Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Leading a Culture of Innovation by Sir Ken Robinson: presentation notes from The Art of Marketing


  • Las Vegas has no reason for being there except for one thing...the power of imagination
  • Imagination has the power to bring into mind things that aren't there or seem possible
  • with imagination, you can anticipate the future and if you can anticipate the future then you can help influence it
  • creativity is not the same as imagination
  • creativity means you have to cdo something...it's applied imagination
  • innovation is simply putting good ideas into practice
  • in the 50's & 60's the world was different.  If you worked hard, went to school, got a college education, then you would have a job for life.  At that time formal education was a guarantee for success [not anymore]
  • cultures evolve.  For those born around World War I, the world was very different then [as it is now]
  • because of imagination we are in a constant state of revolution. 
  • this revolution is now moving at a faster rate than it has ever moved before
  • to make sense of this revolution, we have to think differently about ourselves.  Those who are in "their element" love what they do, have a natural knack for something
  • being good at something isn't reason enough to do it, it's about having a feeling for it
  • most organizations have a narrow vision of the talent around them
  • we need to have different strategies to manage and inspire...imaginative possibilities
  • Sir Ken's work is to promote higher levels of creativity in an organization and which leads organizations to become systematically innovative
  • you can teach people to be more creative
  • creativity is the process of having original ideas with value.  It's a process, not an event.  It's material...people love the material ie. painters love ink, dancers love movement.  It's also about critical judgement
  • The way that Radio, TV & the Internet transformed culture, social media is now too
  • Creative people are everywhere.  Anything that involves intelligence can be creative.  Creativity can be promoted
  • This revolution is not over.  Its just begun
  • Today, computers have the brain equivalent to that of a cricket.  In 10 years, they will have the brain of a 6 month old baby.  At some point we'll reach singularity, whereby infomation systems will merge with our own minds
Redefining Genius
  • A study was done to examine our rate of learning.  It did so by starting to redefining what a genius is, then test a large group of children early in life and then retest the same group as they grew older.
  • if we were to redefine genius from a high IQ score to that of a person with a high capacity of Divergent Thinking (the ability to see multiple options to a single problem) ie. how many uses can you think of for a paperclip?  This study found that...
  • 98% of 3-5 year olds were considered genius
  • by the time these kids were between 8-10 years old, 32% were
  • and by the time they were between 13-15 years old, only 10% were
  • in a similar study of 25+ year olds, only 2% of adults are considered Genius by this divergent thinking methodology
Promoting Creativity is a 3 phase process

1. Personal
  • people with ideas
  • everyone should explore their own talents and invest in them
2. Group
  • Manage and facilitate teams
  • find connections between teams and disciplines
3. Culture
  • foster a culture of originality
  • make it a habit & create the habitat for creativity
  • eliminate the creativity spoiler
How are you creative?  What brings you alive?
  • in Math Phd defenses, Doctors of Math evaluate a defense based on 2 criteria.  1. creativity 2. Beauty of the solution. 
  • just as in nature, beauty is an informal test of truth
  • intelligence is fantastically diverse
How are you intelligent? Have you done an audit on your company's intelligence?
  • By most accounts, Death Valley is dead. 
  • seeds of possibility exist right below the surface and when conditions are right, life abounds
  • However, if conditions are not right, life protects itself hidden away from view
Anais Nin -“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”

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