Crowdsourcing, Labor On Demand — CrowdFlower. Freelance Graphic Design, Logo Design, Web Design Services | DesignCrowd.
5 Traps You Have To Avoid When Pitching Bold Ideas. Innovation is not a science. Much of it has the elusive qualities of art, dressed up as useful things. But business leaders continue to try and invest in innovation as if it were a science. And too often, the designers they employ as consultants engage with these leaders not only as if it were an art but also as if their clients understood how to speak in “creative” terms. So we find these two parties speaking different languages, in need of a translator. And as often happens in translation, important context or nuance can be lost. My experience leading Frog, a 1,000-person global creative organization, for 18 years, has left me with a few key insights about how the creative industry needs to improve its communication with its corporate clients. If we do, the result will be a win-win situation for companies, innovation consultancies, and, most important, consumers.
Here are five reasons why creatives need to improve how we interface with executives. Staying at the Negotiating Table. Meetings Are A Skill You Can Master, And Steve Jobs Taught Me How. This is our second excerpt from Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success by Ken Segall, a close collaborator with Jobs for over a decade. To read the first, on how the iMac was almost called the MacMan, go here.
Apple encourages big thinking but small everything else. That is, if you feel the urge to speak or act in a manner reminiscent of anything you learned in a big company, it’s best that you do that in the privacy of your own home. Meeting size is a good example. Typically there would be no formal agenda. One particular day, there appeared in our midst a woman from Apple with whom I was unfamiliar. Lorrie was a bit stunned to be called out like that, but she calmly explained that she’d been asked to attend because she was involved with some of the marketing projects we’d be discussing.
Simplicity’s Best Friend: Small Groups of Smart People Remember, complexity normally offers the easy way out. 1. I’m exaggerating, of course. “Beats me,” I said. 5 Keys To Building A Business That Doesn't Bury The Humans At Its Core. As business leaders speak of the “Human Age” and claim that capitalism is being replaced by “talentism”--defined as access to talent as a key resource and differentiator--many companies have embarked on initiatives to “unleash their human potential.” Those are big words and noble ambitions, and naturally they seem worth striving for. But as one of the hosts of a hackathon in San Francisco this weekend, which invites developers, designers, and other creative minds to “reinvent business,” I have been wondering: What is a “human” business, anyway?
You might argue that the notion of a human business is a category error. Organizations are bureaucracies at their core, and it is hard to think of any formalized collective human endeavor, and especially any business, as being free of rules, structures, and processes. After all, these factors are what ultimately makes corporations (and nonprofits alike) reliable and trustworthy, and grants them their authority. Empathy Morality Creativity Aspiration. TreeHugger. Calculating The True Economic Benefit Of Green Buildings. Humans are shortsighted by nature, and humans in the U.S. may be more shortsighted than most, at least when it comes to environmental issues.
We have an economic system that is often more driven by quick return on investment than any other developed nation, and as a result, longer-term investments like green buildings don’t get the attention they deserve. A group of green building professionals are aiming to change that with a project called The Economics of Change (PDF). When complete, it will provide a new investment model for green building that actually makes sense to the ROI-driven business world. The big problem right now lies in a lack of data. There’s a dearth of information on green building transactions and operational costs, LEED has only been around for about a decade, and the lack of data is only exacerbated by confidentiality issues. The market isn’t asking for this information, and there are no requirements to do it. Create a website | Creating a website is easy with BaseKit.
Why Experts Can't Solve Big Problems. Naveen Jain made his money in the technology industry, first as the founder of search company InfoSpace, and then as the founder of web security firm Intelius, which has in the past been seriously scrutinized for its questionable marketing practices. But Jain’s interests span far beyond search and security: He is on the board of Singularity University (a Silicon Valley educational program that has spawned startups like ridesharing service Getaround); he co-chairs the education and global development initiative at the X Prize Foundation; and in his spare time co-founded Moon Express, a startup working on a lunar lander that will one day be able to mine the moon for resources.
