Education Policy

Have You Had an Idea Today?

Ideas! Do they just pop out of the blue or can you deliberately enhance your ability to have them?

Would you be surprised to learn that many people never consciously consider their “thought process” and howA� to deliberately create ideas? On the other hand most of us have experienced and easily relate to problem solving and brain storming techniques. Almost always, thought generation occurs in a formal way to address problems that require immediate solutions. It’s also almost always done “officially” (arranged by the organization and sanctioned by senior leadership) and in groups or teams.

Solving problems is absolutely necessary. In fact most companies and organizations probably spend the majority of their time and resources in whatA� I call “reaction thinking” or in other words, responding to calamity in their environment. I’m all for solving day to day – or probably in your world, “minute to minute” problems. Surly most of them are crucial for your organization’s immediate survival. Otherwise you wouldn’t be spending most of your time trying to solve them? Right? At least it appears that way as we struggle with each disaster that comes across our desk.

Often the difference between success and failure is directly related to our ability to shift from reactionary problem solving to forward looking and exponential ideas that lead to innovation.A� What process, method or plan do you use to consciously create ideas that result in innovation? Don’t use any now?, then read on – 🙂

Innovation doesn’t just happen. It’s deliberate, meticulous and calculated. Successful organizations instill in their team members a desire for constant idea generation. Not only do they generate ideas, but they have a culture where new ideas are acted upon. A right culture is harder to describe than a wrong culture. Your culture is wrong if you hear; “Been there , tried that – it didn’t work!” or “we have a policy that doesn’t allow that!” or even more insidious, “we’ll have to have that approved by THE steering committee.” – that last one is the kiss of death for an innovative oriented culture.

Here is one example to demonstrate the power of ideas. Remember 3M and Post-it notes? A company totally focused on making the strongest glues in the world comes up with an idea to use a glue that failed every one of their tests and the result? – Post-it notes were created! The concept is spectacular, but the real story is in their culture and their research or “idea” investments.

So lets get down to brass tacks. You need to personally contribute to your organization no matter what goes on in it’s current culture. Change always begins with ourselves. If you don’t have a regular idea system or use one already, then you need to start now! Here are some helpful hints to get you on the innovation/idea express train:

Schedule regular “idea”A� events in your appointment calendar for yourself.A� They could be daily – 10 minutes is all it takes or weekly for say 30 minutes.

Don’t let other distractions interfere with your idea time.

Dedicate a journal, file or paper pad for your idea’s list – keep in on or near your desk

Keep a paper pad and pen next to you bed – for those eureka moments. Your unconscious mind is your greatest innovation tool. Waking up and writing down an idea immediately saves those thoughts. (most of us forget our brilliant moments if we wait until morning)

Most of us think in terms of solutions to problems or challenges, start your thinking process list with your top 5 challenges you have today.

Consider everything, especially problems you’ve already dealt with as an opportunity.

Give your thought process form –

Write down your opportunity

Write down below it, the why, the what, the how, when etc.

Write down solutions, no matter how bizarre you think they are.

Keep your idea records

Always review your past ideas for a few minutes at the start of your idea session.

Never exclude a challenge or idea because you’ve thought about it before. Remember, Edison thought of 3000 ways of making a light bulb that failed before he found a way that worked.

Here’s an example to help you gain skill in deliberate ideas.

The What: I want my chickens to get across the road –

currently 9 out of 10 get run over before they get to the other side

fast cars and heavy traffic contribute to the problem

the chickens have short legs and run slow.

Drivers don’t see them

Why do chickens have to get to the other side of the road?:

More feed across the road

Chickens have eaten all the food on the current side they’re on – now starving

I like the eggs they produce and want more

Ideas:

Dress chickens in orange traffic vests

Buy running shoes for chickens

Hire traffic flaggers

Install traffic lights

Install chicken crossing signs

Roast all current chickens and buy eggs from supper market

OK we’re having a bit of fun here with chickens, but it demonstrates how you can implement a regular personal thinking strategy that will lead to innovative ideas for you. Give it a try today. Come back and tell us how your idea strategy works for you!

Education Current Events

Is Knowing What You Know Worth Anything Today?

How is Knowing what you know by the way of experience worth anything today, when anyone can read the shorthand version and put it out there as if they own it? Most seekers will undoubtedly never have the real sweat and tears version, the version that spells out with emotion the process dirty hands and all.
The cuts and bruises suffered along the way, the scraped knees of trial and error are the high prices paid for the knowing a story could tell yet don’t translate well enough to matter. Someone completely talking through their (hat) lol can own the end result with a little study so everyone understands them to be an expert.
How is a seeker to know what to look for, when a shortcut artist can just paint a copy, throw some chrome and fast looking wheels hook on it leaving no one the wiser till crunch hard enough at this juncture but the fact that they are backed up and promoted by folks (to them, it sounds good) that lack the knowledge of specifics within a given topic, like its okay if your information is wrong as long as it reads right to them spelling, paragraph and punctuation correct.
Little do the seekers know how much is lost in translation between the experienced and someone who read it some where in a magazine. It is the lost part that will get you every time, the point not driven home, that pivotal subtlety left on the table because it wasn’t sticky or large enough in the sift of information and fell right through, that little golden nugget fell right through, the one that makes everything right and not for naught slipped right through un-noticed.
It can be costly to a seeker for they have no way knowing until it is too late (hell it sounded good) they are missing the return spring on the gas pedal as they gas on! right into I don’t know what happened it wouldn’t stop. I have seen craftsmen work their magic in many instances throughout life, magic born of experience that permeates everything they do as they pull all the pieces together into a highly regarded result which to me is the only version a seeker should be subjected to.
I can understand to a great extent the needs of someone looking to make a buck, to do the best with what they have and if you have nothing then you must get creative one way or the other, hell or high water. What I don’t understand is pretending to know something and selling it like your are the last word when it comes to that something which by the way just happens to be your middle name, how could that be wrong?
I guess this is just the voice in the ego driven part of me that knows better, that part of me that should not be seen and should not be heard. Yes I can go along with blinders on and just get over any opinion I might be harboring about anything that might matter to me and what about this question I’m asking, is knowing what you know worth anything today, should it matter?