Tag Archive for 'ideas'

What does a creative person do?

Published on 23 June, 2009 in High Performance. 5 Comments Tags: , , , .

Creative people do things differently. But what specifically? We mostly agree that creative people are willing to act unconventionally, that they are inquisitive, and that they are intuitive. But aren’t creative artists different from creative business people?

There are differences between domains. Here are some extra characteristics that Sternberg (1985) found to be important in the following domains:

Art: Imagination, Originality, Risk-taking

Business: Coming up with and exploring new ideas

Philosophy: Play and classifying new ideas

Physics: See order amid chaos, Inventiveness, Problem solving

These are really quite different, aren’t they! So what are you great at? How can you develop your unique skills?

Ideas are everywhere: Innovation changes the world.

Published on 2 January, 2009 in Innovation. Closed Tags: , , .

Here’s the 100 word summary of a training presentation that I made…

Transform creativity into innovation by organizing your ideas. Whether you’re in a meeting, brainstorming or thinking on your own, convert your ideas into action by identifying it as one of three things:

  1. An outcome or action for your task list,
  2. Filed for periodic review, or
  3. Filed for reference.

Once you have actions on your task list, delegate them to the right person for the job. When you focus on what’s most important and do what you’re best at, you might start to notice yourself showing your talent – and even genius – being revealed.

Daniel Smith

Ideas that change the world

Published on 5 November, 2008 in Innovation. Closed Tags: , , , .

Einstein’s famous E = mc2 was expressed in a mere three pages, yet the concept that mass is merely concentrated energy has changed the world. Illnesses being caused by bacteria and viruses is a very recent concept, yet again it is now taken as a given. University, in my experience, is more about learning a relatively small number of key concepts that are able to apply across contexts than it is about learning piles of useless and quickly forgotten formulae and rules.

What are the ideas that have changed your mind?

The Financial Times has identified a number of significant books in their shortlist:

  • The Long Tail , by Chris Anderson
    Mass market economics gives advantage to those products and services that are in high demand, but as borders come down and the global village shrinks, we are seeing parts of the market able to be serviced that were previously too small. Exemplar: Amazon can stock millions of books that an ordinary bookstore – even one the size of Borders – cannot stock because the proportion of the market is too small in a geographically limited market.
  • Small Giants , by Bo Burlingham
    Profitability for a company will be maximised when that firm focuses upon being excellent at what it does best, rather than trying to grow until the diseconomies of scale are unavoidable.
  • The Wal-Mart Effect , by Charles Fishman
    Some companies create market forces as much as being subject to them and other insights available by speaking directly with former executives.
  • China Shakes the World , by James Kynge
    The growth of China is directly impacting the lives of much of the world. As it grows, we are seeing strengths and weaknesses evolve. One thing is certain: There is even more to come!
  • The Box , by Marc Levinson
    Container ships criss-cross the world with the products of globalisation. Entrepreneur Malcom McLean (1914-2001) created the container concept, and made possible the global goods trade system as we know it today. This guy bought a truck for $120 in 1934 but the company ended up with 1770 trucks; he sold his interest for $25,000,000 in 1955. But it was his next venture where he really revolutionised things: Containerisation allowed him to cut the stevedoring charges from $5.83/ton down to just 16c/ton!!! The increasing move towards mechanisation made his innovation even more successful. His containers won patent protection, but then he kept a step ahead of Apple’s mistakes by granting the International Standards Organisation a royalty free lease because he realised that industry grown was more powerful than patent protection. By 1969 – just 14 years after he had exited the trucking business – he sold his interest for $160,000,000. The company is now part of Mærsk.

There are many amazing concepts available today. One of the most important in my mind is that structuring access to information is as important or more important today than the information itself; that the immense quantity of information available to us simultaneously democratises information and increases the value of brands as a way of streamlining our information filtering system. But that’s why I usually read the Tom Peters Wire Service …

Daniel Smith

Making it Matter

Published on 27 October, 2008 in High Performance. Closed Tags: , , , .

I’m fascinated by high performance. I have been ever since high school. It’s what led me into psychology, and then catapulted me into business (with Effective Learning Solutions), it’s what sent me back to uni to do an MBA… and a chain of adventures with The Honour Society , ShirtsandSuits.com , Free Real Estate … and is the foundation for my pursuit of The Genius Project, which focuses upon the nature of high performance.

But the funny thing that I’m finding as I study more and more extreme achievers is that they’re not ‘in the game’ for the usual reasons. If you look at creative genius, you’ll find that they’re far more likely to be motivated by mastery over the domain than wealth, recognition or any other extrinsic reward. It’s not that they set out to achieve the honour and the acclaim and the wealth; those are just the things that follow when you go about your task with commitment, discipline and tenacity.

It was great to find Seth making the same observation about business people… how the greatest businesses often spring from some revolutionary freak who thinks that his or her idea is cool enough… not that it will make them a millionare, but that it is just a really cool idea!

I wonder… what if you had something that was really cool?

Daniel Smith

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