We sat down with Jain to talk about philanthropy, entrepreneurship, digital doctors, and more. On solving big problems through philanthropy How do we start to use many of the innovations currently in the pipeline to think about how to solve big problems? On the problems with today’s education system. Oil Powered Thinking. Last week the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (which has a new director, Martin Roth) staged a conference about Design & Risk. (The videos are online here). Its keynote speaker, the eminent sociologist Ulrich Beck, was on the committee of experts that, last year, persuaded Germany to abandon nuclear power and go for renewables by 2020. I was asked to respond with a talk about “design in transition”. The following text is a reflection on issues raised at the V&A event. Since Ulrich Beck published his book Risk Society in 1986, a powerful consulting industry has emerged to help global companies “manage” up to 500 different kinds of risk.
One reason is that risk management does not exist to manage the safety of the world as a whole. A curious phenomenon follows from this. In the financial system, credit drivatives are a perfect recent example of this process at work. The same phenomenon is happening with energy. Germany is a good example of this approach. ] Energy in, energy out. Leadership's Full Measure - Chris Meyer & Julia Kirby. By Chris Meyer & Julia Kirby | 9:23 AM March 29, 2012 Sometimes, the measures managers use to guide their decisions stop making sense. Take television ratings—the metric by which TV shows live or die in an advertising-supported industry. The New York Times reports that, given today’s “time-shifted” viewing habits, the prevailing method of gauging audience size distorts the truth by counting only three days of viewing.
Scripted shows like Modern Family, more likely to be recorded and watched later with full attention, come out looking less popular than reality shows which are almost wholly consumed on their air date. Nonetheless, “the overnights still set the tone and agenda,” according to an ABC executive. Here’s the upshot of that: because TV executives are encouraged to manage to that measure, they achieve better performance on paper but worse—wait for it—in reality. It’s a problem that’s rampant right now in the practice of capitalism.
This is how capitalism changes. Warm Showers, Friction, And Failure: Jonah Lehrer On The Keys To Creativity. From Bob Dylan writing "Like A Rolling Stone" and Wieden + Kennedy founder Dan Wieden conjuring "Just Do It" to sandpaper salesman Dick Drew inventing masking tape, Jonah Lehrer’s most recent book, Imagine: How Creativity Works brings together a range of seemingly disparate cases of creativity in action. And it’s precisely the connections between unlikely people and things that make creativity happen, Lehrer argues in the book. The New Yorker writer, Wired contributing editor and author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist and How We Decide, breaks down the creative process from brain level to corporate level and illustrates how new ideas are sparked when people and companies are able to think and act outside of the usual patterns and make new connections.
Lehrer writes about conceptual blending, collaboration across disciplines, and the importance of perseverance (but also daydreaming and showers) in the creative process. JONAH LEHRER: Where to begin? Take a long shower. Website Builder | Create a Free Website with Wix.com. Do Something. 10 Points On The Science Of Spreading The Word. This piece is from a new PopTech Edition about harnessing social contagion for social good. Visit for more interviews, essays and videos with leading thinkers on this subject. 1. Good deeds are contagious We naturally imitate the people around us, we adopt their ideas about appropriate behavior, and we feel what they feel.
Acts of charity are no exception. In our 2010 generosity experiment (PDF), we showed that every extra dollar of giving in a game designed to measure altruism caused people who saw that giving to donate an extra twenty cents. 2. That same experiment showed that contagious generosity spreads up to three steps through the network (from person to person to person to person), and when we added up all the extra donations that resulted at every step, we found that an extra dollar in giving yielded three extra dollars by everyone else in the network. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.… but don’t overdo it!
8. 9. 10. Everything we do ripples through our network. KONY 2012. Interview with movement entrepreneur Jeremy Heimans, founder of Purpose.com. Project Jane Margolies Home page of Purpose, a new organization that consults on the formation of movements and helps spur of few of its own.His mother wanted him to grow up to be a doctor, a lawyer or an architect, Jeremy Heimans says with a laugh. Instead, the Australian native became what he calls a “movement entrepreneur,” an expert in using the internet to build social movements around pressing issues.
He launched GetUp.org, a grassroots organizing force in his homeland that has more members than all the country’s political parties combined, and he co-founded Avaaz.org, a global online pressure group (avaaz means voice in languages from Hindi to Farsi to Bosnian). Not long ago, people rallying around a cause might have organized a march on Washington. The good news is that technology has lowered the barriers to power. What are the tools you’re deploying to do this? From a tech perspective, they’re not terribly high-tech. How important are Facebook and Twitter?
