Innoveering Nebraska

I’m not particularly creative.  Oh I wrap presents quite lovely, I crochet to keep my hands busy while I watch TV and I love to play in my kitchen and garden.  But I’m not a fancy “artist” or even a “designer.”

Which is why I was so pleased to find Karim Rashid’s advice regarding how non-professional designers can incorporate a design sensibility into their lives in Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind.”   Visit Rashid’s website and you’re immediately aware that he knows design.  He even has a poetic design Karimanifesto.    Oh my. 

But there is hope for those of us in the uninspired masses.  In addition to the books I have listed in the Resources – Creativity Page of this blog, Rashid and Pink recommend the following (loosely quoted from ”A Whole New Mind”:

• Don’t specialize
• Before moving forward with an idea, consider whether it is original and if there is any real value in what you disseminate
• Know everything about the history of your profession and then forget it all when you design something new
• Never say, “I could have done that” because you didn’t
• Normal is not good
• Think extensively, not intensively
• Consume experiences, not things
• Experience is the most important part of living, and the exchange of ideas and human contact is all life really is

Deconstructed, I think the take home message is:

• Look around you and actually see what you’re looking at
• Try new things
• Figure out what’s unique about you and how that can enable you to bring something new into the world.

This last portion is tricky and I promise to write tomorrow about the first small steps I’ve found most useful. 

Below is a water bottle designed by Karim Rashid

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Daniel Pink’s Drive is a must read for everyone. Again and again Pink illustrates the gapping difference between what the scientific data says about motivation and what businesses are doing.

The book is divided into three sections. Sections two and three should be read by everyone. However, after the motivation 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 discussion, the first section of the book can be skipped by anyone who has read Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational, Ori and Rom Brafman’s Sway or Marc Gerstein’s Flirting with Disaster. Those of you who haven’t yet read these books need to read all of section one because it‘s a concise review of much of the subject matter contained in these other books. For those of you who like to be thorough, Pink’s review is mostly entertaining and worth the read.

Sections two and three should be mandatory reading for everyone immersed (drowning?) in corporate culture and those who have escaped. Section two describes motivation 3.0 in greater detail (autonomy, mastery and purpose). Highlights for me in section two were the concept of ROWE  (Results Only Work Environment) espoused by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson and a revisiting of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow.

Section three was by far my favorite though because it gave details regarding how to incorporate the three major characteristics (autonomy, mastery and purpose) into your life. Practical advice! Advice you and I can use to make change in ourselves and in our environments. Read the book, It won’t take too much time and you’ll learn a lot.

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Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World” is overbrimming with valuable insights and advice.  I read it through twice the first time I encountered the book and highly recommend it to everyone.  

Recently I’ve found myself explaining the But Out concept a lot.  I first encountered this problem solving tool in “A Whole New Mind.”  Here it is: 

I want to A, but B.

I want to A and B, so C.

For example:  I want to create a website, but I have no idea how to do this.

I want to create a website and I have no idea how to do this so I need to hire Toolulu and Think.Do.Be.Create to help me.

Try it.  It’s fun.

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