My life these days revolves around working with organizations and teams that are stuck; and what they are stuck with is the inability to move forward and in some cases generate ideas that will create growth for them, the team and the company or organization they work for. I love what I do, therefore I don't feel that it is work which is a good thing.
The key to my clients being successful is that they need to see the work evolve for themselves. There is nothing I can do make this happen except ask them to look for connections where none seem relevant, apparent or even possible.
This whole idea of CONNECTION MAKING is what helps in driving innovation. Sharpening our ability to tap into this power that has long been beaten out of us through schooling and our need to be right (and certainly NOT wrong) will help us begin to see problems, opportunities and solutions in a new light.
So how do we make connections? The answer is easy--JUST DO IT! (Stealing a term from Nike). But the practicality of the situation is that it isn't easy to do due to the fact that our environment at work (and even at home) doesn't allow us to do it. We tend to censor our thoughts and feelings at our most creative moments so that we don't look stupid (in most cases we just feel stupid). We force our thoughts through a focal point of always saying "that won't work here" and "why the heck should I say that? The
y will jus laught at me!" And, "that wont work in our business." When in reality, most of our problems have been solved by somebody else in some other fashion--and I would argue the point that almost 100% of our problems have already been solved in some way in nature.
Take for example the story of how Velcro was invented and I will paraphrase here: The swiss engineer was tired of having to help his wife zip up the back of her dress because it was always coming undone. He went for a walk in the woods and upon his return he noticed that the sticky-burrs stuck on his wool pants. He was intrigued with the "locking mechanism" of the burr to the wool and that eventually because the guiding force behind Velcro! The point to take away is that his solution was already out there for his problem. He just had to allow himself to see the connection. (Another big aspect of why this happened is that he stepped away from his problem...on this walk with his dog we can assume that he didn't embark to find a solution.)
There are some other famous connections from nature...Pringles was born out of a connection with leaves...if you want to know the story...drop me a line.
Connection making is also "connected" with new learning. Theorists say that it all happens in the right side of the brain...our creative side. When we learn something new it is new synapses firing and it becomes imbedded in our mind. Think about how a baby learns. As parents we don't teach them alot until we can really communicate verbally. Watch a baby pick up a new object--they will taste it, bang it, feel it, throw it, etc. It is this childlike exploration that we need to get back to in order to learn more about our challenges and look for connections in other worlds. Check this website out: PBS: Secret Life of the Brain. It is a fascinating look into how the brain works...especially with connection making.
Our founder, George Prince always asked what the connection between a tree and a tractor was...And, now the piece-de-la-resistance:
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