How can you tell when you need new ideas? - deBono

If you have a problem you can solve quite easily using a routine approach, why do you need creativity and new ideas? Answer: because the obvious solution might not be the best one. An obvious solution makes it very hard to look for alternatives that might be quicker, simpler or cheaper. I call this 'being blocked by openness'.

Click to read more ...

So When Do You Stop The Ideas - WorkAwesome

So you’re about to launch. You’ve done a great job planning and executing this project. And you’re almost ready to unveil your baby to the world. And this is when people start coming up with new ideas and suggestions. Often it’s a major decision maker such as your boss who thinks a new feature or two is needed. Do you rework everything? How do you consider everyone’s feedback and respectfully decline the advice? That all depends on many factors. In the end, you need to decide what’s the gain. And some of that advice comes from someone you can’t ignore.

Click to read more ...

When ideas have sex | Matt Ridley Video

British author Matt Ridley knows one thing: Through history, the engine of human progress and prosperity has been, and is, the mating of ideas. The sophistication of the modern world, says Ridley, lies not in individual intelligence or imagination; it is a collective enterprise. In his recent book The Rational Optimist, Ridley (whose previous works include Genome and Nature via Nurture) sweeps the entire arc of human history to powerfully argue that "prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else." It is our habit of trade, idea-sharing and specialization that has created the collective brain which set human living standards on a rising trend. This, he says, "holds out hope that the human race will prosper mightily in the years ahead -- because ideas are having sex with each other as never before."

The Creative Process Gone Wrong - Great Video and Article - Bob Sutton

One of my students, Rob, just sent me a link to this video on how the design of the stop sign is ruined by a bad creative process -- unfortunately, this parody resembles the process in far too many organizations and teams that try to do creative work in real organizations. It is funny but disturbing. He saw this in Tina Seelig's class, who teaches a fantastic class on the creative process. This video brought to mind three things:

Click to read more ...

My Product Identity and Design For Polaroid 1957-1977 - Paul Giambarba

Paul Giambarba initiated Polaroid's corporate image development and product identity in 1958. His innovative black packaging successfully subdued the dominance of Kodak yellow at point-of-purchase and spawned a vogue of black packaging within the industry. He is currently sparking a revival in Polaroid and his new project the Impossible Project can be found here. In the meantime, here is a fascinating case study on how the power of a good idea, beautifully executed with passion, can overcome the might of a dominant player.

Click to read more ...