New Habits Means More Creativity and Innovation

It's great when you find out something you've been preaching for years is, like, actually true.  What I'm blogging about is the idea that new habits, new stimulus, is a great way to enhance your creative capacity.  Usually I talk about it in connection with the concept of Tolerance for Ambiguity. I advise people to not only tolerate ambiguity but to invite it into their life by always trying new things that "stretch" how you view the world and how you think.  I say that this opens doors for ideas to enter your consciousness.  I have evidence that what I say is true of course, and, it...

turns out I'm not the only one saying this.

A great article was just published in the New York Times that gets into the brain physiology that backs up what I advise.  Janet Rae-Dupree has the byline and she interviews authors Dawna Markova and business colleague and fellow author M.J. Ryan.  Markova wrote "The Open Mind" and Ryan wrote "This Year I Will..." -- both of which are going on my Amazon order list today (so much to read, so little time...).  Markova/Ryan make some incisive remarks about USA education, standardized testing, and new habits.  

Turns out new habits help you lose weight -- something I didn't know, but I'm betting my new habit of drinking porter style beer doesn't count.  Still, I can try.

The article closes with a wonderful quote by Markova "You cannot have innovation unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder."  Well said Ms. Markova, let me add, AND "take your wonderment, generate some ideas, and get into action."

Cineworld Cinema = Uncreative Customer Service

Quick blog on a topic I often have the urge to rant about, customer service.  According to the experts if you want to benefit from positive word of mouth your business has to provide Wow! customer service. Average doesn't cut it, and bad service actually generates negative word of mouth.  

I recently bought tickets online to go see Iron Man.  I was foaming at the mouth to see this film and was really looking forward to it.  I showed up at the Cineworld in High Wycombe and, oops, there was a fire in the theatre (nobody hurt) and I was prevented from even getting within 100 yards.  Things happen, I was glad everyone was safe, and so went elsewhere to see the film same day.  Iron Man was a gas, really good fun.

Three days later I drop by the cinema to get a refund.  I present my email confirmation and the cashier informs me that, well, they can refund the ticket price, but not the transaction fee.  I would have to call the corporate help line for that.  I didn't make a fuss, I took the partial refund. 

Later, while eating sushi, I realize that I now hate Cineworld for not giving me a full refund.  It would take too much time and energy to chase down the transaction fee, so, not really an option for me.  However, dropping the equivalent of about 3 US dollars into a sewer pipe never makes me happy, in fact, it makes me mad.  As a former movie theater manager I came up with a few ways I could have been made truly happy, and on the spot: a couple free tickets/passes, a coupon for free concessions, an invite to a sneak preview, maybe put on a compensation show late some night for everybody who was inconvenienced by the fire, etc.  But no, they tell me to call corporate.  My transaction fee?  My tough luck to have booked on a day they had a fire.

Creativity in business doesn't always have to be rocket science does it?  It can be really easy and incremental.  It can be as simple as a free bag of  popcorn.  A small bit of creativity on the part of Cineworld would have made me a happy customer returning again and again to their theatre. Instead it becomes a last resort, and, I take time to let the world know how I feel about Cineworld.

Future Trend, Rejection of Anti-Psychotic Drugs

News reports of the vast numbers of children, particularly in the USA, who are receiving anti-psychotic drugs is alarming.  The number of kids taking these drugs has doubled in the last five years.  

I'm not a medical expert but clearly something is wrong here.  I believe the reason for the increase in these prescriptions is a combination of not enough parental attention, the need to control naturally energetic children, and a drug industry that is only too ready to provide a solution.  I'm sure these drugs have there place, but the numbers are so starkly wacky that this screams inappropriate prescribing.  

Kids have lots of energy, but what they need is exercise, attention, and avenues for self-expression.  Their excess energy that could be "controlled" in much healthier, more creative ways. 

I find it ironic and sad that the arts are being erased from many public school curricula and you even hear reports of schools eliminating outside activity in the playground because of crime and liability issues.  So, we silence the music, silence the recess bells of play, and provide a pill that fogs the mind... it's beyond sad, this really makes me angry.

I am not a futurist, but I am a social observer so I'm going to make a prediction based on my observations.  The chickens will someday come home to roost.  These drugged children will grow up and will become anti-doctor, and anti-prescription drugs, and in a very angry and active way.  

Jack Huber, Character in Jack's Notebook, Comes ALIVE in Twitter!

It's weird and otherworldly.  It's kinda now, kinda wow, and definitely ground-breaking in the industry.  What's happening is the main character in my business parable has decided to have a real-time existence in Twitter.  Call it Flash Fiction, call it a miracle, call it a reason to live, but those who accept his invitation -- his name is Jack Huber -- will be getting 140 character or less messages from a fictional character who is concerned with creativity, problem solving, photography, and his girl friend Molly Dunne.  

Just thought everyone should know, it took me by surprise.  Don the Idea Guy gave me this idea because, well, that's what he does.

If you want to get Jack's Messages, let me know and I'll ask him.  Can't guarantee anything, he has a mind of his own...

The Time Has Come for a National Innovation Foundation

As another recession is getting started and the USA watches more manufacturing go overseas one wonders when we'll do something to get off our bums and be more competitive and retain jobs.  

Well, somebody is at least thinking about it.  A think tank issued a press release today recommending that a National Innovation Foundation should be created, and funded, in order to help the USA compete and drive growth.  See the release here:

www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_9023834

I'm glad that the ITIF (see www.itif.org) came out with this suggestion, although it strikes me as a bit obvious.  One wonders why this wasn't done 15 years ago.  The Bush administration, in it's infinite wisdom on support of small business, is trying to eliminate the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a government entity trying to assist companies in modernizing their operations.  Congress has kicked around a couple of ideas, such as the America Competes Act, but without funding where could that go and what could it achieve?

Susan Collins, Republican senator from Maine, is working now to create an innovation foundation.  

I would hope that whoever is elected would support this important initiative.

Are you listening Barack, John, and Hillary? 

Last Night at the Lobster

If you want to read a wonderfully tasty, short, and elegant piece of creative fiction, go immediately to Amazon and order Stewart O'Nan's "Last Night at the Lobster."  About every five years or so I read something so well done, so heart felt, that I can't put it down.  This is it, I only wish it had gone on another 100 pages, it totals about 145.  Sometimes the best things are fundamental, and this book proves it.  A simple premise -- a restaurant manager walks through his last day at the Red Lobster, a place he manages with passion and grace.  Corporate is closing him down and the book is infused with melancholy, and yet, it's hopeful as well.  The co-workers and customers aren't characters, they are people you know. Creative writing can be inspirational when it's this good and therefore good for your entire creative self.  Do yourself a favor and read this succulent novella and nourish yourself.

AC Clarke, Sci Fi Writer, Creative Visionary

A brief post to honor and celebrate the life of the late, great, and highly creative, Sir Arthur C. Clarke.  Clarke died yesterday, March 19, 2008 at the age of 90.  

He is best known for his science fiction writing, specifically the short story, The Sentinel, that led to the seminal film "2001:A Space Odyssey." It is not widely known that Clarke was something of an inventor/technologist having articulated the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays -- in 1945. To say that this was a good idea -- as it lead to them actually being used in that fashion and also set up the conduit used by cable television services like HBO to distribute content all over the world. Another prediction he made is the building of a space elevator, which he believed will make space shuttles obsolete. Clarke wrote about 34 novels, over 12 short story collections numerous non-fiction articles, and worked on several notable television programs.

"The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible."

Sir Arthur C. Clarke