The Hall of Awesomeness

Archive for creativity

Your idea is good but…

October 2, 2011 / Luke / 2 comments

…have you put the blowtorch to it.

Every now and again I am reminded of the reasons why I am where I am. The title of this post should give you a clue. It’s called your idea is good but…

Being a business lecturer, I have the opportunity to meet all kinds of people. A lot of them have good ideas. Here’s the critical thing:

Who else thinks your idea is good?

Take for example the amount of people who come up with a ‘great idea for a movie’ or ‘the next big thing.’ The thing is you may be right. It could be the greatest thing in the entire history of things. A burning question then is: why?

The world is a big place. There are lots of people in the world… therefore: How do you know that other people will find your idea as appealing as you do? Think for a moment why we have people in the world that deliberately make movies that follow the same formula. Sure, there are great movies like Inland Empire that break the mould. However, the modern narrative form is what people want, by and large, when they go to the movies. We can argue as long as there is wind, that it’s wrong, right, indifferent. But, it remains. The same goes for your idea. How do you know others think it will be equally as awesome?

The key to learning that is to find ways that you can get closer to realising that. Market research, talking to people, walking outside… you name it.

So next time you have the big idea, find a soundboard, a critical friend or some way of putting to the blowtorch to it. Not only will this process tell you how good the idea is, it will save you the humiliation of finding out that you where the only person who thought winged shoes where a great idea.

Category: creativity, ideas, life problems /

People don’t solve problems: They create them

September 1, 2011 / Luke / No comments

Well after a year of incredible dissonance I have returned, like I promised in April. Yes, I am that busy. What I am saying is probably bullshit.

Here goes:

People don’t solve problems they create them

Radical idea. Not really. When a problem forms people don’t actually ‘solve’ it. They invent another problem in it’s place to solve it. See, it’s all about learning to live with what we can and ignoring what we can’t.
Welcome to the hall of awesomeness.

Category: creativity, ideas, life problems, making decisions /

Unstructure: What’s missing from most textbooks about management problems…

April 11, 2011 / Luke / No comments

This came through my twitter feed this morning. The schema is a helpful one for examining the world of problems and how we solve them. Sure, it’s a little managementy but it makes some excellent points. I like the use of ‘class 4′ to talk about how we handle management problems, that’s clever. What’s wrong is the assumption that an ill-defined problem is as tangible as another kind of problem. What do I mean?

In life problems occur because we find them. The less well-defined they are, the harder they are to articulate so they more difficult it is to contextually organise our response. A problem that’s well defined has no need of any kind of problem finding. It’s simple. The lightbulb is broken and needs to be changed. A class 4 problem is one that lacks shape, has no structure and is open to many different possible interpretations. The question I am currently exploring in my research is twofold:

1. Does that mean that problems are only ‘interpretations’ when they are complex?

2. If 1. can be explained as having some significance, demonstrably, does that hold then that different interpretations of a problem provide different representations.

3. If these representations are different… could it be that complex problems are malleable? They have a lack of definitiveness? For example, if I deliberately change the way I interpret a problem, do I so by changing the solution first? If I navigate a new pathway to a solution FIRST, when I enrich the manifestation of issues I currently perceive. Even further, if I change my perceptions by thinking about solutions will I by some force, accidental or serendipitous, reveal a new layer of the complexity I am entangled in. That’s a big question with lots of little questions nested in it. Yet, this is knowledge in the raw form.

These are the things that I think about when I come to class 4 problems. We note and see the manifestation of them but lack the appropriate tools to interpret them cleverly enough to say we have any knowledge of them. Perhaps these schema needs ‘Class 5′ to represent problems that are manifesting but have no clear explanation or yet lack a clear framework. So class 5 could be: Creative Solutions. Why? Well if there isn’t a problem but a manifestation of one then a solution is required from a different starting point

A solution is better than a problem in so many ways. It automatically suggests a problem because it’s a solution. In fact, by agreeing to finish a problem (hat tip to Professor Colin Eden’s work) and instead looking at a solution, key ideas of what the problem is could actually emerge. I have seen two cases in recent memory when external crisis events created a solution to a problem that didn’t exist. Once the solution (twitter) presented itself, the problem (communication during emergencies) presented itself and had to be managed. You can’t manage unstructuredness. As a matter of fact if you try to manage the unstructured it will produce variability which itself can’t be managed only adapted to. Enough truisms!

