Think Change

Finding out your child has any kind of disability is difficult.  Something like a reading disability seems minor.  Until it’s your child…
I was a great elementary school student.  In second grade, I was reading at an 8^th grade level.  Plus, I was a year ahead in school.  I was sure that my own children would have the same love of reading.  Um…no.
The Signs
The signs began in kindergarten.  My oldest son, David, was having an extremely difficult time connecting sounds to letters.  Once in first grade, he was still unable to read basic high frequency words.  Spelling tests were particularly difficult.  David would know the words in the evening, but in the morning could no longer remember them.  He couldn’t remember to how tie his shoe until third grade.  He couldn’t remember his birth date, address, or the color orange going into second grade.  It was frustrating for him, and heartbreaking to watch.  His father was convinced – and quite vocal about it – that if David would only work harder he would be fine.  However, he had quite a bit of difficulty reading as well.  Therefore, I knew there was more going on than a lack of effort on David’s part.
The First IEP Meeting
David was referred for testing at the end of kindergarten and placed on an IEP in first grade.  I remember sitting in the IEP meeting with tears determined to leak from my eyes despite my wishes.  The counselor, Mrs. Thorpe, handed me a tissue to dab the mascara making designs down my face.  I kept apologizing for the tears.  I remember thinking David’s future was being rewritten. My dreams for him were being crushed and stomped upon.  I couldn’t see beyond the ‘learning disability’ label.  It was a difficult thing to come to terms with.
Life went on and since David was a compliant child he would ‘read’ or be read to when asked and practice spelling when prompted.  Then two years later my younger son Jared entered school.  Jared could not be described as compliant…
The Younger Brother
One day after school I cheerfully strolled up to Jared’s kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Surritte, and casually asked if Jared was having the same difficulties David had displayed.  My heart sank when she nodded.  I physically felt it. My mouth refused to form words.  Those traitorous tears sprang to my eyes and I had to walk briskly away.  Both of them.  Both boys had inherited it!
By this time, district policy had changed so Jared had to wait to get tested until second grade.  Enter the waiting period.  Practicing reading or spelling with Jared was usually a knock-down-drag-out event.  Okay, ALWAYS a knock-down-drag-out-tantrum-event.  I was trying to do everything his teacher, Mrs. Moody recommended, but tears and tantrums were always involved.  By the end of first grade I have to admit to blatant dishonesty on many of Jared’s reading logs.  There went the ‘mom of the year’ award… right out the window.  It was just too painful!  Jared was placed on his IEP in second grade.
The Second IEP
Jared’s IEP meeting was much easier because by then I was able to understand and embrace that ‘reading disability’ didn’t mean the world was going to end.  The moon wasn’t going to go out of its orbit.  His future was secure.  In fact, research proves that most of these children have an above average IQ and thus a bright future!  Hallelujah!  Therein lies the important point… there is a big discrepancy between what they are capable of and their actual performance.  With interventions, their performance can catch up.  Some even call dyslexia a gift.  I tend to agree.
Finally
Their teachers were all amazing.  I am forever grateful for the love and dedication of these wonderful individuals.  In fact, they inspired me to become a teacher.  I went back to school at age 38 for that reason.   At the time though, I wasn’t always able to see things clearly… and for that I apologize to any teachers who had my boys.  That will be the subject of my next post.  If I had only listened…

The article is taken from http://www.fortheloveofteaching.net/2010/11/when-your-child-has-reading-disability.html

Believe YOU Can

In an significant book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers, he makes the point again and again how the people or groups of people that actually make it put in no less than 10,000 hours before they are remotely in the vicinity of turning out to be successful.

To give an example Gladwell discusses the Beatles. The Beatles were a rather mediocre music group from Liverpool that performed in minor sites. They ended up heading over to Hamburg to perform there simply because they discovered far more young women were interested in them and they could get drunk every night. A significant need for young guys.

But precisely what they were required to perform in Hamburg was perform countless concerts. Hour after hour of performances later on and they came back to the United kingdom an infinitely more polished music group. Besides the training they also needed to cover other songs simply because their own collection was not extensive enough to be able to fill up the actual hours of time they had to perform.