Two years ago. Can CSR Help Drive an Entrepreneurial Impact Economy? Shifting gears on corporate social responsibility from rhetoric to action. By Evan Steiner, Hub Ventures Impact investing is an emerging asset class focused on the flow of capital towards companies that align market incentives with scalable impact. In other words, investing in for-profit companies that are making the world a better place. It is a paradigm shift away from a bifurcated non-profit vs. for-profit perspective, into a blended approach that seeks to make money and do good.
The sector, generally referred to as “social enterprise,” has garnered a lot of attention and interest recently, especially since it represents a way for many to align their careers with their personal values. After working in impact investing for a short while, I discovered a little secret that people don’t bring up enough: there is actually very little investment being made, especially for seed and early-stage companies. Aligning Impact Investing and Corporate Social Responsibility. Building Better Businesses By Closing The Happiness Gap. If two magnets are separated by too much distance, they won’t have any impact on each other. But, if something helps move them a bit closer, they will gravitate towards each other and connect. Technology can be used in a similar way. It can connect you to other people, skills, tools, and trigger new ways of thinking and working; it can create an "assisted serendipity.
" More than ever, products and companies help connect us to people and information. But does merely creating access have anything to do with making better lives and better economies? Because today, we have more access than ever, but unfortunately, we are still largely unhappy: 80% of people dislike what they do for a living. One way to do this is to build companies that have a structural alignment of personal interests and skills, with the mission of the company.
This is where technology can help. Addressing the disengagement crisis is as much a health initiative as a work initiative. Can coaching save the world. The New Rules Of Innovation: Bottom-Up Solutions To Top-Down Problems. The world is currently standing “on the cusp of a post-industrial revolution.” So writes Vijay Vaitheeswaran in his new book, Need, Speed and Greed: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness and Tame the World’s Most Wicked Problems, out March 13. Vaitheeswaran, a 20-year veteran correspondent for The Economist and adviser to the World Economic Forum, wrote the book, he says, as a way to inspire bottom-up solutions to top-down problems like resource depletion, climate change, and growing income inequality. We spoke with Vaitheeswaran about the importance of disruptive technologies, social entrepreneurship, and embracing China’s rise. Co.Exist: As you point out in your book, modern humanity has arrived at the first phase of an unprecedented “innovation revolution,” yet many are being left behind.
Vijay Vaitheeswaran: First, I think it’s a wonderful time to be alive. You alluded to the growing income disparity in this country. The Business Of Impact Is The Business Of The Future. Today, more than ever, for-profit ventures have the capability to change culture quickly and with huge impact. In less than a decade, YouTube has significantly changed how we experience education, war, and art; Twitter and Facebook have had dramatic effects on the political revolutions of 2011 and 2012. Though these new businesses didn’t necessarily start with a social mission, their effects have had major impact. It’s clear that mobile devices and the Internet--coupled with shifting societal values toward brands--have major potential to help solve health problems, redefine transportation, revolutionize finance, and solve a host of other problems. But in order to drive this innovation, the way businesses and nonprofits measure success must catch up to the values that drive how they operate.
A gulf between "pro-social" and "business" very much exists. Why? But the ideas that define "for-profit" and "nonprofit" missions are blurring because market demand has changed. If You Want It Done Right, Don’t Do It Yourself. Time is our most limited resource, and knowing how to maximize it is imperative. Successful people across the globe have clearly figured this out, deliberately deciding to concentrate on tasks where they are most productive, while outsourcing the tasks where they are less so. This results in higher productivity (and well-being) for everyone involved. To achieve the highest productivity and well-being for society as a whole, we must focus on honing our strongest skills instead of spreading ourselves thin by trying to do everything. Consider this little parable: Two men are alone on a deserted island.
To survive they must undertake a few basic activities like fetching water, fishing, cooking, and maintaining shelter. Despite the fact that the younger man has an absolute advantage in all activities, it is not in the interest of either of them to work in isolation; they both can benefit from specialization and exchange. Mike Bloomberg Is A Smart Businessman, That's Why He's Learning To Code. Writing Tips from Masters. 150 + FAST Arts - Arts at MIT - StumbleUpon. Invisible Children Store. Using Great Storytelling To Grow Your Business. Cultivating Charisma: How Personal Magnetism Can Help (Or Hurt) You At Work.