Get to the bloody point

So what’s missing from most management textbooks? A chapter on creativity and management. Structured problems versus unstructured problems and wicked versus tame problems. Managers are not ready for variability and unstructure. Unstructure is the stuff life is made of. Unstructure does not lend itself to concepts of yes and of no. We need management textbooks with ‘unstructure’ in their chapter lists.

The unstructure manifesto

Here’s what we need to do next. Remove the word problem from our vocabularies when we are talking about complexity. You don’t have a problem you have a manifestation of unstructure. The next few steps are critical. But, I don’t know what they are yet. Sponsor my research someone please.

Begging aside… we need to move on from the language of stale problems to focus more on solutions and problem finding. When we hit ill-defined problems we don’t YET have a problem. What we have is a set of undesirable circumstances that have no clear pathway. Think about it. If you have a problem you can define it. If you can’t then as Jonathon Rosenhead says, ‘What’s the problem?’

I am sure I will die frustrated, I was born that way. Yet before I take my last breath I would like to add something to the set of ideas surrounding complex problems. I am committed, in for the long haul, down to the last nail in my coffin, ready to use more commas when appropriate metaphors burst through the sun of my dark days (oops there I go again). So this is me, reframing, framing and entangling the mess of structure with my clouded view of the world. Peace and I will see you at the next post if not in the reality we call life at some point in the near or distant future.

Adios until next time.

Category: creativity, life problems, making decisions /

Setting big goals means big failure … often

March 31, 2011 / Luke / 4 comments

BLAM!

Sudden sound effects are important. Why? They define the way in which my research has hit the virtual wall in the last 18 months. It’s a good thing. The following has happened to me from a series of unnamed journals and conferences during that time:

Six papers were rejected (outright)
Two papers sent back from conferences
Two grants were rejected
Several ideas I had (at least nine) were denied funding and have gone nowhere

There have been some excellent victories. I got a grant for my work in complex problem solving and wrote two papers (one is under review) and I was accepted without changes into the Academy of Management’s Managerial and Organisational Cognition roundtable. That was a major victory. So why write this on a blog?

You have to keep failing in order to find success. How many times have you seen it written? Failure is what happens most of the time. The rest of time I think we just get lucky. So what’s the alternative? Be normal? I was never normal. Be like the rest? The ants? Come on you are better than that. You want to be brilliant you think it just going to fall from the sky? Never! I will write many papers in the future that will get rejected. The next one probably will. Yet, I know that at some point one will be accepted and people will read it. Like they did with this one.

/rant.

Category: creativity, ideas /

Unleash your creative potential a little each day

March 11, 2011 / Luke / 2 comments

When I was working through a major depressive episode recently I somehow came to the conclusion that part of my problem was I wasn’t releasing enough creative energy on a day to day basis. On the inside I felt as if I had not functioned properly for some time. I guess the main reason for it relates directly to the ability of the brain send output messages that are faulty. Let me explain what I mean bearing in mind that I am not a scientist.

When we are depressed I believe, without any empirical support whatsoever, that we do not function according to the way we should. Depression happens for many, many reasons. I have noticed that when I fall into the hole of depression that I find it difficult to get out. One of the many reasons it happens is because there is a distinct lack of creative fulfilment in my life.

To counteract that I have to find something to do each day to release that creative energy. My job as a Lecturer isn’t always creative. Sometimes, it’s pure logic, analysis, dealing with grumpy bosses, managing student complaints and the like. All of these things add up to depression if at some point you don’t find a release point where you can re-channel creativity back into your life.

