Russ Schoen

 If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.
– Dave Barry, “Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn”

I love the quote above!  Maybe because in our innovation workshops, I’ll often ask participants, "who has been in a meeting recently that you’d consider a total waste of time?" And the response? A majority of participants shake their heads yes or begin laughing.

Which set me off in search of a few statistics in terms of meetings and what attendees think of them? So here are two interesting statistics I found. See if you can guess the answers.

1) Approximately, how many meetings are held each day in the US?*

 

2) What % of those meetings are characterized as a waste of time by attendees?*

See answers below
*source: (MIT Sloan Management: The Science and Fiction of Meetings: Winter 2007) 

 

 

 

And now the ANSWERS… 

1) 11,000,000 (Yes millions)

2) Between 25 - 50% are considered a waste 

 

So my question is from your perspective, what separates great meetings from a waste of time?

Please comment. 

 

In collaboration with New & Improved, LLC, I am thrilled to announce that we have completed a series of 7 short videos that reinforce key principles of training in deliberate creativity. Each video is short and sweet (translation under 2 minutes). Take a view, and if you like it, pass along this blog address and while you are at it, leave a comment. Thanks and happy viewing!

In this month’s, Psychology Today, on page 30, there is a page of suggestions from readers on the type of advisors that should be on a Presidential Council of Psychological Advisors. One of the contributors, Art Markman submitted a suggestion that I think is worth repeating. Here’s Art’s suggestion, "The President needs an adviser in cognitive science who can advise him on harnessing innovation. At the heart of innovation are two ideas that draw on cognitive science: How can we spur the creation of new ideas? How can we create systems within organizations to ensure those ideas are implemented?"

I would add one additional thought. This advisor should also be able to help re-FRAME the challenges, or help redefine the actual questions we should be solving that we, as a country, face. For example, we hear all the time, we need to fix education! How to fix education? Maybe we need an advisor who helps challenge this question and reframe it to How might we get students excited about learning? or What might be all the ways we can get high school students to want to come to school? or some other novel and intriguing question?

New questions, yield new types of ideas, which then need to be implemented…  

 

Wouldn’t it be great if the White House had a director of innovative thinking? Ahh, now that’s a job, I’d be happy to serve!

your thoughts? 

In case you haven’t seen it, this almost 5 minute You Tube clip called DID YOU KNOW? is worth checking out! As you watch it, think about what it might mean for you? your work? your life? What might be all the opportunities that exist to share your talents with the world?  Please leave a comment if you enjoy the clip (or if you don’t!)

 

An amazing slide show from our photographer!  check it out..

 

Galleria Marchetti Wedding Photography by Heather Parker Photography from heather parker on Vimeo.

Want to enhance your meetings? improve idea generation? learn to facilitate innovation sessions? then you may want to check out the following two conferences.

 

1) Tribute to Sid Parnes, May 8th & 9th, Buffalo, New York, featuring workshops and presentations to honor Sid Parnes, one of the original pioneers in deliberate creativity and co-founder of the Creative Problem Solving Institute and the International Center for Studies in Creativity.

 

2) Revolution of Creativity - the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, June 21st through June 24th, longest running creativity conference in the World. Check it out!

Yesterday afternoon, I was stuck trying to solve a problem. The more I thought about the issue, the more frustrated I was getting. I felt like I was banging my head against the wall. Ever experience this? Sound familiar?

So as the clock approached 5:30pm, I decided to head out of the house to exercise. And you know what? About 30 minutes into exercising, I finally felt myself relax and in an instant the answer to the problem I had previously been struggling with came to me. 

I was reminded of the power of stepping away from the problem, and the power of incubation. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem, is to NOT think about it deliberately. 

So the next time you are stuck on an issue, make a choice to leave the problem behind and go for a walk or exercise. See what happens… worse comes to worse, the problem will still be there when you return. But there is also a chance, that your decision to get away from the problem, may reveal the answer you are looking for.

Happy Exercising! 

Want a quick way to promote acceptance of new ideas? Next time you are presented with a new idea, use POINT to evaluate the idea. Point stands for Plusses, Opportunities, Issues and New Thinking.

Plusses - what is good about the idea?

Opportunities - if the idea was successful, what future positives might result? (it might lead to…)

Issues -  any concerns with the idea, phrase them using the question starter How to.. (for example, how to fund it?_

New thinking - brainstorm ideas to overcome your issues…

You can POINT an idea in 30 seconds to 2 minutes… give it a try! 

