PHAT FRIENDS

The media just broke a "BIG" story about how hanging out with obese friends can lead you to obesity as well. I guess when people hang together we can't help rubbing off on one another -- or rubbing butts, if the elevator is below average size. So, I made a connection other than the fanny kind ...

Hanging out with people who have BIG IDEAS also rubs off on you. You will tend to have BIG IDEAS more frequently AND the more frequently you hang out with them. SO, find your BIG IDEA tribe if you desire to be more creative and more innovative. I found them BIG time at Leo Burnett and The Players Workshop of Second City and the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI). BUT (and that's a BIG BUTT, in case you want to know) often BIG thinkers are disguised as actuaries, cab drivers, clergy, waitresses, bartenders, children, book & sewing club cohorts, your bowling team, even animals -- My dog Shamus was no fool and we all know, neither was Flipper. -- So think BIG and look and listen to all around you for BIG IDEAS manifesting.

And the deliberate effort to go to places where BIG thinkers tend to hang -- theater, book signings, poetry slams, college campuses, MENSA, conferences, volunteer agencies, seminars and John Prine concerts won't hurt either. Maybe even take a notebook as Gregg would say and write all your new BIG IDEAS and new Big Idea friends names down. No big deal for the REALLY BIG difference it could make in your life.

IMAGINE

The other day I was driving to work and heard a cut off of the newly released "Instant Karma -- The Campaign to Save Darfur" CD on WXRT in Chicago.

It was a poignant cover of "Imagine" by recording artist Jack Johnson. I heard the song in a way that I had never heard it before.

It serves as a reminder that as a principal of living creatively, we should as often as we can, look at and listen to things in as many different ways as possible ... upside down, backwards, in Chinese and through a blender. Challenge all your beliefs -- Then embrace what you disbelieve, just to try it on for size.

It also reconfirms the importance of an active imagination in our lives. Our dreams, as we imagine them, can become our realities. In fact, what we think about most almost always manifests -- Good or bad -- So I would keep your imaginations intensely focused on your passions and fantasies.

A few years ago -- 8 to be exact -- I dreamt of becoming a creativity/innovation consultant. And here I am. By the way, I never dreamed of becoming an Innovise Guy -- but we played our way there -- and that's a topic for another blog.

So go out there a ride your imagination to your dreams.

For now, here's the lyrics to John Lennon's epic song ...

Oh, and I would recommend the CD -- It's for a good cause. We CAN change the world, as the CSN&Y song goes -- and even incremental change -- one cause, one person, one perception, one organization at a time is just fine.

Doug Stevenson

Imagine
John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
In a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Change is Good

Today's inspirational quote comes to us from Steven Covey, by way of the online newsletter The Inner Journey:

“I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past.”
-- Stephen Covey

Independence & Innovation

Here's to the kooky kats known as "The Founding Fathers" who made some creative fireworks happen some 231 years ago today -- visionaries, imagineers, innovators all -- who had the audacity to make big dreams happen.

We are all in their debt -- and may we now remember their example and rededicate ourselves to their principles. It's needed now more than ever -- because almost everyone of these "kooky kats" would be called out, lionized, ridiculed and discredited on the FOX News channel and all over the conservative talk radio programs of today because they dared to put concepts like diversity, the coexistence of opposites, free thinking, imagination, justice and tolerance above all.

So, to them a toast, "Thanks for the chance and thanks for the party -- May we work to deserve the great innovation you bestowed upon us."

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY to All!

Torrancial Outpour

"Learn to free yourself from the expectations of others
and to walk away from the games they impose on you."

Dr. E. Paul Torrance, 2007 CEF Hall of Fame Inductee

A beloved leader in the field of creativity and a mentor and friend to many, Dr. E. Paul Torrance was recently inducted into the Creative Education Foundation's Hall of Fame at the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute Conference. (http://www.cpsiconference.com/) Among his many inspiring words is the following "manifesto" to his beloved students & children everywhere:

The Manifesto for Children

"Don't be afraid to fall in love with something and pursue it with intensity.

Know, understand, take pride in, practice, develop, exploit and enjoy your greatest strengths.

Learn to free yourself from the expectations of others and to walk away from the games they impose on you.

Free yourself to play your own game.

Find a great teacher or mentor who will help you.

Learn the skills of interdependence.

Don't waste energy trying to be well rounded.

Do what you love and can do well."

© E. P. Torrance (1983) Manifesto for Children,Athens, GA: Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior and Full Circle Counseling, Inc.

Sick Sigma?

A must read is Business Week from June 11, 2007. It's all about the adverse impact of Six Sigma on the renowned innovative culture at 3M. In a nutshell, when measurement and metrics are paramount, they begin to drive behavior focused not on innovation, but that which best optimizes what is being measured. It is an example of "the scientific effect" gone Frankenstein.

Find a copy and read it. Some gems:

"[4 1/2 years after GE & Six Sigma trained James McNerney departs] abruptly ... his successors face the challenging question: whether the relentless emphasis on efficiency had made 3M a less creative company."

"When these types of initiatives become ingrained in a company's culture, as they did at 3M, creativity can easily get squelched. After all, a breakthrough innovation is something that challenges existing procedures and norms."

"Invention is by its very nature a disorderly process." [says current CEO George Buckley] who has dialed back many of [his predecessor's initiatives]. "You can't put a Six Sigma process into that area and say, well, I'm getting behind on invention, so I'm going to schedule myself for three good ideas on Wednesday and two on Friday. That's NOT how creativity works."

" ... Once bloated U.S. manufacturers have shaped up and become profitable global competitors ... [so now] the onus shifts to growth and innovation, especially in today's idea-based, design-obsessed economy. While process excellence demands precision, consistency, and repetition, innovation calls for variation, failure, and serendipity."

"Six Sigma is plainly a euphemism for cost cutting."

Of Bob Nardelli of Home Depot, "Facts are friendly was a favorite mantra of his ... The bottom line of Nardelli's tenure: Profitability soared, but worker morale drooped, as so did consumer sentiment. Home Depot dropped from first to worst."

"The term [Six Sigma] gives me an allergic reaction."

Art Fry -- developer of Post-It Notes: " Innovation is a numbers game . You have to go through 5,000-6,000 raw ideas to find one successful business." -- "Six Sigma would ask -- why not eliminate all that waste and just come up with the right idea the first time?" [I think some consultants like 'DH' might like this attitude -- or pander to this C-Level bias to sell his pricey ideation services, but I think this sucks.]

Okay, I'm finished. Please read the article and share it with your clients, colleagues and bosses. It's a must.

Doug Stevenson

The Innovise Guys

One the Road ... Again ...

On the way home from my recent road trip to the region of the Black Hills in South Dakota, one of our last stops was Iowa City, home of the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop and to Prairie Lights bookstore -- a favorite. There on a display of refrigerator magnets I found this quote from Jack Kerouac:

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars ..."

I thought this was fitting, as Gregg and I are headed out on yet another road trip to mingle with mad radiant people of this ilk at the 2007 CPSI Conference -- "The Nature of Innovation" at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia - June 24-29. Besides, we're both big Kerouac fans. And the road -- the one "less traveled" -- calls again.

Doug Stevenson

The Innovise Guys