This meant their very own tunes advanced because they took on board a number of the good tunes they were performing within their performances. Their very own compositions were enriched from this practical experience plus the standard associated with their musicianship. The countless hours associated with practice and performing paid once they returned to the Britain.

Believe YOU Can

It is typically said by very talented individuals who the only distinction in between gifted people is always that the profitable people work very much tougher. There are lots of people with comparable talents however only hardly any do get ahead and also create their own mark.

This really is similarly legitimate for music artists, painters, film makers, internet marketers, explorers, sports men and women and each and every arena of field of expertise imaginable. It even applies to remote areas of curiosity like tiddlywinks or spinning a top. The child which is in front of the group and in a position to defeat his opposition on a regular basis has practiced more.

This particular theory of spending the time, the practice is very important to reflect upon whenever anyone is attempting to market you a service which could save you all the practice time. See with mistrust. This applies to offers that guarantee you to have the ability to talk a brand new language in five weeks or make a huge amount of dollars inside twenty four hours, or run a marathon with one month’s coaching.

None of these work. However what allures people to these false claims is the perception that all things arrive quickly. People do believe that achievements can be immediately. Weight loss is just around the corner just drink berry juice. Or perhaps you can start to play the guitar right away by just following the notes being performed by your electric keyboard.

So how do you approach your own targets? Do you think that they will just arrive without any subsequent efforts or perhaps you have looked at them realistically and came to the realization that the only way you will certainly reach them will be by means of working hard as well as persistence?

Is this precisely why there are so few hugely effective individuals and so many people that are prepared to dwell an okay type of life? It all comes from investing in your time and effort, working hard at it and doing this as long as it requires to accomplish your goal.

Believe YOU Can

By: Gary McKenzie

From my childhood I have been traveling by bus in India. And few things I noticed that I want to share with all of you.
In the bus there are two parts for seating and standing. 1) General part and 2) Ladies part.

General part is mentioned for the all types, means Male, female and for others too.
And Ladies part is mentioned only for the females. Ladies part means seat for ladies and standing for the ladies. If there is huge load in bus then there is no chance to secure the place for ladies only. Which mean male could stand there too.
But this article is for those people, who love to stand behind the ladies without the huge load or pressure and to those ladies who loves to tolerate this too.
I noticed some year before there were 20% of people who loved it and now this percentage is gone rise to 40% to 50%.
As example: I was going some where in India by a public bus. On that road there are few buses only so I had to enter in a huge loaded (Loaded by people) bus. And I was tried to stand behind the male as the place is for the general. As I am little tall I generally stand in the middle position of General and Ladies. On that time there were huge load so I didn’t thing anything and couldn’t hear without the sound of engine and crowd of people. On that time there were over 120 people in the bus with two conductors and one driver. But after 30 to 40 minute there were only 50 to 55 people in the bus and the crowd had gone. In the bus there are 40 seats in total with a driver seat. So in 55 people there 39 were on seat and rest 15 people were standing. And between 15 people 5 were female and 10 were male. Oh! I forgot to tell you that I got a seat .
While in this position the bus was running suddenly one of the ladies shouted on a male, “What are you doing? Can’t you stand straight? Can’t you stand on general?” Then the male replied “in the bus every one should understand the matter”. Then again the lady shouted “what!!, if there is any huge load then it can be consider but what for you are standing here now?” Then with the lady all the male and female in the bus also protested the man and he rush to come back on general position and to seeing this there were 4 others male too on the ladies position, they also came back to general .

This is the effect of protest. Every one should protest. If there is any lady who tolerate this type of matters then she is same guilty as the man do. So make a protested mind and live with proud.

By Don Pital

When we make product we start with raw materials. In the manufacturing world with just-in-time and supply chain integration, our raw material suppliers are vetted and their quality assessed, specifications analyzed and sample materials inspected. This happens well in advance of approving the supplier for routine material purchase.

How does this apply in the innovation realm? Our “raw materials” are our people, who create actionable ideas. These include not only the people within our organization’s four walls, but also those outside people with whom we choose to engage for innovation – including suppliers and customers.

