Lots of organizations spend time and money trying hard to figure out how to build a system or a process that encourages creativity and innovation.  I’d argue that they’re wasting their time.  Innovation doesn’t come out of a process.  Innovation doesn’t come from a systematic approach.  Innovation comes from people connecting with each other on a deeper level that can’t be turned into a system.  It’s different in every case. You can’t write an organizational document on how to be innovative. If you need proof of this, consider how Steve Jobs talks about Apple and how they innovate:

“The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient. But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.”  Read the rest of this post

Alan Atlas, an old friend of mine and one of my agile mentors, would always ask this question to teams that he worked with that were flailing but resistant to change:

“Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

How do you stop flailing and begin meaningful change? Maybe take the advice of another wise person, Eleanor Roosevelt:

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

If you’re not trying something that scares you, then you’re probably not doing something different. And if you’re not doing something different, you’re perpetuating the status quo. So, what did you do today that scared you?  Read the rest of this post

I was watching a video of Steven Johnson speaking about where good ideas come from on TED recently.  To say that this talk is jam packed with amazing insight of how collaboration leads to innovative ideas would be an understatement.  Not to spoil your enjoyment of watching this video, but the very last statement of this talk summarizes everything in such a neat little nutshell that it’s worth saying up front: “That is how innovation happens. Chance favors the connected mind”.  Read the rest of this post

According to Webster’s Dictionary the word improvise means

“to compose, recite, play, or sing extemporaneously; to make, invent, or arrange offhand; to make or fabricate out of what is conveniently on hand”.

I actually prefer the definition of improvisation that Wikipedia provides though. According to Wikipedia, improvisation is

“the practice of acting and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of ones immediate environment. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols and/or new ways to act. This invention cycle occurs most effectively when the practitioner has a thorough intuitive or technical understanding of the necessary skills and concerns within the improvised domain.”  Read the rest of this post