Sir George Cox on Multidisciplinarity in Business

"We need business people who understand creativity, who know when and how to use the specialist, and who can manage innovation; creative specialists who understand the environment in which their talents will be used and who can talk the same language as their clients and business colleagues; and engineers and technologists who understand the design process and can talk the language of the business."-Sir George Cox

Consider Taking A Creative Leap With LEGO

It started with a brief conversation with my Mom about a week ago regarding a woman in Raleigh who recently took a job where she will promote LEGOs as a non-traditional learning tool to North Carolina's budding metropolis known loosely as "The Triangle." The conversation has now blossomed into a mild obsession. Here's a thrilling video from LEGO to get your creative juices flowing:



If that's enough to whet your appetite, check out LEGO® CL!CK's intriguing website. The site provides links to all kinds of fascinating creative endeavors, such as a popcorn-making robot that is run via twitter!

P.S. I may or may not have built a computer-run greenhouse with LEGOs in my 8th grade computer class. Who's to say that these things don't come back to visit you years later?

Fostering Creativity

Image: Trumpet's Flare by Wolfpix

Those who are near and dear to my heart know well that some of my deepest passions lie at the intersection between artists and entrepreneurs. I've had a dream for several years of developing a creative incubator that could bring together individuals from disparate industries to host a working dialogue about topics like innovation, sustainability, and design-thinking. While this is not presently the best forum to discuss a still-forming idea, I would like to share a piece i've been reading over the last few days that has been informing my views on this incubator idea.

In 2005, the National Center on Education and the Economy for the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce commissioned a piece to address the topics of innovation and creativity, more specifically a piece meant to discuss ways to foster innovation and creativity. I'm still reading through this rather long report and taking copious notes along the way, including knowledge dives into many of the cited resources. Once i've read the entire thing, you can expect several posts based loosely around some of the concepts teased out within it; the report itself is a gold mine of information for those interested in helping innovation and creativity flourish. Quotables from notable authors such as Dan Pink (A Whole New Mind), Peter Drucker (author of too many books to name on the topic of management, and coiner of the term "knowledge worker"), and many others grace the pages of this report. Questions raised in this fascinating paper include:[1]

• What are the sources of creativity and innovation in individuals?
• What educational and pedagogical techniques have proven effective in promoting innovation and creativity?
• How can creativity be assessed and what is the impact of assessment on creativity?
• What techniques stimulate creativity and innovation in the workplace?
• What contributes to the development of successful entrepreneurs?
• What is the nature of our culture, society and economy that makes our country creative and innovative?

Here's a notable quote from some of my reading thus far:[2]

"The extrinsically motivated person will take the shortest, most obvious path to get to the reward at the finish line. The intrinsically motivated person will explore various pathways and alternatives, taking his/her time and enjoying the process along the way. This exploration will lead to novel, alternative solutions, some of which will turn out to be more appropriate and successful than the original, obvious path."

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[1] Adams, Karlyn. "The Sources of Innovation and Creativity." National Center on Education and the Economy for the New Commision on the Skills of the American Workforce, September 2005. Available online: http://www.skillscommission.org/pdf/commissioned_papers/Sources%20of%20Innovation%20and%20Creativity.pdf

[2] Ibid, 10.

Collaborative Space

imagine: a building you walk into that is full of people who are enraptured in conversation with one another, with a vans wearing quiet type busy sketching a design in the corner, and a raven-haired maiden upstairs cranking out her new poem. it is a gathering place. it is a place for contemplation. it is a place for action-and talking about action. it is a place to join and share delicious local food. in this place a vision is sprung for community change, for deepening relationships, for integrating beauty into daily life. this is the dream that pounds in my head day after day. it speaks the faintest whispers at times, but its always, always there.

the scene is local, the audience varied, and you really never know what you're going to find here. after the place has been around for a while, visitors from afar fall upon its bounty and find themselves engaged in the sort of thing found only in the books of urban planning visionaries: a community invested in a place and space, and a space that reflects the community that gathers within its walls. concerts are hosted here, businesses visit to get consulting advice from thoughtful creatives and entrepreneurial spirits with a knack for innovation, friends meet to share a story over a few drinks. this place is full, full of the spirits and presence of those who spend their hours soaking in the cornucopia of its delights.

vision articulated. an idea that is beginning to gain voice. caught it yet? my ever-occurring dream. the thing i sketch about insistently. ambitious, but i think doable. and yes, it's needed.

ramblings on creativity

So, the last few weeks I have been interviewing for jobs, looking for jobs, and turning down job offers...long story. I'm holding out for a semi-ideal opportunity.

Over the last few weeks, I have reconnected with some of my passions in exploring career opportunities. As a result, I am now pondering a career-field change of sorts; we can just call it a quarter-life crisis. In an ideal world, I want to use things like the arts, food, and fashion to develop communities. At first, I did not think that there were that many places doing this in the area. However, as I continued searching, I ran across a plethora of opportunities. There is this one place that I found called "Brainfood." They're doing something really cool and innovative-using culinary arts as a vessel for youth development and mentoring.

In stepping up to the plate and looking for my "dream job," i've been looking at opportunities where I can either 1) learn design myself and later connect these concepts to a bigger movement, or 2) connect a business with cool ideas that are already underway and help them think outside the box about how to develop communities in new ways.

So often, when we (the US as a conglomerate, specifically i'm talking about the government but i'm also generalizing more broadly) develop communities we only strive to meet people's basic needs. True community development does much more than meet basic needs, it gives people a hope for the future and tools for a better future. Innovative strategies that use things like painting, or culinary arts, allow people to see the uniqueness and value of human life. Additionally, they encourage others to think in imaginative, vibrant, sustainable ways. Perhaps the biggest problem with businesses in America's floundering economy is that they're often trying to maintain the status quo, instead of pressing forward to new heights of opportunity.

For instance, let's look briefly at the Starbucks business model:
Starbucks is a great company. They have great employee benefits and strive for social responsibility. In almost any shop, you will find brochures on everything from efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay to fair trade coffee. Now, while this is all well and good, why is it that so many people would choose a local shop over Starbucks? I would argue because there is little novelty or uniquity to Starbucks, and honestly S-bucks lacks the community feel that many local shops exude from their walls. Where are the open mic nights? Why don't most Starbucks shops have cool art exhibits on the walls that promote some of the very ideas that they carry in their brochures? Bulletin boards in Starbucks stores often advertise cool local venues, concerts, and opportunities? Why has Starbucks not harnessed more ways to make their shops "gathering places?"...especially now that they're starting to carry more food? If you want vibrant, creative community, you won't typically go to Starbucks, which is unfortunate. To some extent "The Bucks" has become the McDonalds of American coffee.

Taking this argument further, Starbucks is doing more than most businesses. How often do companies think about how to use eco-friendly design elements for their decor or building materials? How often do business owners think about giving a shop a sense of place in the very way that they organize all elements of development, from construction, to menu, to layout, etc? Some do, but most don't do it enough. Further, if business is about more than money (which I strongly advocate-see TRIPLE BOTTOM line), why are so many quick stop, grab a cup and jet out the door, type places out there? Why is the fast food industry BOOMING?

I've rambled enough; needless to say i'm passionate about what I would call "creative community development" and think that American businesses could really prosper by exploring strategic, creative models more readily. Sure i'm 23 and maybe inexperienced, but I have some great ideas. Here's to hoping someone wants to hire me.