Innovation's a Pied Piper

Innovation can be addictive when you toy with an insight to shape a new reality. Innovation's often unexpected, coming in a flash. Like that Pied Piper, it's alluring and many seek after it. For those "imaginers" who are persistent to follow a vision, learn from mistakes and keep reshaping, a needed invention may result.

While innovation taps into logic and scientific facts of the left brain, it's supercharged by our right brain's ability to synthesize ideas, see the big picture, create and design.

Interestingly, Dan Pink describes a "seismic--though yet undetected--shift...moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what's rising in its place, the Conceptual Age." A new focus on innovation springs from this shift. To see the depth of this change, be sure to read Pink's, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

While there's no strict formula to create innovation, here're several insights about innovation along with pointers to stir creative ideas in your right brain...

Show your destination and let your team choose the route. Empowerment, according to Paul Sloane, "is about encouraging and enabling people to solve problems, meet customer needs and seize market opportunities on their own initiatives - either individually or in groups from different disciplines."

Strive for innovation in trenches "When the highest levels of corporate executives asks 'where do we go next?'" Steve Todd says, "they should look to their innovators in the trenches." Otherwise they might miss creative employees who works on solutions outside their core job.

Reconfigure approaches to money and mind "Structures that welcome multiple approaches arise from many minds," according to Ellen Weber, "with a shared vision to increase wealth."

Share and be open Noika interprets CSR (corporate social responsibility) entirely different, Niti Bahn shows that companies like Noika take new approaches to corporate social responsibility, "from 'recycling of ideas' to ' giving back to the community.'"

Reverse assumptions "Changing the assumptions allows a business to look at a new reality," David Mork says.

Curiosity is not luxury But curiosity is imaginative thinking. And imagination fortified by knowledge is a powerful force. It is exactly what oppressive states fear. Jim Leach, new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts says. “…the future is now the province of the curious,” he concludes.

Try a little empathy "The idea that an innovator should understand the experience from the perspective of a user is called empathic design," Art Markman notes. "It might seem obvious that the perspective of product users should be part of the process of creative design, but in fact it is common for design teams to treat innovation abstractly."

Avoid managing innovation "Like an unruly pet or teenager," Bob Rosner points out, "innovation is often survived—not managed." Paradoxically, mistakes and things that don't work, can later be stars in a different context.

Cultures affect innovation The real reason why Silicon Valley is so special for innovation, according to David Kralik is that a set of values were "laid down as early as 1956 and continually reinforced, that encourage risk-taking to help people succeed and, indeed, are there to pick you back up when you've failed... In addition to venture capital funding, there is also a nurturing culture to help you get your idea off the ground by providing things like free software, hardware and even office space."

Unleash inner genius Many of us want tips to stir our creativity when we reach that blank wall. Paul Sloane offers 10:

1. Ask why, why?
2. Sleep on it
3. Talk it over with someone who has nothing to do with the situation
4. Ask how some celebrity would tackle the issue
5. Pick up any object at random and say to yourself... Be sure to check out Paul's article to see what he advises on this an the other tips!
6. Use similes
7. Imagine an ideal solution in a world where there are no constraints
8. Open a dictionary and take any noun at random...
9. Ponder the issue and then go for a walk around an art gallery or museum
10. Draw a picture of the situation showing the people and the issues in simple cartoon style

Paul notes that he hasn't found just the right one yet, so be sure to share something that works for you...

Start with your curiosity... and enjoy the journey!

Brain's Amazing Right Side

A curiosity about the world around him drives designer David Airey to create ideas that come to life through a wide range of media. David enjoys more creative autonomy because he chose to leave the world of "design by committee." Even now, when clients fail to tap into his experience, David claims that they miss full benefits of his artistic design. Could it be that he finds insights between the world and design because he uses his right brain more in the process?

Similarly Ellen Weber's main thrust as a writer targets brain research as it relates to learning and leadership. But, Ellen sought the wonder of creativity so she began writing a novel. Note how she describes it...