If people are the raw material, how are they vetted for creating an innovation culture that leads to quantifiable results? The short answer is that in many cases you may be stuck with a raw material inventory of naysayers, “not invented here” types that if they were actual raw material vendors they might be replaced.

In the company culture, we have to use what we’ve got and “bloom where we are planted,” so to speak. Since we can’t choose the company culture let’s at least understand where people are coming from. Here are some sample survey questions you may want to consider for an anonymous poll of your key decision makers and workers who make it happen every day:

Where should you company focus its innovation efforts in order to be competitive?

How urgent do you think #1 is? How quickly does it need to be done?

How successful in the past has your company been at developing innovative products and services?

How bold has your company been toward taking on new ideas and innovations?

Is creativity/innovation rewarded at your company?

Based on your company culture, how able are your people to take action on new initiatives?

These are just a few examples of survey questions that can help you to better understand your innovation “raw materials.” What questions do you suggest?

By Nevit Ergin

Once more I walked through the corridors of this old stone building late at night, turning the lights off and closing the doors of every meeting hall in the temple. The sounds of my footsteps were buried in the depths of the thick carpets as my shadow accompanied me silently.

I have done this since early childhood, when my father was alive and the caretaker. He was not the only one: his father, grandfather and the rest of his ancestors were also the caretakers. The building was once a dungeon for undesirables, then later became an insane asylum. After that it was converted into a school for the highly educated, and finally in the last century is became a Temple of Wisdom for the Wise.

After my father died, I continued the family trend and took over the duties. I wouldn’t know what else I could do. This was an unbreakable caste system. Going out and looking for another job has always scared me. I felt naked and unprotected outside. In the eyes of people I saw the flash of their predatory instinct, and I thought unless I became like them I would remain their prey.

The one who come to the temple at night try to be caring and loving to each other by replacing their inner instincts with brotherly love. Though I did not see them during the day, at night they practiced. Their rituals are based on the remembrance of a mutual respect and gratitude to the Almighty. They learned to memorize texts from the masters.

Officially I was not allowed to participate in their ceremonies; after all I was only the caretaker. I should be invited and go through serious tests, making vows that I would be one of them. But no one asks me to join. I keep living and working there as a janitor. I love my job. I respect them and they know that. Besides, because of my family, I was a part of the building.

The seasons have changed outside, but the smell and melancholic darkness of the corridors remained the same. I cleaned the salons and lecture halls during the day. I knew every piece of furniture, lamp and chandelier one by one. They related to me the interesting events and conversations of the previous night.

After the evening activities ended, I locked the main gate and retired to my room. This was my prime time. One evening I discovered a small hole in the wall inside my closet. It had been there the whole time, covered by a wood panel, but I did not notice it. I took the panel off and saw a small window sized opening on the wall. I put my head through, but neither saw nor heard anything. I found a flashlight, but there was still nothing but darkness. I thought it may be a ventilation hole between two walls which was later closed. But there was no wall in front of it…

The next day I asked the engineer responsible for the building, who also had the buildings blueprints. He couldn’t find this opening in the blueprints so I brought him to my room. He was surprised and didn’t understand. I asked him if we could make it bigger to see what was behind it. He strongly rejected the idea, saying the wall would collapse and endanger the integrity of the whole floor. I knew he didn’t want to be bothered by my silly discovery. He was right, but I couldn’t get this small window out my head. I went back and forth, day and night, trying to find out what is behind there.

As I was, I knew no way I could pass through the small opening. I decided to put myself on a strict diet. Since I couldn’t make the hole bigger, I would have to make myself smaller. I didn’t eat or drink until sunset, telling those curious that I was on a diet.

In the meantime I found a book in the library about fasting. It said fasting would not only change my size, but also my mind. The corporal existence would become spiritual, time and space boundaries would break. It was a small book, written with precise language, about life and death, man and God. I read it several times, but didn’t understand most of it. Because I didn’t know how to read between the lines, when I saw the worlds in that empty space, I didn’t care about reading them, the questions disappeared.