I have found activities like drawing, playing my guitar and other things provided a clue that I wasn’t in balance, creatively speaking. Instead of playing a standard boring three chord masterpiece, I would pluck random chords and release some creative energy. I would randomly walk down the hall way, pick up the guitar, play something and then put it down. My brain was sending me a message saying, ‘hey why don’t you release that energy’. So I did, then I would feel a little bit less depressed.

The big question

Of course this little activity is the tip of a bigger iceberg. Are we creatively fulfilled as individuals? In most circumstances in life it’s not possible for the majority of people to live from their creative talent. Some don’t even want to. We have to balance paying bills with feeding children and releasing that inward gift within us so that the world can appreciate and notice the talent we have. This causes a deeper depression that strikes at the heart. Of course, my caveat here is that by not even trying we never even begin to build the pathway to a successful creative career. After all, simply submitting manuscripts to a publisher is no guarantee that it will even be read.

We need to take steps on a day to day basis with the goal of reaching a point where we can master that talent and release the energy more frequently and in deeper richer ways. A critic may say, well that’s good for you but I have no time. Perhaps they may also add: I have no creative talent. Time is relative. Even if you only take one second to do it, you will feel a bit better. Then you will hunger for more and make time for more. Secondly, I haven’t met anyone yet who didn’t have a creative talent. There’s something you just have to spend time looking. There are no boundaries on creative talent either.

I hope you find the time to make this world just a little bit better by releasing your creative potential on a daily basis.

Category: creativity /

Do you feel like you are going to explode sometimes?

March 2, 2011 / Luke / No comments

I had wondered why sometimes we are thinking the way we do as a society. I often think that we just act and never work back, abductively, to an explanation. Take for example the person who will only act according to the key performance indicators as a point. They are right to be following these but why do we set them? Honestly. What if they are wrong?

I remember thinking once that when make people accountable for KPI’s we create an invisible boundary around their performance. We say: this far and NO FURTHER! What a joke. How can leadership really occur outside the contextual boundary of human judgement? It’s almost as if we can’t see the forest because the trees (KPIs) are so thick and filled with performance!

I feel like I am going to explode sometimes because I honestly can’t see passed people who can’t move beyond their KPI’s. I mean bloody hell, if there is a good decision to be made shouldn’t we invest our time and energy in the people we have hired to do the job. I don’t know I am just venting out here.

I also feel like I am going to explode when I hear people saying to me that they can’t do something because it’s not possible. But I digress.

Category: creativity, personal development, rants /

Approach Your Career Plan Like a Project

November 5, 2010 / Luke / No comments

*Special Thanks to Ellen Berry for this guest post.

“What we think or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do.” – John Ruskin

I’ve always had a plan for my career, but after getting laid off recently, I decided it wasn’t working for me. I was frustrated with how long it was taking to reach my goals, and I felt destined to be stuck taking detours just to pay the bills. I felt overwhelmed about how to approach my career.

Then I shook myself awake and came to my own rescue. It dawned on me that my career was simply a project in my life, and I’m trained in my work to handle projects a certain way. So I applied my knowledge of project management to my career, and came up with a career project plan.

Necessary Ingredients of a Career Project Plan

Needs

My dream career has always been to have my own business that is successful enough to allow me to live the lifestyle I want, that’s flexible enough to allow me to travel extensively, that’s interesting enough that I look forward to work every day, and that runs well enough that I don’t have to work insane hours to make it happen. So my goal has always been to earn enough money so that I can save up a chunk of cash, say good riddance to working just so that other people can profit, and start being my own boss, making my own ideas happen.

However, because I don’t have any formal knowledge of running a business, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to handle all of the operational stuff – stuff like accounting and HR and legal issues that come up. Not to mention I don’t have any leadership experience. So I realized I need a real-world education as well as formal training in business before my dream is going to become a reality.

Goals

This time around, for my career project, I decided to break down my grand vision into smaller goals. I wanted to be able to see progress sooner. If my goal was to be an engineer or a physical therapist – a career with a well-defined path to follow – I could have looked up a career profile and used it as a guide to establish my goals. But entrepreneurship is one of those careers that can take shape in many ways, so I had to get creative in my goal-setting.