After living in Baffin Island’s High Arctic communities for two years, as researcher and professor with McGill, I wrote a novel to capture both the nuances and the mysteries from life on a frozen tundra. This story earmarks lessons learned and lived among Inuit friends and colleagues. I’d been excited to relate fictitious events about a fascinating Inuit people within real life settings. While all events and characters are my own creation, issues in the book arose from several Baffin Island community concerns I witnessed while there. My book was written for both white and Inuit readers who care about cultural conversations for deeper understanding across differences and in responses to struggles encountered there.

Ellen remarked that the characters in her novel took on lives of their own and almost moved her hands to type the words they wanted rather than her own choices. Did Ellen tap into her right brain more as she let her characters take charge? Seems like Ellen's right brain fought to take charge...

Ideas inspired from your right brain look different than ideas that draw from your left. Here’s why…

Think of your right brain as your playground for insights – that make you, you, and you’ll begin to see its use in art. Here’s the clincher. Your right brain kicks in when you observe and draw from past experiences during the creative process.

Miraculously, the right brain holds a few tricks for your art that tend to remain hidden until you rub the magic jar, so to speak, and that genie appears. Your muse, like the genie, can release gold as seen in this diagram:


Think of your right brain at its best when not interrupted by constant criticisms and editorial coming from the left side. Intuitively, it comes up with color and lines that work. Holistically, it pieces together parts of a complex plot. Concretely, it meshes mood and body language into characters of a novel.

You get the picture, it’s a bit like creativity run wild in a sense. For the novice artist less magic will be available. To the successful artist, the magic comes quicker, and yet taming will soon be required from the left side of the brain before art takes shape.

Stay tuned for the next post to find out how that logical organizer – your left brain operates.

Are Lefties Generally Right Brain Oriented?

"I wonder if 'handed-ness' is any clue to the brains strengths," Geology Joe asks. "I'm a lefty." That question primed the pump of my curiosity, too. So I did some research and found answers in the August/September issue of Scientific American Mind...

People highly gifted in music, art and math make extensive use of the right brain over the left. Back in the 1980's Harvard neurologists Norman Geschwind and Albert Galaburda were fascinated that so many musicians, artists and mathematicians are also more likely to have left brain deficits, such as dyslexia or stuttering.

As a possible answer to this they suggest that this right brain preeminence could result from higher-than-normal testosterone levels in the womb. In fact some research findings show that testosterone can impede the development of the brain's left hemisphere. To compensate for this, the right brain becomes more highly developed.

Since male fetuses are typically exposed to more testosterone than females, this increased exposure provides a possible explanation for higher number of male math prodigies and of males with language disorders, according to psychologists, Christian Hoppe and Jelena Stojanovic at the University Clinic for Epileptology in Bonn, Germany. They add that the hormonal account of origins of genius and pathology remain controversial.

Tom Davenport of Harvard Publishing asks, "Is the Right Hemisphere the Next Big Thing?" He concludes...

Emphasizing only one half of the brain is both individual career suicide, and a sure route to economic decline for a society.

Geology Joe, I think you'd agree that we desperately need the brillance of both sides of our brain, no matter which hand we use.

Thoughts?

Why Are Some Leaders More Inventive than Others?

“Fred” Smith, the founder, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx, showed keen interest in flying and eventually he became a Marine Corps pilot. Smith focused on aspects of aviation that most people take for granted. For instance, at night, when people weren’t flying, Smith noted many commercial jets parked in hangars. He brainstormed and came up with the idea to use idle jets to fly packages.

Smith took his idea one step further to create a college economics paper and outline plan: identify a central location with good weather, fly the packages there, exchange them and have the planes fly back “home” to drop off packages for delivery. The planes could then resume the job of transporting people. Although Smith's Yale professor awarded a “C” for the paper, Fred Smith saw an opportunity where no one else did. In 2007, FedEx Corporation’s sales topped $35 billion.

Why do some leaders invent or experience "aha" moments more than others? I'm curious... Are you? People who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight -- an "Aha! Moment" -- reveal a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest, according to recent neuroscience research. The researchers compared creators to people who tend to solve problems more methodically. Here's what they found...

Inventors and Creators Creative problem solvers in the study showed greater activity in regions of the right brain than more methodical people. In past research, right-brain involvement in processing loose or "remote" associations between elements was understood to be a key component of creative thought.