After a long period of time with my strict dieting, my size shrunk small than the dimensions of the small window. One night after work, when I was alone in the entire building, I decided to explore. I gathered a big flashlight, rope, a few other things and left a note on my table: “Someone once said, ‘An unexplored life isn’t worth living.’”

It was easy passing through the hole. I was surprised to find myself in one of the small saloons. I recognized the book cases and paintings. It was dark, but dim light and the humming sound of distant conversations were coming from under the doors.

I slowly opened the door, inside was a dining room smaller than the temple’s restaurant. People sat around tables in front of each other, everyone feeding the other. Someone noticed me and showed me the seat next to him. “Welcome, please have a seat.” I hesitantly sat down.

There were all kinds of food on the tables, but no utensils. He pretended to give me soup, so I opened my mouth. “Not like that,” he said, “You eat with your eyes. This way everyone eats and leaves no mess.

“Thanks, but I can help myself,” I replied. He wondered aloud, “Who is ‘Yourself’?”

Instead of getting into that complex question I answered simply, “I am a caretaker.” He didn’t understand. “I clean and maintain the building.”

“For whom, what building” he asked.

“For people on the other side of the building,” I said.

“I thought he passed away.”

I felt cold and uncomfortable. I couldn’t even tell this strange person, “Not yet.”

I asked feverishly, “Who are you?” I meant to add, “Some kind of zombie,” but I was afraid. He answered quietly, “You, him, him, him,” nodding to the people around his table.

“Yes,” he said, adding, And at the same time, none of them.”

I was curious and asked, “Where do you live?”

He looked at me as if to ask what kind of question I had just asked. He calmly replied, “Everywhere where everybody lives, not in one particular place.”

What is this? People become mirrors of each other. They treat each other well, eat with their eyes, leave no mess. There’s no predatory instinct. Where is the excitement? I know life would be boring there, so I excused myself.

“It was nice meeting you, but I have a feeling I don’t deserve you and this place. I believe I have some living to do.”

“Yes,” he said, “people live at the bottom of Hell and are still afraid of immortality. That’s an old Rumi saying.” He added, “here’s one more from him: ‘People who live in the dungeon don’t even know they carry the key in their hand.’”

I went back the way I came and passed through the opening of the hole to my room again. At least I am a caretaker. I need to be needed for living. I locked the door of the closet and put the key in my pocket.

A few weeks have passed from this incident, I’ve tried not to think about it. I forced myself to forget the hole, and I did not open my closet. I avoided that small saloon, but the people I saw that night came to my dreams every single night. I was on this side of the building during the days, but I was on the other side at night. Although it was fascinating living a double life in the same body, it was also tiresome.

One day I was called in to meet with the board of directors of the temple. There I was told my work as a caretaker has been appreciated over the years, but now I should consider retirement. They gave reasons like my age and physical condition.

I was given a pension to cover my basic needs, and two choices. The first was to live in a small apartment, while the second was to go to the temple’s retirement home. I was also told they already had a replacement for me. I looked at the faces around the table, and they were all new to me. I asked about the old members and was told they either died or retired. They said, “When the time comes, it happens to everyone, no exception.”

They didn’t mention the third alternative. I briefly told my story, and they listened politely. Most of them were bored though, and thought it was just the nonsense of an old man. At the end I handed them the key to my closet, saying, “Just in case someone wants to go through the hole before they retire.”

The following is an essay by Nevit Ergin:

“The soul is just a fish,

Wishes and desires are God’s fishing line.

What a wonderful thing this desire is.

A fisherman that sacrifices souls

The ant doesn’t have wings, but wishes to fly

And pierce the wall of Love’s palace.

Don’t call him an ant because of ignorance,

He wants a throne, a crown.

He demands to be Sultan.

There was God

before the Universe was even Created.

Why did He desire to bring us here?

I don’t know.

This desire is such that

We are neither part of it,

Nor is it different from us.

O Shams to whom Tabriz praises,

You untie this knot.”

V.4-94

“If Absence was not subjugated

By the Majesty of Your order,

No existence could ever appear,

In this land of Despair.”

