Sep 082013
 

colored_pencils

Creative Diversity

I’ve started taking this Coursera course ambitiously called Creativity, Innovation and Change.

As part of the first class, Dr. Kathryn W. Jablokow (Penn State University) introduced us to the concept of Creative Diversity and more specifically Creative Style.

The good news according to Jablokow is that EVERYBODY is creative and she goes on to dispel 2 myths:


Two Myths about creativity


Myth #1: Only some people are creative (this is at the core of this whole blog!).

We need to dispel the myth that “only some people are creative” where people are classified as creative and non-creative typically based on one’s main occupation.

Artists, musicians, writers? Creative!

Engineers, accountants, plumbers, science teachers? Non creative!

If we define creativity as ” bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before”, then why would the domain in which the idea came into being matter?

Anyone can show creativity in art but also engineering, plumbing or gardening.

Myth #2: Only certain kinds of ideas are creative.

We often think of “creative ideas” as breakthrough ideas, revolutionary inspirations, out-of-the box strikes of genius.

But there’s another kind of creativity; one that is more evolutionary (vs. revolutionary). The kind that comes out of refining/combining previous ideas or digging deeper into a problem. Out of it comes from new insights.

One is not better than the other and in fact we need both because they are interrelated. Both evolutionary and  revolutionary ideas feed each other into a never-ending vortex of creativity.
In the second part of the class, Jablokow describes the “Creative Diversity Model”, which is based on the research of important scholars like Michael Kirton, Robert Sternberg, and Teresa Amabile. The model’s view on creativity is more inclusive and more precise.


Four Creative Diversity Principles


It starts with the first four principles: (reproduced verbatim from first week’s class lecture)

Creative Diversity Principle #1: All people are creative. 

Everyone, of every age and profession, from birth until death – everyone is creative. The source of creativity is in every individual, whether they are working alone or in a small group or in a large organization. They may have a few ideas or a lot of them; those ideas may be revolutionary or evolutionary, simple or complex. The only people who are not creative are, well … dead.

Creative Diversity Principle #2: Creativity is diverse.
In other words, we recognize that while all people are creative, they are NOT creative in the same way. There are many different versions or “flavors” of creativity. There isn’t just one kind of idea or one approach to solving problems, but many – a wide range of possibilities across the human race. So, how do we describe this creative diversity?

Creative Diversity Principle #3: Creative diversity is described by four key variables:
Given our assumption that creativity is different across individuals, we need a way to describe those differences. Michael Kirton, a British psychologist, has come up with an elegant way to do this. We’re going to use four variables:

  1. Creative level – Creative level is related to your mental capacity . In other words, it’s related to the size and the shape of the “mental bucket” you have between your ears –and what you have stored in that bucket at any particular time! You are filling up your mental bucket from the moment you are born until the moment you die. We measure creative level using things like intelligence, aptitude, knowledge, skill, and experience .  So, you may have a special talent for music, or you may have a strong aptitude for math. You may be skilled in drawing, while your friend has experience in computer programming. All these differences will affect your creativity: we tend to be creative in proportion to our creative level.
  2. Creative style – Creative style is your preferred way of managing and using all the creative level you have acquired. In other words, it’s your preference for how you go about solving problems and bringing about change. Like other cognitive preferences, you are born with your creative style; it doesn’t change over time, although you can do things in ways that don’t match up with your style.  Some people have a more structured creative style, while others prefer a less structured approach to change. It’s actually measured across a wide spectrum. People with a more structured creative style are more likely to offer evolutionary ideas, while people with a less structured creative style are more likely to offer revolutionary ideas. All of them are creative – but in different ways!
  3. Motive – Motive is what channels our energy as we move through life. Our creativity is affected by what motivates us and whether that motivation is present. People are motivated by different things, like money, or helping others, or achieving recognition. Depending on what motivates you, you’ll put more or less energy into what you do, and that will affect your creative contributions.
  4. Opportunity – Finally, opportunity is the availability of a problem to solve and how we perceive it. Sometimes we have access to an opportunity that others don’t, or we recognize a situation as an opportunity when others think it isn’t interesting. Those perceptions also affect our creativity and how we think about the environment around us.