High Right Brain Activity Findings also reveal that inventive people experience greater right-brain activity during a "resting" state. Even the spontaneous thought of creative individuals, such as their daydreams, contains more of these remote associations. Hmm... are you a daydreamer?

More Visual Activity Additionally, creative solvers exhibited higher brainwave activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of "alpha" and "beta" brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than methodical people's focused visual attention. Creative folks may broadly sample the environment for images that trigger remote associations leading to an Aha!

Methodical Problem Solvers In contrast, the more focused attention of methodical solvers reduces their distractibility. Such focus allows them to effectively solve problems for which the solution strategy is already known.

According to John Kounios, professor at Drexel, “Problem solving, whether creative or methodical, doesn’t begin from scratch when a person starts to work on a problem. His or her pre-existing brain-state biases a person to use a creative or a methodical strategy.”

Strategies for an inventive mindset Take on the mindset of an inventor

1. Focus more on creating solutions with the brain in mind
2. Set the stage for beauty in ways that offer opportunities for personal renewal
3. Learn from mistakes
4. Approach problems from the perspective of different intelligences
5. Doodle to picture concepts

What sparks an "aha" for you?

Go with Intuition?

As business professionals, can we trust our gut feelings at the board table when critical issues teeter between disaster and success? Dean Bennett says he's "a great believer in the power of using intuition as a powerful analysis tool and support to decision making. In this context I am interested in your thoughts on developing and actively using our intuition." Dean, I sense that intuition intrigues many leaders given the popularity of Malcolm Gladwell's recent bestseller, Blink. And interestingly, your right brain amps up your capability here...

Think about the case Jose Eduardo Costa brings to light...

A little over one year ago, a group of executives met to discuss the final terms of a millionaire partnership with a Mexican petrochemical company. All of a sudden, the regional marketing director stood up and said “this agreement smells fishy.” She could not pinpoint exactly what was bothering her. “I don’t know, this company doesn’t seem ethical to me,” she said. From the other end of the table, the CFO shouted, “She’s out of her mind.” The meeting was adjourned.

Put yourself around this table. Would you go along with her if you were the CEO of her Organization? How much do you need to know about a person before your intuition kicks in? Here's how it played out... The Business Administrator of her company went with his gut, accepted what she said and gave up the deal...but there's more.

A few months later this Mexican company defaulted on dozens of creditors. Interestingly, this particular business manager was part of an MBA program at University of Pittsburgh where he learned to hold brainstorming meetings in the company to encourage other managers to listen to their instincts. More and more businesses personnel rely on brainstorming and intuitive decision making.

There's two sides to relying on intuition...and maybe it won't surprise you that these two views relate to the side of the brain you personally value most...the creative right or logical left

Think of your right brain as your playground for insights – that make you, you, and you’ll begin to see its use in decision making at boardroom roundtables. Here’s the clincher, your right brain kicks in when you observe as well as when you create.

Miraculously, the right brain holds a few tricks for your judgments that tend to remain hidden until you rub the magic jar, so to speak, and that genie appears. Your amazing right brain, like the genie, can release gold as you see in the image.

To the successful manager, the magic comes quicker, and yet taming will soon be required from the left side of the brain as brainstorming for best decisions takes shape. You'll discover more about that in an upcoming post. For now consider benefits of your intuition...

Intuition Works for You "People treat intuition like it's a dirty word, but it's actually one of the body's survival mechanisms," says Antoine Bechara, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurology at the University of Iowa. "It's a means of taking you away from danger and steering you toward what is good for you."

Intuitive Confidence "Intuitive biases arise because intuitions often spring to mind with subjective ease," according to Joseph Simmons of Yale. And these personal intuitive biases lead folks to hold these with high confidence. Through intensive study, the research team discovered intuitive biases are not inevitable, but are determined by contextual variables, such as successful experiences and observation over time, that affects intuitive confidence. Dean, I sense that you have discovered your own personal intuitions fall in the ball park of 90% or more correct decisions when you go with your gut and you've developed a high sense of confidence in them.

But to give a whole picture, gems available in your logical left brain can reign in intuition from running wild. That'll take another post so stay tuned as I follow up with additional insights to Dean's question for the Question Train on Brain and Mind...

Dean and others, I'd welcome your additions or stories from your experiences...