Category: creativity

How Co-Dependency and Co-Evolution of Companies Is The Way

Being overly dependent from a customer is considered to be an unacceptable risk for any startup or company. In the excellent book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly, based on a comparison with ecosystems, a slightly different view is offered:

(Dangerous) Symbiosis in action: crocodile teeth brushing!

“Here’s news : half of the living world is codependent ! Business consultants commonly warn their clients against becoming a symbiont company dependent upon a single customer – company , or a single supplier . But many do , and as far as I can tell , live profitable lives , no shorter on average than other companies . The surge of alliance – making in the 1990s among large corporations — particularly among those in the information and network industries — is another facet of an increasing coevolutionary economic world . Rather than eat or compete with a competitor , the two form an alliance — a symbiosis”

While I developed my first company on a stand-alone basis, I find increasingly that partnerships are good ways to develop value for our customers and the world. It can be messy, sometimes disappointing (I hate being taken hostage!) but also rewarding and enriching.

I fully agree that co-evolution is the way. Those entrepreneurs that resist collaboration with other entities and try to do everything themselves will fail. Co-evolution needs to be fostered.

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How Modern Innovation Needs Proper Maturing and Evolution

The more I delve into startups and innovation, the more I find the central message of the ‘Lean Startup‘ valid: innovative products need to be confronted to reality soonest, and should not be excessively developed in isolation. The Minimum Viable Product is the way. And multiple, fuzzy iterations are required for maturing the product.

Evolution is the way to achieve success

One reason is developed in the excellent book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly in a parallel with nature’s evolution. “The rule for machines is counter-intuitive but clear : Complex machines must be made incrementally and often indirectly . Don’t try to make a functioning mechanical system all at once , in one glorious act of assembly . You have to first make a working system that serves as a platform for the system you really want . To make a mechanical mind , you need to make the equivalent of a mechanical thumb — a lateral approach that few appreciate . In assembling complexity , the bounty of increasing returns is won by multiple tries over time — a process anyone would call growth . Ecologies and organisms have always been grown.”

“Creating extremely complex machines , such as robots and software programs of the future , will be like restoring prairies or tropical islands . These intricate constructions will have to be assembled over time because that is the only way to make sure they work from top to bottom . Unripe machinery let out before it is fully grown and fully integrated with diversity will be a common complaint.” We ship no hardware before its time” will not sound funny before too long”

It is amazing that this message must be reiterated so often to entrepreneurs, in particular those coming from engineering colleges where they have been bathed in industrial age scientism. Of course the thing is to enable iteration while keeping costs to a minimum so as to allow success within a reasonable financing requirement. And it will take time and effort. Still it is a must.

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How Stuff Gets Cheaper and Experience More Expensive as a Historical Trend

In his book ‘The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future‘, Kevin Kelly reminds us how historically the prices of commodities and stuff have been decreasing, while the price of experiences increase dramatically.

“A major accelerant in this explosion of superabundance — the superabundance that demands constant increases in filtering — is the compounding cheapness of stuff . In general , on average , over time technology tends toward the free . That tends to make things abundant . At first it may be hard to believe that technology wants to be free. According to a 2002 paper published by the International Monetary Fund , “ There has been a downward trend in real commodity prices of about 1 percent per year over the last 140 years . ” For a century and a half prices have been headed toward zero . This is not just about computer chips and high – tech gear.”

On the other hand, “The value of experience is rising . Luxury entertainment is increasing 6.5 percent annually . Spending at restaurants and bars increased 9 percent in 2015 alone . The price of the average concert ticket has increased by nearly 400 percent from 1981 to 2012 . Ditto for the price of health care in the United States . It rose 400 percent from 1982 to 2014 . The average U.S . rate for babysitting is $ 15 per hour , twice the minimum wage . In big U.S . cities it is not unusual for parents to spend $ 100 for child care during an evening out” Kevin Kelly could also have quoted for example the cost of education.

And this historical trend can only continue. The value lies in the actual experience. This is why user experience is an essential success factor for most innovations.

 

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How to Overcome the Project Execution Paradox

The Project Execution Paradox is this: the more you advance in a project, the more you know about it, and at the same time the least degrees of freedom you have to influence it.

It is a close cousin of the sunk cost syndrome, which leads us to continue on absurd projects because of what had been spent already.

There are several techniques to overcome this paradox. They are mostly aimed to minimize commitment and maximize knowledge early in the project. They are routinely used without people realizing their ultimate aim:

  • create an explicit gate-based decision path that allows to review the project case during the development of the team’s knowledge and understanding of it, and possibly decide to stop it (or to go back to the drawing boards) before too much gets committed,
  • the ‘lean startup’ path that develops the project with small commitments of resources of energy while maximizing learning and the number of possible iterations,
  • All planning approaches which aim at dedicated resources to increasing knowledge before large expenditures are being made.

Whatever the approach, the paradox will remain and surprises will occur during project execution. By being aware of the Project Execution Paradox we can try to anticipate better and be prepared for its expression.

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How To Keep Enough Seeds When Harvesting the Benefits of Our Ventures

Following on our previous post ‘How it is Important to Always Sow Seeds Rather Than Seek to Reap‘, let’s remember as well that farmers from ancestral times know that after a harvest it is essential to keep enough seeds for sowing the following year (otherwise famine threatens!).

Similarly when eventually we are reaping the benefits from some enterprise, it is essential to keep some of that benefit aside to be able to sow again for the next cycle. That is something that some entrepreneurs and managers sometimes forget.

