Innovation belongs to the tweakers
Malcolm Gladwell writes a great article on why Steve Jobs’ genius wasn’t so much in how he invented or pioneered but instead tweaked ideas.
“The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world. The tweaker inherits things as they are, and has to push and pull them toward some more nearly perfect solution. That is not a lesser task.”
Read more here.
Just ship it!
Sometimes we can get overwhelmed and bogged down in trying to make an idea perfect – so much so that great ideas never make their way to reality.
Seth Godin talks about how shipping – the art of getting something out the door and into the real world - separates the “ok” from the great.
And it’s true. We need to take pride in what we do. We need to thrash around, work to make something perfect, and work hard at it. But the best approach is often to get the idea out there, into the real world, and refine it as it grows.
Example One – Check out this early version of Twitter:
Example Two – The first iPhone had no App options. Steve Jobs didn’t think they were needed and risked messing up the user experience (Instead developers could build pages that worked for the Safari browser already installed on the phone). Later, he changed his mind and the iPhone went from no apps to “there’s an app for that.”
Example Three – Almost any event I’ve seen repeated from year to year in a department with a consistent staff dedicated to growing or improving it. At our school, ResLife does some “fencepost” events that we are known for. It’s been amazing to see the improvements from year-to-year as Residence Directors brainstorm how to streamline processes and build in new, creative, energizing ideas.
Know what you stand for, and make it accessible
What does your organization or department stand for? What do you stand for?
Clearly defining our core values is one of the most difficult and most important things we can do. We’re going to make decisions daily. We can either make them with pre-established guidelines that reflect what we truly value, or we can make them in the moment, trusting that our emotions and the sway of what’s urgent and reacting to what gets placed before us.
So defining our values is proactive. Responding based on the moment is reactive.
National Community Church in Washington D.C. has a unique set of core values. Very “un-church-like.” They’re sticky. They represent a set of beliefs, but they’re phrased in a way that helps people remember and understand them.
When someone hits a situation in their day-to-day life to which one of the values relates, there’s a good chance they’ll remember it. When the church (which meets in movie theaters across D.C. and runs a coffee shop as one of their venues) comes across a new opportunity that means change in how they’re doing things, values like “Playing it safe is risky” and “Irrelevance is irreverence” help them filter the decision through values that speak to the importance of change and relevance. When a person in the church finds personal change and growth hard, a value like “It’s never too late to be who you might have been” inspires them to take steps toward growth.
When we worked to build our developmental model for Residence Life, we realized there are a lot of great, well-researched models out there. But most are in researcher-talk. For something to stick – to influence behavior – it has to be written in a way that connects to the people it’s meant to impact. RAs must “get it” enough to share it or program with it. So we boiled it down to seven core values and tried to name them in ways that would stick. We’re always working to improve things, but so far, they seem to have worked better than anything else we’ve tried.
Core values can be prescriptive and descriptive. They both help simplify decisions by making clear where you stand and what you’re about. But they also show others who you are from the outset.
What about you? Do you have some clear values that drive where you work? Do you have clear personal values that help you filter decisions and actions?
Does social media contribute to or distract from your main thing?
John Mayer spoke to students at Berklee College of Music this summer, and one thing he talked about was the impact social media had on his creativity. While it helped him connect with his fans (millions of followers on Twitter), it robbed him of creative power for his main thing - music:
“The tweets are getting shorter, but the songs are still 4 minutes long. You’re coming up with 140-character zingers, and the song is still 4 minutes long…I realized about a year ago that I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore. And I was a tweetaholic. I had four million twitter followers, and I was always writing on it. And I stopped using twitter as an outlet and I started using twitter as the instrument to riff on, and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn’t write a song.”
It’s something worth thinking about for everyone. What’s your main thing? Where should your energy go? Some things like Facebook and Twitter can connect us and even make us feel productive, but if it’s robbing us of the core/central thing (if it becomes our main instrument), it may need to be cut back.
I know people in Student Affairs who have used Twitter to connect with colleagues in amazing ways – to learn, to find support, and to share ideas. But for every person who finds #SAChat conversations and a new circle for professional growth, there may be five more who just use it as an escape for the real work of connection, creativity, and getting things done.
So what about you? How has Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Pinterest/Whatever helped you do what you do? What are the temptations that distract you from the main things you do?
The Wednesday List
It’s been busy around here (hello August!), but here are a few things that have caught my eye.
- This TED presentation by Salman Kahn, founder and teacher for the Kahn Academy, deserves a post of its own. The implications for how we teach and learn are huge. But for now, just watch the video and see what they’re doing.
- Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of “stuff” (read: clutter) in our lives because it means something (read: sentimental). But Unclutterer has a few good mantras to help us remember to focus on living, not preserving.
- Environments matter. Look what happens when you put a coffee table at a bus stop.
- I’ll admit, I usually love every post Seth Godin writes, so I try to avoid linking to every. single. one. But you’ve got to read this one about embracing constraints because now, more than ever, it’s timely and true. “When we fight constraints and eliminate them, we often gain access to new insights, new productivity and new solutions. It also makes it easier to compete against people who don’t have those constraints.”
- And finally, just for fun, go to snailmailmyemail.org before August 15, type a letter to anyone, add the address, and someone will write it out, add an illustration, stick it in an envelope, and mail it to whoever you request. Free of charge. Really!
The Wednesday List
- TED curator Chris Anderson has a list of new principles (rules?) for email. I’m on board. (David Pogue has a few more suggestions)
- I don’t trust any zoo that would allow me to ride the lion.
- If I had about $100 million in my bank account, I don’t think I’d leave my ATM receipts lying around.
- Sleeping in a hammock = better sleep. Science says so.
Sometimes we get it all wrong. In order to achieve a better life we feel like we have to have more, do more and accomplish more. Sometimes more helps, but most of the time “better” is about doing the right things, not more things.
Sometimes when we’re feeling behind and overwhelmed we need to SIMPLIFY, not work harder to catch up.
Look at what you’re doing – is it worth it? Is the time you’re spending on that thing (whatever it is) worth what you’re getting from it? Does it align with your values? Does it make sense?
At home – are you happy with the amount of time you have to spend cleaning and organizing your stuff? Or would it be better to get rid of some of the excess and have more time for life? *
Is the time you spend catching up after a day of busy activities worth it? What would it look like to do fewer things, invest in them, and have a little margin in your life at the end of the day?
Even simpler – When you’re doing dishes, is the stuff you use most often the most accessible? Or are you wasting minutes every day with an inefficient setup?
Or at your job – is the paperwork you do (or require others to do) helpful? Or is it taking up more time than it’s worth?
How do you track your budget? Could you do a better job with more tracking? Less tracking? A simpler method?
Most people slow down a little over the summer. Why not use that time to examine your values and the default systems and habits you live by? Do they support those values?
Sometimes we create busyness for ourselves because it feels good. It feels like we’re productive. It’s easier to be busy than to make the tough decisions and do the things we really value.
Take some time to write out the things you really care about – the areas of life that you value. And list a few goals or dreams for each of those areas. It could be family, relationships, health, your job, and your broader mission or platform. Your list will look different. Where are you right now? Where do you want to be?
It’s worth centering our actions around deeply held values, not reactionary impulses.
Maybe it means doing less stuff so we can do the right things. Or maybe being ok with the dishes staying dirty a little while longer so we can connect with a friend. Or maybe it’s getting the junk out of the sink so you can cook a real meal and sit down for quality time with your family.
It looks different for each person. But we all feel it inside. We know where those areas of change are for us. Where are yours?
*Yes – this may be a little autobiographical.
The Wednesday List
- We’re moving about 200 yards down the street today, so wish us luck! That’s a lot of packing for a short distance!
- Think you have to create what you’re doing from scratch? Watch the first two episodes of this online series and remember that Everything is a Remix.
- Saying someone has too much time on their hands is often just a way to get out of feeling bad for how they spent their time when compared to what we’ve done with the same number of hours.
- If you use Pandora, you should also check out Grooveshark. You can search and play almost any song you want. Pandora’s great when you want music in the background, but Grooveshark is where to go if you want to listen to that specific song.
- 10 myths about introverts (and what to do about it)
- Here’s how to get that exit row seat on your next flight. (Sometimes it’s easier than others)
Good sources for free, quality fonts
There are a lot of places where you can download free fonts out there, but as a design person, I’ve found a lot of them require you to weed through piles of less-than-useful fonts to find something that looks professional but different – you know, the quality stuff. Here are two sites I’ve appreciated for fonts recently (one free, one lets you pay what you want – from $0 up):
- Font Squirrel – Free, commercially licensed fonts. A wide variety. Good, professional stuff.
- Lost Type Co-op – This one has a limited selection, but they’re unique and well done. It uses a pay-what-you-want model.
- And a third freebie. If these are too boring, and you’re just looking for that font to imitate the Star Trek font or lots of things similar to comic sans, just go here.)
