A RELOOK AT THE TAPESTRY OF CONTENTS: SURFING THE INTELLECT

This book, targeted primarily at CEOs as well as entrepreneurs, managers & professionals, provides push-button strategies for turnkey solutions. It enables you to be change-able, makes you creative and recreative, and is your intellectual trampoline. It answers the question:

Are you killing yourself or skilling yourself?

It suggests: Be not a puny candle with flame so ready to be extinguished by the slightest adversity. Instead, be a raging bonfire; burn bright, and dare the world to eclipse your glory.

Enjoy the simple rapture of being alive.

FOCUS: The Human Brain and The Human Heart: How to use them with stunning effectiveness.

THINK: How can we enjoy the Sun’s splendour if we have not experienced the light of a candle?

READ THIS BOOK!

It

• is infused with passion and compassion;
• is evolutionary and revolutionary;
• evokes urgency and insurgency;

Once you’ve challenged your mind, you’ll never be the same. The material is designed to expand, extend, enrich. You will engage, evolve, emerge, illuminated with your infinite possibilities. Much like a surfer interacts with the elements of nature, you, the reader, are invited to interact with the elements of this book.



'Surfing the Intellect' is also part of 'The Creative Brain Series', which comprises 'Building Brainpower'. 'Brain Symphony', 'Unleashing Genius' & 'Taleblazers'.

The book is readily available at most of the Kinokuniya Bookstores.

BOOK REVIEW: 'WANT TO STAY AHEAD?', by Alex Ow

'Want to Stay Ahead?' is certainly a catchy title, which explains why it piques my personal attention in the first place, while browsing the book shelves leisurely at the Harris bookstore in Jurong Point.

Since I often like to support local authors, I just bought a copy for my personal library.

Surprisingly, it's a revised & updated book (first published in 2004) from the author, based in Malaysia as a creativity consultant, drawing on his experience in helping organizations implement a creative & innovative organisation.

Hence, its secondary title: 'How to Create a Creative Thinking Organisation'.

I am disappointed to say that the book reads more like a compendium of ragtag stuff from the author's master sifu, Edward de Bono.

All the fancy stuff from the master sifu like 'Lateral Thinking', 'Six Thinking Hats', 'Six Action Shoes', 'Six Value Medals' & 'Direct Attention Thinking Tools' are outlined in the book.

To my chagrin, the entire book also reads like an academic textbook because of its structured page/text layout, that goes 1.0., 1.1., 1.2., 2.0., 2.1., 2.2., 2.3., 3.0., & so on.

As I read further, I become quite "intrigued" about what the author has meant when he writes on page 11, under 2.1. 'Creative Thinking as a Breakthrough Strategy':

"... The ideas must be novel - different from what's been done before - but they can't be simply bizarre; they must be appropriate... "

My immediate response to that is "Why Not?"

Furthermore, the author unwittingly contradicts himself - being a de Bono trainer - when he writes on page 31, last paragraph, ending with:

"... When we apply this (lateral thinking) technique, we can use it in challenging what is out there or what is going on in our mind?... "

Looking back, the author is obviously not walking his talk.

Is it an inkling that the author prefers to "stay within the boundary", so to speak?

Most of the time the author is talking about how his clients are falling in love with all the de Bono's stuff after attending his training. I have no quarrel with that. What irks me most is that I don't get to read about any case studies or even anecdotes of 'aHA' moments.

To compound my displeasure, I don't get to read any of the author's own particular insights on creative thinking, other than rehashing what his master sifu has covered.

Sometimes, I just wonder why authors bother to write their books in the first place when they actually do not have any new ideas or perspectives of their own to share with the world.

Is it vanity at work? Or, is it sheer compunction just to have a book - with their name on it - to go with their professional standing as a consultant?

I don't mean to throw a cold wet blanket, but the harsh reality is that the book is really not up to my expectations of a creativity consultant. Sad to say, & with due respect to the author, there is no originality of thought, as well as no intellectual ballast at all.

The only relatively good points I can gather from the book are the few discussion questions at the end of each chapter in the book, which I reckon are quite useful for reader's reflection & introspection.

The Organisational Creativity Factors (OCF) Survey Questionnaire from the author is not too bad, in fairness to the author, although I must say it's not truly complete. I would venture to add in a sixth element, 'Opportunity Pursuit'.

