inotivity.com

inotivity — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:28:20 +0000

Arthur Miller created the archetype of the insecure, self-deluded traveling salesman in his Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Death of a Salesman. I have my own Willy Loman story.

When I was in high school, I earned extra money by lugging around a sample case of candles and selling door to door. There were, of course, the easy marks; my parents and the next-door neighbors. Beyond the comfortable confines of my immediate neighborhood, it was a teenager’s view of hell – doors slammed, fingers wagging no from behind lace curtains, and the one-hour pitch that led to “I’ll have to think about it.”

Like most Americans, I have a rather dim view of salespeople. In fact, it is usually ranked among the most distrusted professions along with stock traders, politicians, dentists, and lawyers.

Which is surprising, because Dan Pink, the author of the new book, To Sell is Human; the Surprising Truth About Moving Others was a lawyer. Pink, the author of such best sellers asA Whole New Mind and Drive takes a fresh and engaging look at the art and social science of selling. In fact, his thesis is that in one way or another, we are all salespeople.

Pink begins with some provocative statistics – the result of his study with Qualtrics, a research and data analytics company. The study, What Do You Do At Work?, revealed “that people are now spending 40 percent of their time at work engaging in non-sales: selling – persuading, influencing and convincing others in ways that don’t involve anyone making a purchase. Across a wide range of professions, we are devoting roughly twenty-four minutes of every hour to moving others.”

The book makes a compelling argument that “we are all in sales now” because while the existing data show that 1 in 9 Americans work in sales, the new data reveal so do the other 8 in 9.

In all of his books, Pink (Like Malcolm Gladwell) uses behavioral economics and science to illuminate a subject – in many ways, counterintuitive to what many of us believe.

For example, he cites a 2008 experiment where researchers simulated a negotiation over the sale of a gas station. (I assume this was before the great financial meltdown.)

“Like many real-life negotiations, this one presented what looked like an obstacle: The highest price the buyer would pay was less than the lowest price the seller would accept. However, the parties had other mutual interests that, if surfaced, could lead to a deal both would accept.”

Pink continues, “One-third of the negotiators were instructed to imagine what the other side was feeling, while one-third was instructed to imagine what the other side was thinking. (The remaining third, given bland and generic instructions, was the control group.)”

The result? The empathizers (feeling) struck many more deals than the control group, But the perspective takers (thinking) did even better: 75% of them managed to fashion a deal that satisfied both sides.

The authors of the study, Adam Galinsky, Joe Magee, M. Inesi and Deborah Gruenfeld and another study by William Maddux showed that “Empathy…was effective but less so, and was, at times a detriment to both discovering creative solutions and self-interest.”

Pink also dispels the myth that extroverts make the best salespeople in today’s economy and that the “Ambivert” – someone who is somewhere between an extrovert and an introvert is the rising star in moving people.

If you’re familiar with the classic Alec Baldwin uber-salesman scene in David Mamet’s Glengarry, Glen Ross you’ll know that the ABC scribbled on the chalkboard means, “Always be closing.” (For movie fans, Mamet wrote that scene for Baldwin and is not in the original play).

Pink has rewired and rethought the ABC of the new world of selling and it’s Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. Like his other books, he complements each idea with relevant case studies, strategies and a number of insight exercises.

He offers six successors to the standard elevator pitch. Shows you why problem finding may be a smarter strategy than problem solving, and how skills in improvisation can dramatically improve how to move people.

All of which makes To Sell Is Human – a delightfully useful read. Essentially, Pink is reframing what “selling” is all about. We are all salespeople because everyday we are selling ideas, positions, and strategies to other people. I highly recommend it.

I know Dan personally and marvel how there are very few pictures of him without a purple shirt and he doesn’t disappoint in To Sell Is Human. So, I requested a preview copy and bought my own Kindle version as well.

