Colin Price on Organizational Health

In this video from the Management Innovation Exchange, McKinsey and Company's Colin Price highlights many of my own beliefs about what caused the Great Recession and what is needed to sustain businesses in the future.



Building a sustainable business isn't just about towing the financial bottom line. And competitive advantage, says Price, is about much more than productivity. In this video Price underscores three "elements" necessary for organizational health (read: organizational sustainability): alignment, execution, and renewal. Alignment is about tying the organization's objectives with what its employees actually believe about the business; execution is about translating ideas into realities; and renewal is about rapid and repeated innovation. I'd like to elaborate further upon each element discussed here in the coming week, but for now, enjoy Price's musings!

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

Blending Business and Design to Extend the Bottom Line

Source Image: @boetter via flickr

If the mantra of the twentieth century business world was “getting things done,” then the mantra for the twenty-first may well be “building smarter businesses.” As the recent years’ recession has worn heavy on many a good business plan in the works, many executives have realized that business as usual just will not work anymore. Increasingly, these leaders are turning to creative problem-solvers to help them move into the future. And simultaneously, creative entrepreneurs are turning the wheels of business in new and different ways.

A growing number of sources are recommending that businesses bring creatives into the boardroom, not to build marketing strategies or media mobilization plans, but to help re-envision business models and craft innovative problem-solving strategies. Companies like game-changing design firm IDEO are redefining the conceptions of what artsy-types can offer the business world. Simultaneously, business schools are developing DesignMBA programs and design schools are offering emphases in fields such as design management. The business world is changing, and many are taking note.

This growing movement is picking up speed in a variety of realms, and believe me, it’s one to watch. London’s Royal College of Art and the Imperial College of London have launched the DesignLondon program, aimed at bringing together MBAers, engineers, and design students for collaborative learning and doing opportunities. A continent away, Hong Kong's government has developed the DesignSmart Initiative, which is intended to fuel innovation by partnering businesses with designers. And here in the US, renowned US design schools such as Pratt and SCAD now offer programs in design management, a field that equips professionals for work on things like branding schemes, organizational planning, and strategy discussions.

Whilst some companies have solicited the thoughts of creative directors and their comrades for years, the idea of including designers in business development has only recently become trendy and is still by no means mainstream. Amidst the seasoned business crowd there remains a lingering skepticism about the kinds of ideas that designers might bring to the table. Some worry that an over-emphasis on creativity might lead companies to overlook the basics of business administration. Others doubt designers’ abilities to develop scalable, sustainable solutions to everyday business problems.

Meanwhile, numerous sources suggest that creatives have something unique to offer the business world, and perhaps also vice versa. Consider, for example, a simple search for “design thinking” on the Harvard Business Review website. Or take it down a tier and start searching for the terms “organizational design” or “employer branding” amongst the business world. The linkages are interesting and growing rapidly.

Truth be told, both the business and the design realms still have a lot to learn about one another. And, perhaps it should be said that the learning may very well begin with realizing that neither artmaking nor business development are easy. If there’s one thing that “The Great Recession”(as it’s now being called) has taught us, it is that there are no easy answers. The work that is needed is challenging, perplexing, and at times unwelcomed. But, the need for a rebranding of the notion of business as usual in today’s economic, social, and cultural landscapes is unmistakable.

As I navigate my own way in these murky waters, I’ve been encouraged by the words of Wendell Berry in his recent book Imagination in Place, which I’m currently reading. In one of the earlier chapters, Berry talks about the importance of both knowing and imagination for thoughtful living. His words suggest that to thoughtfully live into the world we must be able to simultaneously know some corner of it and its problems intimately and possess the capacity to re-imagine that corner of the world as something more than what it is now. For me, this is part of the appeal of bringing design to the business world, and just as much bringing the principles of good business to the likes of artists and designers. The two realms are not, and should not, be considered separate-for truly good design thinkers are also good business thinkers, and truly good business thinkers know how to operate a bit like designers. Both are capable of dreaming of a better world and translating that envisioned reality into something that lives in the present moment-whether it’s a strategy, a work of art, or a physical commitment to a people and place. As they find their way into our lives in one form or another, their dreams-turned-reality have the ability to change us and give us the courage to live into our own dreams even when it feels like we’re stuck in slow motion. 

For an excellent read on this topic, check out Tim Brown's 2008 piece for the Harvard Business Review entitled "Design Thinking."

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."

---

[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.

On The Brink: The New Technology that will Make Desktop Computing Seem So BC

If you've been watching the new technology market lately, then you know that we're in the midst of a major consumer product upsurge by way of e-reader technologies and plastic tablet computer capabilities. But, what may be less obvious is the vision behind these technologies and what they mean for the future of our world. I’ve been following the conversation, although from somewhat of a distance, over the course of the past few years and have several observations/predictions. 

First: the term "smart growth" is about to reinvent itself. Today when we think of smarter cities, communities and workplaces, we think of doing things better than before but the kind of thing that most of us consider “smart” is about to be old hat. Innovations in the technology realm are leading the way for a true re-envisioning of the physical and material landscape. 

Second: Faster, thinner computers is no longer where it’s at; instead I think that the internet bubble is about to burst in a way never imagined. I predict that the way that we compute and communicate via “online” technologies will change drastically and these technologies will become more readily and unobtrusively integrated into our day-to-day affairs. This whole concept of typing and pressing buttons is fading, the world itself is becoming more interactive. 

Third: Computers as we now conceive them will become obsolete in the next 15-20 years (maybe a bit longer, but not much). We will move away from online “chat capabilities” via a text screen and move towards interactive real-time capabilities that sense movements and can capture images in a format strikingly close to the real thing. Correspondingly, the global network will become increasingly flat in the advent of new technology, as smartboard-type interfaces will make long-distance interaction more realistic and move us more and more towards a paperless economy. 

Fourth: The notion of “privacy” will become a major concern and we will have to rethink the way we lock down personal data, “browsing” information, etc. 

Microsoft highlights some of the possibilities well in their 2019 Future Vision series:

A few reasons I think we’re moving here: 

• Advances in e-ink capabilities 
• Increased mobility of technology and demand for such mobility 
• Touch screen capabilities of new products on the market 
• The introduction of Apps (imagine Google Apps not for your phone, but for the physical world) 
• Vast improvements in search capabilities of internet browsers 
• The release of “reality mining” and “augmented reality” prototypes 
• The social media revolution of the past 5-6 years. We want a more connected world, but the current technologies don’t quite measure up to the “global village” concept envisioned by Marshall McLuhan. People want more, and the developers-candidly-want to make more money. 
• This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8), which I’ve posted before, was remarkably spot-on with only a few exceptions. 

Think this is crazy? Well, Neil Gershenfeld predicted it over ten years ago in his book When Things Start to Think: 

All along the coming interface paradigm has been apparent. The mistake was to assume that a computer interface happens between a person sitting at a desk and a computer sitting on the desk. We didn’t just miss the forest for the trees, we missed the earth and the sky and everything else. The world is the next interface. 

A more technologically-integrated mode of reality isn’t just in the movies anymore. Gershenfeld and others at MIT’s Media Lab are turning ideas into reality with some of their new creations. Their research has been featured at numerous TED conferences. Similarly, touch screens and prototypes for the kinds of technologies shown in Microsoft’s video are cropping up all over the place. The question today is not “will this happen” but rather, “how will we choose to live in light of these new advances?" 

Here are a couple more videos to get your mental juices flowing further: 

• CES 2009: Intel 3D Touch-screen Display
• Esquire's Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour
• Microsoft Surface - The Possibilities