Creative Diversity Principle #4: There is no ideal kind of creativity. 
In other words, no particular creative level, or creative style, or motive, or view of opportunity is better than any other in general. The kind of creativity that’s most appropriate or most effective depends on the situation – that is, on the current problem you are trying to solve.

Sometimes you need a radical idea – but not always. Sometimes you need an evolutionary idea – but not always. Sometimes you need an idea that has elements of both revolutionary and evolutionary thinking! Sometimes you need a certain type of knowledge, skill or talent – perhaps at a high level, perhaps at a low level. Motives change depending on the situation, and you may have different opinions about the importance of an opportunity.

All of these options lead to change. All of them represent some form of creativity, and in some combination, they represent YOU.


Creative Types: adaptive / innovative


Later during the class we were invited to fill out a survey in order to determine where we fit on the adaptor/innovator continuum scale. On one side of the scale, the label adaptive given to those who have the ability to “do things better” and on the opposite side the label innovative for the ability to “do things differently”. Here’s more information excerpted from http://www.kaicentre.com/OK.htm

Adaptor

Innovator

Safe, reliable, methodical Disciplined and efficient
Masters detail
Prefers defined problems
Rarely challenges the rules; solves probles by use of rule
Seeks consensus, values group cohesion
Does things better
Provides balance when working with innovator
Thinks in risky, unexpected ways
Little respect for past custom – seen as irrelevant
Trades off detail for over-view
Questions definition of problem
Often challenges the rules; solves probles despite  rule
Can appear insensitive, even abrasive, to group cohesion
Does things differently
Provides dynamics for radical change

 

I found out that I was more or less in the middle of the scale. See below:

cic-images-KAI Bell Curve

For more information on the topic check out M.J. Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation: In the Context of Diversity and Change or visit: http://www.kaicentre.com/

As the course progresses, I will report in this blog if I run into a topic worthy of a LightBulbBite!

In the meantime, let me ask you a question. Where do you see yourself as a creative person? More on the adaptor or innovator side?

[Photo credits: Darren Harvey)

Aug 252013
 

drill-sergeant-meditation

Meditation Makes You More Creative!

(This is the second installment of my “Unconventional Innovation Boot Camp” series)

ARE YOU BRAINDEAD, TRAINEE?! I’m going to make innovators out of you! Drop down, sit with your legs crossed and do some MEDITATION!

Ugh?! Read on…

A recent study, has shown that certain meditation techniques can promote creative thinking. The study, conducted by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato at Leiden University, clearly demonstrates that meditation is not only for relaxation but can have long-lasting effect on human cognition including the much coveted creativity that every innovator should care about.

I could also drop names from the likes of Steve Jobs (who encouraged Apple’s employees to learn meditation to “boost their creativity“) or Oprah Winfrey (who practices Transcendental Meditation) or David Lynch (who started meditation in 1973, and says “It has given me effortless access to unlimited reserves of energy and creativity“), but I will let the study speak for itself.


Two main ingredients of creativity:

divergent and convergent thinking


As reported in this blog before, creativity is often seen as having 2 main ingredients:  divergent and convergent styles of thinking. The study investigated the influences of 2 different types of  meditative techniques: Open Monitoring meditation and Focused Attention meditation. The researchers matched and measured the 2 techniques as follows:

Creativity Ingredient Meditative Technique
Divergent thinking
Divergent thinking allows many new ideas to be generated. It is measured using the so-called Alternate Uses Task method where participants are required to think up as many uses as possible for a particular object, such as a pen.
In Open Monitoring meditation the individual is receptive to all the thoughts and sensations experienced without focusing attention on any particular concept or object.This technique helped the participants perform better in divergent thinking, and generated more new ideas than previously 
Convergent thinking
Convergent thinking, on the other hand, is a process whereby one possible solution for a particular problem is generated. This method is measured using the Remote Associates Task method, where three unrelated words are presented to the participants, words such as ‘time’, ‘hair’ and ‘stretch’. The participants are then asked to identify the common link: in this case, ‘long’.
In Focused Attention meditation the individual focuses on a particular thought or object.Unfortunately, this technique had no significant effect on convergent thinking leading to resolving a problem. 

