Clay Shirky talks about cognitive surplus in this Ted talk.

Now it’s tempting to want to get the Ushahidis without the LOLcats, right, to get the serious stuff without the throwaway stuff. But media abundance never works that way. Freedom to experiment means freedom to experiment with anything. Even with the sacred printing press, we got erotic novels 150 years before we got scientific journals.

I love this quote for several reasons. First, it amuses me that he points out that the printing press and writing word are not the hollowed institutions we librarians often like to think they are.  Secondly, it’s about risk and innovation.

Many of the things we take for granted in relations to the printing press didn’t come to be until 150 years after initial attempts at invention. Imagine if someone had decided it was a waste of time, or effort or made no difference or discouraged its use.

Read the book, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. I’ve bought it, but haven’t started it.Similar Posts:

• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Innovators

Watch the video, you really need to see the examples.

My Anti-Creativity Checklist from Youngme Moon on Vimeo.

From the Video

1. Play it Safe.
2. Know your limitations.
3. Remind yourself it’s just a job.
4. Show you’re the smartest guy in the room.
5. Be the tough guy.
6. Respect history.
7. Stop the madness before it can start. Crush early-stage ideas with your business savvy.
8. Use experience as a weapon.
9. Keep your eyes closed. Your mind too.
10. Assume there is no problem
11. Underestimate your customers
12. Be a mentor. Give sound advice to the people who work for you.
13. Be suspicious of creatives /liberal arts majors /poets /anthropologists /wackos in your organization
14. When all else fails, act like a grown up.

My additions:

15. Never admit you are wrong

16. Be an island unto yourself, don’t ask for help.

What would you add?Similar Posts:

• Want to Innovate? Stop Working So Hard
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Innovators

1. Follow Your Curiosity
2. Perseverance is Priceless
3. Focus on the Present
4. The Imagination is Powerful
5. Make Mistakes
6. Live in the Moment
7. Create Value
8. Don’t Expect Different Results
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience
10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better

10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn From Albert Einstein includes quotes and tips along with these lessons. Go get motivated!Similar Posts:

• The Best of the Best: The 20 Most Important, Thought Provoking, Helpful Posts I Wrote in 2010
• Looking Back: The 5 Most Valuable Lessons I Learned (or Re-Learned) in 2011
• Freedom, Responsibility and Culture

cc image used courtesy of Vermin Inc on flickr

We hear a lot about innovation and change these days. Everyone is talking about it, every is doing it, or at least trying to. There’s a problem though, change and innovation require more than lip service. Declaring that you are innovative does not make it so.

You know what I’m talking about, someone reads an article, attends a presentation, has a conversation over coffee and comes back to work and says – we’re going to be innovative! Maybe there are even a few committees put together. But then what? Nothing. The committees quit meeting and things go back to the way they were. Maybe one or two people are still trying, but no one is listening.

You know why? Because innovation doesn’t happen by committee or decree.

Organizations do not innovate. People innovate. Inspired people. Fascinated people. Creative people. Committed people. That’s where innovation begins. On the inside.

The organization’s role — just like the individual manager’s role — is to get out of the way. And while this “getting out of the way” will undoubtedly include the effort to formulate supportive systems, processes, and protocols, it is important to remember that systems, processes, and protocols are never the answer. - Mitch Ditkoff

So how do you create a culture of innovation? You start with the people who think differently than you do.

Diversity is one of those sticky terms that people seem to boil down to creating a Benetton ad. Diversity isn’t about some magical collection of five differently colored skin tones. It’s about bringing different perspectives and backgrounds to the table and creating an environment that values what can be gained from different voices who’ve taken different paths. Skin color (or gender performance) is often interpreted as a reasonable substitute for this and, for many reasons, it has been historically. But bringing in a woman whose attitude and approach is just as masculine as the men isn’t going to help your team break outside of its current mindset. They key is to bring people who think differently than you - danah boyd*

Then get out of their way.

Once you’ve hired a good staff, you sit down, you formulate a plan and then you get out of their way. John Limbert

Let them do what you hired them to do.

The really good people want autonomy — you let me do it, and I’ll do it. So I told the people I recruited: “You come in here and you’ve got to keep me informed, but you’re the guy, and you’ll make these decisions. It won’t be me second-guessing you. But everybody’s going to win together. We’re part of a team, but you’re going to run your part.” That’s all they want. They want a chance to do it. - Gordon M. Bethune

You can not force innovation to happen. You can provide the autonomy, the trust to allow people to be innovative.

Read more:

• Smart Leaders Get out of the way
• Remember to Share the Stage
• Treat Your Staff Like Adults and See What Happens
• Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
• Control is an Illusion You Need to Let Go

*danah boyd’s post is about gender issues and being a woman in todays workforce. It’s worth a read (and mostly likely a blog post) in is own right.Similar Posts:

• The Seven Deadly Sins of Innovators
• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change
• For Those Who Are an Overnight Success and For Those Who Aren’t a Video Series From Chris Brogan

The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun

Get Focused
1. Stop hiding who you are
2. Start being insanely selfish>

Be Creative
3. Stop following the rules
4. Start scaring yourself

Use Your Wisdom
5. Stop taking it all so damn seriously
6. Start getting rid of the crap

Take Action
7. Stop being busy
8. Start something

An oldie but a goodie found via The Heart of InnovationSimilar Posts:

• The Seven Deadly Sins of Innovators
• 60 Things We Need Less and More Of, What Would You Add?
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way

These videos are from Chris Brogan’s Over Night Success Series. There are 9 videos total covering topics such as Grinding vs Clocking – Time and the Overnight Success, Pity Party, Small Talk is Big, Belief Systems, The Competition, What it Takes, No Excuses & A Call to Arms. These videos are great even if you aren’t an over night success, even if you aren’t a success.