I first met him at a book signing at BIF (Business Innovation Factory) and what impressed me is that he didn’t simply sign books; he had short, meaningful conversations with everyone. I think he’s a reluctant salesperson. Dan is more interested in sharing information and ideas than selling you a product or service.

And ultimately, that’s the foundation of the new age of sales – how to move others, by moving yourself.

Finally, for anyone wishing to sell candles door to door, the Praying Hands cylinder candle was a big hit.

Click below to find book at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/To-Sell-Is-Human-Surprising/dp/1594487154/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356981580&sr=8-1&keywords=to+sell+is+human

Or check out Dan’s website:

www.danpink.com

Tigger, Eeyore and Charlie Brown. Creativity and Confidence

inotivity — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:37:13 +0000

Everyone was confident that A Charlie Brown Christmas was going to be a hit, right?

Not CBS in 1965. Network executives were not at all keen on several aspects of the show, forcing Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and producer/director Bill Melendez, to fight to preserve their vision.

CBS did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke; the network orthodoxy of the time assumed that viewers would not want to sit through passages of the King James Version of the Bible.

Another CBS concern was the absence of a laugh track, a common element of children’s cartoons at the time. The third concern was the use of children to do the voice acting, instead of employing adult actors.

Finally, the executives thought that the jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi would not work well for a children’s program. In fact, when executives saw the final product, they were horrified and believed the special would be a complete flop.

The special became one of the most popular animated cartoons of all time and has been honored with both an Emmy and Peabody Award.

Seinfeld received the worst preview ratings of any NBC show.

Tina Turner hated “What’s Love Got To Do With It” and didn’t want to record it. She had the good sense to defer to her manager, Roger Davies, who was engineering her comeback and was sure the song would be a hit. The song won Grammys in 1985 for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Female Vocal Performance

Steve Jobs dismissed the e-book market before the launch of Kindle because “people don’t read anymore.”

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20.

Even visionaries have blind spots, but I will happily add my Linus-like insight.

There is a curious irony about creativity and confidence.

Some of the best creatives I know aren’t particularly confident. They doubt as much as they create. But I know an equal number of creatives who display a confidence that borders on arrogance. Both groups succeed, albeit one group suffers a lot more in the process.

When I worked at Saatchi LA on Toyota, we used one composer for original music who never seemed to have an ounce of confidence in stark contrast to his stellar work. He would pace and berate himself up until the deadline and always produced a masterpiece.

Then there’s Prince. If he has any doubt in his talent, it’s not apparent. He just continues to create incredible music. So far, he has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles.

So on the opposite ends of the creative confidence meter there are two types; (with a nod to Winnie the Pooh) Tigger and Eeyore.

The Tigger creative is cheerful, outgoing, and optimistic — and has complete confidence in his abilities which he often over estimates.

In contrast, the Eeyore creative is congenitally pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, and doesn’t have confidence in his abilities, which he often underestimates.

While I believe that confidence a powerful fuel for creativity, it isn’t an absolute requirement.

In 1862, the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson penned this letter to Thomas Higginson:

Mr. Higginson:

Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?
The Mind is so near itself – it cannot see, distinctly – and I have none to ask –
Should you think it breathed – and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude –
If I make the mistake – that you dared to tell me – would give me sincerer honor – toward you –
I enclose my name – asking you, if you please – Sir – to tell me what is true?

In sharp contrast, NBA great Michael Jordan had supreme confidence in himself and his abilities.

When he had an off night, he still wanted the ball during crunch time. He was confident because he focused more on the positive things he wanted to achieve instead of fearing failure.

Tigger. Eeyore. Both creative personalities have respectively; a comfort and discomfort zone. Whether hard-wired or acquired, it’s a mindset that is difficult to change.

What they have in common is the habit of creativity and the ability to see beyond the obvious or what’s called the first right answer. They continually challenge themselves. And they are willing to fail forward – which is understandably harder on the Eeyore personality.

What Charles Schultz and Bill Melendez did was to make creative choices based on their instinct and experience. Tina Turner had faith in her producer’s vision and confidence in her own talent. And Seinfeld helped a network become #1.