V.22-60

Creation has remained the greatest mystery for mankind. Neither the colorful stories in the Sacred Testaments, nor the theories in science books have surpassed beyond poetry and mental abstraction. (Although present day’s Quantum Mechanics is much closer to mysticism than Newtonian Physics).

“Didn’t your grand father (Adam)

Come to this world

Because of the wheat (apple)?

The heart and mind follows the tune of the self,

It naturally falls into separation.”

V.22-60

Maybe the reason of this impasse is that all of these assumptions have a common idea about the Origin of the Universe. “Something” was created from “Nothing”. This makes “Nothing” like “Something”, putting it in the same category.

However one who realizes this dichotomy stays away from its realm. But some pursue and form all kinds of theories. Nothing-ness should not be subject to our perspective point of view. We should never extend linear causality to an infinite Beginning and infinite End.

“The Light is the creator of reason.

Every reason is in this shadow.

God made ‘no reason’

The reason for everything.”

V.7 P.185

Divinity, no matter how abstract it is, becomes a subject to humans’ minds. The frustration and dissatisfaction usually follows the answers of major questions (for example: life and death, creator and creatures). This is a natural result of our inability to comprehend. “The Universe has not passed beyond potentiality” (H.L.S.).

“The one who is heedless is in the deep coma of Creation.”

“The meaning of Creation is Perception.”

“And the world is the shadow of Perception.”

H.L.S., d. 1988

“The world is nothing but a hallucination.”

A. Jarry, d.1907

Accepting the Creation as a fact splits the wholeness, the Unity, into a creator and creature, Love and Beloved. Although this explains our longing for completion, it also creates the problem of how to go with this yearning for Union. The created universe in our particular Human Perception is the Potentiality that transcends “Everything else” – God.

“Who ever says we are One

We will put him in the gallows.

But whoever says we are two,

We will throw him to the fire.”

V.10-69

“You are the One who says ‘You are.’

You are the ball on the field,

You are the club,

You are the One who watches the game.”

V.8b-216

“He is the One who desires everyone,

Yet He is called, ‘The One who is desired’,

He worships everyone,

Yet He is called, ‘The One who is worshipped’.

Your soul is the preacher[1] and caretaker[2] of your body’s mosque.

Prostration is concealed in the attribute of ‘being prostrated.’”

V.7 G.137 P.391

In occult visions, perception is infinitely rich not only in men, but also before and after humans. Variations of perception in different forms of existence is called Presence (Hazerat). One experiences the Universe differently depending on the stage of this perception.

Instead of wasting time indulging in endless discussions of “Evolution vs. Creation”, which end up at a dead end anyway. one should try to change his Perception. How? By “being his own martyr” (V.7 P.617). Then one can experience the Divine secrets which were hidden from him.

Absence and Existence fluctuate with a rhythm so fast, no one could ever perceive it with three dimensions and a time and space bounded mind. This ignorance is the source of our earthly comfort and wisdom.

“We only see the dust, but never the wind.”

V.19-329

“In the land of separation,

The one who cannot see Your face,

Accepts ‘the reason’ and a Kible (direction).

For the blind, it is better to have a cane,

Than a candle.”

V.7 P.362

But there is another layer of Perception:

“A door was opened to me from Absence,

Before I had ever been created.

Before I came from Nothingness

To the circle of “Beings.”

V.7 P.162

“One moment you put us to sleep,

The next, you send us to reason.

One moment you throw us to the world of existence,

The next to the desert of Absence.”

V.1-16

“I am the Ye’juj[3], I am the Me’juj[3].

I am the Absolute One with infinite numbers.”

V.7 P.541 G.47

Boston Consulting Group recently released the findings of its latest innovation survey, entitled Measuring Innovation 2009: The Need for Action, and it contains some intriguing findings, which I would like to summarize for you here:

Only 32% of executives surveyed were satisfied with their company’s innovation measurement practices.

Most executives (73%) believe that innovation should be tracked as rigorously as other business operations, but only 46% say that the company actually does so.

According to BCG, 10 to 12 metrics are necessary to do an adequate job of measuring innovation, considering how broadly it can be applied in the average organization. But a little over half (52%) admit that their company uses five or fewer metrics.