This is because, in my professional opinion, without 'Opportunity Pursuit' in the final equation, so to speak, the creative thinking organisational culture, which the author has envisaged, is not sustainable.

To put it bluntly, in the long run, it is 'Opportunity Pursuit' as a deliberate systematic process that give true meaning & real value to organisational prosperity.

In the end analysis, should you get the book?

Regrettably, the answer is an affirmative NO!

However, if readers still fancy de Bono's stuff, then it is more worthwhile for readers to go directly to the source materials, rather than dabbling with rehashed second-grade materials.

A RELOOK AT THE TAPESTRY OF CONTENTS: BRAIN SYMPHONY, by Dilip Mukerjea

In a nut shell, 'Brain Symphony: Brain-blazing Practical Techniques in Creativity for Immediate Application', replaces 'BrainDancing', with both written by Dilip Mukerjea.

The latter book was published during the later part of the nineties, following his debut book, 'Superbrain' & 'Brainfinity' (both out-of-print now) during the mid-nineties.

The focal point of 'Brain Symphony' is to help you to equip yourself with a plethora of practical skillsets to boost your personal creativeness & professional brainpower, which in turn will enhance your organisational prosperity.




'Brain Symphony' is now part of 'The Creative Brain Series', which comprises 'Building Brainpower', 'Surfing the Intellect', 'Unleashing Genius', as well as 'Taleblazers'.

[All the books in 'The Creative Brain Series' are readily available at most of the Kinokuniya Bookstores. If you encounter acquisition problems, please write to the author at dilipmukerjea@gmail.com.

Alternatively, overseas readers can check out his corporate website.]

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

[All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SURVIVING & THRIVING IN THE AGE OF TURBULENCE WITH CHAOTICS

I have, not too long ago, & also as part of my evolving personal collection, the following apt quote from Philip Kotler at the forefront of my daily idea scratchpad:

“To prepare for the twenty-first century, companies need to imagine alternative scenarios for the marketplace of the future, and use these scenarios to stimulate their thinking about possible contingencies and strategies. My advice, therefore, is get busy building scenarios and determining what they imply in the way of strategic planning. Do not think business as usual.”

I can't recall where I have gotten it, but I have also adopted it as one of my 'Today's VIP (Very Important Pose'), as well as considered it as one of my 'Pragmatic Insights from the Experts' in my personal weblog.

To my pleasant delight, I am glad that it helps to set a profound preamble to this book review of mine.

The lead author, now 78 or so, but surprisingly still active, is undoubtedly recognised as an internationally acclaimed marketing guru; hailed by the Management Centre Europe as "the world's foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing."

Naturally, I have been quite excited to approach in reading his new book, 'Chaotics', but my fascination begins to fade after reading several pages at the front portion of the book. This is primarily because the author has drawn excellent material from several earlier authors - which he has humbly acknowledged at the onset & within the chapters of the book - namely:

- Clayton Christensen ('The Innovator's Dilemma' & 'The Innovator's Solution');
- Jim Collins ('Good to Great');
- Peter Drucker (The Age of Discontinuity');
- George Day & Paul Schoemaker ('Peripheral Vision');
- Richard D'Alveni ('Hypercompetition');
- Arie de Geus ('The Living Company');
- Benjamin Gilad ('Early Warning');
- Andy Grove ('Only the Paranoid Survive');
- Gary Hamel ('Leading the Revolution');
- Peter Schwartz (''Inevitable Surprises');

[The only odd one I have not read, to my chagrin, is probably Hermann Simon's 'Hidden Champions'.]

I have, in fact, over the years, read the works of these authors not only once, but many times in order to personalise their many ideas for easy application.

So, specifically for me, reading 'Chaotics' is like doing a grand refresher course.

In fact, it also reminds of me of the great works of two Scandinavian consultants Yves Doz & Mikko Kosonen (with their masterpiece: 'Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility will help you Stay Ahead of the Game') & innovation strategist/futurist Jim Carroll (namely, 'What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation' & 'Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast').

However, in fairness to the two competent authors, this bold statement of mine is not going to diminish the value of the book.

Strictly speaking, I reckon, riding on the shoulders of giants, so to speak, is apparently a cool move on the part of the two competent authors, because they didn't have to spend time dabbling with fancy theories. All they need to do, is to give all the proven stuff a new spin, which they have done so marvellously in 'Chaotics'.

In that respect, I have found useful nuggets, in addition to the fact that the two competent authors have synthesised, within 200-odd pages, all the "borrowed brilliance" into a timely, disciplined strategy guide on building strategic robustness, market responsiveness & operational resiliency, as embodied in their 'Chaotics' Management System.

In a nut shell, I want to say that the book is all about developing organisational agility & prosperity, but first business leaders need a new view of the world, & a new framework for dealing with it.

[At this juncture, I am reminded again by this superb insight from Dudley Lynch, author of 'Strategy of the Dolphin' & 'The Mother of All Minds':

"When your mind changes its worldview, it changes the world! Not just the world-at-large outside you, but also your own interior personal world, writ large!"]

So, 'Chaotics' comes in real handy, because it provides a comprehensive roadmap to navigate the so-called interlocking fragility of turbulence, chaos, risk & uncertainty amidst globalisation & digitisation, as well as a practical operating manual for inculcating new strategic behaviours.

[Readers can also go to this publisher's link to download an overview document on 'Chaotics'.]

For me, the beautiful nuggets come in the form of abundant pertinent probing questions, which all managers of today should ask themselves, if they really want to survive & thrive in the 'Age of Turbulence', all interpersed throughout the book (& strategically segmented to suit finance, IT, manufacturing, purchasing & HR) , plus a myriad of thoughtfully-crafted checklists of recommendations & ideas to consider.

In terms of immediate takeaways or learning points, the foregoing stuff is already worth the price of the book. It's like having both competent authors at your side to guide you.

For reader's benefits, I like to fish out a handful of the worthwhile checklists:

- factors that can cause chaos;
- hypercompetition strategies for disruption;
- most common mistakes that business leaders make when turbulence hits;
- ten innovation mistakes a company can make during a turbulent economy;
- ten most common mistakes companies make relative to valued stakeholders during turbulence;
- one effective & efficient approach to scenario construction;
- ten practices to weather continually extended & heightened periods of turbulence;
- ten effective HR recommendations to help retain talent;
- four key changes in the marketspace;
- eight factors for marketers to keep in mind when embracing 'Chaotics' marketing strategies;
- three important recommendations for keeping margins above water;
- six key steps for sales executives to inspired the team;
- common characteristics of firms of endearment (endeared company);

Some of the authors' concepts like defending vulnerabilities/exploiting opportunities for sustainability, as well as dual vision/triple planning, though not entirely new, are worth reading, too.

To conclude my review, 'Chaotics' is still worth pursuing, especially if you are hard-pressed for time in seeking a lifeline while traversing uncharted waters. Best of all, to the credit of the two competent authors, their writing style is crisp, succinct & easy-to-read.

CAN YOUR ORGANISATION OUTPERFORM THE WORLD ECONOMY?

See if you can answer the eight questions below. Plot your responses on the radial grid. The ideal shape is a circle of the largest diameter.

A sample shape is shown dotted within the grid.

These questions are related to the CEO’s Mandate as shown in an earlier post.

Keep testing yourself so that you and your organisation can get a continual Return on Ideas (ROI).

Organisational Self-Assessment Questionnaire



1. If the standard operating procedures are the driving force behind all the corporate decisions in your organization, is it seen as a problem?

2. Are your people tuned in and switched on to the challenges of working in real (unreal) time?

3. Do your people feel safe to express divergent ideas, and do these ideas, if any, have a mechanism (a conceptual conveyor belt) to move them into action?

4. Does your organization have Innovation Teams to translate ideas into action?

5. Does your organization have an effective innovation system that can spot talent, identify opportunities, assemble smart teams, allocate time and other resources, and set direction in order to remain continually viable for the long term?

6. Do your people know that by not continually questioning the status quo there is no status to their quo?

7. Do you accept that information is not good enough ~ we need ideas and imagination to create impact?

8. Beyond intellectual capital, do you recognize and act on the value of imaginative capital, so as to reap a Return on Imagination (ROI)?

[Excerpted from the 'Ideas on Ideas' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

I like to draw a parallel lesson from Jack Welch's winning strategies, when he once said:

"If the rate of change inside an organization is less that the rate of change outside... their end is in sight".

