Hacking Your Passions

Attend SXSW next year.

“The present moment is always small in the sense that it is always simple, but concealed within it lies the greatest power. Like the atom, it is one of the smallest things yet contains enormous power.” - Eckhart Tolle

This is one of the lessons I am particularly desperate in somehow providing a mentee when I’m in a mentoring relationship. People always seem to want opportunity to knock, but it is, all the time, wherever you go! You just have to learn to see the potential in things, to make connections, to question everything… to remember how good we were so many years ago in our childhood at asking “Why?“

From the Endless Innovation blog comes a post about some lessons we can take away from the writings of Leonardo da Vinci on the things we perhaps ought to focus our minds on, in the pursuit of enlightenment and innovation. For example, my favorite:

Connessione: A recognition of, and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena.

I think it is safe to say that my passion for food is something I am not alone in. I’m also a pretty huge fan of finding ways to save money and/or get the best possible deal going for whatever I’m in the market for. So those of you who know about Costco’s deal of a hot dog or polish sausage and a soda for $1.50, with all the “fixins” for the dog included, know that it is a pretty screamingly good deal. If you’re into that sort of thing. Which I am.

Here’s a way to make the deal one step better, though! What I used to do during a Costco visit is go collect whatever items in the store I came for in the first place, go through the checkout line, pay, then go stand in the food court line and buy my hot dog/soda combo. About two years ago, I complained to my sister-in-law that I have to always get cash back at the checkout for my meal at the food court since they only take cash there. She told me you can buy the food at the same checkout you buy everything else at, and then just show the food court worker the receipt for your food. Brilliant!

Then, a couple of months ago, there was an exceptionally long line at the food court. I’d paid for my food already, and there’s a pick up window, and normally I just saw pizzas go out of there but I thought “what the heck” and went and showed the pickup people my receipt. And it WORKED! I know this probably should have been obvious to me to try long before this, but I’m just happy I finally connected things together.

So now I get a hot dog and a soda for $1.50, and I get to skip the long line everyone else is in for their food. Yet one more reason I love going to shop at Costco.

One of my favorite bloggers out there, Katie Konrath, recently posted an item regarding some of the lessons she learned about innovation in 2007. What jumped out at me from the piece, in particular, is the significance of encouraging rather than discouraging people as they share their ideas for how to make things better.

Obviously, not all ideas will change the world, and some of them could definitely use “a little work”.  But telling someone their idea stinks is no way to get them to improve it.  Then they’re just discouraged.

I’m all for constructive criticism, but what Katie seems to be talking about is destructive criticism, which I too am against. I’m also an optimist and think there’s good in everything, so I like the method often referred to as “sandwich” or “oreo” feedback - tell them something positive about the idea, then the constructive criticism, then another positive on the other side, essentially padding the part that might sting a bit.

I came across a list of Steve Jobs’ 12 Rules of Success yesterday. When I interviewed for my job at my current employer, I was asked to name a famous leader I admired and talk about why I admired that individual. I chose Steve Jobs, and the big reason I had was his passion for innovation. Which, as it turns out, makes his rules of success list at #10.

Innovate. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Delegate, let other top executives do 50% of your routine work to be able to spend 50% your time on the new stuff. Say no to 1,000 things to make sure you don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. Concentrate on really important creations and radical innovation. Hire people who want to make the best things in the world. You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together.

Here’s an article on nine things Google states it does in order to not only create an innovation culture, but to make sure the ideas and creativity of its workers turn into something meaningful and in alignment with the goals of the company.

This is one of my favorite innovations I’ve come across in a while. The United Nations has a fun, challenging vocabulary game with a unique way of keeping score. You earn grains of rice, which the UN will donate, by playing successfully. My mind reels at the opportunities that might exist to set up similar structures and begin a new breed of charitable gaming. Awesome.

getFreshMinds.com is my favorite website of the moment. I have a lot of material to burn through on that site before it looses its “favorite” status, from the looks of it. One of my favorite ideas is having an industrial strength vacuum hose built into the floor of your car, ready to come out and clean things up after your two year old is done eating his or her Goldfish and/or Cheerios. Or the like…

I have previously stated that Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite thinkers. That is not to say that I necessarily agree with everything he says, but moreso that I really enjoy how his mind seems to work.

In this interview with Malcolm on the future of work, he offers some thoughts about how the demands of work in the future, and what people want to get out of their jobs, will be a greater change agent than any technological breakthrough that may come along. I personally think the technological breakthroughs will come along to assist us as we make the shifts Malcolm it talking about.