Friday, September 23, 2011

The Progress Principle - Particles move faster than the speed of light

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. It is interesting that scientists seem to have broken the speed of light throwing into question the basic laws of physics. Thinking they will take my engineering degree back(although I have not done any real engineering for years anyways).

So is that progress?

Speaking of progress, I read a book - The Progress Principle - Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work by Thereas Amabile and Steven Kramer.

The problem I see with creativity is it is subtle. I consider myself to be highly creative (not in the artistic way, in the business way) but even I cannot say "have a creative idea". And increasing creativity is tough to measure. For example, this morning I feel 80% inspired?

The Progress Principle talks about 3 interrelated components that can be built to increase creativity - Perceptions/Thoughts, Perceptions/Feelings and Motivations/Drive. They have compelling research on the connection between mood and creativity or progress.

One principle the book pushes that I totally believe in in momentum. Small wins lead to big wins. Small inspiration leads to big inspiration.

They also advocate keeping a journal as a way to inspire progress. I have done this on and off for years. The trade off for me is the 20 minutes to journal which means I lose 20 minutes vs the increased productivity that I get due to the focus that keeping a journal causes. There is a good short section on "guidelines for daily journaling" that is worth reading.

I have long thought about having the appropriate culture that celebrates failure (I always say "Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap")


This is a well researched book (16 pages of citations, 20 pages on their research methods).

Good book. It inspires me which means I will be more creative today, get more progress and therefore, it has served its purpose.

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Part of my success has been in identifying and capitalizing on trends. One trend I see is greater movement to video on the internet increasing in importance. Partly because Google says it is so they rank video high in search results. Partly because bandwidth is high and pervasive. And partly because such a high number of people are video learners.

I also think video can be a "lazy" thing for people to do.

Canrock Ventures invested in American Health Journal, a video site with hundreds of high quality videos on health issues from alcohol addiction to allergies to Liver Cancer etc. It is not the sort of site that people would go to unless they have an issue. So search is the way to do it. Tough to make it go viral.

1 Comments:

At 5:21 PM, Anonymous The Tao Applied said...

Jim I think that yu hit the nail on the head when you talk about creativity being subtle.I tend to find within my aspect of knowledge that this is the case for many executives and associates and IMO from what I have gained through my years of studying creativity that if you do not have a formula of what creativity is and where does it come from and why does it pop up more readily for some than others is the reason why companies go out of business and people find themselves on very hard times because creativity is the route of innovation and change within any given system so you first have answer IMO what is creativity and from what I have studied I will give my insight.Within the senses a person picks up millions of cues and information on the defining of their own personal reality and how to judge and move through it accordingly.Within this massive assimilation of color emotionj and phsicality the conscious mind can only function on a series of things at any given time lets say about 1000 individualised things at any given moment and then even less when we start adding emotional value to those things and even less when we start to physically move and relate with those judgements and spheres of physical influence.The subconscious stores everything else that we do not care to readily judge or even think is necessary at the given moment,and if you are really focused on something in particular you section out even more and within the subconscious aspect of everything we have assimilated there is the aspect of our creativity but to unlock it takes a very big step how i came to unlocking my creativity was through a specific form of meditation that my company teaches to executives and associates in order to save companies.Because unless you are prepared to unlock the dormant aspects within the mind and to perceive more about your present surroundings the mind stays locked in its present perception which usually nine times out of ten when you are stressed and bogged down with emotions from a lack there of within the company or within the personal experience it is just a recipe for failure. With the right Mental exposure creativity which leads to innovation can be a normal process no matter where you are within your corporate or company life,it just needs to be taught in a very simple and defined manner.

 

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