete, and forced others to become cheaper. At the same time, the technology has transistioned to other applications like biotech (inkjet printing DNA/tissue to make biosensors and new organs), rapid prototyping (inkjet printing resin to produce 3-D models), consumer electronics (inkjet printing organic LEDs to produce the next generation of lower cost HDTVs), and even building construction (giant printers that construct buildings by ‘printing’ concrete foundations and walls). In each one of these transfer areas, the technology will be improved to make it cheaper and more effective over time.
Coming up: The relationship between the two categories of innovation and individual creative styles.
Sphere: Related ContentHello world!
My first post on my first blog.
I have a number of things I will blog about in the upcoming days. Expect to see two types of posts here:
1. News items reporting innovative new technologies and practices. My current interests are biotech, nanotech, and energy tech but I am interested in any and all news items that illustrate principles of innovation. So if you see ‘em, send ‘em.
2. Discussions/essays on innovation, creative thinking, and related topics.
My writing style is terse and to the point, as opposed to my speaking style which is dry and irreverently sarcastic, but expect the latter to creep in the former from time to time.
Plus I know nothing about the functions and capabilities of Wordpress so this is a learning experience for me as well. One of my mottoes is ‘Keep Moving Forward’ so I hope to get to the point where I can give the blog a new and different look on a regular basis.
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