Touchstone!
It is said that when the Great Library of Alexandria was burnt down, only one book survived. It was a very ordinary book, dull and uninteresting so it was sold for a few pennies to a poor man who barely knew how to read.
Now that book, dull and uninteresting as it seemed, was probably the most valuable book in the world for on the inside of the back cover were scrawled in large, round letters a few sentences that contained the secret of the Touchstone – a tiny pebble that could turn anything it touched into pure gold.
The writing declared that this precious pebble was lying somewhere on the shore of the Black Sea among thousands of other pebbles that were exactly like it, except in this one particular that, whereas all other pebbles were cold to the touch, this one was warm as if it were alive. The man rejoiced at his good luck. He sold everything he had, borrowed a large sum of money that would last him a year and made for the Black Sea where he set up tent and began the painstaking task of searching for the Touchstone.
This was the way he went about it: he would lift a pebble; if it was cold to the touch he would not throw it back on the shore because if he did that, he might be lifting and feeling the same stone dozens of time; no, he would throw it into the sea. So each day for hours on end he persevered in his patient endeavor: lift a pebble, if it felt cold, throw it into the sea; lift another… and so on, endlessly.
He spent a week, a month, ten months, a whole year at this task. Then he borrowed some more money and kept at it for another two years. On and on he went: lift a pebble, feel it…. it was cold, throw it into the sea. Hour after hour; day after day; week after week…still no Touchstone.
One evening he picked up a pebble and it was warm to the touch-and, through sheer force of habit, he threw it into the Black Sea!
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Mechanical action rules over Conscious Action??
No Parking Policy
Design thinking is another critical skill to develop and nurture for most of us trying to be dreamer doers in the crowd. There is a lot we can learn from professional designers and their tools to improve the way we innovate and manage in companies. Here is one such dose of advice from Alan Smith from The Movement (as shared by a friend)
No Parking Policy:
The best class I had in design school was a class called “Design Thinking” with a fabulous professor named Mary Ann Maruska. The best comment I ever got in that class was on a project redesigning a “tow-away zone” sign.
As soon as we got the brief – that instant -I had this bloody brilliant idea of bending the sign-pole at its base and putting a hook through the circle in the “no parking” sign literally towing the sign away.
Brilliant no? What you don’t get it? That’s ok, most people didn’t. I was in love with this idea though!!!! It was so sweet!!! I’ve done X Y and Z right from a theoretical perspective and damn that’s hot!!! I shared it with fellow students. 8/10 times: “ummm”. I thought: “pfff. Another dimwit. I’m brilliant. That’s ok that they don’t get it. Everyone with a brain will.”
The course required that you create 10 alternatives, so I half-heartedly went through the process. I made them because I had to. Teacher says so. Jokes on her though, these crap solutions would enforce my Eureka sign and everyone would get it then!
As a young foolish student, my post project-reflection read: “I think my first idea is generally the best for any project. ”
Mary Ann’s Response : “Really? This must be your first idea on ideas.” Went right over my head. But I think I get it now.
Creating alternatives is not just about verifying an idea you like, its about finding one that’s better, more appropriate, more interesting, or that leads to something better. Most of all, its about letting go.
This ability to let go dies hard, and with each new field / exercise you enter it comes back without you noticing.
Moving into business model design, I see myself making the same mistakes I made entering graphic design, and afterwards as a systems designer, furniture, motion graphics, web-architecture, management, entrepreneurship, etc…
Like a boxer, you can trust the process like you’d trust a coach. Run the drills knowing that they’ll give you value your weaknesses would not allow you to create. Better yet, you’ll also train those weaknesses out over time.
When you’re new to something, follow medium specific exercises and processes like you follow street-signs. You’ll end up arriving at incredible results you never could have found otherwise.
Or, you could just park one idea and hope it doesn’t get towed away by the first person who see’s through it.
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Mostly, enforcing any method to the madness of innovation is seen as a bureaucratic, time consuming, unrealistic and boring element of organizational design. But, systemic and design thinking have consistently delivered highest value for any dream doing – be it Man on the Moon or Cloud Computing!
Is it good to have a dream parking policy? More so, isn’t it good to do something about it – before getting towed away?
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