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Years ago I got really excited about “neoteny” when I read Warren Bennis’ book, Geeks & Geezers: How Eras, Values & Defining Moments Shape Leaders (2002). I love the word and the concept, and so does Joichi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, according to this article on innovation in the New York Times. He says, “Neoteny, one of my favorite words, means the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood: idealism, experimentation and wonder. In this new world, not only must we behave more like children, we also must teach the next generation to retain those attributes that will allow them to be world-changing, innovative adults who will help us reinvent the future.” Also, “education is [not] about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the process establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity.” Ito is also the general partner of Neoteny Labs.
I have given several talks on why libraries fail, and published an article on the topic, and one of the things I include in developing leaders is “the ability to retain youthful qualities as adults — curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy. Certainly this is the season for it, so strengthen your neoteny!
We’re coming to the end of the year and there are lots of predictions out there for a whole range of technology and trends. Great for big picture thinking and planning for the future. Check out predictions for:
* popular holiday toys — love this list of 20 tested & “Yule Elf approved” tech treasures for the holidays
* enterprise social collaboration software — Forrester predicts $6.4 billion market in 2016
* enterprise IT — Gartner sees CSMI nexus: cloud, social, mobile & info — see quote below
The new driving force behind IT for the foreseeable future is what Plummer [Daryl Plummer, Managing VP & Gartner Fellow] and his associates call the “CSMI Nexus” — comprising cloud, social, mobile and information. The CSMI Nexus forms “a phenomenon that is changing the world as we know it, and certainly changing the IT landscape,” he says. “Cloud is the means of delivery. Social is the behavioral style, the interaction styles. Mobile is the access mechanism. Information is the analytical foundation on which you figure out what decisions to make. You have to build a philosophy around that.
* themes for 2012 from Ross Dawson which I definitely agree with
I am sure there are lots more and I hope you’ll point me toward them but in the meantime, these are ones that crossed my radar today.
Jane Dysart posted this in Change & Innovation, Planning on November 26th, 2011 Nothing like a Gumby to stimulate your imagination. Thanks Google for this doodle! Twist Gumby this way and that, just as you can twist your thoughts this way and that to create something new and different, innovative, exciting. We encourage imaginative thinking with clients and groups as we work with them to envision a future for themselves and their organizations. We recently worked with a wonderful group of teens to imagine a space that would engage them. It came with the usual: comfortable, internet teen lounge with free wifi where you can bring your own computer or use the library’s, do homework or just hang, play video games or board games. But that space also embraced having experts to enhance their learning of photography, writing, art, cooking and sewing! Their vision definitely engaged us. Ask someone today today to imagine a great space, a great job, a great working environment that would engage them — you may be surprised by what creative visions they create!
Thanks to Cindy Gordon who gave me a copy of the book she just wrote with John & JoAnn Girard, Business Goes Virtual: Realizing the Value of Collaboration, Social and Virtual Strategies. I will be interviewing Cindy for the Education Institute Conversations with Leaders series on Tuesday December 6th at 2pm EST. The book begins with a definition of virtual business and the new face of organizations which is being enabled by social technology. Another enabler in the virtual world is leadership and Chapter 3 of the book shares stories of a number of businesses and the strategies that have been successful for them — lots of tips for any organization here! The culture of sharing and collaboration is another enabler for virtual business and the book includes some great stats on the return on collaboration. Virtual worlds and their adoption by tweens is covered and discussed as an impact for organizations of the future. Strategies for and examples of successful organizations abound — you’ll get lots of ideas and insights from the book and from my interview with Cindy. Get the latest strategies and insights for any organization as our world becomes more virtual. Join us. Register here.
Michael Edson, Director of Web & New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution, has interesting insights & is always researching and learning from others. Innovation is a topic he has researched and he’s going to share practical nuggets with the audience of Computers in LIbraries 2012. Here’s a sneak peek at what he’ll be talking aboug:
Creating Inspiring Services Edson begins by talking about what it means to be “innovative”: how to recognize it, how to make it happen more, and how to prevent the opposite from happening. Using his past five years of experience moving a respected cultural institution into the 21st century, Edson shares his lesson learned, creative strategies, tips and more. He understands how to engage his community, how to create and support an innovative culture, how design exciting new services and to put that knowledge into practice. Filled with lots of examples, he inspire us to create innovative services for our communities.
