IBM has an interesting app for exploring how innovation happens…and thinking. http://www.ibm.com/ibm/think/
Category Archives: Thinking
Approaching your work like an Olympic event
Today I visited BAM Nuttall in Camberley, UK and, while waiting for the meeting attendees to gather, happened to pickup a copy of their newsletter “Engineering Matters”.
In it I found an introduction from Paul Emms Director, Engineering that spoke to me. Here’s an exerpt:
“As spring moves into summer many of you are looking forward to the 2012 Olympics. I found myself thinking about how an athlete prepares for such an event – how do become the best?
Athletes analyse what they do, identify small improvements, analyse again and so on, always focusing on improvement. There may be no big innovative idea but there is a 100% commitment to improve what they do.”
Paul goes on to use this as an analogy as to how we ought to look for small improvements that we can make in our work, put them into practice then DO LOOP. I think this is a good way to approach, and admit that I sometimes set lofty goals (Win the gold!) without defining practical incremental steps. The result is akin to a track star thinking that they can step on the track and make one herculian effort without preparing and working up to it. Paul is on to something I think.
Travel = Life?
For some of us, travel is a significant part of our job. And it’s not uncommon for people around us to ask questions like, “How can you do that?”, How do you maintain relationships when you travel so much? Don’t you hate it?”.
And many that spend their life on the road don’t have a great answer for those questions and, in some cases,even feel a little bit guilty as to why we don’t “hate” travel since it’s perceived as taking something away from our lives. Don’t get me wrong…poorly managed, travel can have a negative impact on the traveler’s life.
But I also find the following sentiment refreshing…
“Travel is at its most reqarding when it ceases to be about reaching your destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life.” – Paul Theroux
Seth Godin on Confronting “Edges” in Culture to Spark Ideas
“An idea almost never comes from reading the traditional blog posts or following the traditional Twitterers. It comes from seeing a movie or interacting in a place I’ve never been. If I’m on the road eating in another city, I will never, ever go to a restaurant that I’ve been to beforeof has been recommended by the concierge. I dig deep into Chowhound and find a place or a cuisine I’ve never had before. If I am listening to music, I spend half of the time listening to music I’ve never heard before. If I’m driving in a town, I will put on a radio station where they’re talking about stuff I don’t agree with. And confronting these edges in our culture is bound to create sparks, and sparks turn into fires.” – Seth Godin, entrepreneur, author and speaker