The true definition of confidence comes from its Latin root “fidere” which means to trust.

What will elevate your creativity is the trust you place in your ideas.

Five Questions to rattle your cage.

inotivity — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 01:07:26 +0000

Smart companies and organizations keep asking themselves the important core questions. What business are we really in? Who are our customers? How might we become more innovative? How do we grow our business?

The challenge is when the answers don’t change. What was new and insightful becomes numbingly familiar. There’s no return on questions. Chances are it’s time to ask some cage-rattling questions.

In their book, 75 Cage-rattling Questions to Change The Way You Work, Dick Whitney and Melissa Giovagnoli call their method “Questioneering.” It’s a dynamic way to ignite new discussions, spark creativity and challenge the expected.

In Inotivity sessions, it often acts a dose of corporate adrenaline. The cage rattling you do might yield smarter answers to the core questions you need to ask.

Here are just a few examples:

If you came up with a brilliant idea, who or what might prevent you from implementing it?

What would happen if your company instituted a one-year ban on meetings?

What department do you find to be irrational, deranged, and in dire need of intensive group therapy?

What are the three best reasons why you would choose your competitor over your own company? (For products and services).

If you could change one thing about your job that would free up an entire hour what would it be? (And what would you do with that hour?)

These are all questions designed to take your out of your comfort zone and to accomplish what creative legend Roger von Oech calls a “Whack on the side of the head.”

Here’s a link to the book: http://tinyurl.com/9hgtlcd

How to warm up your creative brain

inotivity — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:54:45 +0000

You’ve just been to a meeting where Excel spreadsheets are projected on a screen. Next, you’re invited to participate in another meeting for a brainstorming session.

Chances are you need a mental reset button.

So how do you warm up your creative, divergent thinking brain? I call them Inotivities – any activity that’s a catalyst for innovation and creativity. One I use often is called Impossible Thinking.

I use this technique often and I want to thank Dr. Amantha Imber of Inventium (Australia) for giving her version (Fat Chance] the legitimacy of scientific research on cognitive cues and divergent thinking.

Another inspiration comes from one of my favorite books 106 Impossible Things before Breakfast by Robert Quine and John Nolan.

It’s the “impossibility” of a correct answer that forces the mind to perform a few cerebral calisthenics.

Here’s a good one from Quine and Nolan’s book. #14. Invent an elevator with no wait time. If you’re ready for a reset, you can try it yourself first. Give yourself five minutes and don’t peek at some of solutions below. Everyone else can scroll down.

Okay, here are my top 10 impossible solutions.

• Implement corporate rules that only you can use the elevator.

• Provide an elevator for every worker.

• Put the elevator in a one-floor building.

• Grow wings.

• Put all the offices in elevators.

• Redefine waiting. Require riders to play video game before they can enter elevator.

• Time travel to the point when the elevator arrives.

• Convert elevators into escalators.

• Use an elevator that doesn’t move.

• Create tubes (like the ones at bank drive ups) that transport people.

The key to getting yourself into a divergent mind frame is to look for solutions that reinterpret the problem, solutions that get around the problem, and solutions that have no absolutely no basis in reality.

Amantha Imber’s Fat Chance approach includes a time element – “Give birth to an alien by dinner tonight.” And “Raise Paris Hilton’s IQ by 100 points by the end of the week.”

Now if you’re going from a brainstorming meeting to an analytical one, here’s the formula for determining standard deviation.