Why don’t companies do a better job of measuring innovation? The BCG study identified these factors:

• Uncertainty about which metrics to use (32%)
• It’s not a priority (31%)
• Lack of support from top executives (12%)
• The cost of instituting effective measurement program (8%)

What are companies measuring? The BCG study identified these components of innovation, in order of declining importance:

• Overall profitability (79%)
• Customer satisfaction (75%)
• Incremental revenue growth (73%)
• Time to market (59%)
• Idea generation (55%)

Other metrics that the respondents cited include R&D efficiency, time to volume, portfolio health and life cycle performance (each over 40%)

In general, survey participants felt they were better at measuring innovation outputs (results) then inputs (resources such as people and money).

Respondents were also asked if their company had to be limited to three innovation metrics, which ones would they use? The top five were revenue from new offerings (56%), projected versus actual performance (36%), allocation of investment across projects (32%), total funds invested in growth projects (29%) and number of projects that meet planned targets (23%).

One final area that the BCG study looked at was which innovation metrics are employees being encouraged to pay attention to? This is where the rubber meets the road, one of the true measures of the effectiveness of an innovation initiative. If innovation remains a group of platitudes but the average employee does little to support it, then chances are that the organization’s innovation initiatives are not going to get off the ground.

According to the BCG study, few companies are utilizing incentives to compel their employees to pay attention to specific innovation metrics. Only 27% of respondents said their company consistently ties incentives and rewards to their innovation metrics.

There’s a lot of valuable data here – I highly recommend that you read this report!

While large organizations usually innovate through complex innovation management processes, smaller operations more often reinvent. That’s usually because they don’t have as many products or services and aren’t as locked into legacy systems.

Smaller operations are also more nimble, and so are often more responsive to current market, financial, and social conditions. When it come time for a change, as often as not they take change to its farthest degree and may completely overhaul themselves.

Further, smaller organizations such as small businesses and associations are susceptible to different drivers for reinvention than large organizations seeking to innovate. In that way, they are closer to individuals who decide they want to change their behaviors or lifestyles. These drivers include:

Pressure from financial, economic and personal changes: Small organizations tend to operate closer to the bone and so are much more influenced by financial results. For example, the loss of a gorilla client can spell near doom for some small businesses, so they reorganize and reinvent to seek new ones in different markets.

Also, changes in an economy, such as the current recession that is besetting the world, can have an outsize impact on small organizations. When a large organization experiences a drop in revenues, it will impact their stock price, but usually they have the resources to ride out the storm. Not so much the small business.

Lastly, leaders of small organizations rarely have the support services of large organizations, and so are much more personally involved in their operations. A wish to slow down, spend more time with family, or create better work-life balance can lead to a reinvention of the entire business.

Diversification strategies often play a role in a smaller organization’s desire to reinvent. Often these operations rely on one or two core services for the majority of their revenue, but would like to hive off some services to create other streams of income or explore other markets. This diversification is often described in the investment portfolio management term “core and explore,” in which one puts the majority of one’s assets into relatively safe and predictable investments and earmarks a small portion to explore other, more risky investment areas.

Disruptions in an industry can also cause smaller organizations to embark on reinvention. Probably the most egregious example of this is in the technology industry, where disruption is a regular occurrence. A traditional software maker, for example, might have to completely revamp its operation because of the advent of the software as a service (SaaS) or cloud computing models. However, technology is just a first-in leader for most trends. Today, no industry is safe from disruption.

Simple boredom plays a larger part in reinvention than is often acknowledged. Many small operations are entrepreneurial and entrepreneurs are often more excited by the building of companies than they are by the management of them. To get their entrepreneurial juices running again and use their often superior company-building skills, they overhaul their operations to access new markets or take advantage of new opportunities.

“Stay committed to your decisions, but be flexible in your approach” – Tom Robbins

A year or so ago, I had a client come up to me after our problem-finding workshop had ended and say, “I am so sorry that we didn’t find any problems to fix right now…We feel just awful!”