 

If you are not convinced by this single study, there are actually hundreds of studies all pointing in the same direction: there’s a strong link between meditation and creativity.


Tons of scientific studies on meditation


Of course, if you were to approach a Tibetan monk, and ask him whether he meditates for the sake of creativity, he will probably give you one of his typical smiles. People practicing meditation do it for a whole range of reasons since its benefits, both psychological (for stress, anxiety, cognitive function, depression, addiction, problem eating, focus, clarity, etc… ) and physiological (blood pressure, pain, stress markers, cellular health, sleep), have also been amply studied and are now being espoused by Western doctors, psychologists, etc…

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years and the techniques themselves are fairly simple to master.  That’s one of the wonderful things about meditation; it’s easy yet so profound since it can literally change our brain both structurally and functionally thanks to what is called neuroplasticity. Here’s a fascinating study from the NIH describing how one can alter one’s brain using meditation.


Google embraces Mindfulness Meditation


Such overwhelming scientific evidence hasn’t gone unnoticed by corporations interested in the overall well-being of its employees. Google for example has been promoting meditation for many years because of its many benefits but principally because of what is called: Emotional Intelligence (EI), vs. IQ, EI has been shown to be a great predictor of job performance.

Google is in fact such a believer in the powers of meditation that it has open-sourced its meditation program through the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, so that individuals and corporations can benefit from the techniques of meditation that they have perfected. For more information, I would recommend that you read Google Chade-Meng Tan‘s wonderful book: Search Inside Yourself which advocates Mindfulness Meditation.

Some people might be reluctant to start meditation because they find it too “sect-like” or think that it requires them to switch their religious belief system. Nothing could be further from the truth in most cases! The same way one can practice yoga without believing in any of the Hindu gods, meditation and its many benefits can be experienced without any spiritual shift.


Do you want to try? Follow this mini-primer


If you wish to get a sample of what meditation feels like, here’s a mini-primer (inspired by the SIY book mentioned above)

  1. Find a place where you can sit comfortably (a train/subway/bus is actually OK)
  2.  Take three slow, deep breaths to inject both energy and relaxation
  3. Now, breathe naturally and bring a very gentle attention to your breath by either focusing on your nostrils, abdomen or the entire body.
  4. Be aware of the in breath and out breath and the space in between.
  5. Think of this exercise as resting the mind on the breath. You can visualize the breath to be a pillow or a resting place, and let the mind rest on it.
  6. Just be.
  7. (This is important!) If at any time, you feel distracted by a sensation, thought or sound, just acknowledge it, experience it and very gently let it go. Then, bring your attention very gently back to the breathing. It will happen over and over again. Don’t look down on yourself as a result. Just keep on bring your attention back
  8. Feel free to continue as long as you want or better set a gentle alarm to let you know that the 5 or 10 minutes are over.

Are you convinced yet?

If you are interested to find out more, I would suggest that you read Search Inside Yourself or Google “meditation” since there are many resources out there. For example, headspace (and its related mobile app) offers a free program to teach you some of the basics in 10 days, 10 minutes a day.

Interested in pursuing meditation? Or maybe you already are a avid practitioner? Either way, I would love to hear from you. Please do share your thoughts in the comments section below.

May 282013
 

MBTI wheel

 

The reputable MBTI personality test to help you know yourself and others

 

 

 

Blurred signature

 

If you have ever received a work email from me, I’m wondering if you have ever noticed the last line of my signature? It looks like this:

It’s two URLs (highlighted in yellow here) and if you were to click on them you would find out that I’m an INTP-type person according to the well-known and respected Myers-Briggs test (based on the theories of Carl Jung).