These 3 are my favorite (although it was hard to pick)

Take time off – I’ve said it before you need your down time but I’m always happy to point out when others say the same thing.  :-)

Don’t believe the hype – I included this one because Chris says – by over night success I mean 10 years of hard work.

Here’s another bag of money – on excuses. We all make excuses that become between us and our goals. Decide what your priorities are. Stop making excuses.
Similar Posts:

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• One more way to use Flickr – videos!
• I work with some amazing people!

Do you know what they are? Are you committing them?

1. Lust: Innovating in a space you have no business being in.

2. Gluttony: Trying to create too many initiatives with too few resources.

3. Greed: Taking short-term profits at the expense of long-term growth.

4. Sloth: Taking short cuts—not doing the hard work, not following the proven process.

5. Wrath: Being so focused on your competition that you miss the same opportunities your rivals are missing.

6. Envy: In the context of innovation, envy means launching a “me too” product instead of finding a space you can own.

7. Pride: You won’t give up on your favorite idea—even when the numbers prove you’re wrong.

From a Business Week article on the sins of innovation and how you can stop yourself from committing them.  See the full article for complete description and most importantly, how to stop yourself from committing them.Similar Posts:

• Do You Have Enough Fun in Your Diet?
• Checklist for Preventing Innovation – What Would You Add?
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way

Putting in all those extra hours, either from the office or home, isn’t helping you. At least not with creativity, innovation or those ah-ha! moments.

Some of our greatest moments of insight happen where we least expect them to. From the Wallstreet Journal:

It happened to Archimedes in the bath. To Descartes it took place in bed while watching flies on his ceiling. And to Newton it occurred in an orchard, when he saw an apple fall.

From the same article but even more interesting:

Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison.

Of course it’s not as simple as just lounging about in your robe & fuzzy slippers.  You have to prepare in order to enable those insights to happen. From Fast Company:

The researchers found support for the idea that blinding insights favor a prepared mind–that is, you’ve got to really internalize the problem at hand if you’re to find any sort of solution. But to actually bring those insights to life, you’ve got to step back.

More Readings

• A Wandering Mind Heads Straight Toward Insight: Researchers Map the Anatomy of the Brain’s Breakthrough Moments and Reveal the Payoff of Daydreaming
• Hard Work’s Overrated, Maybe Detrimental.
• The Eureka Hunt
• How to Become a Design Genius: Take Time Off. Lots of It.
• Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off – TED talk video

Similar Posts:

• How do you find the time?
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way
• Managers – The Message You’re Sending About Time is Affecting Customer Service

Photo by David Reece on Flickr

I’m thinking about change and culture and innovation a great deal these days so I’m reading everything I can get my hands on.  I came across this paper, or manifesto – The Hazards of Leading Culture Change. Its concise but packed with good stuff!

Some of my favorite points:

• When you are up to your backside in alligators, it is hard to remember you were there to drain the swamp.
• …the illusion of advancement is far worse than none at all.
• Three turtles sat on a log in the edge of the swamp. One decided to jump in. How many are now on the log? Nope, there are still three. Deciding and doing are not the same thing.
• Leaders sometime achieve their positions through competencies in other than superior leadership of people.
• Without hands-on trial and error and confrontation of outdated behaviors – all done with a helpful but unswerving facilitator – employees will not likely give up obsolete tasks
• Old ways can die hard – for employees and for customers.  Even if the old way has been a negative to customers, they have learned to deal with it. They also can harbor some of the same cynicism as employees, and may actually work to sabotage new efforts.
• When leaders have even the slightest doubt about the worth of the vision or the correctness of the strategies, they can acquiesce and soften their resolve before the culture change effort has had a chance to gain a solid footing
• Culture change takes a long time because its complex and disruptive.
• What separates the culture change winners from those that drop out of the race? It starts with a clear vision that is clear, compelling and constantly used both as the anchor for judgement and a lens for alignment.

These are just a few nuggets of wisdom, go read the whole paper.Similar Posts:

• Freedom, Responsibility and Culture
• Control is an Illusion You Need to Let Go
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way

This is a great slideshow from Netflix*  for salaried employees which discusses nine values which should be embraced:

• Judgement
• Communication
• Impact
• Curiosity
• Passion
• Innovation
• Courage
• Honesty
• Selflessness

It’s long and parts may be controversia,l but it makes some great points about what it takes to create the culture you want in your organization and it’s worth the time to go through it all.

Similar Posts:

• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change
• For Those Who Are an Overnight Success and For Those Who Aren’t a Video Series From Chris Brogan
• Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way