Dirty Work in The Garage - Next at Microsoft. I hate to admit it, but I still have my best ideas in the shower. I’m constantly misplacing my keys, and this morning during my second rinse & repeat, I came up with a brilliant solution involving Windows Phone, Microsoft Lync and RFID tags. Now, all I need to do is get it built. That’s the real problem of course. Ideas are a easy; it’s the execution that takes real skills. I now know of a place to take my ideas though. “It’s about doing versus talking,” says Quinn, and they’ve learned some pretty interesting things in the 18 months since it was established.
When I first heard about The Garage, it conjured up many images in my head: roll-up door, power tools, oil-stained concrete floor, bits and pieces laying about. “The key thing,” says Quinn, “is that it takes nothing to get an idea into The Garage for consideration.” When he first told me this, I was pretty skeptical. “Look, Microsoft has tried a lot of different things to support new product or feature ideas from employees. Win the Pitch: Tips from Mastercard's "Priceless" Pitchman - Kevin Allen. As a growth officer in my early career with the mad men and women of McCann Erickson, my mom could never quite grasp what I did for a living. But, when we pitched, won and delivered the phenomenon now globally known as Priceless for MasterCard, she could finally brag to her friends at my Aunt Rose’s kitchen table.
From the moment the very first television commercial appeared (You remember it, right? “Two tickets: $28. Two hot dogs, two popcorns, two sodas: $18. In one of the industry’s most hotly-contested advertising accounts, dozens of agencies’ pitches were winnowed down to two contenders. We all make pitches every day — for that highly-prized account; to a client who’s reluctant to accept your scary proposal; for a skeptical CFO to loosen the purse strings; or for a wary new team to believe in you. 1.
There are no magic tricks or hypnotics to persuade people to do what you say. 2. To find the hidden agenda, you need to identify your audiences’ wants, needs and/or values. 3. 4. What Doesn't Motivate Creativity Can Kill It - Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer. By Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer | 9:49 AM April 25, 2012 Management is widely viewed as a foe of innovation. The thinking goes that too much management strangles innovation (just let a thousand flowers bloom!).
But we have found a much more nuanced picture. You really can manage for innovation, but it starts by knowing what drives creativity in the people who generate and develop the new ideas that, when implemented, will become tomorrow’s innovations. Unfortunately, too many managers unintentionally kill innovation because they rely too heavily on carrots and sticks to motivate employees.
More than three decades of research have shown that people are most likely to be creative when they’re intrinsically motivated by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself. But motivation inside organizations is a tricky business, because most everyone is driven by many extrinsic motivators, too — such as compensation, rewards, recognition, and fear of failure. Goals. Nordstrom Innovation Lab. Innovating the Library Way - Grant McCracken. By Grant McCracken | 11:28 AM January 26, 2012 The original value proposition of the library was not just free books but something more, something I learned as a seven-year-old at the Dunbar Public Library in Vancouver, B.C. The library looked like dumpy, public architecture but it was in fact a house of many mansions, a place of possibility, a portal. Space travel, time travel, identity travel, you name it, the library could do take you there. But other media can make the same promise. The dominance of radio, TV, and Hollywood threatened libraries with irrelevance, and now the rise of the internet, smart phones, and ebooks, threaten them with eclipse.
So libraries are struggling. Perhaps the answer lies in the library’s physicality. My now-local library came up with a lovely idea. What do you think your stuffed animal friends would do if they spent the night at the library? Once solemn, hushed repositories, libraries are poised to make themselves more vibrant centers. Wanted: Idea Fusers - Bronwyn Fryer - Our Editors. By Bronwyn Fryer | 9:40 AM February 7, 2012 It’s become pretty much common knowledge that great innovation springs from the ability to pull two unlike things together to create a beautiful third. Steve Jobs famously shifted a paradigm when he fused calligraphy with technology to create the Mac’s graphical user interface.
Many great inventions fuse something very simple, cheap and widely accessible — say, a small piece of paper — with something expensive and complex — say, a medical laboratory test — to come up with a marvelous solution, such as George Whitesides’ postage-stamp sized diagnostic tool. And though not always disruptive, many innovations spring from the fusion of business models. I find this strange. Back in 1997, HBR authors Dorothy Leonard and Susaan Straus identified part of the problem in an article called “Putting Your Company’s Whole Brain to Work.” Our society values specialists. Now, take a good look at the people your company hires.
Listen to What Innovators Don't Talk About - Michael Schrage. By Michael Schrage | 4:54 PM January 25, 2012 While working away on my laptop at a hotel breakfast, I couldn’t help but overhear the four gentlemen poring over an iPad two tables way. Their intense discussion revolved around rolling out their high-tech prototypes in a medical care complex.
Since I’ve written about prototypes and prototyping, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop. Forgive me. The foursome represented a mix of medical care complex personnel and what was clearly an entrepreneurial innovator with a potentially high-impact idea. I’ll skip the technical details, but this was clearly a sophisticated group who were both smart and ambitious. The prototypes were their gateways to success. These questions are classic and it’s always fascinating to hear how — and what — decides them. That’s why the more passionately they spoke, the more nervous I got. When something isn’t explicitly discussed, that doesn’t mean it’s not important or being ignored. Creative coaching, creativity, productivity. Discover A Better Way of Working. Study Hacks.
On Sam Harris and Stephen Fry’s Meditation Debate February 19th, 2019 · 44 comments A few weeks ago, on his podcast, Sam Harris interviewed the actor and comedian Stephen Fry. Early in the episode, the conversation took a long detour into the topic of mindfulness meditation. Harris, of course, is a longtime proponent of this practice. What sparked the diversion in the first place is when, early in the conversation, Fry expressed skepticism about meditation. Typically when we find ourselves in a chronic state of ill health it’s because we’ve moved away from something natural that our bodies have evolved to expect.Paleolithic man didn’t need gyms and diets because he naturally exercised and didn’t have access to an overabundance of bad food.Mindfulness mediation, by contrast, doesn’t seem to be replicating something natural that we’ve lost, but is instead itself a relatively contrived and complicated activity. Harris’s response was to compare meditation to reading.
Read more » Myth Confirmed. Behance | Home. The 99 Percent - It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen. Act One. 3×5. Challenging Authority Since 1978 I am a writer, traveler, and entrepreneur with the goal of visiting every country in the world while connecting with other world-changers. Continue reading about Chris Mission Accomplished!