Where Good Ideas Come From

 

In my years as a Wall Street strategy advisor and as a life-long student of that which propels us towards our greatest potential, I am fascinated by an interesting structural tension when it comes to personal and professional excellence.

We have at our finger tips, some of the greatest knowledge, tools and processes that can help propel people and organizations towards excellence and yet despite this vast wealth of information, many people (and the organizations they are associated with) struggle.

After exploring many theories over the years, I think I just realized why this is the case and I am staggered by the implications.

I have just finished reading “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson (author of “Everything Good is Bad For You” and “The Invention of Air”) and found the ideas contained within to be of staggering profundity.

A Different View on Creativity

With no offence intended towards well-intentioned individuals within organizations who come up with interesting ways to help us be more creative, I have often struggled with the value of some of the ideas they have come up with.  Some examples come to mind, including the time I flew across the country for a mandatory, all-hands meeting where we played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or another time when I travelled across the country for a mandatory meeting where the primary thing that was accomplished was a competition to see who could build a toy helicopter out of Lego Blocks the fastest.

When I asked people why we were doing these things, I was informed that it was to help us learn to be more creative.  I learned something alright but it was not what they hoped I had learned. By the way, I won the helicopter competition, so there are no sour grapes here. :-)

As I read Steven Johnson’s book, I realized why we struggle with how to be more creative.

It’s because we spend too much time trying to experience an extrinsic-centric learning event when we should be refining the foundational components of what makes a human being a source of unlimited creativity.

As I read his book, I realized why we are often more hit-than-miss when it comes to increasing our potential for creativity.  His book also helped me understand why our creativity sometimes grows in leaps and bounds while at other times, we seem unable to recreate this experience, making our growth in creativity seem frustratingly random or lucky.

Seven Key Principles

Mr. Johnson’s engaging writing style guides us through seven key areas that must be understood in order to maximize our creativity, the key areas being:

1. The adjacent possible – the principle that at any given moment, extraordinary change is possible but that only certain changes can occur (this describes those who create ideas that are ahead of their time and whose ideas reach their ultimate potential years later).

2. Liquid networks – the nature of the connections that enable ideas to be born, to be nurtured and to blossom and how these networks are formed and grown.

3. The slow hunch – the acceptance that creativity doesn’t guarantee an instant flash of insight but rather, germinates over time before manifesting.

4.Serendipity – the notion that while happy accidents help allow creativity to flourish, it is the nature of how our ideas are freely shared, how they connect with other ideas and how we perceive the connection at a specific moment that creates profound results.

5. Error – the realization that some of our greatest ideas didn’t come as a result of a flash of insight that followed a number of brilliant successes but rather, that some of those successes come as a result of one or more spectacular failures that produced a brilliant result.

6. Exaptation – the principle of seizing existing components or ideas and repurposing them for a completely different use (for example, using a GPS unit to find your way to a reunion with a long-lost friend when GPS technology was originally created to help us accurately bomb another country into oblivion).

7. Platforms – adapting many layers of existing knowledge, components, delivery mechanisms and such that in themselves may not be unique but which can be recombined or leveraged into something new that is unique or novel.

Insight That Resonates

Mr. Johnson guides the reader through each of these seven areas with examples that are relevant, doing so in a way that hits the reader squarely between the eyes.  I found myself on many an occasion exclaiming inwardly “This idea or example is brilliant in its obviousness and simplicity”. 

“Where Good Ideas Come From”  is a book that one must read with a pen or highlighter in hand as nuggets pop out and provide insight into past or current challenges around creativity and problem solving.

When someone decides to explore ways of helping you or your organization be more creative and they are getting ready to explore a rah-rah session, an offsite brain-storming session or they are looking to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, ask them if they have explored the foundational reasons behind what makes us creative.

And then buy a copy of this book for them.

I believe this book should be mandatory reading for every student, teacher and leader.

We are all students of Life.

We all at some point, teach others.

And if we accept that a leader is someone who influences others and we acknowledge that everyone influences someone at some point, then we are all leaders also.

Educational institutions, governments and corporations should make this book mandatory reading for everyone within their walls.

“Where Good Ideas Come From”  is a fun read as well as a profound one. 

May your creativity blossom as a result of exploring it.

Create a great day.

Harry

8 Ways to Great - Peak Performance on the Job and in Your Life

 

 

My inbox is awash these days with thoughts on New Year’s resolutions.  It’s either from friends telling me what theirs are, asking me what mine are (here’s a hint – I don’t make any) or from people promising a mystical way to make New Year’s resolutions manifest.

