Blog posts on creativitity

Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• Software Testers Are Test Pilots

  Software testers should be test pilots. Too many people think software testing is the pre-flight checklist an airline pilot uses.

  ...

  Checklists are extremely useful in software development. And using checklist-type automated tests is a valuable part of maintaining and developing software. But those pass-fail tests are equivalent to checklists - they provide a standardized way to check that planned checks pass. They are not equivalent to thoughtful testing by a software testing professional.

  continue reading: Software Testers Are Test Pilots
• Children are Amazingly Creative At Solving Problems

  “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” Daniel Boorstin

  continue reading: Children are Amazingly Creative At Solving Problems
• Using Drones to Deliver Medical Supplies in Roadless Areas

  This is an awesome use of technology to tackle important problems. Engineers are great.

  continue reading: Using Drones to Deliver Medical Supplies in Roadless Areas
• Challenging Conventional Thinking

  RA Fisher was an outspoken person and not easy to get along with. Being difficult to get along with isn't uncommon for people that do great things - I suspect those that are willing to subsume their opinion to make those around them more comfortable are less likely to find incredible breakthroughs.
  
  Of course you can free your mind from the constraints of conventional thinking while being very friendly and sociable and likeable, it just seems to me not uncommon for people willing to challenge intellectual orthodoxy are also willing to challenge the thinking that social niceties are of utmost importance. They would be more able to win over more people more quickly with behavior based on "you catch more bees honey..." but that seems less common.

  continue reading: Challenging Conventional Thinking
• Mistake Proofing Using Enhanced Stop Signs

  The video shows a system that cascades a sheet of water and displays a stop sign directly in the path of trucks ready to crash into a tunnel (because the truck is too tall).

  The driver had ignored several less obvious signals that they were headed for danger. This is an application of one of my favorite management (and industrial engineering) concepts: mistake proofing. As I have stated before, often it is really mistake making more difficult (as it is in this case) rather than mistake proofing.

  continue reading: Mistake Proofing Using Enhanced Stop Signs
• Businesses Need to Capture Potential Information and Use the Creativity of Employees

  My father wrote an article a long time ago on how to use ~"two resources, largely untapped in American organizations: potential information and employee creativity."
  
  I think it provides worthwhile ideas.

  continue reading: Businesses Need to Capture Potential Information and Use the Creativity of Employees
• Visual Management and Mistake-Proofing for Prescription Pills

  Mistake proofing is often really mistake-making-more-difficult (for some reason this term of mine hasn’t caught on).

  But the idea is pretty simple: when you have processes that are important and at risk of failure, design processes with elements to make mistakes hard (and ideas such as mistake-proofing and visual management can help you guide your mind to ways to create better processes).

  The entire process needs to be considered...

  continue reading: Visual Management and Mistake-Proofing for Prescription Pills
• Bell Labs Designing a New Phone System Using Idealized Design

  I remember hearing this same story when Russ Ackoff spoke at the Hunter Conference on Quality (which was named in honor of my father) in Madison, Wisconsin.

  If you haven’t heard this story you are in for a treat. And if you haven’t heard Russell Ackoff before you get to enjoy a great storyteller.

  Watch the video...

  continue reading: Bell Labs Designing a New Phone System Using Idealized Design
• Innovation and the Creative Commons

  Creative Commons is a license that lets the creators of intellectual property clearly define how that property may be used by others. Partially this license is a reaction to the poor way copyright law is being viewed today (see links below).

  Partially it is tool that gives creators a way to provide for more interaction with their ideas. And this interaction is a great way to market, in the right circumstances. More managers should be thinking about how their organizations can use this tool to improve performance.

  continue reading: Innovation and the Creative Commons
• Innovation in Organizations

  Innovation is one of the areas of management improvement that is not given sufficient attention.  Innovation is critical to the success of organizations and to the Deming management philosophy. Deming however, never had much specific advice on how to innovate. The management strategies he proposed do support innovation: truly knowing your customers, constancy of purpose, truly knowing your business, understanding your purpose, etc..

  continue reading: Innovation in Organizations
• Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind

   

  Toyota’s vision:

  First, making things that benefit both people and the world as a whole.
  …
  Second, as a member of society, we must fulfill our responsibilities to all stakeholders. We must provide to customers cleaner, safer, and more attractive products with excellent value. To shareholders, we must enhance share value through long-term and stable growth by increasing profits and paying appropriate dividends. With business partners, we must engage in fair business based on a spirit of mutual benefit.

  To our employees, we must provide a workplace where they can work with pride based on mutual trust and responsibility between labor and management, and respect for people.

  continue reading: Toyota Engineers a New Plant: the Living Kind
• Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

  Unfortunately we do not often stop to examine the theory and therefore fail to learn as we should as we experiment and get new results. The most effective way I know of to improve the learning is to use the PDSA cycle, predict the effects of change and then examining the results of change. As simple as those two acts are, they are skipped far to frequently.

  His second point, that managers frequently use overly simplistic models or theories is also important. Management is not well suited for simple theories that can be applied in any situation. Many interdependent variables are often at play and management requires not application of simple rules but applying knowledge in complex situations as best you can. Management is challenging and simple answers are often of little value – even though they are desired.

  continue reading: Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation
• Innovate or "Play it Safe: to Avoid Risk

  There are many reasons why avoiding risks is smart and should be encouraged. But when avoiding risks stifles innovation the risks to the organization are huge.

  Playing it safe isn't always safe. In rapidly changing markets (which are quite common lately) "playing it safe" is often riskier than "taking chances" on new ideas.

  continue reading: Innovate or "Play it Safe: to Avoid Risk
• Innovation at Toyota in Developing the Prius

  By the end of 1993 the development team had determined that higher oil prices and a growing middle class around the world would require the new car to be both roomy and fuel-efficient. Other than that, they were given no guidance. “I was trying to come up with the future direction of the company,” says Watanabe, who headed corporate planning at the time. “I didn’t have a very specific idea about the vehicle.”

  Investing in innovation is risky. If successful, the benefits can build a competitive advantage that is difficult for others to eliminate. However, others will try and if you fail to execute as well in the future those benefits can disappear quickly. Toyota shows few signs of letting others catch up though.

   

  continue reading: Innovation at Toyota in Developing the Prius
• Brainstorming Under Attack

  Brainstorming is about creating an opportunity to bring new ideas the forefront.

  There are other useful tools such as the affinity diagram which can serve as another option (or can serve as a tool to work with the results of brainstorming).

  And Edward DeBono has excellent creativity tools, like his 6 thinking hats. Brainstorming is a useful tool when applied properly but it is only one tool and other tools should be used also.

  continue reading: Brainstorming Under Attack