The history behind this is that many years ago, my company invested money and effort to get a lot of people through the Myers & Briggs test and training.The rationale of knowing that type in the workplace were manifold but mainly:

(inspired by http://www.myersbriggs.org/type-use-for-everyday-life/mbti-type-at-work/)


The rationale behind the MBTI® personality test


 

  • Know thyself:

When you understand your type preferences, you can approach your own work in a manner that best suits your style, including how you manage your time, problem solving, best approaches to decision making, and dealing with stress. Knowledge of type can help you deal with the culture of the place you work, the development of new skills, understanding your participation on teams, and coping with change in the workplace. If your work involves selling, knowledge of type can be helpful in understanding what clients need from you, especially how they best like to learn about products and services and how they like to interact during the process of gathering information and making decisions.

  • support many different functions and situations including managing others, development of leadership skills, organizing tasks, creation and management of teams, training for management and staff, conflict resolution, motivation, executive coaching, diversity, recognition and rewards, and change management.

The rationale then is still very valid now.
The reason I’m bringing this up is that recently while researching my son’s type in order to help find a future college major (he’s 16), I found a website that allows you to take the test, for FREE. I took it and it arrived at the same conclusion that the professional tester did when she administered the test to me…. Minus the $$$ my company spent.


Take the test


I would encourage anyone to take the FREE (yet pretty thorough) test at http://www.mypersonality.info/basic-vs-pro/personality-type-test (it requires you to create a login but they have a “zero spam policy”).
If enough people take it and are interested in sharing their test, I think it would be pretty cool to create, in your organization, a wiki/SharePoint page listing everyone and their associated personality type.

If you do take the test, the website will produce a nice summary chart like this one:

INTP chart for me

If you end up being INTP, I’m sure that you’ll agree that INTPs rock!
Take it and let me know…

And for those who know me and thought that I was an extrovert, you’ll come to the realization that I’m a good faker. 🙂

May 072013
 

Socrates can still teach us a thing or two about idea sharing

Socrates re: idea sharing

This LBB is once again inspired by Michael Michalko‘s brilliant book: Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking techniques.

In ancient Greece, Socrates and his friends spent years freely meeting and conversing with each other, having dialogues that helped shape Western civilization. They exchanged ideas without trying to change the other’s mind and without bitter argument. They felt free to propose whatever was on their mind. They always paid attention to each other’s views and established an extraordinary fellowship. Socrates and his friends bound themselves by principles of discussion to maintain a sense of collegiality. These principles were known as “Koinonia,” which means “spirit of fellowship” (no religious connotation here).

The principles they devised were to establish dialogue, be collegial (thinking of others as equals), clarify your thinking, and be honest


Socrates’s 4 principles on how to share ideas


I) Establish dialogue. In Greek, the word dialogue means a “talking through.” The Greeks believed that the key to establishing dialogue is to exchange ideas without trying to change someone’s mind. This is not the same as discussion, which from its Latin root means to “dash to pieces.” The basic rules of dialogue for the Greeks were: “don’t argue,” “don’t interrupt,” and “listen carefully.”

II) Be collegial (thinking of others as equals). All participants must regard each another as equal colleagues, even if they have nothing in common.

It is important because thought is participative. Any controlling authority, no matter how carefully presented, will tend to inhibit the free play of thought. If one person is used to having his view prevail because she is the most senior person present, then she must surrender that privilege. If one person is used to being silent because he is more junior, then he must surrender the security of keeping quiet.

III) Clarify your thinking. To clarify your thinking, you must suspend all assumptions. Free thought is blocked if our thoughts and opinions are based on assumptions. For instance, if you believe certain people are not creative, you’re not likely to give their ideas fair consideration. Check you assumptions about everything and maintain an unbiased view.

IV) Be honest. Say what you think. Socrates and his followers believed Koinonia allowed a group to access a larger pool of common thoughts that could not be accessed individually. Through Koinonia, a new kind of thinking starts to come into being, based on the development of common thoughts. People are no longer in opposition but are participants in a pool of common ideas that are capable of constant development and change.

