innovationmonthly february 2008

February 10, 2008

INNOVATIONMONTHLY innovationmonthly is a collection of stories on innovation, design and trends.

Embracing Failure

By Andrew Tan

“Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they will have a go…they are not frightened of being wrong. I don’t mean to say that being wrong is being creative.

But what we do know is that if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.” - Sir Ken Robinson

This is just one of many quotes out there on how fear of failure and fear of risk-taking will totally squash creativity from an individual or an organization.

This risk-averse culture is now more prevalent than ever thanks to educational systems that

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stigmatize failure, and erroreliminating programs that are being introduced into multinational corporations such as Six Sigma. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not promoting total anarchy where the same failures are repeated over and over again without any consequences, because in all things there needs to be a balance. However, in this day and age our culture is leaning more towards one that is governed by fear of trying and of taking risk. Don’t believe me?

Take a look at last year’s BusinessWeek and Boston Consulting Group’s annual survey on innovation and creativity. In

that survey it was found that the number one hindrance towards having a more innovative organization was a risk-averse culture.

Logically it makes sense that for the creation of anything new or original there is always an element of risk involved, and with risk comes the chance for failure.

This is all fine and well but is there any scientific evidence or are there any cold hard facts to show that taking risk, making mistakes and learning from mistakes have any effect on innovation and creativity?

INNOVATION MONTHLY February 10, 2008

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Embracing Failure continued...

By Andrew Tan

The answer is yes. Professor Tom Ormerod from Lancaster University did one such study. In his research he found that people who are not only allowed to make mistakes but who actually make mistakes earlier on and learn from them, will eventually come up with better and more creative solutions to a problem. Consider further what Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychology professor, has to say about mindset and achieving one’s true potential.

According to her, the reasons some people achieve their true potential while equally talented people do not, isn’t about ability. Instead it is about whether a person looks at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or as something external that can be developed. Dweck has shown that people with the latter belief are the people that achieve their true potential. Also according to her, how a person views ability is affected by a person’s view of failure - whether a person views failure as an opportunity to learn and improve or views it as something that tarnishes one’s image. So in an organization that only celebrates successes while failures are looked down upon and scorned at instead of being viewed as opportunities for learning, could potentially not be maximizing its employees’ potential.

Therefore, for an organization or team that wishes to be truly innovative or creative, an environment where people feel safe to take risks and fail is a pre-requisite. In fact, having a safe environment might not be enough. It might need to go to the extent where failures that are followed by learnings are not only accepted but celebrated.

In the end maybe what we all need to do is to embrace Mark Twain’s quote:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

INNOVATION MONTHLY February 10, 2008

“If one were to walk into a company and see neatly ordered rows of identical grey desks with employees diligently working away, dressed in a uniform, you're not going to see a lot of creativity happening there.”

Jump Associates

Why ambience is important

By Jason Tay

Engineers seem mired in the belief that cold hard logic and cold hard logic alone is what will help them produce the best possible product. However, arts students know perhaps intuitively and maybe not necessarily even on a conscious level that your innovation environment and ambience is one of the founding pillars for good innovation. Of course, it is also true that one can be in a beautiful location and achieve nothing and vice-versa, but it's certainly easier to be creative in a nice environment. What do we mean by ambience and a nice environment? It means different things to different people, but generally, it refers to the design and configuration of space that provides a space that is conducive and practical for the purpose of doing one's work while ensuring that the individual is comfortable in all the senses in whichever state of stimulation that is appropriate to the work. That means music, free flow of milo and Italian coffee for all employees and a mini-bar stocked

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with goodies to keep the sugar junkies satisfied...ok, maybe not quite!

“You can swing it any which way, but not all ways will swing the same way.”

In an interview with NBC some years ago, Tom Kelly, one of the founders of Ideo (America's leading design firm) was to be heard saying that (paraphrasing) if one were to walk into a company and see neatly ordered rows of identical grey desks with employees dilligently working away, dressed in a uniform, you're not going to see a lot of creativity happening there. In his book about innovation, “The Art of Innovation”, space and the environment in which you do your work and derive your creative output is so important, it gets an entire chapter on it's own. You get the gist of what I'm saying. None of this will sound radically new to many of you, so why should I make a

INNOVATION MONTHLY February 10, 2008

Why ambience is important continued...

By Jason Tay

fuss about it?

Take a walk around different sorts of environments and just take note of what you see. Notice how often nurseries and kindergartens always look... well, like nurseries and kindergartens, and legal firms look like legal firms.

Kindergartens are a wild world of possibilities, colour, fun and discovery. Legal firms are all about getting things pinned down with as little room for interpretation as possible. Within the lifespan of most individuals though, they will need both.

Everything is as it should be. Or is it? In an age where straightforward engineering or predictable product design no longer cuts it, what do you do?

Now I have to admit that I was a quite unfair in my opening line when I more or less made engineers out to be a sort of unimaginative and unexciting bunch, we have also met many artists who cannot see how bridging the 2 disciplines – or in other words, helping people to make the link between their right and left brain hemispheres – can make great things You make a difference of course. In business, your “unique happen. selling point”, or USP is one of the underpinnings to being able to make your mark in the marketplace in a sea of competition.

So next time you sit down to innovate a product, service or It's how you get noticed. If you need to make your business, solution, spare a thought to where you do your brainstorming product or service different, then you need a strategy. Part of or your lateral thinking, as it may have an effect on the quality that strategy should include re-evaluating how the spaces and of your output. the environments in which you and your company does business finds the solutions to the needs and problems that they encounter.

