Category: innovation

business, career, change, creativity, discovery, dreams, experience, Google, innovation, society, technology

Get your head in the clouds

Christa Avampato

I spend about 8 hours on my computer, and roughly 10% of that time belongs to some Google application. I stand in awe of a system that can pull up exactly what I’m looking for, regardless of how obscure the subject, in a fraction of a second. Until today, I had resigned myself to the fact that there was some magic Google elf pulling the info for me. I have confirmed that not only is there an elf, there could actually be a million of them out there in the Googlesphere, known increasingly as a “cloud”.

While it focuses on Google and one engineer’s story, Business Week’s cover story this week talks broadly about how our information world is increasingly being built upon this idea of clouds, a group of hundreds of thousands of computers that are all bolted together to store massive quantities of data. While many companies are struggling this holiday season to stay afloat, Google is contemplating world domination of information. Their mantra can be described as “Whatever you can dream, dream it bigger.” Imagine being at a company that tells you you’re wildest dreams are too small, and that you need to formulate projects that are far more outlandish than even your wildest expectations.

There is a lesson in this wild dream making: every dream can be broken down into very small pieces that can be handled by individual “cloud elves” and then aggregated to get you exactly to where you need to be, all in about half a second. And there is no finite number of tasks. The possibilities are truly endless.

While many companies are in the mode of tempering expectations, pulling in spending, and plummeting morale this holiday season, Google is doing the exact opposite. They are determined to fly high and make sense of the massive amount of knowledge out there. They are so optimistic about what they are capable of accomplishing that they feel these clouds may ultimately push the limits of human imagination. Talk about a tipping point! We have been told for centuries that the human imagination is the most powerful tool on Earth – is it possible that when we pool our imaginations together, we can build something larger than our own sense of creativity?

One last astonishing thing about Google. In all of its success and dreaming, they maintain a public humility that is staggering. They are absolutely fearless when it comes to failure so long as there is learning involved. Their CEO, arguably one of the most powerful and wealthiest men on the planet, sits in a cubicle and moves around from building to building so as to interact with different people at all levels of the organization. And he responds to emails from people at all levels at a unbelievable rate. He is respectful of people’s time, both on and off the job. With someone like this at the helm, it’s no wonder that Google believes in defying limits.

The Business Week article can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064048925836.htm?chan=magazine+channel_top+stories

The picture above can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/07_52/B4064magazine.htm

business, career, creativity, education, experience, innovation, school

Something is blooming in the state of Denmark

Christa Avampato

I work for a toy company and we are always watching what’s happening in Denmark, mostly because there is such a rich history of play there, spurred on by a little company called Lego. Toys aren’t the only innovations they’re making. There’s something so wonderful happening in the world of business education in Denmark that it almost makes me want to go start my own b-school based on this model.

On one of the Business Week blogs, I learned about Anne Kirah and the 180°academy, a business school that seeks to mesh creative thinking, design, and business in one curriculum. Kirah is convinced that this approach will help keep the Danish economy in tip top competitive shape. And Kirah is very convincing.

The 180°academy’s goal is simple: innovation. She argues that doing what we know best won’t help us be better tomorrow. The whole idea is to break people of their comfort zones so that they can be comfortable anywhere in any situation. Kirah herself is an anthropologist by training, and as such is incredibly focused on human behavior patterns and cultural shifts. Best of all, she is able to apply what she’s observing in order to monetize it to a business’s advantage.

The school has corporate buy-in at the very highest levels. They believe in value of foreign immersion throughout the education process. For about half the cost of an American education and asks the each student commit to conducting an innovation project at their employer using all of the tools taught to them in the program. Kirah is concerned with having a complete mash-up for a student body and a faculty. She believes in bringing together as diverse a population as possible in order to have them draw on one another’s talents.

Very simply, Kirah is changing the paradigm of business school education. She is innovating to the extreme. She thinks different and as a result, may help all of us in business think different.

Take a look at the full article: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2007/id2007125_072960.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_innovation+strategy

anthropology, creativity, experience, history, innovation, language, New York, society, technology, trend

Words on the street

Christa Avampato

I am fascinated by language. My dad spoke six of them. While I didn’t inherit his ability to learn language, as is evidenced by my sad attempts at French, I did inherit a love of hearing different languages and dialects. I particularly enjoy studying how a language truly shapes a culture and national behavior patterns. And the dynamism of language allows it to reflect societal trends.