 

So, even though your goal might not be to reshape Western civilization, the next time you are in a ideation/brainstorming session, try to keep those guidelines in mind.

It worked for Socrates.

[Photo credit:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASocrates_Louvre.jpg]

May 022013
 

 

5_innovation_books_large

Whether you have been thinking about innovation for a while or want to get a good sense of the current playing field in academia, business or non-profit, reading a few good books is a brilliant way to inspire and guide you.

There are many books out there but I can’t read them all, so here’s my humble selection of books related to innovation that I read (or listened to thanks to audible.com) that have resonated with me:

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Whether you already work for or own a start-up or business, this is a fantastic book.
It’s very inspiring and has a ton of great, practical advice to take you to the next step.
The book is full of technical tips and information, as well as real-life stories that make the book come alive.
The central idea of the book is to develop a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in order to get feedback from clients as early as possible. The feedback will tell you how to improve the product or “pivot” altogether toward another better/product.

The Little Black Book of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It
There’s a saying telling us that in life there’s no short-cut but this book might prove that is wrong. It’s goal is to attempt to summarize the field of innovation. In this book, the author Scott D. Anthony strikes the right balance between clearly explaining the “state of the union” re: the theory of innovation as far as academia is concerned and his own experiences as an innovator himself and as a teacher on the topic.
Armed with wit and a gift for clearly explaining complex topic, the author does a brilliant job at making the discipline of innovation both appealing and inspiring.

The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
If you have heard the expression “Disruptive Innovation”, you have to thank Clayton Christensen, the author of this book, for coining it. His seminal work was “The Innovator’s Dilemma” (in 1997) where he set the stage for his Disruptive Innovation theory. This more recent book is a continuation of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” where Christensen offers further thoughts on what make innovations disruptive.
Christensen being a Harvard professor, his assertions are backed by plenty of academic references (his own and others’).
The key idea is that even if a organization does everything right it will be at risk of attacks from a disruptive innovator with a “game changer” that is simpler, more accessible and more affordable.
This book tells how to guard from such attacks and/or become the disruptive innovator.
(BTW, no need to buy “The Innovator’s Dilemma” since the author summarizes it nicely in this book)

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
This brilliant book exposes us to the strategies that the world-famous design firm IDEO uses to foster innovative thinking, throughout its organization.
Tom Kelley, the founder of  IDEO, offers a lot of advice his this book for any organization that is serious about innovation. He masterfully mixes engaging anecdotes and business cases borrowed from his 20+ years of experience managing IDEO.
The main idea is that it takes more than one type of person to make innovation happen in an organization: from the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to the Caregiver who’s the foundation of human-powered innovation. Of course, one person can be more than one of those 10 faces.

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries
The premise behind this engaging book from Peter Sims is that successful, innovative men and organizations became that way by methodically taking small, experimental steps in order to discover, test and develop new ideas.
Planning a project around one big idea is risky because it’s almost impossible to determine whether it will succeed as-is.
The approach that the author recommends is to make a series of little bets in the general direction of the initial idea. By implementing those bets, one can then learn from small failures or great wins in order to lead the idea/innovation toward an inevitable success.

Have you read any of these books? Or do you want to talk about them, please feel free to use the comment section below.

Also, do you have one or more favorite books on innovation that is not listed above? Please do share!

Apr 172013
 

Procrastination be gone! Use written goals.


goals settings

Source: http://www.briantracy.com/

You’ve decided to be more creative, and you want to do something about it; maybe read more books on a variety of topic unknown to you in order to broaden your horizons. Or maybe it’s to travel more, learn how to sketch, pick up a new language (human or programming), etc… Whatever your goals are, you are very motivated to achieve them… the first day or maybe the first week and then procrastination sets in.

According to Brian Tracy in his best-selling book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, you need written goals.

Brian Tracy claims that only about 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five or ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want.

There is a powerful formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use for the rest of your life. It consists of seven simple steps. Any one of these steps can double and triple your productivity if you are not currently using it.

