In a nutshell, serendipity is Luck Plus. Some people say that you can make your own luck, you can’t. What you can do is increase the potential of Serendipity. Here is a good example which I frequently use. A simple but powerful example of the power of the serendipity comes from Japan Railways. During the construction of a tunnel through Mt. Tanigawa, engineers encountered many problems with water. Just as they began to design a traditional draining solution enter an enterprising railway worker. He thought that the water tasted so good it ought to be bottled and sold as a
New Year’s Resolution – Set Out To Break Mindsets
Most, if not all of us have either a fixed way of doing things or a fixed way of thinking about things. These fixed patterns are known as mindsets and they can severely limit our actions in both business and private life. Imagine that you take the same route each day when you walk to your place of work. Each day you buy the same newspaper and the same sandwich for lunch. Over time you begin to get a little fed up with your choice of sandwich and the newspaper does not seem to engage you as it once did. If
Creativity and ADHD – is there a link?
Is it possible that the impulsiveness and quick-thinking that accompanies ADHD may also enhance creativity? Given that many people who are diagnosed with this condition, what role could medication have in the creative process? Does stimulant medication hamper creativity, or boost it? The ADHD brain may not be held back as much by constraints on thinking. In a study conducted in 2006 (Abraham et al.), adolescents with varying disorders (including ADHD) along with a control group, were individually assessed. The ADHD group was found to have a higher rate of being able to overcome constraining examples, what we call “thinking outside the box”, but had difficulty
TIP: Working With Others
When working with others it is useful to work with as wide a variety of individuals as possible. You may not value the knowledge held by these people but it is not their knowledge that we wish to tap into – it is their thinking. Think of this exercise as harnessing the computing power of a number of networked laptops rather than simply examining the contents of their hard drives. Remember, the views of non-experts should be as welcome as those of experts.
Creativity, Gardening And Cookery – Envisioning The Future
Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter said “a clear destination is necessary to guide the journey of change. Many change efforts falter because of confusion over exactly where everyone is expected to arrive.” Of course, we don’t always know what our final destination is. However, answering a series of questions can help us decide where we want to go and provide easy steps for getting there. What problem are we trying to solve? What’s the current situation? What are our ultimate objectives? What needs to change to meet your objectives? What process should we employ? Stop right there! Can you see something
Getting Your Organisation Creative Fit
Did you think that this article would be about creative techniques and training courses? That would be too simple! First of all let us think about training to be an athlete. We have to put in lots of effort – hours on a bike, in a boat or maybe the gym. Then we have different types of training where we train for intervals and have short breaks or perhaps we do something completely different. Finally we might think about tapering our training before a major competition. Most coaches will tell you that to get the best out of our bodies
Customer Service – do you deliver?
My area of experience is creativity and alternative thinking, not customer service. However, I was inspired (or perhaps driven) to put pen to paper after recent experiences with several large organisations here in the UK. I will not name them directly but the two worst offenders provide my telephone and banking services. Large organisations just want to give us what they think we want or they might be so arrogant as to be saying “this is what you are going to get”. Recently I wanted answers to some questions regarding banking so I checked the company’s website for possible answers
Challenging Boundaries The Banksy Way
Street artist Banksy is well known for challenging the establishment. Below is his take on PR and advertising. Whether you agree or not it should make you think. People are taking the p**s out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated
