STRATEGY CENTRAL

If you’re like me, few things are as appealing as a book about the creative process.  If it’s a book that helps unlock creativity…it’s even better.  That’s why when I heard about Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio…I placed the order that day!  And I wasn’t disappointed!

Created by artist and designer Noah Scalin, Unstuck isn’t really a book.  It’s actually more like a set of 52 creative projects or assignments that prompt the creative process…in surprising ways.  It shouldn’t be a surprise, I guess.  Scalin is perhaps best known for his skull-a-day project (sounds weird…really more of a creativity driving process).

The projects are designed in such a way as to allow for very quick implementation (30 seconds to two minutes, medium engagement (2 minutes to 30 minutes) and longer involvement (an hour or more).  Beyond a range of time involved, the projects also can be done in a variety of locations (home, work, anywhere).

There’s a wide variety of projects, too.  Some involve basic drawing, others are word projects, and some involve creative assembly of some kind.  For a creative wannabe like me…it’s a great set of exercises.  My favorite (and yet still in process)?  The Creativity Shrine!  Trust me…it’s on the way!

This is a great little creativity booster.  Can’t wait to work my way through it!  You can order your copy right here.

Steve Jobs is gone…but there’s is something about the Think Different commercial that is so powerful.  Every time I see it, I’m reminded again of the intangible creativity and innovative design vision that Steve brought to the table.

Can’t see the video? You can watch it right here. (HT Scott Williams)

There are books I know I’ll read once (all or part) and then there are books that I know I’ll pull off my shelves many times.  Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers is the latter.

Written by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie, Designing for Growth really does have a toolkit feel.  It also has a very good, beginning to end, way of laying out how you might ask four invaluable questions: What is? (exploring current reality), What if? (envisions a new future), What wows? (makes some choices) and What works? (takes you into the marketplace).

I knew I needed to take a look when I saw Roger Martin’s comments on the jacket: “This intelligent how-to follow-up to the first wave of popular design books will serve as a useful guide to going through a design project from start to finish.”  If you remember, Martin was the author of one my favorite reads of 2009, The Design of Business.

In addition to the four questions, this toolkit includes ten tools that you’ll find immediately useful.  In fact, as I worked my way through Section II, What Is?, I found myself jotting notes about how I could use all four of the tools associated with that stage.

• Visualization: “using imagery to envision possibilities and bring them to life”
• Journey Mapping: “assessing the existing experience through the customer’s eyes”
• Value Chain Analysis: “assessing the current value chain that supports the customer’s journey”
• Mind Mapping: “generating insights from exploration activities and using those to create design criteria”

Far beyond descriptions of the ten tools, Designing for Growth includes detailed explanations of how to implement them.  And by the way, I noticed that even very business related concepts (like value chain analysis) have obvious tie-ins to what most of us do and the tools make application steps obvious.

If you caught the design-thinking wave of 2009-10 (The Design of Business, Change by Design, Design Thinking, Design-Driven Innovation, Innovation X) you will really get a lot out of this book.  Designing for Growth is not theory or reasoning.  Instead, it is a tactical playbook that has great application for all of us.

Okay…this is seriously cool.  If you’re interested in innovation, you’ve to check it out.  If you can’t see the video below, you can click here and watch it (HT Collide)

Carpetbagger: A Rare Look Inside Pixar Studios – nytimes.com/video from The New York Times on Vimeo.

Picked up a new book this week in my ongoing search for innovation ideas and strategies.  Innovation X, by Adam Richardson came to the top of the stack.  30 pages in, this is going to be a great addition to my thinking.

A creative director at frog design, Richardson has worked with companies like HP, Intel, Yahoo, Motorola, and Logitech.   In describing his work, he points out that much of his time is focused on “strategic issues and sitting down with executives and product managers whose fundamental question is, ‘What should we make?’

Sound familiar?  Aren’t many of us asking that same question?  What should we make? After all, if we’re mindlessly making the same product we’ve been making for years or generations…you probably have already lost the market.  So you’ve more than likely been tweaking the product, trying to stay relevant.

And yet…in many, many cases…tweaking the product has not worked.  It’s like we have missed the moment.

“But often,” he continues, “they do not even know exactly what the problem is they are trying to solve.”  That sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?  Don’t many of us feel like we know things aren’t right…but we’re not sure why.