 


7 steps of the formula


 

  1. Decide exactly what you want. Either decide for yourself or sit down with your boss and discuss your goals and objectives until you are crystal clear about what is expected of you and in what order of priority.
  2. Write it down. Think on paper. When you write down a goal, you crystallize it and give it tangible form. You create something that you can touch and see. On the other hand, a goal or objective that is not in writing is merely a wish or a fantasy. It has no energy behind it.
  3. Set a deadline on your goal; set sub deadlines if necessary. A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency. It has no real beginning or end. Without a definite deadline, you will naturally procrastinate and get very little done.
  4. Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new activities, add them to your list. Keep building your list until it is complete. A list gives you a visual picture of the larger task or objective. It gives you a track to run on.
  5. Organize the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence. Take a few minutes to decide what you need to do first and what you can do later. With a written goal and an organized plan of action, you will be far more productive and efficient than people who are carrying their goals around in their minds.
  6. Take action on your plan immediately. Do something. Do anything. An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done.
  7. Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal. Build this activity into your daily schedule. You may decide to read a specific number of pages on a key subject. You may call on a specific number of prospects or customers. You may engage in a specific period of physical exercise. Whatever it is, you must never miss a day.

Keep pushing forward. Once you start moving, keep moving. Don’t stop. This decision, this discipline alone, can dramatically increase your speed of goal accomplishment and boost your personal productivity.

 

Apr 142013
 

Your brainstorming sessions are going nowhere?
Try these improv techniques


Improv techniques

Source: http://bit.ly/10VOBQc

First of all, I should say that those improv techniques don’t involve having you stand up in front of an audience with a mic in hand and a stool at your side. It’s much less involving than that. In fact, they are extremely simple and yet incredibly effective. Read on to find out more.

We’ve all been in those meetings either at work, in the classroom, in a family gathering deciding on a vacation together, or in a community group where we need to generate new ideas and come up with an agreement on those ideas. Very often, we witness some brave souls offering their ideas, to have them rebuked with a harsh “NO!” or its sneaky cousin “yes, BUT…”.

At that point, whatever creativity flow was in the room screeches to a dead stop or is replaced by a confrontational back-and-forth where all parties hunker down and are dead set on defending their ideas and ignoring any other ideas. In the end, the strong personalities end up imposing their ideas. The end result: very few ideas are generated, egos get hurt and everyone comes out frustrated.

What if there is a better way that would remove the risk of  strong personalities or personal glory getting in the way of the creative process? A way where everyone has to actually listen to the members of the group’s ideas and be willing to embrace them for at least a little bit? A way where everyone involved ends up looking good?


3 simple improv techniques


Those techniques come from the world of improvisation where creativity and flow of ideas is paramount. They have been taught for decades to aspiring comedians (think Steve Colbert) and recently to a much more diverse audience ranging from adventurous business leaders, to nerds, to husband/wife in couple therapy.

The techniques (actually more they are more like guidelines) are incredibly simple:

  1. Use “yes, AND…” (vs. “no!” and “yes, BUT…”) because it forces you to listen to the other person’s ideas and to accept their idea (even if it’s just for a bit) in order to allow you to build on it. It’s about acceptance. Knowing that everyone will have to accept your idea as part of the exercise will embolden you to offer more creative ideas instead of sticking to safe suggestions.
  2. Accept every offer. That’s one of the cardinal rule of improvisation. Go with the flow and never antagonize the person who suggested the idea.
  3. Make the others look good. This gets your ego out of the way. Establish the rule to make your counterpart look good and shed some positive light on their best ideas.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of those improv techniques. They do work and not solely on the stage of comedy clubs.

So, the next time you are in a group setting, seeking to generate ideas, offer those 3 guidelines at the beginning of meeting and witness how the dynamics of the group will radically improve. You will be surprised by how well the techniques work.

Have you have ever tried those techniques?  Will you try them in the future and share the outcome? I’d love to hear your feedback ! Use the comment section below.

Mar 302013
 

Forget the elevator pitch! It’s so 20th century.


