Blog posts on creativitityPosts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs - 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 - Edward Tufte’s new book: Beautiful Evidence (2006)
 Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte is now available. Beautiful is the right word. Tufte’s books are an example of what can be created when someone truly loves what they do and takes pride in every detail of their work. His books are excellent.
In Beautiful Evidence, Tufte explores how to best display evidence looking at: mapped pictures; sparklines; links and causal arrows; words, numbers and pictures together; the fundamental principles of analytical design; corruption of evidence; and more. continue reading: Edward Tufte’s new book: Beautiful Evidence (2006) - Innovation Example: Farecast (2006)
 Farecast provides data and analysis to those looking to purchase airplane tickets. The graph above shows ticket prices for tickets between Boston and Washington DC over the last 60 days. I have thought for quite some time I need better data to make the best purchase decisions. Farecast seems like a great fit.
The airlines attempt to maximize their profit by changing ticket prices. This pricing model is different than most pricing options I face, normally the price is pretty much set: with the possibility of sale prices. continue reading: Innovation Example: Farecast (2006) - Quality and Innovation
I really don’t understand how people can talk about innovation as if it were some new discovery. Yes I understand we can bring a different focus to innovation. We can reconfigure management structures to encourage and support innovation. That is good. And new ideas are being developed, but the innovation fad is silly. And accepting the notion that this innovation stuff is some new idea will make managers less effective than if they understand the past.
New Economics by W. Edwards Deming, published in 1992, page 7:
Does the customer invent new product of service? The customer generates nothing. No customer asked for electric lights… No customer asked for photography… No customer asked for an automobile… No customer asked for an integrated circuit.
Innovation has long been important to those interested in management improvement. continue reading: Quality and Innovation - Curious, Joyful, Happy Kids Grow Up: Unfortunately
 I must admit I find the wonder kids have amazingly refreshing. When I was a kid I just took it for granted. Now, unfortunately surrounded by way too many incurious, blasé, dreary adults I realize the kids really have a much better idea how to live than we adults do.
Have some fun. Have some fun with a cardboard box and a stick. Or a plastic dinosaur and a small firetruck. Or just reading a book, for the 56th time this year, about how some cat goes to the store.
Meanwhile I think an alien could appear on the subway and most of my fellow passengers would only be concerned if it was taking up too much space or blocked their exit, and if not, maybe not even notice it.
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Just watching the faces of adults and kids is amazing. Adults, by and large show no joy. A kid's face will show more joy when they see their Mom for the 8th time today than an adult will in the entire month. I just have to believe that is not a good sign. continue reading: Curious, Joyful, Happy Kids Grow Up: Unfortunately - What Is Muda?
And the biggest waste of all is the underutilization of people’s talents. If you just learn to ask people for their ideas and get them to participate in creative problem-solving activities, you will be amazed at what people can do.
Norman Bodek
I agree: "Two resources, largely untapped in American organizations, are potential information and employee creativity. Managing Our Way to Economic Success, William G. Hunter, 1987. Also "The greatest waste in America is failure to use the ability of people." W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, 1982. continue reading: What Is Muda? - Patent Review Innovation
Michael Crichton wrote an essay critical of the current patent law: This Essay Breaks the Law. I believe the US is making significant mistakes in how we are proceeding with the patent system, see: The Patent System Needs to be Significantly Improved.
That’s the basic concept behind a pilot program sponsored by IBM (Charts) and other companies, which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office appears poised to green-light. The project would apply an advisory version of the wiki approach to the patent-approval process.
continue reading: Patent Review Innovation - Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd,” he said, “that the three most important contributions this laboratory has ever made to telephonic communications were made before any of you were born? What have you been doing?” he asked. “I’ll tell you,” he said. “You have been improving the parts of the system taken separately, but you have not significantly improved the system as a whole. The deficiency,” he said, “is not yours but mine. We’ve had the wrong research-and-development strategy. We’ve been focusing on improving parts of the system rather than focusing on the system as a whole. As a result, we have been improving the parts, but not the whole.
We have got to restart by focusing on designing the whole and then designing parts that fit it rather than vice versa.
continue reading: Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs - Making Changes and Taking Risks
The system had to change. “We eliminated commissions, incentives, promotions, contests, P&Ls, forecasts, budgets, the entire functional organization chart,” Rodin says. It was a radical move. Contests and commissions — internal competition — were a way of life in the industry, the universal motivational tool.
continue reading: Making Changes and Taking Risks - Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation
How intellectual property influences innovation and growth in the economy depends on the application of intellectual property law. No intellectual property (IP) rights would hinder innovation. Complicated application of confusing and overreaching IP rights also hinders innovation. Now I see the USA systems as having overreaching claims of IP rights, IP rights granted for obvious ideas which then are used to extort those actually producing value and overall a system much in need of improvement.
Related: The Patent System Needs to be Significantly Improved - The New Deadly Diseases That Severely Damage our Economy
continue reading: Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation - Complicating Simplicity
This post on the excellent signal vs. noise blog illustrates how one can lose their way when trying to simplify. Lean and other management improvement folks can learn a lot about eliminating non-value added steps, clean design, simplifying systems to improve performance… from this blog. The examples are mainly relating to software development from a true understanding of lean thinking(though I don’t have any evidence they are familiar with the Toyota Production System or lean tools/concepts)... continue reading: Complicating Simplicity - Deming in the New Economy
Innovation rarely comes as the result of an apple falling from a tree and hitting you in the head.
Innovation is more of a process – sometimes simple and buried deep within the psyche of the individual, and sometimes methodically sewn into the practices of a team – that is put in motion by the desire to improve the status quo.
continue reading: Deming in the New Economy - Not Innovation but Still Interesting
There is an obsession with claiming ideas as innovation in order to sell to those that seek new magic bullets. Often there is not only no magic bullet but no innovation involved. But examples of using long neglected management ideas well is valuable as these examples show... continue reading: Not Innovation but Still Interesting - Simple Cell Phone
Complex devices with many points of failure (both technical failure and user inability to figure it out) should not be the only option. Simple, easy to use, reliable devices would have a big market. Creativity is not just about more complex devices. continue reading: Simple Cell Phone - Google Website Optimizer
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