Here’s Amantha’s web site: http://www.inventium.com.au

Here’s a link to 106 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: http://amzn.to/TsDSYe

Inotivities #1. Sherwin’s ABCs.

inotivity — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 18:56:46 +0000

So what’s an Inotivity? It’s any activity that helps you become more creative and innovative. Here’s one that was inspired by David Sherwin, Senior Interaction Designer at frog design. The challenge is to create a typeface that will be composed of found elements right around you. In an Inotivity workshop I only have participants create A-E. But if you want to go for the whole 26 –kudos to you. David has some great examples: Donnie Dinch developed an alphabet by rearranging a pair of jeans. Jessica Thrasher used a box of Q-tips to create her wonderful alphabet. Okay, why? In traditional pattern thinking, we generally don’t think very much. This Inotivity helps you really look at the objects around you. Is that a open book or an A? That coffee stain looks like a D. It also taps into your creativity — what materials or objects might you repurpose for another use? Try it and send to inotivity@gmail.com and I’ll post it. David’s book is terrific. Click here to explore it: http://amzn.to/NQUpcJ

The high cost of discount thinking.

inotivity — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:19:17 +0000

When I was in high school, I heard a story on the radio, which has stayed with me for over twenty years. The short version is that a young man from the country went to Cornell to get his degree in agriculture. When he returned home, he saw a neighbor hard at work on his farm. The young man said to the older farmer, “You know I can show you smarter ways to improve your yield and rotate crops for better soil conservation.”

The old farmer thought for a moment and said, “Son, I don’t farm half as well as I know already.”

That story resonated with me then and now. The profound insight was that most of us really don’t tap into our accumulated knowledge or experience. Our lives have been accelerated by information and have been speed bumped by a poverty of attention.

As Tim Hurson of Think^X once wrote, “human beings are far more skilled at following old patterns than at thinking new thoughts.” This is essentially the thesis that drives the work of Edward de Bono. Pattern thinking helps us survive but it results in a deep groove of expected thoughts.

The high cost comes when you don’t have the capability to outthink your competitors. The high cost comes when you spend more time in meetings than meeting your goals. The high cost comes when creative ideas are seen as impediments to success. The high cost comes when you realize that you don’t know how to effectively evaluate creative ideas.

So here are Inotivity’s top three skills for avoiding discount thinking.

1. Question assumptions.

This is another of asking “what is our pattern and is it valid?” Write a list of what assumptions you have about a project. One of my favorites is the De Beers’ Right Hand Ring. The assumption is that the target market for diamonds is exclusively men buying for their fiancés or couples buying together.

So they changed the assumption and asked what if women bought a diamond for themselves? “Women of the world, raise your right hand” The campaign actually changed the purchase pattern of diamonds.

2. Create a better problem to solve.

There’s a great story about a bear chasing an old zoology professor and his teaching assistant. The young man stopped and put on a pair of sneakers. The professor said,
“are you crazy? You can’t outrun a bear.” “I know,” said the student, I only have to outrun you.”

Sadly, the real problem wasn’t to outrun the bear but to outrun his professor. So, when we take a problem at face value, we may be creating solutions for a symptom and not the problem.

3. Embrace consequences.

When I think of this, I am reminded of China’s one-child policy. By curbing population in the short term, they created a longer-term problem. The ratio of men to women has become unbalanced and today, it’s one of the growing societal problems facing the country today.

In a more recent case, J.C. Penny began a new campaign based on a strategy of no sales, no gimmicks. It was the Apple-izataion of the fashion-home goods retailer. The downside of raising expectations of “different” was that many shoppers discovered that the experience of the new store did not live up to the hype.

So think about the consequences in as many directions as you can. If you discount your product are you creating an incentive or you de-valuing your product? If you favor one employee over others, are you downsizing morale?

These are just three of many ways to un-discount your thinking. There are more. But like the Cornell student, I know when it’s time to walk away.

Don’t own your problem, pass it on.

inotivity — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:27:47 +0000

One of my favorite writers and thinkers is Dan Pink. This Summer, Dan has sequestered

himself in a office somewhere in Virginia –steadily working on his new book: To Sell is Human:

The Surprising Truth about Moving Others.

Recently, Dan wrote Flip — 16 Counter Intuitive Ideas About Motivation, Innovation and Leadership. At the end of this blog, I will show you how you can get a copy from Dan’s Website.