Spaces and environments have the effect that they do because the human being is a visual, feeling being. Colours have been proven to affect moods, and furniture and spaces can be designed imaginatively. Going back to the kindergarten, their design and decoration is designed to inform but also encourage and accompany the children in their journey of discovery and growing up.

“Not all similar spaces are equals” Try sipping your coffee in a Starbucks cafe versus a traditional, local Malaysian kopitiam, and you won't need me to tell you that the experience is different. But how is it different and how did it make you feel? Why do some people prefer to go to Starbucks and not a kopitiam? They both serve light meals and coffee and tea, but the experience and results are different. I also bet the Starbucks cafe cost a lot more to build and decorate than the other, but is it always better? The question you should be asking is, “Better for whom?” and “Better for what?”

“It's time to mix it all up.”

We don't believe in a clear separation between art and engineering because all around us, we can see art in the engineering and engineering in the art. The key to finding out what will make your products or services appeal more to your customers is to be more sensitive to the experience that he or

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she derives from using your products or services. Experience is the key to many successful modern products – Apple iPods, toothbrushes with big comfortable rubbery grips and BMW cars all elicit feelings of satisfaction simply from the knowledge of ownership, let alone the utility of the device itself. By using sensibilities normally associated with art and design to enhance your engineering work a more human touch.

INNOVATION MONTHLY February 10, 2008

Adopting a mindset

By Edwin Chung

On average, a graduate would have spent an average of 17 years of his/her life studying. 13 years from kindergarten to high school and another 4 years in university/college. During this time, most of us would have been molded by our teachers and lecturers or have trained ourselves to think in a particular way. As Thinking Technique is not a core subject like Physics or Mathematics, most of us would not be aware of them and would more likely have had our thinking process molded by our teachers and lecturers. Engineers, having gone through the necessary education program to make them an engineer, will have an engineering-styled thinking process. Likewise, lawyers, doctors, musicians and individuals in other professions have their own style of thinking. No one particular thinking style is superior over others. It is what makes these individuals efficient in their respective industries. However, to some extent, this is also limiting in that it tends to keep us thinking inside a self-imposed box!

This, we have found, is a barrier to innovation.

People have the tendency to find a solution as quickly as possible and would stop exploring alternatives the moment they come upon a workable solution. Innovators, on the other hand, tend to explore alternatives to allow them to select the best solution/design. Accordingly, we have found that a way to introduce innovation practices into a

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“Getting an organization to adopt a culture of innovation requires her people to adopt an appropriate mindset.� team that is not looking to improve/change their current ways, is to first introduce thinking techniques into the team. Most will find thinking techniques, such as de Bono's lateral thinking, interesting. As it will be important to break decades-old thinking habits, it is important that regular sessions be held where people can come together to practice these techniques on their day-to-day problems. As the team becomes proficient in these techniques, they will then be guided to realize that these thinking techniques are only useful if they are able to first identify an opportunity to work on. At this point, the team is introduced to the technique of observation.

We have found that the team will very quickly realize that they will now need a framework for innovation to help guide them through the whole process of innovation.

Getting an organization to adopt a culture of innovation requires her people to adopt an appropriate mindset. The above method works by slowly introducing innovation tools into a team in a gentle way that is less likely to cause rejection.

INNOVATION MONTHLY February 10, 2008

从软件 发员眼中看『创 意思维』

By Lim Cheng Wei

身为一位软件

发员（Software

Engineer/Developer），时常得思考如 何把软件设计完美，无论是在其功能 上，或是在界面设计上。但，我常发 现，我会循规一些特定的模式去思 考。很多时候不知觉中，我已经把自 己设置在一个自己设定的框框内。 第一次接触到『创意思维』，才 知道原来思考可以如此地有趣。虽然 现在我与

伴创设的公司 Kwerkus 6

主要是帮助一些公司

发创意框架

（Innovation Framework），并提供创 意思维的训练；但负责创意课程的其 实是我另一位

伴，所以我学到的创

意思维技巧还是少之又少，对创意思 维的发展所知更是有限。所以，这 文章纯碎只是从我有限的知识及身为 一位软件

发员的身份中去与大家分

享『创意思维』重要性。 1。身为一位受训的软件

发员，

我们常会循规一些特定的模式去思 考。学习创意思维，可逐步打破旧有 的思考模式，进而能

全面地思考所

有的可能性。也许是惰性使然，多数 人在寻找解决方案时通常会倾向于第 一个想到的方案，或方便自己实行的 方案；或旧有的方案。还有其他更好

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的方法吗？是否已经考虑了全部的可

方案的利与弊，并轻易地

能性（Possibilities）

最适合的解决方案。

？ 这些在寻找

定

个为

软件解决方案（Solution）或整个软件 发过程中是很重要的。

以上的只是一些『创意思维』能 在软件

2。『创意思维』其中一个非常重

发工程中所带来的好处。在

现阶段，我会与同事们携手设计一个

要的过程便是观察（Observation）。

适合软件

观察现有的程序、观察用户使用程序

架』或『软件

的过程；或圈定新点子，这些都需要

学』（Methodology）。希望完成后能

有技巧性及入微式地观察。 3。模拟（simulation）或原型发展 （Prototyping）是另一个在创意思维 下常被用的技巧。每当圈定了一些方 案，与其任选其一，创意框架会鼓励 发员制造模型或原型。通过这技 巧，软件

发员可以清楚的知道每个

发工程采用的『创意框

与大家分享！

发的创意思维方法

rticle, a n a n o t n e m Want to com article or n a e t u ib r t n co s a line u p o r D ? ic p suggest a to s6.com u k r e w k @ n a @ andrew.t