Another indication that Edson knows how to engage his community? He’s also researching organizations that get more than one million hours per year of volunteer effort through their websites. Hope he shares what he learns with the audience of Computers in Libraries 2012.
I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since we’ve posted on our site — too many conferences and work with clients. All wonderful and very stimulating. We’ve been brimming with things to say but no time to put them into words, so hopefully this is the beginning of many new posts to come!
We’ve talked a lot about thinking critically and strategically as well as creativity. Today Don Tapscott pointed me to an interesting article on creative thinking, an excerpt published by Fast Company from a book, Bob Gill, so far. As author, artist & graphic designer Bob Gill says, “Interesting solutions begin with interesting problems. So reframe the problem.” Rebecca and I have been working with clients on “reframing” their perspectives and challenges, so I’m looking forward to reading more in Gill’s book.
I was also inspired recently by some creative ideas from KM evangelist Bob Buckman who spoke at KMWorld 2011. He said to me, it’s necessary to move “an organization to a decision making process that is faster than the competition. Speed of Innovation is the key to competitive advantage. Being able to innovate around the needs of the customer is great, but if your competition does it faster than you, then you still loose.” I’m planning to use some of this words as a theme for KMWorld 2012: Knowledge Sharing & Learning: Communication, Collaboration & Innovation. The call for speakers will be up at the beginning of January and from all the buzz following KMWorld 2011 I know we will
Continue reading Creative Thinking, KM & Innovation
An interesting study by MDC Partners & Allison & Partners called the C-Factors Report points to creativity, collaboration and culture to re-engerize today’s global economy. They surveyed leading CEOs & CMOs who view creativity as a criticial driver of the global economy. Great stats & insights:
* 73 % of respondents think we’ve entered the “imagination” economy, with 98 percent affirming that creativity is critical to economic success today
* 76% state that creativity has a significant impact on driving business forward
* over half (57%) strive to develop a strong creative culture within their organizations; & 80% believe creativity must be generated and fostered by industry leaders in order for new and innovative thinking to survive
* 73% of senior executives will place an increasing emphasis on creatively inspired communications in the coming years
“Creating a vision, and building a defined culture around that vision, was a strong theme. Thought leaders from start-ups such as Inkling, to legacy companies such as IBM, all cited the need for deep discipline and a firm self-audit process to unleash the broadest creative efforts possible within a corporation.”
I’ts exhilarating for Rebecca and I when we work with clients to create visions that are so exciting and forward thinking that organization leaders can build strong support for their strategies to guide them towards that positive future. I love the “imagination” economy mentioned in this study and the fact that leaders realize innovative thinking and creative cultures are so important today. Goes back to my favorite Walt Disney
Continue reading Creativity, Visions & Success
Rebecca Jones posted this in Change & Innovation on September 30th, 2011 Oh how far we’ve come — and how far we’ll go! Stephen Abram’s Lighthouse shows his love of infographics this morning (love it Stephen!). And I just saw this wonderful”animated” infographic demonstrating the history of data by Sweat & Pixels. Well done! This is so useful for setting the tone and opening people’s thinking at the beginning of meetings discussing trends, planning or strategic decisions. Have a look:
A Brief History of Digital Data from Sweat & Pixels on Vimeo.
What a great fall day when we celebrate Jim Henson’s 75th birthday and wish he was still with us. What a creative genius who dared to do something different and made a difference in so many lives! I love this post from last year about leadership lessons from the Muppets: so many positive words from such interesting perspectives including Kermit and the Fraggles. Rebecca and I have been talking a lot lately about critical thinking and the necessity of looking at challenges from difference frames or perspectives. So check out those from the Muppets, they’re great!
And also have a look at Search Engine Land’s post about today’s Google Muppet doodle. It explains the interactivity of this doodle even if it doesn’t have audio like lots of net curmudgeons complained about this morning. Life is too short — Henson died at 53. Be happy and creative; enjoy your weekend and Henson’s Google Muppet Day!
Rebecca and I had an aha! moment earlier this year about calling databases (the staple for librarians for years) websites. That’s what resonates with our customers — websites. They may be specially priced websites, or some that require a fancy login, but they are websites. For those of us who learned about databases so many years ago, repeat after me, “websites, websites, websites!” NO MORE ELECTRONIC DATABASES, ONLINE DATABASES, or just databases. WEBSITES only! It’s one of those “whack on the side of the head” things. Get on board.
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