This feels like a great book right at the outset.  Want to come along?  You can pick up your copy right here.

Think about the programs and products you are currently offering.  Think about the experiences you are currently offering to your customers. 

I know you might struggle to think about what you offer as program or product.  You may even have a little righteous indignation thinking about the word customer.  But if you want your organization to matter to the next generation of customers you need to spend some time thinking this way.

Reading Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value I tripped across this line:

“The services that product brands provide to their current customers were designed and developed to satisfy the lifestyle and values of their past customers (p. 122, Design Thinking).”

Go back and think again about all that your organization is offering.  Got it clearly in your mind’s eye?  Now ask yourself…how much of what you’re offering is designed to appeal to the people who aren’t your customers yet?

Craig Groeschel’s insightful comment that “If you want to reach people that no one else is reaching, you’re going to have to do things that no one else is doing” is born out of this understanding.

Perpetuating the programs and products…the experiences…that were designed to appeal to today’s customers, will eventually result in a disconnect.  To the extent that you’re offering programs, products and experiences that were designed to appeal to yesterday’s customers…the disconnect has already happened.

You can pick up your copy of Design Thinking right here.

How tuned in is your organization? I asked a friend who had just moved to a new organization, “How’s the new reality?”  He said, “To borrow a phrase from Leonard Sweet, I live in the Google Era, but my work environment is Gutenberg Era.”

Makes you think, doesn’t it?  How many of our organizations are operating as if the Gutenberg press was still an exciting new idea?  Okay…maybe none.  But how many are operating as if yesterday is still the present?

It’s not easy to stay up with the times. It is a challenge. But if you’re looking for help, I want to recommend Chief Culture Officer by Grant McCracken.

I don’t know about you…but I love the creativity of Duarte Designs.  Nancy Duarte and her team have created a consistent stream of very creative stuff for a long time.  Her book, slide:ology, is a really helpful part of my thinking when I have a presentation to do.  The Duarte Design blog is a great source of inspiration for me.

Here’s a recent slide presentation they prepared for the introduction of PowerPoint 2010:

One of the blogs I read almost everyday is Gaping Void by Hugh MacLeod.  Word of warning…sometimes often profane.  At the same time, Hugh’s insight is very keen.  Not every post or cartoon is dead on, but a lot of them are.  There are definitely times when you just have to nod your head.  There are other times when you have to think, “You are one crazy dude!”

His first book came out recently.  Ignore Everybody, a collection of 40 keys to creativity, is an engaging read and a good overview of the kind of thinking that will either get you in trouble…or onto an insanely great idea.

Need an example of Hugh’s brand of thinking?  Here’s one of my favorites:

If you are into marketing, innovation, creativity, etc., this is a book you might want to check out.  At the same time, you need to be aware that “Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships.  That’s why good ideas are always initially resisted (p. 2, Ignore Everybody).

“To reach people no one else is reaching we must do things no one else is doing.”

That line seems like a no-brainer.  Obvious.  And yet, when I heard Craig Groeschel say that at Willow’s Leadership Summit last year I scrambled to write it down and then had trouble thinking about anything else for the rest of the day.

“To reach people no one else is reaching we must do things no one else is doing.”  Got it.  Definitely.  Makes a lot of sense.  If what you’re doing right now is not reaching the people you’re trying to reach…then you’d probably want to try something different.

I want to figure out how to do that, which is why this diagram from Change by Design by Tim Brown leaped off the page when I saw it.

Here’s the gist.  When you’re preoccupied with the needs of your existing customers…you’ll focus your attention on providing incremental improvements.

If you want to do anything beyond the status quo, you’ll need to begin making evolutionary changes (extending beyond existing offerings or adapting to reach new users).

Really, Groeschel was referring to revolutionary innovation.  Maybe we find it difficult to reach people no one is reaching because we’re unwilling to go to the lengths of creating new venues and new methods that are beyond incremental.

Reacting to Craig Groeschel’s line, Andy Stanley said, “You can change the music, the style, dress different and take out the pews, they still aren’t going to be reached.”  If you want to reach people no one else is reaching, you’re going to have to do things no one else is doing.  You’re going to have to create.  Incremental change will never get it done.