by John Brooker | Apr 1, 2016 | Free Articles, Innovate
“It occurred to me by intuition and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.” Albert Einstein Want to encourage more innovation? There are regular discussions on Linked In forums and elsewhere about innovation and what it is. Is it a lot of small steps over time that transforms a company (as heard at a dinner recently) or is it a paradigm change that shakes up an industry (as discussed in a telephone call yesterday)? I had racked my brains for a while to find a simple way to describe my thinking and this week, inspiration struck. For some reason, my computer started playing music tracks at random (I suspect childish fingers at work). Suddenly, I had the soprano of La Bohème fading in to James Morrison, followed by a snatch of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, leading in to a (surprisingly catchy) rap song my son had downloaded. The thing was, it worked; they segued in to each other with a few rough edges. The inspiration was that if we equate music to innovation, there is no need to differentiate. Whether it is a thirty second advertising jingle, the theme tune to a TV series, a three minute pop song or Beethoven’s 9th, it is all music. So Let’s play with the metaphor of music here. As creative leaders, let’s not waste time arguing whether this is music or that is music. Good jingles can launch products in to popular culture; the writers of the Neighbours’ (Australian soap opera) theme tune have made a fortune and Beethoven has inspired millions. There...
by John Brooker | Mar 28, 2015 | Collaborate, Develop Opportunities, Facilitate meetings, Innovate
How using different styles effectively can enhance innovation… One of the activities I use at the start of innovation workshops or team workshops, is the cane activity (or “Get Caned” as I call it). This involves having two equal size teams either side of a long cane (I use a foldable tent pole) with the cane resting on each person’s index fingers. They must lower the cane to the floor from waist height, keeping their fingers on the cane at all times. This sounds very easy; if I say that groups usually take “five minutes plus” on their first run and are often standing on tip toes at times, you can sense it might not be. I give teams three attempts at it and usually they can reduce the time to less than a minute (the record being 25 seconds in my classes). Apart from being a useful team building exercise, I use it to bring out lessons about creativity and innovation. In the debriefing, one key lesson that emerges is about the different styles people have to tackle the challenge. Some are obvious; those who focus completely on the outcome and go for it, immediately shouting instructions seeking to use their intuition to work it out. Others want to break the rules “just drop it!” Some people are more experimental, “Let’s try this… that didn’t work, try this…” The rest observe how others do it and replicate what works. There is often frustration and the biggest lesson is that people tackle challenges in different ways (their style) and the team must listen and collaborate if they going to achieve the required...
by John Brooker | Apr 24, 2012 | Innovate
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 104 Controls need to take in to account the behaviour they provoke… “Police said crashes happened because motorists slowed down ahead of the camera and then speeded up once they were clear of it.” Report in Daily Mail (England) 7 Jan 2009 How can you ensure controls achieve what you want? Have you noticed when many motorists see a “fixed speed” camera, which measures an excess speed at a fixed point, they slow down until past the measuring lines and then accelerate madly – like the camera has some weird acceleration beam? However, when driving through sections of motorway with “average speed cameras” that measure your speed over a fixed distance, most people keep to the limit, although some slow down and speed up to meet the average. Passing through an “average speed” control area recently, I wondered how we might relate these behaviour patterns to organisations. Finding no instant answers, I placed a question on the Giants, Wizards and Goblins forum on Linked In. Here is a summary of the responses. What questions might they raise for your organisation? Speed cameras are a control to stop people taking risk. They should be sited only where there is most risk if they are not to have an adverse effect on traffic Speed cameras form part of an overall system to reduce fatalities. There is little evidence to show they have this effect [Source] Speed cameras, both types, measure speed. They do not tell us if the driver is incompetent, the tyres bald or the car uninsured Speed cameras are viewed as revenue earning systems...
by John Brooker | Mar 24, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 84 Sometimes, we can focus so much on one threat, we don’t notice another slipping in from a different angle – laddering can help… “If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm.” Elizabeth Bowen Are you looking the right way at competition? Last week, I helped run the meeting of the youngest group in our local Scout Troop, the Beavers. This event was very noisy, sometimes challenging and always fun. We played a popular game called “Rattlesnake” in which the children run the length of the hall as the two leaders throw soft foam balls at their legs. If the ball hits their legs, the child is out of the game. It’s easiest to catch them when they are running as they leap in the air, stop and dodge to avoid the balls. It’s great! We were down to the last four children in the game and as I waited to throw, one of them stopped mid run. I threw the first ball and he dodged it. Next, I pretended to throw the ball at him and he kept leaping in the air. We went on like this for thirty seconds until the other leader walked up behind him and hit his legs with the ball! He was so focussed on me that he had forgotten the threat from the other leader. So It struck me that this is a great analogy for companies. It’s easy in a market to focus on the “established” competition, unaware that someone else can creep up on the outside and “hit your legs”....
by John Brooker | Mar 18, 2012 | Facilitate meetings, Innovate
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 78 The quickest way to stop people generating new ideas is to belittle the deliverer of creative ideas … “Scudamore made his first sensible move in 19 days by calling time on his crazy idea.” Daily Mail Have you ever had an idea stamped on…how did it make you feel? On the tube recently, I noticed the back page of the “Daily Mail” and the quotation above. The “crazy idea” referred to, was to hold a 39th game of football for each team in the English Premier League. They would play in places like Australia and China, so fans in those countries could see top teams, like Manchester United, Chelsea and Fulham (joke there for English football supporters), play locally. Reading the article further, I came across some colourful phrases related to the idea, “subjected to worldwide derision”, “an abuse to football”, “humiliating circumstances” and “giant gaffe”. Other newspapers have printed articles on a similar theme. I could write another article on “selling the idea” (and probably will) but for this one, let’s focus on the reaction to the idea, which has been hysterical to say the least. Richard Scudamore is the Chief Executive of the English Premier League, a league that gets a lot of money from international business e.g. TV rights, sales of kit etc. It is surely his job to develop new ideas for the League and its teams to make more money internationally; and more money invested in the country is good for United Kingdom Inc. Whilst this idea may not be the right one for many reasons, surely we...
