Diary
Mavericks Masterclass (4)

Two types of ideas ..

According to “Frans Johansson” in his book “The Medici Effect”, there are two types of ideas: directional and intersectional.  

Directional ideas improve products in predictable steps and have well-defined dimensions: increasing efficiency, discovering new uses, or benchmarking policies and processes that fit in other departments, companies, or countries. The goal is to refine and adjust to make the idea fit its new context.

Intersectional ideas change in leaps and new directions. They live on the edge of two ore more fields (fields meaning disciplines, domains, or cultures). They do not require as much expertise in one domain as much as they need an expert in the process of pollinating and connecting the dots. “They can involve the design of a large department store or the topic of a novella; they can include a special effect technique or the product development for a multinational corporation”. 

Working at the intersectional level means working at the edge of innovation. That’s where it lives. That’s where you need to be when you’re ready to make a leap. To get there, find out first where do YOU live, and where is your intersection mirage. Then, get on board and connected the “unseen” dots.

~ Writing from the intersection,

Randah p.s. On January 24th we’re running our Mavericks Masterclass again. Join other intrapreneurs and corporate innovators on this three-hour intervention to find out more about your own creative thinking style and learn ways to facilitate connecting the dots.  Apply today

Forced marriage made creative

If by now your creativity is embedded in your way of seeing things, perhaps you’re ready to step up your game and start blending ideas from different, unrelated disciplines to help morph the into new creatures.

Call it forced marriage of ideas if you have to. 

Step into the intersection of in-between fields.

Break down associative barriers.

Experience how the number of idea combinations increases beyond any single area.

The explosion of concepts at the intersection is what makes it possible for innovators to produce so many remarkable ideas. It gives an incredible advantage to be literally and figuratively at the edge of things.

The next time you’re about to learn from an example, do a benchmark, or try to re-think a process, find the best in the world from as far an industry as the one you’re dealing with. Learn their context and how they thought through the challenge. Then force a connection between what they experienced and what you have. An idea explosion awaits.

You just stepped into the innovation intersection.

Welcome to 2021.

Seven hats and minds

Here’s a thought experiment that will help you wear different hats to increase the chances of finding creative solutions.

When facing a certain problem at work, on a piece of paper write 7 types of jobs that are as far from your current career as possible. For example, a nurse, a truck driver, an architect, a fire fighter, a winter sports athlete, a carpenter and a lawyer are examples far from my line of work.

Now thinking about one specific challenge you have at work, frame it as a question and write it down. “i.e. In what ways can we speed up our client’s onboarding process?”.

Write a few ideas on how to solve it in a list.  

Next, using the list of jobs you have, ask again the same question of your challenge borrowing their heads this time.

For example: how would a nurse see this problem? In our example: In what ways can a nurse speed up the “onboarding” of patients?. How would a truck driver view it? “How would a truck fleet owner  onboard ongoing new drivers?”

Provide a list of ideas for each one of the suggested professions and questions. Or better yet, ask someone who has this role for ideas. The more out-of-your-way the career is, the better ideas to pollinate from.

The end result will show you not only how boring your original ideas are, but how magnificent those creative juices started to flow in your head coming from different directions. You know how seven, no, eight, lists of ideas. If each list is only 10 ideas, well, you do the math.

Stay creative, while staying safe.

Randah  

Two young men smiling as they build a tower out of various office supplies.

What experiences do you want to have next?

It’s easy for us to have goals and plan for them. But how many of your goals are experience-based?

Same process applies.

Start with the end in mind.

Visualize objects, concepts, systems, groups and processes as you plan your next successful creative achievement. Ensure richness of imagery you create; varied, strong, vivid, lively and intense images that help you feel your successful future now, experiencing what you hope to feel then. Create a picture that brings your full senses into action. Illustrate in front of you as your hand coordinates with your mind and your third eye vision.

Scribe or draw it. Play around with colored pens to highlight connections of the parts, or even use different types of markers to emphasize importance. See what speaks to you the loudest.

When you have decided on the direction you’re moving towards, figure out the experiences you wish to engage with.

What roads do you take? Are you hiking or sailing? Do you prefer to travel alone and fast or with others and far? Do you collect things or you connect them instead?

These are your experience decision principles. You consult them every time you’re faced with conflicting signs for roads ahead.

There are no good or bad choices. Only good or bad for you.

That’s why many people miss out on happiness and waste their energy choosing the roads without much planning. To avoid this, align your intentions with your compass, write them down in a journal and then embrace your experiences will full heart and mind.

To happiness and beyond,

Randah

Close up of coloured post-it notes

What are you counting daily?

Did you know that the first ideas you come up with on any topic are usually the most common among those working steps away from you?

It is no surprise that when you sit together to think of a solution, you’ll usually come up with very similar ideas or small detours to previous ones.

Nothing original.

You’re swimming in the same murky pond every time.

When you force your brain to connect new ideas, build on the previous ones, change its point of view, you start to see new things. The way to keep this muscle is have a daily dosage of idea quota so that your brain learn to extend its boundaries and look beyond the obvious. Not only it will surpass the regular ideas suggested by everyone else, it will find new ways of seeing things.  

To expand your horizons, try practicing ideation on a daily basis until you become mentally fit. So fit that you’d go from zero to sixty ideas in only 5 minutes.