Say no to the elevator pitch!

Credit: http://bit.ly/ZKgaNB

Everybody has heard of the elevator pitch. Dale Carnegie advised us to be ever ready with our “elevator speech” in case we encountered the big boss. Thankfully, companies have become much more democratic and you often have more opportunities to present your ideas to the “suits”.

In his new book To Sell Is Human Daniel Pink introduces us to what he calls: the six successors to the elevator pitch. The overall claim of the book is that “selling” is no longer a dirty word or is no longer associated to the repulsive image of a sleazy, shady, slimy used-car salesman. According to Pink, everyone is now in the business of selling or rather living in a world where the skills of convincing or persuading are becoming essential, to everyone.

The book’s chapter called “pitch” is particularly compelling and I would like to share with you what resonated with me.


6 compelling ways to pitch your ideas


1) the one-word pitch. Inspired by the advertizing agency Saatchi & Saatchi’s “one-word equity“, its claim is that in the 21st century, the attention span is so short that we need the “brutal simplicity of thought”. Think “search” for Google, or Obama’s “forward”. If you can find that one (positive!) word and the world starts associating that word with you or your company, you have it made.

2) the question pitch. Asking your audience a question often packs more punch than your typical declarative statement. Example: Reagan didn’t say “your economic situation has deteriorated over the last 48 months”. Instead he asked the famous question: “Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?”. Asking a question compels to respond and that in turn provokes a deeper, more intensive processing of the message content.

3) the rhyming pitch. This pitch relies on rhymes which boost what linguists and cognitive scientists call processing fluency. Rhymes “taste good” to our minds and make the content of the message more palatable and more memorable. If you were around during the O.J. Simpson’s trail, I’m sure you’ll remember Johnnie Cochran’s (in?)famous pitch about a certain glove: “if it doesn’t fit… you must acquit!”. So if you want your message to stick, use rhymes.

4) the subject-line pitch. When you think about it, every email message is some kind of pitch, with every subject-lines in your mailbox vying for your attention… “click me!”. According to a study conducted at CMU, email readers based their decision whether to open an email on 2 main factors: utility (it affects your work) or  curiosity (curious about what the email is about), where utility taps into extrinsic motivation and curiosity taps into intrinsic motivation. Pink provided 2 examples: the useful “Found the best & cheapest photocopier” and the intriguing “A photocopy breakthrough”.

5) the twitter pitch. Pink uses the example of the investor Stowe Boyd who, while heading to a conference to meet start-up companies, asked the eager entrepreneurs seeking a meeting with him to pitch their idea via Twitter, i.e. in 140 characters or less. Scientists studying the Twitter medium found that the tweets that were the most attention-grabbing asked questions to the followers, proving again the potent nature of the interrogative form (see 2) above) to engage and persuade.

6) the Pixar pitch. No need to introduce the animation studio behind so many animated movies, Pixar. One of the reasons for Pixar’s success is attributed to the way movie ideas are pitched, using the following 6 sequential sentences:

Once upon a time, ____________________________________________________________.

Every day, _________________________________. One day _________________________

____________________________. Because of that, ________________________________.

Because of that, _____________________________________________________________.

Until finally, ________________________________________________________________.

The book then goes on about advice on how to pitch but you will have to buy the book, or ask me to summarize that part in an upcoming post.

I will just leave you with the most important of his advice:  after someone hears your pitch…

  1. what do you want them to know?
  2. what do you want them to feel?
  3. what do you want them to do?

You now have 6 new ways of pitching. How will you pitch your next idea?

Mar 192013
 

A great ideas is only one component of the persuasion cocktail


Persuasion: ethos, pathos, logos

Credits: http://bit.ly/11gANVh

So, you have a great idea and you are convinced that everyone will readily recognize it as such. Think again!

As this TED-Ed (What Aristotle and Joshua Bell can teach us about persuasion) brilliantly demonstrates it, persuasion takes more than just idea/argument greatness.
The quick video recounts the story of the famed virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell who, 3 days after a much acclaimed performance at a packed Boston Symphony Hall, decided to play for an audience of… nobody. That performance was taking place in the subway station where barely a handful of people slowed down to listen to his music. People were actually ignoring him.

What happened?

Same music played by the same musician, with the same passion, on the same violin?
Conor Neill (the author of the TED-Ed video) tells us that Aristotle would have been able to explain… more than 2300 years ago!


Aristotle’s time-tested 3-part persuasion recipe


What does it take to convince people? That’s the topic of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and it boils down to the 3 means of persuasion: logos, ethos and pathos.

  1. Logos: does the idea/argument makes sense to the audience,  from the audience’s point of view? Does it follow a certain logic, the same way that good music follows certain good composition rules? Is the idea relevant to the audience?
  2. Ethos: Ethos is all about reputation, credibility, acting professionally, and being trustworthy. Do you care about the audience as much as yourself? Do you convey a sense of authority: a mix of confidence with a concise/clear message
  3. Pathos: Pathos is the emotional connection. Stories are a potent human tool to create an emotional connection. Sometime, the audience is not ready to hear your message/idea. A good speaker creates the right emotional environment for his/her message to connect with the audience.

What happened to Joshua Bell and what often happens to us when we try to sell our ideas is that we may have a great logos, but ethos and pathos are missing.
In the case of Joshua, the subway station didn’t convey the same sense of trustworthiness that a concert hall does (ethos). The emotional bond between the well-light, lone violinist on stage  and his concert hall audience didn’t exist in the hustle and bustle of the busy/noisy subway station (pathos).

So, the next time you try to sell your next great idea, how will  you build credibility and emotional connection?

PS: Have you been in the same predicament as Joshua Bell? Any tips on how to work up an awesome ethos/pathos like nobody’s business? Share it by leaving a comment below.

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Mar 102013
 

A very creative way to promote ideas within a group:
Mutual Fun


In the following video, Professor Hayagreeva Rao from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, delivers the message that killing ideas is way more important that collecting ideas.

Now, there’s the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it.

In most companies, the decision of promoting or killing ideas is left in the hands of a small committee  referred as the “Murder Board” by Professor Rao. According to Professor Rao, the murder board ‘s decisions may come across as arbitrary and in the worst cases subject those proposing the ideas to ridicule, humiliation and rejection, thereby killing their initiative. As a result, people watching those actions will become reluctant to suggest ideas in the future. The end result is that the smart people who were hired by those same companies become “dumb” or rather mute/silent.

To me the most interesting idea brought up by the video is the case-study of the company Rite Solutions. Their brilliant idea is to organize all the company’s idea into a “Stock Market for Collective Genius” that they call: Mutual Fun (no “d”).

 


3 principles behind mutual fun


In a nutshell, the concept behind Mutual Fun is organized around these 3 principles:

  • Every employee is given $10,000 of “opinion money” to buy savings bonds and stocks
  • Originators of ideas (either conservative or far-out ideas) are encouraged to develop “expect-us” (prospectus) and get “prophets” to get stock listed
  • Others can buy stocks, offer suggestions, and volunteer time.

Low-quality ideas don’t find “prophets” or are quickly eliminated for lack of support. However, since those ideas have been viewed by many employees, they may become the material for new ideas which might get more traction.

Anybody can suggest ideas and Professor Rao recalls that the receptionist of the company for example had 2 ideas in the Mutual Fun.

Rite Solutions developed some pretty sophisticated tools to show the “stocks” and stock activity in the Mutual Fun with charts, news stories, levels of funding, etc… to help stock owners to manage their stock portfolio.

So, instead of solely relying on the opinion of a few individual (the murder board), Rise Solutions was able to tap into the wisdom of the company as a whole by looking at the ideas that rise to the top of the Mutual Fun market. Those ideas then get fully funded with real money (called “adventure capital”, cute) to implement the ideas contained in those stocks.

I wish such a tool existed as Open Source for other companies like mine to use.

Maybe something for me to work on…

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