I took my “happy ending” big picture dream and spent some time really imagining what it would be like to live the dream. Then imagined I was being interviewed about my journey to success. I told the imaginary reporter that “it all changed when I decided to go back to school to get my MBA”. Goal #1.

When the reporter asked me what prompted me to get my MBA, I said, “I met someone who showed me why it was important. He had started his own business, and it had been very successful. I asked him if he would let me volunteer at his company a few hours here and there in exchange for learning the ropes, and he agreed.” Goal #2.

“Once I started really focusing on learning about business,” I said to the reporter, “I started generating momentum and things started happening. My boss at my job left, and the person that took her place asked me to start attending meetings with higher ups and taking on more responsibility. I got a promotion, and qualified for tuition reimbursement so I could start taking night courses in business.” Goal #3.

For more articles on developing career goals and career exploration, career planning, and specific careers, check out BrainTrack’s Career Planning Guide.

Objectives and Timeline

Pleased with these three goals, which would lead me along a path to my ultimate career vision, I then put them into a logical timeline and broke them down further into simple objectives.

Goal #1: Find a role model in business who is successful and is willing to teach me how to be successful

Go to the career development centers at local colleges to check out internships and volunteer opportunities.
Talk to professors and students in business schools about the best strategy for getting started.
Search online for advice on how to choose a mentor.
Subscribe to Entrepreneur Magazine to read about successful entrepreneurs.
Go to lectures given by successful entrepreneurs about how they got started. Attend workshops and conferences.
Ask friends and family what entrepreneurs they know who are successful and who might be willing to let someone mentor with them.

Goal #2: Find a way to pay for taking extended education business courses online or after work

Look into tuition reimbursement options at work and what is required to become eligible.
Compare going to school full time against taking night courses or online courses while continuing to work.
Go to local colleges to check out upcoming extended education courses. Ask about financial aid options.

Goal #3: Get my MBA

Research good business schools that are known for their entrepreneurship programs.
Develop a strategy for getting into my ideal schools, and then start working on it as early as possible.
Apply for financial aid.
Apply for admission into my top 5 business school choices.
Start thinking like an entrepreneurship student now, and begin looking for business ideas that I know suit me well and that I can grow into a successful business.

Resources

Making this checklist of things I could do to generate momentum towards my dream career also helped me get a sense of what resources I have to work with right now – and what resources I need to get. I’m hungry now to learn as much as I can about having my own business, begin tapping the brains and just spending time with other people who are active or aspiring entrepreneurs, and coming up with creative ways of financing my future schooling and business ideas.

Making a Career Project Plan Work

I have to admit, I wish I’d starting thinking in these bite-sized, manageable tasks towards larger goals a long time ago. I could have accomplished so much more if I had just started somewhere, beginning with what I had to work with, instead of thinking of my dream as a far off goal that would happen someday when I was ready for a big life change.

Now that I’ve officially hired myself as my own career project manager, it’s up to me to keep moving forward no matter what… but not like a bulldozer. More like a boxer who stays light on his feet and adapts to what comes at him. I will look for the best opportunities to have the most impact, and make the most of my strengths and overcoming my weaknesses.

Having this sense of control over my career gives me a lot of confidence that I will be able to accomplish my dream. In fact, it’s not a dream anymore. It’s the next level up.

Ellen Berry is a member of BrainTrack’s writing staff. She writes articles about a variety of education and career topics, and has contributed to BrainTrack’s Career Planning Guide.