How many ideas did you think of today? Start counting.

The status quo does not adjust unless we adjust it.

Sometimes, that’s all what’s needed: the adjusting part.

We easily fall into inertia and don’t feel the need to be provocative. To question the status quo and re-create it when necessary. If we don’t do this often, we risk using outdated assumptions and flawed conclusions. 

Provocation has had a bad reputation for the longest time. A highly versatile, yet misunderstood, expression. We’ve always assumed that it needs to be big, loud or confronting. We never consider it when it translates into small regular changes to move up status.

Former Stanford professor and educator Henry B. Eyring explains, “My experience has taught me this about how people and organizations improve: the best place to look is for small changes we could make in the things we do often. There is power in steadiness and repetition.”

Small changes.

Like the 15 minutes that kickstarts your day or the few breather moments you need before a call to align your thoughts with your actions. Think Small. What else do you do almost every single day that you never thought about before?

Trace your everyday work life and see where you spend the majority of your thinking time. Where?  with who? and doing what? Design a routine that enshrines what is important, making execution almost effortless.

Make “imagination at work” the default position.

It won’t be easy at first. But once you’ve considered it, you’ll wonder why haven’t you don this ages ago?  

You’re welcome 😊

Randah

Randah Taher as a 7 year old child posing

What’s the song in your head?

Imagine you’re driving the car, decided to turn on the radio to a new station you haven’t tried before. Suddenly, a childhood favorite song comes on.

The smile on your face.

The images of long-ago memories, oh so present.

You arrived at your destination, but your song is not over yet.

You’ll do one of the following:

1          Stay in the car. listen till the end. Smile ear to ear.

2          Continue to drive in circles. You’ll find parking on the other side. This moment is yours.

3          Record a note to self: download the song, find that old album. 

4          Get out of the car and hum the song for the rest of the day.

And the smile doesn’t leave your face for a while.

What if you realized that this happy serendipity moment can be designed and replicated?

How can you delight in small things? Make joy part of life rather than an outcome to reach at the end of the day or year?

What would your elementary and high school friends suggest you do for fun? (forget about the adults, their options are boring)

Listen to your inner child. The wisest of them all.

#IAmAMaverick

Randah

p.s. I’m curious, which option did you pick from the four above? What else would you do to keep that memory-filled song in your head just a little longer?

Have you experienced a good facilitated session?

Alone, together. When it comes to collaborative work, give facilitation a chance.

Sajory_Illustrations-06

Lone wolves don’t howl out loud

You are an Intrapreneur. A maverick. A corporate innovator.

It feels sometimes that you’re a lone wolf.

You see things differently. There are always possibilities. You swim against the stream. There seems to be a lot of inefficiency. You wish your superiors will simplify things and consider a new point of view.

It feels sometimes you’re a misfit. Yet somehow you are connected to others and have a reputation of getting things done, even if in your own unique way. That gives you a chance of being heard. You have some proof to vouch for your creative ideas.

Sometimes you get stuck with others not understanding your solution or getting on board with it. Sometimes you can’t seem to move the discussion beyond the “we don’t have a budget” and the “this is now how we do it here” broken records.

You wonder if you’re singing a lonely song or you still cannot find your pack.

I hear you. And truly understand your situation. I’m here to listen to stories if you wish to share. You can stay anonymous and find a cool nickname to use. An animal, a plant or an object of your choice.

By sharing your story with others, you’ll be able to connect with other mavericks, and see how new versions of the same stories have sold its dilemmas.

The destination to your happy place is out there, you can reach and celebrate with like-minded mavericks, if you’ll howl a bit louder today.

Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m listening. 

#IAmAMavericks

Staying Positive

I faced a life-changing situation in the past 2 months that demanded new ways of seeing the world.

In recovering, I had to reflect on ways to stay positive and grounded. I’m sharing this list with you in case you needed a gentle reminder to take care of yourself while taking care of business.

When I felt like I couldn’t function anymore,

  • I surround myself with positive people and limited my access to negative ones. This has made a big shift. I gave no chance to naysayers and I opened no doors to the judgmental type.
  • I tried to indulge in small things. I gave myself permission to nap when needed and take extended coffee/tea breaks to think.  
  • I don’t eat on the go or walk/drive while grabbing a snack. I sit down and enjoy the meal. Preferably with family.
  • When I had no access to my brain, I took the time off entirely. Asking for an extended deadline or cancelling an event altogether was better than providing mediocre results that would affect my professional reputation in the long run.  
  • I used music to create energy in different ways. Louder and faster rhythms help get started with a job. Slow, classical or instruments music help with completing complex focused tasks.
  • Being more spiritual comes in different ways; prayers, meditation, or stillness to reflect. It clears the clutter in the mind and reminds me of what’s important in the now.
  • I reminded myself that grief comes in so many faces. Sometimes it’s recovering from a loss of life, other times it’s feeling hurt, wronged, or the ending of a relationship. “Moving with”, rather than “moving on”, might be the fastest way to find meaning again.

These are a few of my favorite things.

I’m curious to learn your ways of enjoying daily positivity  

~ Imagine happiness,

Randah

p.s. On a special note, the Mavericks Masterclass is back by popular demand. One week to closing. Apply today.