Dan collected and refined this manifesto from columns he wrote for the UK newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph and some his best-selling book: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

One article in that collection that resonated with me is Pass Your Problem To Someone Else.

At Inotivity, we spend a lot of time understanding and reframing a problem. In general, most people accept a problem as given. In many cases, that problem may be just a symptom of a bigger problem or challenge.

Typically, we try to own the problem — we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. The counterintuitive approach may be to divorce ourselves from the problem.

As Dan writes, “ Try to solve the following puzzle: In a tower is a prisoner who desperately wants to escape. One day he discovers a rope in his cell. Trouble is, the rope is only half the length necessary to allow him to reach the ground safely. Yet he divides the rope in half, ties the two parts together, and escapes to his freedom.

How did the prisoner accomplish this feat?”

This isn’t the sort of problem most of us face in our daily professional lives. But how we approach it, and how quickly we fashion a solution, yields some surprising lessons about innovation and creativity in business.

“In a recent experiment, Evan Polman of New York University and Kyle Emich of Cornell University posed this problem to 137 undergraduate research subjects. They asked half the participants to imagine themselves as the prisoner. They asked the other half to imagine someone else as the prisoner.”

Fewer than half of the participants in the first group figured out the problem. But in the second group, 66 percent came up with the solution.

In other words, people were faster and more creative when they tackled the problem on behalf of others rather than for themselves.”

“This was no isolated result. Polman and Emich found the same phenomenon in two other experiments. In one, the researchers asked participants to come up with three gift ideas—for themselves, for someone close to them, or for someone they scarcely knew. Once again, the more remote the recipient, the more innovative the gift. (Which might explain why many of us are useless in choosing gifts for our spouses and partners.)”

Polman and Emich build upon existing psychological research showing that when we think of situations or individuals that are distant—in space, time, or social connection—we think of them in the abstract. But when those things are close—near us physically, about to happen, or standing beside us—we think about them concretely.”

Ultimately, what Pink is reporting is that social scientists are finding

that abstract thinking leads to greater creativity.

“That means that if we care about innovation, we need to be more abstract and therefore more distant. But in our businesses and our lives, we often do the opposite. We intensify our focus rather than widen our view. We draw closer rather than step back. That’s a mistake, Polman and Emich suggest.

Pink demonstrates five ways you can use “abstract” thinking to elevate your innovative thinking and problem solving. He also offers a solution to the prisoner question. I could tell you, but it’s better if you discover it in Dan’s primer, Flip. Just click here and look for the Flip book cover and sign up for Dan’s newsletter.

http://www.danpink.com/

Dan is generous with his insights, and you’ll get a sense how much we do to generate smarter answers is counterintuitive.

Thanks Dan, can’t wait to see you come out of that bunker in the Fall.

Stuck? Download free Inotivity card deck.

inotivity — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:17:43 +0000

Ideo does it. Apple does it. Innovative companies from around the world do it.

They get unstuck by finding and using the right tools. At IDEO, it may be simply asking “Why?” Then, again “Why?” And then three more “Whys” until you get the core of a problem.

The great Dick Orkin used to begin radio creativity sessions by letting everyone tell a story related to the client’s problem or product. The stories became fodder for radio commercials.

The DNA of a great meeting or conversation is to start with simplicity. A question. A story. A observation.

We created these cards for those meetings when you need a quick icebreaker. Or when your the team is stuck. You can use these in a group or working alone.

Just download the PDF below and print out the three card deck and accompanying instruction card. Print and cut out as many as you need.

Allow participants to pick a card that resonates or appeals to them. If you have a particular problem to solve, put that on the wall and then use the cards to focus on that problem.

You can find three cards here. inotivity cards set-two_1And you’ll find three more cards at our sister site CreativityCentral.