Category: creativity, life problems, personal development, strategy /

Stuff I learned from mistakes

October 8, 2010 / Luke / No comments

Some lessons are harder than others. Yet over the years most of mistakes, costly and nearly bankrupting as they are, have taught me everything I know. Avoiding something because you may fail is very hard and I suck at taking risks. Most of the time though we make mistakes and learn and think that didn’t work. So what I have learned (or am learning) to do is keep a close eye on my mistakes. Here are some things I learned from making mistakes:

Don’t cook fish on high with the lid on.
Calamari is like rubber if you cook it too long
You need rear vision mirrors
Make sure you get all the information you need when saying ‘Yes’ to buying something OR doing something
Some people will always use you, even if you tell them, ‘you are using me’.
Your boss is not your friend
Direct to video sequels destroy the good memories of the original
Philosophy is highly subjective, even though academics think they are all right
Most people won’t change unless they are forced too
There are about 100 ways to skin a cat
Just because I think something is a good product, doesn’t mean customers will
Having goals are good, having ambition isn’t always a good thing
Working harder doesn’t mean getting ahead
Doing things for people is not always noble
Computers are efficient and useful, except when they aren’t.
It’s not 1992 anymore
People on the road can get out of their cars if you cut them off
You have to spend money to make money only works when your idea is tested, refined and proven to make money
Liberty doesn’t exist
Max Weber had major mental problems
Existentialism, while interesting, leaves you depressed and without answers (sic)
Never bet on the favourite
Making money online is harder than offline
Students don’t love you when you are a hard ass
Graduate students should not review papers for major journals
Graduate students should not review papers for minor journals
Never say yes to something you would take your name off later
Don’t sign a contract if you don’t understand it
NEVER trust a real estate agent
Electricity works, even when it’s switched off
Quick release wheels are convenient, until they come out while you are riding your bike
Driving on drugs is a really, REALLY bad idea
Women don’t find fat people attractive
Children don’t do what you ask when you yell or if they do, they undo it later
Arguing about the truth is confusing and depends on what the truth is
You are not a research paradigm
Policy works, breach it and see what happens
Managers don’t necessarily think about their employees first
Good ideas go to waste in a ‘system’
Problems are interpreted, misinterpreted then made into policy
Colleagues are also competitors
Don’t say yes to money if you don’t know the strings
There are no ‘friends’ in business
Never take your eyes off the road
If you are bulky (or burly as I have been called) you are likely to be sitting by yourself if you get on the bus first
Same for trains
Doing a PhD is a great idea… until you start
Doing a masters is a great idea… until you start
Smoking is a bad habit…. especially when it’s crack/marijuana or something else addictive
Waving to people may result in a beating
Reading ‘literature’ is fun until page 90
There is no such thing as a ’4 hour work week’
You can’t make as much money as the guy who makes 40k a month without stealing either his market or his ideas
Getting old gets worse as you get older
Having gray hair at an early age does not win friends or get you a girlfriend… it will get you ridiculed as ‘gramps’.
Saying yes to ‘cat’ is a great idea if she isn’t a mentally challenged Sealpoint Himalayan who thinks shitting in your shoes is fun
Things usually get worse then much worse if they even get better at all.
Action speaks louder than a committee meeting
Accountants rule the world
Living up to your potential depends on how much you could be bothered to learn what the fuck your potential is in the first place.
Other people don’t know you as well as you know you
Relatives will be offended when you make inferences about their parenting capacity
People think university Lecturers are leaches in a large majority of cases
Respect is often fraudulent
If you see a car that’s broken down on the side of the road, unless you have a phone, money or mechanical skills keep driving
Dreams are poison
Your words make little difference
Taking a stand carries a price, you better make sure you are prepared to pay for it when you stand
Faith works except when it doesn’t
Believe in what you do
Shoot the messenger
Don’t bet on old ideas
Marketing is for micro thinkers
Happiness depends on context
Church is for church people

These are only a few… add more in the comments if you like.

Category: creativity, personal development, stuff /

Why creative thinking isn’t always synthesis

August 24, 2010 / Luke / 2 comments

Let’s say you are thinking about a problem. Inspiration comes and now you have what you think is a meaningful solution. Yet, where did it come from? Lateral thinking expert De Bono reminds us that it’s a change in our neurons (or whatever) that produces the shift from one thought to the next. You can actually teach your brain to move between concepts laterally when you solve problems to different and better interpretations. We can use concepts to drive strategy. But often these kinds of synthesis are hard to navigate, I want to talk about the ways in which concepts begin. Why can I sit at this Macbook Pro and write this without considering the words I am going to type next. Because I don’t proofread? I don’t think so… because they are creative.