Talk to anyone in business about running a training session for two days and one of the most frequent responses is, can you do it in 1 day? half a day? 2 hours?  So in acknowledgement to the time and resource pressures folks are in these days, I will be sharing tips for what every manager, employee or leader can do in 30 seconds or less (yes, okay I admit some might take up to 1 minute) to promote creative thinking in their team, group or organization. Ready or not here we go.

THINKING TIP # 1

When phased with a problem, rephrase it using the question starter, "How to?" or "How might?"

For example,

 

Problem: We don’t have enough money for this project.  

RePhrase it as "How might we get enough money for this project?"

 

Problem: We need more business leads.  

Rephrase: "How to get new business leads?"

 

When you ask yourself or others an open ended question, the human brain can’t help but try to answer it?

Try it and see for yourself! 

 

"Which process generates the best ideas – having several individuals brainstorm alone or bringing them together to bounce ideas off one another?"

A study conducted by professors of the Wharton School at UPENN and an assistant professor at INSEAD sought to answer this question using research. Here’s what they found.

When they compared a group that worked together vs individuals, they found that individuals generated more ideas.

However, the group that worked together generated the ideas that were rated OVERALL AS THE BEST (by an outside panel). They also generated ideas that were RATED AS THE WORST.  

The researcher’s rationale? The group that worked together were able to build on each other’s ideas…According to one of the researchers, ""Random interactions are likely to produce better-quality ideas."

So the next time you really want good ideas, pull a group together. You just might generate a great idea (and most likely you would also probably generate an awful idea!)

Learn more about the study here.

A special thanks to Newell Eaton of New and Improved who originally shared this with me!

What are all the ways you have heard new ideas put down in a meeting? or an organization? What are all the ways you have heard new ideas supported in a meeting or an organization? Which do you typically see more of in your organization? Ideas supported or bashed?

Don’t worry, you are not alone if you answered ideas bashed. In fact, a recent story on National Public Radio captured NASA’s barriers to innovation. It’s worth reading and checking out here. See what similarities exist between your organization and NASA!

 

Special thanks to Janeen Whalen of newandimproved.com for passing this along!

 

 

 

 

After a brief hiatus, I am back as of today sharing interesting tidbits related to innovation. This year promises to be my most innovative and I will be sharing personal stories, and lessons as I develop a new website, start a new venture and grow my creativity and innovation business, but that is for another post. In the meantime, here are a few favorite links that I have found that I consider innovative solutions to everyday problems (thanks to good magazine for reminding me of some of these!)

Looking to get rid of things or to find things for free… check out freecycle! 

 

Looking for a cheap place to stay (and you don’t mind meeting interesting people), check out couch surfing! 

 

Looking to share books you have already read, check out book crossing! 

 

and last, looking for some interesting tidbits on creative thinking, check out my other blog posts and check out the newsletter selection at New & Improved. Till tomorrow! 

 

Can being exposed to branding make you more creative? If so, which do you think might make you more creative? Exposure to the Apple logo or IBM logo? To find out, check out this short article on branding from the New York Times! Enjoy.

Perhaps like me, you have gotten caught up in the constant news cycle screaming economic crisis! Well last week I made a choice to focus my energy on what I want and to tap my own creative thinking to create something new and of value. One great result of that choice is that I am now collaborating with Leslie Sann, Living By Design coach extraordinaire in offering a NEW teleClass:

WHAT! SO WHAT. NOW WHAT?

Here’s a description of the teleclass.

"What! So What. Now What?

It’s not the resources you have that make you wealthy but your resourcefulness.

Leslie and Russ will help you mine your inner wealth by harnessing your creativity and ability to innovate. They will assist you create an awareness that who you are is your greatest resource as well as empower you with a plan so you can take action now.

If you’d like to:

- look at what is current in your life

- face your fears and the turbulent times in grounded ways

- connect to your inner resources and resourcefulness

- discover the POWER TOOL that will open you to opportunities that are available right NOW

- learn 5 easy steps to move you from fear to action

- leave the call with a clear future state and an action plan

- and much more . . .

The cost of the call is only $10. There are a limited numbers of lines for this call so sign up soon. If you cannot make the live call please register anyway. You will get access to the MP3 recording for you to listen to anytime. Only those registered will have access to the MP3 recording.

Hope to "see" you on the call!

Do you think creativity can be managed at all? If so, what’s the difference between managing creativity and managing for creativity? Please leave a comment and then check out this month’s Harvard Business Review. 

HBD  has a brilliant article on just this topic, leading for creativity. Do yourself a favor, take 15-20 min and read this article. The people you work with, (and maybe just maybe the organization you work for or with, will thank you too!)  Click here to read the article!