This characteristic means the urgent need to thrive on proactive change management & constant re-assessment.

Tactically, at least from my personal perspective, this is the 'Law of Requisite Variety' in action!

A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS: CEO'S MANDATE

[Excerpted from the 'Ideas on Ideas' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

IS INNOVATION PURSUING YOU OR ARE YOU PURSUING INNOVATION?

This is the Age of Competitive Intelligence!

It has given birth to The Learning Economy. And thus, the need for Human Resources, humans standing in reserve, waiting to be used, has been replaced by the need for Resourceful Humans!

In a globally interlinked world, business success is based on cognitive success. Cognitive has two equally significant meanings: “to know” and “to beget.” When blended, these two meanings suggest that all birth is an awakening to knowledge. To know and to generate are inseparable.

Red Alert!

Are the actions, transactions, and interactions of your business processes perpetuating the decaying status quo, or are they alive and infused with novelty, value, and passion?

Are your people able to convey unforgettably brilliant first impressions?

Does your organisation recognise that its lifeblood must be open communications of information:

thoughts, feelings, and ideas?

Is innovation pursuing you or are you pursuing innovation?

If innovation is pursuing you it means that the rate of change outside your organisation is much greater than that within it. That spells trouble.

Today, innovation must trump bureaucracy, for red tape has morphed into red alert! The choice is clear: innovate or disintegrate.

Is The Red Tape The ONLY Thing That’s Holding Your Organisation Together?

What are YOU doing about it?

[Excerpted from the 'Leadership, Learning & Laughter' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

Although Dilip Mukerjea has written his essay from the organisational perspective, I am sure he has also intended that the pursuit of innovation applies in the personal setting.

In the personal context, The Red Tape refers to poor habits, old ideas, outmoded routines, irrelevant practices, dogmatic rules as well as disempowering beliefs .

I hold the view that, at the personal level, the pursuit of innovation, excellence as well as anticipation is the hallmark of peak performance & success achievement in today's rapidly-changing world.

By doing so consistently, I am confident that one gets to increase the personal rate of change faster than the environmental rate of change.

This is the basic tenet of the 'Law of Requisite Variety', originally conceived by Dr W Ross Ashby from the world of cybernetics, which applies to both organisations & individuals.

So, I like to rephrase Dilip's pertinent questions:

Is The Red Tape The Only Thing That's Holding You Together?

What are YOU doing about it personally?

AGILE BRAIN$ BREED BU$INE$$

Today, we are in The Learning Economy ~ the Age of Competitive Intelligence!

The creative brain capital resident within a corporation will determine the emergence of winners in an ecosystem of stampeding info-brokers.

This means that we must be able to:

• convert information into usable intelligence;

• come up with simple solutions to complex problems;

• understand and appreciate that true TQM equates directly with effective brain and heart usage;

The corporations that survive in the long term will be those with “smart teams” that are able to think quick, move fast, manoeuvre flexibly, and are more focused through the medium of “relaxed alertness.”

The possession of knowledge alone, without subsequent application, will produce a pundit rather than a practitioner. True knowledge resides in ultimately doing, not merely knowing about, and talking about.

[Excerpted from the 'Catalysing Creativity' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

Dilip Mukerjea highlights a very pertinent point: the importance of having “smart teams” that are able to think quick, move fast, manoeuvre flexibly, and are more focused through the medium of “relaxed alertness.”

In a nut shell, he is talking about “strategic agility”, at least from the organisational perspective.

From a personal perspective, I believe it is also important for us to embrace it.

Also, I reckon the ultimate test of it, as Dilip has also emphasised, is putting our knowledge to work in the workplace & in our personal lives, purposefully, productively & meaningfully.

In terms of performance results, true knowledge, especially in our prevailing Learning or Knowledge Economy, is always measured by our sheer productivity, i.e. what we do well consistently, & not what is acquired & stored in our heads.

As a matter of fact, learning should go beyond knowing to being able to do what one knows.

I like to leave an inspiring quote, originally conceived by German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but popularised by the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee in the latter's writings, as food for thought:

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."

I also like to recommend readers to get hold of & read 'Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility will help you stay ahead of the Game' by two Scandinavian consultants, Yves Doz & Mikko Kosonen.