It’s no wonder that my recent discovery of Urban Dictionary, http://www.urbandictionary.com/ , brought a smile to my face. The more tech-saavy readers of this blog will think that I just now have emerged from the dark ages. I fear that this is proof that my long, slow slide from hip, urban chick to crusty old broad may have finally begun. Nevertheless, I think this may also be a new find for some of you, or a refresher of knowledge gained long ago, so it is worthwhile to post the link.

Those out of the know may be asking, “So what is this urban dictionary all about?” It is a slang dictionary that is based on user-generated definitions. Literally, it is helping to define this quickly evolving world around us. And then there is a feature that allows the community members to vote on the definitions added. For example, “wOOt” is top of mind on Urban Dictionary today. It means “an expression of joy”. 3106 people give this definition a thumbs up. 565 shot it down.

The other cool feature that I love is that community members are recording the history of these words. From many definitions, we can learn where words come from, their original use, and how they’ve been adapted to become more main stream. So not only is this a dictionary, it is an anthropological history book. I’m so excited about this, it’s hard for me to sit still!

“WOOt” was recently voted word of the year for 2007 by the dictionary gurus at Merriam-Webster. Facebook was the runner up. In years past words like “google” and “blog” have received the top word honor – not a bad track record as these words are now commonplace in daily conversations. Is “wOOt” destined for this type of fame and recognition? Unclear. But it’s found its place in the American lexicon and I’m all for anything, or any word for that matter, that spreads joy.

innovation, trend, work

Want to be a hunter of all things cool?

Christa Avampato

When I tell people that I work in the trend and innovation space, the follow-up question is always “what does that mean and how do you do that?” For a long-time, trend was seen as something that a few far-out people did by peering into a crystal ball. And these people were happy to have the public believe that. No more…

Trends, their tracking, watching, and even creating, are now accessible is everyone, much to the dismay of many fashionistas who prefer to see themselves as the most forward thinking people around. One of my favorite sites that I view regularly is The Cool Hunter – http://www.thecoolhunter.net/. They follow a number of product categories, interior design, as well as track event planning and design from all over the world. There is a weekly e-newsletter you can sign-up for. The visuals are stunning and I promise that no matter what business you are in, these photos will get your creative juices flowing.

Another site that I visit quite often is Faith Popcorn’s Brainreserve. http://www.faithpopcorn.com/. I had the great pleasure of meeting Faith at a business meeting a few months ago. She’s been in this business of trend for a longtime and she’s very honest about how she does her work. She pays attention to what’s happening out in the world. Trend is very much a matter of awareness and connecting the dots between seemingly disparate populations.

As with all trends, whether or not they take off in a business has as much to do with brilliant execution as they have to do with the quality of the products or services being offered. The name of the game is still differentiation, effective communication, and helping the guest get the joke through presentation.

career, dreams, happiness, innovation, work

On Innovation: Bring the edge to the core

Christa Avampato

John Hagel and John Seely Brown wrote a terrific blog post this morning on one of Business Week’s innovation blogs. In the article, they argue that ideas and products on the edge are critical to reinventing the core of a business. They site the ipod, early social networks on-line, and China as an economic center. You can read the full article at: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2007/id20071128_162890.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

I would also say that this idea can be extended to our own personal core. When I consider where I am now, many of the ideas of how I wanted to shape my life grew up out on the edge of my imagination, far out ideas that maybe I’d get around to eventually. And then something remarkable happened – those ideas on the edge grew to such a size that they demanded more attention. It was a snowball effect – the more attention they were given, the more refining I could do, and the more plausible they seemed despite the fact that originally they seemed impossible to achieve.

This is the wonderful thing about imagination and the belief that even the at-first impossible tasks or dreams take on the glow of possibility if tended to long enough. They somehow sprout a life of their own. It’s as if in time they grow legs and walk themselves to the middle of your existence so you can better see them and consider them. So pay attention to the edges; they are slowly marching to center stage to have their day.

The above picture can be found at: http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/tuts/o2/glow-onCircle.jpg

environment, green, innovation, product, retail

Innovation: Laundry minus the water

Christa Avampato

I love smart products – ones designed to fit my crazy life’s schedule, make my days a bit easier, and make me feel good while using them. For example, I don’t like house work. I do it, and the only thing I ever like about it is how it looks when I’m all done. So if a product quickly gets me through the pieces I don’t like, I’m all for it. I’ve got places to be…

Voila – Swash! P&G developed a “smoothing” spray for people like me – I’m an infamous re-wearer. I’d prefer to wear my jeans about 20 times before I wash them. I don’t because they just feel kind of used after just a couple wears. Same with heavy sweaters. With Swash I can get rid of stains, odors, and wrinkles with a few sprays of the can. No water required. And even better, the can is made of recycled aluminum and can be recycled again.