It’s all wonderful from the standpoint of tradition.

However, I think many people are once again being set up for their annual disappointment when their quest for the best job ever, the best weight-loss results ever or their “best whatever ” initiative fails to manifest for another year.

As a strategy advisor to Fortune 25 companies, I have watched many companies and projects also set out to achieve their best project ever, only to fail for the same reasons.

As human beings, we are more predictable than we would like to believe.

So when I first took a look at Dr. Doug Hirschhorn’s book “8 Ways to Great”, I thought “uh huh – another self improvement book to go into the pile of books promising me eternal youth, unlimited wealth, dinner with the Queen and the Pope and just about anything else people dream up.”

How wrong I was.

Dr. Hirschhorn is a performance coach and executive trainer who works with high achievers in the trading business.  He has conducted workshops at financial institutions and corporations across the US and has been a guest on many TV programs, including the Today show, The Big Idea, Fast Money and Power Lunch.  His background is as a trader AND a sports psychologist – a powerful combination when it comes to personal improvement.   This book is described as “hard hitting and pragmatic”.

With my many years on Wall Street, this background and description intrigued me.  My ultra-left-brained outlook on personal improvement needed to know more.  After all, I like to give others an occasional cranial defibrillation – I was overdue for one myself.

I was not disappointed.

As a matter of fact, it was Dr. Hirschhorn’s pragmatism as well as his deep insight that makes this book so powerful.

He opens with a powerful self-exploration of what your life passion is.  In other words - “Why do you think you are on this planet?”.  He doesn’t focus on what you think you do well,   After all, many of us do things well that we absolutely hate and therefore wouldn’t want to be trapped into a lifetime of doing it.  If I just inadvertently described you, then you REALLY need this book.

As the author notes:

There’s nothing magical about why why works.  It’s all a matter of perspective.  Knowing why you want to do something shifts your perspective from the negative to the positive.  Instead of getting that sinking feeling in your stomach because you’re asking “How am I ever going to be able to do this?” you’ll be buoyed up by knowing “I have to do this because …..”

In essence, if you can’t get passionate about it, how will you ever put the energy and action into it to produce the results you want and what will give you the fuel to persevere when you encounter challenges and obstacles?

All things being equal, your passion will carry you across the goal-line.

Having determined your “why”, the author walks you through the steps to translate your “why” into goals that follow the CHAMP® system.  Dr. Hirschhorn suggests that your goals must be:

1. Controllable
2. Hard
3. Accountable
4. Measurable
5. Positive

What a breath of fresh air this system is.  Most people go about setting goals that are fuzzy, indefinable, immeasurable or rely on some alignment of the stars or their personal connection to the cosmos.  No wonder when you meet these people every year, they are still working on manifesting the same goals (and you hear “but this year, it’s going to be different”).

Dr. Hirschhorn brings us back to reality – a way of defining goals that are within our ability to achieve.

In the rest of the book, he guides you through the steps to bringing your goals alive, to move towards them with unwavering precision and to grow your inner confidence as you achieve your goals and aspire towards greater ones.

As he guides you, he enlightens you on what he believes are The “8 Ways to Great”:

1. Let your true passion be your core motivation.

2. Develop self-awareness and use what you know about both your strengths and weaknesses.

3. Set goals and game plans-and learn to love this process, because it is all about the process.

4. Identify your competitive advantage-what sets you apart and what will turn the odds in your favor.

5. Develop inner confidence that keeps you from judging yourself based on other's standards and expectations.

6. Keep your cool-and don't let emotions dictate your decisions.

7. Take risks yet act intelligently with imperfect information.

8. Be accountable.

They are powerful when applied effectively!

Having this book at your side is like having a high-priced, high-performance coach sitting there with you, guiding you through the process of lifting your life to a new level.

What I also appreciate is that Dr. Hirschhorn is not just spouting off some goal-setting mantra that so many authors re-hash and cast off as something new.

He is sharing a process that he has repeated over and over with successful people.  His track record is impressive.

Who wouldn’t want to have access to a personal coach like this?

After my many years of providing strategic and tactical guidance to corporate leaders, I found much within “8 Ways to Great” that I didn’t know.

For that, I am grateful for Dr. Hirschhorn’s book.

I think you will be as well once you have read it.

In service and servanthood.

Harry