For me, their wonderful ideas & proven strategies, though written from the organisational perspective, are readily applicable in a personal setting, just with a little bit of tweaking.

INNOVATE OR INCINERATE IN TODAY'S WARP-SPEED MARKETSPACE

Better! Faster! Cheaper! The chant of the marketspace!

Earnings have become less predictable. The challenge is how to reconcile unpredictable earnings with predictable bills. Hard work is no guarantor of future security. No pundit, preacher, or politician can predict with any precision about profits, performance, and productivity. Income used to be directly proportional to rank and seniority.

Now you’re paid for your ideas and your ability to inform, communicate, and entertain – so that you sell!

A Financial Times investigation covering an eighteen months timespan from January 2001 has shown that the directors and executives of the 25 largest US companies to go bankrupt in this period managed to amass a US$3.3 billion fortune between them – in horrid contrast to their companies, their employees, and the millions of shareholders that lost all their investments in them. A mere 52 individuals emerged with US$2.95 billion in remuneration shortly before their businesses went bust – 89 per cent of the total!

Some of the huge entities guilty of previously unimaginable corporate scandals were WorldCom, Enron, and Arthur Andersen, to mention just a few. Of course, the personalities of such creative chicanery are now confronted with financial bankruptcy.

In this new learning economy, success equates most with connections, relationships, alliances, talent, creative ingenuity, continuous innovation, and the ability to project ourselves into the ever-contracting attention span of potential customers. Inventiveness and empathy are needed to remain in contention.

In the corporate ecosystem, selling out was once a stigma; now, the worst scenario is when you’re not selling! Net worth and self-worth are generally poles apart; in today’s frenetic marketspace, they meet on equal terms when your personality has become a marketable commodity so that it sells successfully.

Creative ingenuity enables you to nichecraft; it helps you to blaze your own career path and make a reputation in your field, not just in your organisation. Promotion comes from promoting yourself. Entrepreneurship has morphed into multipreneurship, and the new individual has to become an intricate web containing several different nodes of expertise. Demand for ingenious innovators is outrunning supply. Electronic communities and coalitions are coordinating themselves via the Internet.

Constantly morphing constellations of diverse disciplines, such as researchers, designers, manufacturers, financial specialists, marketers, shippers, and many others, are merging into conglomerates that function as if they were a single enterprise – only to disband once their united aims are achieved, to form fresh coalitions of creative collaboration.

Are you in? Are you out ? Choose. And act!

The clarion call of innovation has forced large organisations to rip out entire bureaucracies – replacing middle management with computer software to streamline activities such as billing, procurement, and inventory; leveraging the Internet for customer services, auctioning,sales, and advertising; and renting space and equipment instead of purchasing them.

In many instances, bricks and mortar have been extinguished, rapidly replaced by brains and wits!

Continuous innovation emerges from continual learning, much of which is informal, unplanned,serendipitous. These outputs shape outcomes when technical insights merge with marketing imagination. Intangible value from innovations has surpassed tangible value from the creations of these innovations.

When, for example, buyers purchase a compact disc, some medication, or a transistor, they are paying the bulk of the price tag for researching, designing, marketing, and advertising; the raw cost of the products themselves is a mere few cents in each case.

How are YOU capitalising on innovation?

Here is another choice for you: Innovate or Abdicate!

[Excerpted from the 'Catalysing Creativity' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

Posting the foregoing essay by Dilip Mukerjea - & rereading it - reminds me of our earlier conversation in his car, while travelling together to visit his printer in the Tuas area some time ago, during which I have mentioned about a wonderful book I have read, entitled 'Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility will help you Stay Ahead of the Game'.

I have then shared with Dilip a particular comment made by the two consultants-authors, Yves Doz & Mikko Kosonen, of the book:

"Companies are often the victims of their own success. They die not because what they did was wrong, but rather they kept doing it for too long."

It resonates with what Dilip has so eloquently written.

From my perspective, to succeed - and thrive - in an environment of disruptive change, we will have to be more versatile, more ready than ever to anticipate and adapt. I have mentioned this point in an earlier post.

Creativity &/or innovation, as argued by Dilip Mukerjea, is just one avenue. We also have to stay agile & remain nimble, mentally as well as physically.