Check it out at http://www.swashitout.com

change, innovation, work

Workarounds

Christa Avampato

Everyday we create workarounds, conventions that help us get through the day by literally working around difficulties. Most of the time it’s safe to assume that these adjustments we make are simply things we must do get through the day, to get our jobs done, to take care of our family and friends. “Everyone does it,” we tell ourselves.

Workaround get tough when they become the default action, when we do them because it’s easier to create workarounds than it is to fix the problem that’s causing the workaround in the first place. May take a little more time, a little more money, but if we can avoid conflict, we’ll do it. No matter how confrontational people may be, it’s in our nature to avoid situations and actions that cause harm.

The problem with developing and fostering these conventions is that there is no progress in that. If a system is broken and we create a method to deal with what’s busted rather than fixing it, we get stuck. It’s as if we cannot move past this short-term solution. And then the system proceeds to get broken further until it’s so bad that we need to develop a workaround for our workaround.

One of my past employers had board meetings several times a year, scheduled well in advance. There was no process in place for preparing for these meetings. Without fail each time it was absolute mayhem scraping it all together. Everyone would end up completely frazzled, hating each other, pointing fingers at who should have done this and who should have done that. Then a few weeks would go by, follow-up would fall through the cracks, and in a few months time, the vicious cycle would repeat itself. Everyone involved developed their own workarounds to just “get by” because there was no leadership anywhere in the line. No one owned outcomes, so no one owned the process.

This isn’t just a workplace phenomena. We can apply it to our holiday shopping patterns, our summer vacation planning (or lack there of). School assignments. Our nagging to do lists. That home repair we keep meaning to make. Workaround have a nasty habit of making friends with passive aggressive behavior and procrastination, mounting into the perfect storm. Once we get used to doing workarounds, we feel we deserve some sort of recognition for our how hard we’re working and the extra care we’re taking to get our jobs done, despite the fact that the system we’re compensating for is riddled with problems.

Now think about this – channel all of the energy and effort we put into workarounds into actually fixing the system, once, so we don’t have to keep repeating the workaround and so that we can move forward. High anxiety. Discomfort. Short-term losses of some variety. Sure. Any system or process, in order to be designed right and function properly, has to take the long view.

I know that many times fixing what’s broken is more difficult than just stepping over it for now. I know it’s tough; I know you don’t want to do it because you don’t have enough time right now, nor enough money, energy, or patience. Get it done. Systems and processes don’t fix themselves; they won’t go away just because you ignore them. Eventually they will rear their ugly heads and better to deal with them while they’re small and contained rather than have to fix them once they’ve created a gangly mess down the road. Daley Carnegie said “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” Just make sure what the things you’re doing will add value, real value, down the road.

innovation, Michalski, organize

On Innovation: thebrain.com

Christa Avampato

My mother and brother are huge Trekie fans. I mean, HUGE. And their favorite character, of course, was Spock. That strangely lovable Vulcan who lacked even a single shred of emotion. My mother’s favorite Spock quality – the mind meld. It’s a useful skill really – being able to dump a lifetime of accumulated knowledge into some other mind in a matter of minutes so that way even when the being passes away, the knowledge lives on. Think of all the progress we could have made if we could have preserved all of the knowledge ever amassed in the world! How many mistakes we could avoid! How much pain we would never have to go through!
While no one has yet developed a mind meld device, there is one man who has developed the next best thing: a way to easily map your brain onto your computer for future referral. All that is required is an itty bitty piece of software and your time to input all your information. Behold: http://www.thebrain.com/. It’s creator: Jerry Michalski, http://www.sociate.com/.

TheBrain allows you to map and bucket any thought you have about, well anything. It’s intuitive, easy to compile, and so logical you won’t believe it. The simplicity of the design has such power that you have to try it to believe how magical, and addicting, this tool will become. Forget any project management software, list-making, favorites bar you’ve ever created. Truly, throw them in the trash. TheBrain will keep you organized, on-task, and will get you to see connections between the seemingly disparate parts of your life that you never realized before. Best of all, it’s a permanent record of how you work, what you think about, and what matters to you. Part journal, part accomplishments list, part powerful resource, part to do, etc. You see where I’m going with this…

I’d stay and tell you more, but I have the building out of my brain to think of. Have a look for yourself at thebrain.com.