Get started early. Let your mind get to work.
Fred Wilson shares profound advice from his father about problem solving and subconscious information processing:
“He explained that I should start working on a project as soon as it was assigned. An hour or so would do fine, he told me. He told me to come back to the project every day for at least a little bit and make progress on it slowly over time. I asked him why that was better than cramming at the very end (as I was doing during the conversation).
He explained that once your brain starts working on a problem, it doesn’t stop. If you get your mind wrapped around a problem with a fair bit of time left to solve it, the brain will solve the problem subconsciously over time and one day you’ll sit down to do some more work on it and the answer will be right in front of you.”
I know this works for me when I actually do it. We’re in the process of moving right now, and I’m amazed how my mind is working on different ways to arrange our stuff and charting our moving day plans as I’m doing things like making dinner or sleeping.
(Via SwissMiss)
Fewer cowboys, more pit crews
Atul Gawande, in his commencement address at Harvard Medical School, talked about needing more pit crews and fewer cowboys in hospitals. It’s a great analogy for the medical field, but it also fits most anywhere else.
Two million patients pick up infections in American hospitals, most because someone didn’t follow basic antiseptic precautions. Forty per cent of coronary-disease patients and sixty per cent of asthma patients receive incomplete or inappropriate care. And half of major surgical complications are avoidable with existing knowledge. It’s like no one’s in charge-because no one is. The public’s experience is that we have amazing clinicians and technologies but little consistent sense that they come together to provide an actual system of care, from start to finish, for people. We train, hire, and pay doctors to be cowboys. But it’s pit crews people need.
Amazing talent, coming together to provide an actual system of care (and development) from start to finish. Sound like a good prescription for a student affairs department?
(link via kottke.org)
Putting “10,000 hours” to the test
Our last post mentioned the 10,000-hour rule – a theory by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, and made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.
Well, it’s an interesting concept. In observations, becoming an expert is less about talent and more about intentional practice. So anyone should be able to become an expert at anything if they focused and worked at it enough.
But up until now, it’s still really a theoretical framework. An interesting idea, and probably, mostly true. But how do you prove it?
One guy is putting it to the test.
Dan McLaughlin is on a six-year path to go from a novice to professional golfer, and he’s chronicling the experiment on his website, The Dan Plan. He’s one year into his six-hour-a-day plan and documenting it all online. His team has taken an interesting approach at learning golf as well. Starting perfecting short putts and slowly working out. From what I can tell, he still isn’t playing a full round of golf.
Sure, it’s still really an n=1 experiment, but it’s sure to be an interesting journey.
(via kottke.org)
Success and mastery take work
“Almost nothing worthwhile is easy, and it’s hard to just jump in and be good at something difficult right off the bat. Think, say, of Twitter, whose business plan, such that it is, has always been something along the lines of “Get big and popular, then just flip the switch and start making money when we feel like it”. There is no switch.
“The only reliable way to succeed at anything is to actually do it, repeatedly, with concentrated effort. True for individuals, and true for organizations. Athletes, artists, businesses.“
- John Gruber (emphasis mine)
True for tech companies (like Gruber’s context), but also so true for everything from blogging to the job you’re doing to relationships and everything in between.
(Think Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule from Outliers or Seth Godin’s ideas from The Dip)
Simplifying solves problems.
“The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. It’s so easy to make it complex. The solution for a lot of the world’s problems may be to turn around and take a forward step. You can’t just keep trying to make a flawed system work.”
- Yvon Chouinard
Working on a project? Listen to the owners.
In “The math of action” we talked about how action matters as much as creativity for impact.
One way to apply this is to filter others’ input through the lens of action and ownership.
We often celebrate ideas, but ideas are cheap – implementation makes the difference.
In brainstorming sessions, it’s good to hear a wide range of thoughts. Occasionally you’ll hear from someone who’s full of ideas (often just before your deadline to complete a project), but they have no stake in the final product. Their ideas don’t affect their life.
I’ve learned that if someone is giving input without owning the work to make the idea happen, their input should hold less weight than input from the person who is willing to put in the work.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s a place for brainstorming. There’s a place for everyone’s ideas to be heard. This also doesn’t include the opinions and ideas of the boss or supervisor who has handed you responsibility for a project. They do have a stake in the outcome. They should be in the loop throughout the process.
But on a team, when it comes down to it, the ideas from those who are ready to step into the ring and put in the work matter more.
Encourage action and ownership by encouraging the people who are setting that example.