With greater creativity, versatility and agility, I reckon we can have more options to deal with a rapidly-changing, discontinuously disruptive marketspace.

RAPID RECAP: WHY THE NEED FOR CREATIVITY?

Welcome to the Age of Brainware.

Those who do not know this, are victims, not victors. The crucial variable in transforming knowledge into value is ‘creativity.’ Creativity ignites our audacity; it helps us convert pain into progress, and become what we are capable of being.

Incremental evolution has been trumped by quantum revolution. The workscapes of tomorrow have their genesis in the mindscapes of today. Corporate landscapes are littered with the charred remains of burnt-out executives. There is only one ultimatum: innovate or incinerate.

Too many organisations are obsessed with ‘best practices’ when what is needed are ‘revolutionary practices,’ ones that are radically different; the pace of change demands intellectual mutiny vis-à-vis past protocols. Previous success has become irrelevant in today’s fail-fast-leap-ahead quantum dance with competitive innovation.

Japan’s three most innovative companies -- Honda, NTT DoCoMo, and Sony -- are addressing a gargantuan social problem facing them, and also the world’s industrialized nations: the drop in the fertility rate, which has resulted in an escalating aging population. The problem will eventually hit developing nations, since the drop in fertility rates for countries like China and India will pose unheard-of challenges beyond the year 2050.

So will we witness the fruits of creativity in the guise of humanlike robots? These three Japanese companies are working on this new species for our planet.

A goal for these robots is to be ready to challenge the winner of the FIFA World Cup to a soccer match in about 50 years. If they can play soccer, then they surely will be able to do a lot of things for you, both at home -- like wash the dishes, vacuum the floor, baby-sit -- and at work.We know that robots represent the future. We need to start preparing for them. The challenge facing humans is to make sure that these robots behave morally and ethically -- something that we have a hard time doing ourselves.

Exercise: Write down at least 3 ways in which you have demonstrated a good measure of creativity in the past month.

[Excerpted from the 'Igniting Innovation' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

Re-reading what Dilip Mukerjea has written reminds me of a National Day Rally 2000 speech by the then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, now Senior Minister, during which he had painted the new economic landscape for Singapore (as recorded in my scratchpad notes).

He had even quoted from then visiting consultant Prof Gary Hamel, who wrote 'Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation a Way of Life':

"In the new industrial order, the battle lines don’t run between regions and countries. It's no longer Japan versus the USA versus the EU versus the developing world. Today, it’s the insurgents versus the incumbents, the revolutionaries versus the landed gentry . . . First the revolutionaries will take your markets and your customers . . . Next they’ll take your best employees ... Finally, they’ll take your assets."

With the world changing so radically, naturally it cannot be "business as usual" for us. We have to reinvent ourselves continually.

What Gary Hamel and Goh Chok Tong had put forward still rings true today.

To succeed - and thrive - in an environment of disruptive change, we will have to be more versatile, more ready than ever to anticipate and adapt.

Creativity, as argued by Dilip Mukerjea, is just one avenue. We also have to stay agile & remain nimble, mentally as well as physically.

With greater creativity, versatility and agility, I reckon we can have more options to deal with any insurgency.

THE GREATEST RESOURCE OF ANY ORGANISATION: THE CREATIVENESS OF PEOPLE

Our mutual friend in the United States, Dr Robert Alan Black, who often travels around the world [that's why he loves to call himself 'Wandering Alan'] to run creativity workshops, & also to meet up - as well as to exchange ideas/share insights - with old friends, has recently consented to allow one of his Cre8ng articles to be reproduced in this weblog.

He actually wrote it during the early 90's, but I reckon his point is still very relevant today, as you can judge for yourself.

"For too many years people have been treated as expense items instead of highly valuable resources.

The highly successful organizations from small shops to corporations and government agencies in the United States look upon people as resources of creativeness. They make their workplaces creative environments. They encourage creativeness. They reward creativeness, extrinsically and intrinsically.

In the September 1985 issue of Business Week the cover story was devoted to how companies were training and developing the creativeness and creative thinking skills of employees. Yet still today, ten and a half years later, companies and agencies continue to overlook this excellent resource.

Research has shown continuously over the past fifty years that people can be taught, encouraged and coached or counseled to be more creative. Four basic creative strengths and skills can be easily taught:

- Flexibility;
- Fluency;
- Elaboration;
- Originality;

You as a team leader, supervisor or P&R Director can help develop creativeness through setting the right climate that will tell people that creativeness is accepted and encouraged in your department.