Can you imagine that?  First of all, they weren’t my problems, I was just the facilitator of the session, and quite frankly, they were “problems’ that could wait for a solution.  But the part that was most distressing was that she didn’t consider the weeks of work that went into scouring the organization for problems to solve, for ideas on product improvement, or for ways to better engage customers as a successful outcome to the engagement.

Sometimes, like our in our current economic climate, it just doesn’t make good financial sense to take action on problems or ideas.  Or in other words, sometimes you really can’t afford to “innovate.”  But that certainly doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore your search for problems to solve, shut down idea campaigns, pull the plug on low-cost prototypes or cease to engage in other organizational creativity activities.  Sometimes making the decision to do nothing is the best decision to make.  And yes…that IS okay!

The main point is, even if you aren’t currently in a position to execute on ideas, that doesn’t mean you have to stop challenging your employees to look for pain-points to solve, to think of ideas that might steal a few customers from your biggest competitor or to simply look inside your organization and make certain the current strategic direction is still headed on the right bearing.  Use these challenging times, or any ebb in the cyclical nature of business, to fill up the idea funnel or pipeline.  It costs very little to put people in a room for the day to think about the problems your organization faces.  Then, when the time is right, you’ll have actionable ideas that have been fully explored and considered for immediate execution.  In fact, while your competitor is busy restarting his innovation machine and going on a search for new ideas to bring to market, you’ll already be putting prototypes in front of customers, including some of his!

So let me close by telling you what I told that client last year who felt just awful about deciding not to solve any of the problems they discovered, “The simple act of looking for problems to solve solves a problem.  Think of the things you now know that you didn’t know before.  Believe it or not, that is an incredible competitive advantage.”

Hopefully you see it the same way!

“Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity” – Erik Christopher Zeeman

Sometimes I wonder if all of this positive and cheerleader-like talk about the benefits of organizational creativity and innovation make me sound like a pie-eyed optimist.  So…to prove that my realist-side is alive and well, I thought we’d focus on some of the ways creativity, ideation and innovation can foster unexpected and/or negative consequences:

• In every creative solutioning effort, there comes a time when ideation needs to stop and a solution must be selected for further exploration.  Some of you may have heard the term GEPO or “Good Enough…Press On.”  Keep it in mind, and balance the need to push for the search for new ideas with the need to just move on.  Remember, ideas don’t exist until you do something with them!
• Conversely, sometimes we think we have the right solution early on in the ideation session because it sounds like it will solve the problem and should be easy to implement.  Be particularly wary of the “easy” answer.  This is a dangerous short cut that rarely yields breakthrough solutions.
• Another danger of accepting the easy way out is the temptation to just tweak the problem a bit to fit a particular solution.  Face it, your problem is what it is, and to accept it or “live with part of it” just because a particular idea solves a portion of it is not really solving the full problem.
• One of the most negative and destructive things to creativity is negative reaction to ideas.  You’ve heard and seen them before…
  • They SOUND like these:
    • “That’ll never work”
    • “We tried that already”
    • “Management will never go for it”
    • “We can only afford to cut costs now”
  • They LOOK like these:
    • Eye rolling
    • Putting ideas on a “parking lot” sheet
    • Last item on the agenda…oops…no time left to discuss
    • Written…but never said
• One of the things we have talked about previously as a danger to good innovation is the tendency to over complicate or otherwise create a new problem by “solving” the old problem.  Make sure you are addressing the real problem, not a symptom.  Make sure you are addressing the whole problem, not just applying a bandied to broken arm.
• Finally…be very, very careful of “knowing too much.”  It is dangerous to insert personal bias, assumptions, stereotypes and other starting points of thinking that will cloud and distort your thinking right from the beginning.  This is why role-playing, or thinking outside of you yourself, works so well in ideation.

So, there are a few things to watch out for when problem solving and engaging in organizational creativity.  But now that you know some of the more common pitfalls and trapdoors, you can hopefully steer clear of them to bring true innovative solutions to light.  And yes…I am an optimist…and I do believe that all of the world’s problems are just an idea away from the right person, with the right mindset, in the right set of conditions and circumstances.  How do you think we got to where we are today?