Just click below to visit and download more cards. Thanks to Carmen Ferraro of Community in Richmond.

http://creativitycentral.squarespace.com/creativity-central/2012/7/13/stuck-download-your-free-inotivity-card-deck.html

The Worst Kept Secrets of Thinking Big

inotivity — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:10:43 +0000

A few years ago, I led a creative session and I opened with an old Japanese Proverb, “None of us are as smart as all of us.”

I told the group that when I first heard this bromide at an innovation seminar in Chicago, I didn’t have the expected reaction. I said, have you watched C-span lately? Have you been ever been on a committee? Have you listened to talk radio?

Creative collaboration isn’t just a two-edged sword, it’s one of those Gillette innovations with five or six blades.

But I have come to appreciate and even embrace that proverb. When a diverse group of thinkers come together and collaborate at a high level, it’s an amazing thing to experience.

Part of my job description is to help people collaborate better. Often, I am more of a referee and cheerleader than an idea catalyst.

In general, most creative facilitators are cheerleaders for each other. I have a sister company in Puerto Rico (SeriouslyCreative) led by Dana Montenegro where we are totally open source. We share ideas, business plans, and marketing.

I also am a great supporter and fan of great Creative Facilitators like Tom Monahan of Before and After. Dana is smart. Tom is smart. And I am smarter because of them and people like Gerald Haman, Roger Van Oech, Andy Stefanovich, Tim Hurson and Michael Michalko.

Let’s get smarter together.

Take a look at some YouTube shorts by Tom Monahan.

Beyond Argyle: Tom Monahan on Creative Thinking (creativitycentral.squarespace.com)

Lessons on the road to innovation.

inotivity — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:14:04 +0000

Inotivity has been on an extended road trip. Less Hunter Thompson and more Thomas Edison.

Our team has traveled to Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Nashville and Chicago working with organizations and companies on boosting their creativity and innovation. In Chicago, we helped a client generate 750 ideas in less than 30 minutes.

In DC, my partner company (Seriously Creative) and I met with government officials on how to develop an innovation mindset as they work and develop initiatives for the coming year.

In Nashville, an organization discovered that their newest initiative was reconnecting with members on what they already offer. Members were asking for services that already had but hadn’t promoted.

So what did we learn on the road?

1. People are smart. Their ideation techniques are not.

It is remarkable to see the depth of ideas and creativity coming from companies and organizations that aren’t typically lauded for their creativity. We discovered that beyond brainstorming – few companies use other techniques and methods for creating and sharing ideas. There are literally hundreds of techniques that can help accelerate idea production.

2. The word innovation is overused, and under-stood.

If you look at Fast Company’s list of the world’s most innovative companies — it’s going to be heavy with technology companies. This is the great, shiny bauble of the innovation world. They are the most disruptive and pervasive innovations today. But if you define innovation as ideas that create value. That levels the playing field. So, you don’t need a faster chip. You need a faster, more useful idea. It’s innovation for the rest of us.

3. People are looking in the same old places for new ideas.

We often talk about looking beyond your field or silo for new ideas. But we’ve found that people are looking at the same industry web sites, magazines and journals. It’s the same pool that your competitors are diving into. What aren’t you looking at? What can a CPA learn from NASCAR? What can a city planner discover from the Westminster Dog Show? You’d be amazed. It’s the collision of the disconnected that makes unique connections.

Ideas are not mandates.

Executives are used to getting things done. They want to know if something is actionable and viable. That’s part of the managerial DNA. But in ideation it’s a killer. It adds a lot of weight to ideas that just in the greenhouse stage. I say, this is an idea. It’s something planted. You can decide when and how to harvest it.

Live in the wow. (Especially if the rest of your organization doesn’t. You lead by example.)

Airport food is really expensive.

How to Increase Your Creativity Quotient (creativeconsiderations.wordpress.com)
Beyond Brainstorming. It’s not either or, it’s and (creativitycentral.squarespace.com)
Innovative Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen (informationweek.com)
What Pinterest Teaches Us About Innovation (marketingprofs.com)