First, start asking for many more suggestions when you are discussing a problem with anyone in your department or company: Director to clean up crew or volunteer summer help.

Second, keep track of their suggestions and tell them how you are using them. If their ideas are being worked on, keep them aware of the current status of their ideas. If their ideas have been shelved (temporarily) make sure they understand why.

Knowing why an idea is shelved might spark additional thoughts on how to improve or modify an idea to make it more immediately useful.

From now on NEVER KILL AN IDEA: use it, improve it or temporarily shelve it with a specific date to reconsider it again.

Third, allow failure or non- success to happen. Encourage people to learn from their un-successes or non-failures. Fearing failure is one of the biggest causes for lack of progress in the U.S. today.

Fourth, celebrate creativeness. Give out rewards, awards, trophies, plaques, print announcements in your local news-paper or your parks or recreation department newsletter.

Hold celebrations. Have Fun being creative and encourage it! It is a proven fact that creative people given the chance to be more creative are happier and more effectively productive.

Fifth, teach, coach and counsel for creativeness in your department by developing four expandable skills:

- Fluency-ability to produce many ideas;

- Flexibility-ability to produce a varied mix of ideas;

- Elaboration-ability to add detail, depth, mixtures of viewpoints or perspectives;

- Originality-uniqueness, novelty, newness, creativeness (new) or informativeness (improvement of existing);

Practise Fluency during staff meetings by holding fun creative thinking sessions: Brainstorm for 100 different uses for everyday objects (sponge, toothpick, eraser, brick, paper clip, etc.).

After you reach 100 with a few everyday objects begin working on work-related objects just for fun first until you can reach 100 easily then begin applying your knew fluency to every day work situations or problems.

Practise Flexibility during meetings once a week or month by listing 50 totally different kinds of uses for everyday objects. Then move on to work related challenges.

Practise Elaboration by taking turns describing something with a minimum of 75 separate details using all the physical senses (hobby, TV show, tree, cat, an athletic event, etc.).

Practise Originality by picking one household item or something you could find in any convenience or hardware store and list 25 to 50 uses for it you have never heard of before (spoon, toothbrush, napkin).

The key to developing creative thinking abilities is practise, practise, practise, and practise still more, while working at helping yourself and the people in your department to become more creative every day!

If you encourage people to spend simply 10% of their week (4 hours, 240 minutes/48 minutes a day) focusing on developing and being creative you will see fantastic growth and expansion in your department and will experience a worthwhile side benefit: increased morale and dedication.

Creativeness is one ability that knows no limit. Good luck in continuously improving your creativeness from now on!"

Many thanks, Alan, for sharing!

[Dr Robert Alan Black or 'Wandering Alan', runs his own workplace creativity consulting outfit. He is also the author of 'Broken Crayons: Break Your Crayons & Draw Outside the Lines'. The book is available from Amazon.

By the way, here's also a link to many of his other interesting Cre8ng articles.]

BUREAUCREATIVE, NOT BUREAUCRATIC!

Dilip Mukerjea & I share a lot in common:

- we are engineers by training;

- we have been globe-trotters in our own ways;

- we are voracious readers;

[That's how Catherine & I met Dilip during the mid-nineties, as we had then owned a bookstore. Dilip happened to find us by chance one day. When he stepped into our store for the first time, he was overwhelmed by all the great stuff, & subsequently, was made poorer by more than a thousand dollars! That's also why Dilip always remember Catherine.];

- we are fellow explorers in the field of creativity & innovation;

- more importantly, we like to urge corporations & professionals, to be changeable & change-ready!

The way we see it, they have two options:

- they can stand still, & wait to see what happens; or

- they can charge ahead with an eye on the future!

In reality, they can’t afford to stand still, because, as one futurist (Peter Bishop?) once said:

“Change is uncertain, but stagnation is fatal.”

In fact, Dilip Mukerjea poses a very pertinent question to drive home the urgency:

Are you killing yourself or are you skilling yourself?

We both strongly believe that, with creativity & innovation as our intellectual trampoline, so to speak, we can learn to deal with the future.