This requires some discipline. For example it is possible to determine a fixed ratio of reinvestment, or pre-agree on some new projects. In any case it is essential not to spend that resource on anything else than creating new seeds for the future.

Be wise. Always set aside enough for the next crop. And reinvest by sowing numerous seeds.

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How it is Important to Always Sow Seeds Rather Than Seek to Reap

I like this beautiful quote by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

It is too true that we often focus on the result, on the outcome but sometimes forget that what is important is to sow the seeds continuously. Now some of these seeds will grow and fructify, and some (many) will not. Nevertheless as it is always difficult to know which ones will grow, it is better to sow more than we would strictly need.

I find this sentence to be particularly applicable in the field of creativity and entrepreneurship. It is important to continuously sow some seeds. Some will unexpectedly grow beyond our expectations. In any case we will have created avenues of growth for the world and brought a contribution to other people.

Let’s sow more. And we’ll reap more eventually… but that is not what is the most important.

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How Machine Learning Will Lead to More Conformity and Less Creativity

One thing most people forget is that machine learning, the essence of today’s Artificial Intelligence (AI), is basically about reproducing the same patterns than the ones fed during the learning process.

A typical machine learning neural network
A typical machine learning neural network

Therefore, the introduction of AI will first lead to an increase of conformity. Anything outside of the ordinary (i.e. outside of the set of circumstances used for the learning process) will cause problems, misbehavior and defects.

If we draw this observation further, it will not be possible to have AI achieve any kind of disruption. Disruption can be created by the human mind, as history shows. So, for a while there will be a significant difference between AI and the human mind: the ability to think out of the box and to create disruptive patterns. Or, what is exactly is generally covered under the word ‘creativity’.

The massive irruption of AI in our lives will force some amount of conformity on us and that is a danger. At the same time, creativity will remain an unrivaled feature of the human mind.

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How To Properly Apply the Open-Close-Act Facilitation Method

In my facilitating I like to use a simple process that I call the ‘open-close-act’ approach. Faced with a problem, we first open to the widest possible range of solutions before converging and deciding which way to act.

open-close-actIn this process, the first ‘open’ step is essential because people too often jump for the most obvious solution without taking the time to stand back, reflect, and spend some creative moments. The second step is also sometime difficult because people hesitate to take action.

This is very well touched upon in Seth Godin’s post ‘The simple two-step process‘: “The problem most people run into is that they mix the steps and confuse them. During step one, they aren’t open enough, aren’t willing enough to consider the impossible. And then, in step two, fear of shipping kicks in and they stay open too long, hold on to too many options and hesitate.”

This is a reason why in my method I have added a third step, which is action. This needs to be constantly reminded to participants: the goal is certainly to take action – after having undergone a proper process to determine what is the best one.

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How To Get One’s Creativity Unstuck

Your creative flow is stuck?

do“Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder, wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping, confusing, itching, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, numbling, rambling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just…

DO“

I can’t say it better than the creative advice given by Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse. The MUST-READ full story is in ‘Do: Sol LeWitt’s Electrifying Letter of Advice on Self-Doubt, Overcoming Creative Block, and Being an Artist‘.

Just DO.

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How Creativity Might Stem From Satisfaction of Basic Needs, and Curiosity

To follow up on our exploration of creativity, the Scientific American paper ‘Where Creativity Comes From‘ makes the point that creativity occurs rarely in a very stressful environment where people have no time to seek opportunities or take the risk of inventing something new.

curiosity-creativityRather, creativity seems to happen rather in settings where the basic needs are satisfied or at least alleviated temporarily. This allows curiosity and exploration initiatives to happen. As the paper shows this is being demonstrated in a number of settings, both in human and animal colonies.

Our previous post discussed that there needs to be a small amount of stress to foster creativity. Here we see that curiosity and exploration can only happen if basic needs are satisfied. This all brings us back to the conclusion of an optimum in between.

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How Total Happiness is Not Conducive to Creativity

Being too happy makes one not so creative! That’s at least apparently the outcome of serious research quoted in this Quartz post ‘Scientists explain how happiness makes us less creative‘.

multifacemanThe gist of the argument and of the findings is that “creativity calls on persistence and problem-solving skills, not positivity“. Hence, creativity would be found in rather tougher environments where problem-solving is paramount to survival.

It is a rather similar argument about the fact that expatriation and exposure to other cultures promote creativity: because problem-solving abilities are challenged significantly when moving to another country, plus exposure to other ways of thinking, there is a good fertile soil for creativity.

On the other hand there needs to be quite some protection afforded to allow for time and reflection that are involved in creativity. Extremely tough environments will not afford that. There must be some optimal spot in between perfect bliss and total disruption.

Conclusion: to achieve a creative environment, provide a protective setting but don’t pamper people too much!

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How Being Creative Means Being Boring in Other Fields of Life

Flaubert said it best: “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” [h/t Austin Kleon]

flaubert - boring and creativeBeing creative and original in certain fields requires brain power, attention that can’t be used also for other activities. Therefore, the rest of the life of creative people is often boring. For example, they don’t change their type of clothes because they don’t want to think about it in the morning, and they often adhere to a very strict daily routine – often waking up early in the morning so as to be able to work without too much disturbance.

Hence, the behavior of people you meet is not necessarily correlated with creativity. And in fact the most hectic, stressed-out, busy people are probably not the most creative.

What part of your life do you keep boring so as to have space to be creative?

(original inspiration from Gapingvoid)

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