David Lynch said that he often would sit down and ideas would come and he would work hard to capture them, so that he could hold on to them. Isn’t that interesting. I often have my best thinking when I am driving, in the shower, on the throne or elsewhere. I don’t really care how it works or why it does but I find these times when ideas just come are often not synthesis. I am growing to dislike the way we use that word. It’s more like a description of a ‘product’ of something else. Think about Chemicals. We call the hybrid ‘synthesis’ (I hope) and use that as a way of describing a process. I would argue that synthesis is the outcome of creativity in some cases. Human beings are creative. We make stuff. A lot of stuff. So this presents two problems in my limited mind.

1. Stuff comes from somewhere

2. Not all stuff comes from somewhere, some stuff just comes.
I am often impressed by the word, ‘variegation’. It reminds that two things can be true at the same time and the other thing can also be true as well. What? Well we often frame our problems as thus: ‘It’s either this or that’. This invites synthesis. Combine the ideas and create a new perspective. But in design, we often make new ideas that other people engage with and this process of making ‘new’ ideas is not necessarily a process of combining old ideas. It’s something else. Inspiration, creativity and new ways of thinking are often hard to conceptualise for an academic, we follow the patterns and contribute to others. Our arguments don’t often synthesise the texts either, sometimes they contradict and refute. This process leads me to think that thinking and creativity are deep.

I am reminded of perspectives, how they shape and inform, how they create and divide logic. How interesting that we ever thought a rational process could explain irrational humans? What of rhetoric? Ok that last micro sentence was silly. Anyway, remember that combining things and looking for new interpretations leads to synthesis. Synthesis is not the combining of old ideas and new ones, it’s the emergent process of creativity which is beyond my intelligence to comprehend. We use words like inspiration too loosely.

Synthesis, leads us to new interpretations but sometimes new interpretations come because of some other reason. When I figure that out, I will more than likely be dead. Now there’s a concept.

Category: creativity /

Finding your voice

August 9, 2010 / Luke / 2 comments

I think I have neglected this blog, which is a shame because I have always found this space rewarding. When I started three years ago, I felt as if I was trying to be somebody I wasn’t or write something I shouldn’t. I was trying to write up a paper this morning on my experiences in a failed business attempt when I realised something. In a lot of areas of my life, including this one, I often come across as though I am someone else. It’s formal, not informal, complex and creative yet not me. The posts which are the most like me are the one’s that I think get read less.

Is it a crime to write as though you were someone else online?

No. But what does it say about the bloated doctor on the other end of the keyboard typing this sentence? So what is the bloody point if you aren’t going to do or say the things you think need to be done and said? You get depressed, tired, withdrawn and overall very weird. Yet, there is a timing and wisdom in this that involves taking the time to find your voice. You start with copying, trying on ‘dad’s shoes’, pretending and so on until you realise, this is me. I am the kind of person who has a hard time selling out and my body lets me know almost immediately if I am doing it. I get depressed, can’t sleep, get angry and so forth. When you begin to find your voice, it’s a good feeling, you are you and know it. You settle in on some things. The words flow from the chubby fingers to the keyboard with ease, the revisions seem less important and you even begin to like the editing process a little bit.

The voice is like the sweet spot on a picked lock. Perhaps the wrong metaphor, yet the obscuring face of the lock from what lies behind is more than likely apt. Consider then that on the other side of this metaphorical door lies the chamber of secrets to your voice. What key wouldn’t you try? Yet, the only way you can find your voice is to use it until you get the key that fits. Unless of course the lock is in another room, behind a gate, guarded by a moat filled with alligators (or crocs if you are from Australia). The point is: you are you and you should tell you not to sell you out for a few dollars. Be you, yes you, because you have to live with you. Don’t YOU forget that.

Category: creativity, ideas /

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