Developing change-readiness, mental flexibility, & operational agility is imperative in order for all us to stay relevant with changing times, & not to be made extinct by turbulent changes that come our way.

The two Scandinavian strategy consultants, Yves Doz & Mikko Kosonen, have brilliantly illustrated the urgency by introducing the term, "strategic agility", in their excellent book, 'Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility will Help you Stay Ahead of the Game'.

Many years earlier, Mercer Management Consulting, through the great works of their former VPs, Adrian Slywotzky & Robert Duboff, had introduced their unique term, "strategic anticipation".

I particularly like foresight strategist & scenario planner Adam Gordon's latest fancy term: "future savvy".

Come to think of it, 'Innovate or Evaporate!' rings very true! I reckon it becomes more urgent for companies & their CEOs to move their butts, because elephants are slow to dance.

At this juncture, I like to share with readers a few selected excerpts from the book, 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital for a Knowledge Economy', by Dilip Mukerjea:

"Perspectives for the New Millennium:

Are you relevant to the future or relegated to the past?

The world is changing economically, culturally, socially, politically, technologically, environmentally, and competitively.

Every individual must change in step with these world changes.

So must corporations and the human capital within them.

Unless you are prepared for all these scenarios, you are prepared for none of them. Ask yourself, are you busy preparing for a set of careers that will soon be obsolete?

We need creativity and innovation to live in a world where multiple realities have become the norm. Yet, each set of multiple realities poses a challenge, because no two people occupy the same slice of consciousness about anything.

We just do not occupy the same knowledge space, often seeking refuge in our private sanctuaries of specialisation.

Skills in creativity equip us with the capacity to succeed in the future. If we fail, it is because of a failure of imagination in the present. More than ever, you’ve got to aim for what you can’t expect to get. The marketspace of commerce has become a single global bazaar.

To be a viable player in this marketspace, we need to develop intellectual capital skills.

This means creativity, innovation, leadership, verbal and visual literacy, team play, and humanity towards one another.

Are you in the forefront of innovation, or have you receded into the white noise of your organisation’s background?

If it is the latter, consider getting outside the box so as to get inside the solution. We must integrate our diverse needs as members of today’s share of consciousness.

These are exciting times, ones that electrify a creative world where we are witness to collisions of chaos.

The Forces of Creation:

Combinations are spark plugs for creative combustion. An item by itself is a unilateral entity ~ filled with potential, but static, until it meets another. Then whoosh! Creativity!

All of us harbour forces within us. Within the vast ocean of consciousness, we have it in us to set loose a groundswell that can explode into mighty waves of unstoppable magnitude.

When we surf along these waves of human dynamism, our destination becomes inevitable. Often unplanned, serendipitously, we reach the shores of wonder. Such terrains, alive with infinite waves of potential, define the human intellect.

May the rhythm of your spirit create a song in your heart. May you never be the same!

Bureaucreative Perspectives:

Ideas are the raw material from which financial results are made.

Research exhibits the alarming fact that two-thirds of the companies listed on the inaugural Fortune 500 list in 1954 had either vanished or were no longer big enough to make the list on its fortieth anniversary. Why?

Lack of ideas to navigate through the shoals of change.

The world of ideas is emerging from the womb of creativity.

Metaphorically, it has been likened to a new tennis ball — fuzzy, but with a lot of bounce. This New World is becoming less fuzzy every day, but with a lot more bounce. Isn’t it time to knock the fuzz off the tennis ball?

"The things we fear most in organizations -- fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances -- are the primary sources of creativity." ~ Margaret J. Wheatley

Today’s corporate world is filled with executives that want someone to give them plug-and-play answers. How many such executives can you recognise in your organisation?

The future of middle management is extinction. Are the symptoms visible in your organisation? Are you becoming fossilised?

“Ideas have power by themselves. They can accumulate without travelling through an institution, and then suddenly explode.” — Michael Brown, CFO Microsoft

"The person who can combine frames of reference and draw connections between ostensibly unrelated points of view is likely to be the one who makes the creative breakthrough." — Denise Shekerjian

"Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." — Anna Freud

Thomas Stewart writes that half of what a freshman engineering student learns is obsolete by the time she graduates; the obsolescence of electronics knowledge is so fast that techies use the phrase “Internet years” the way children say “dog years.”

Liam Fahey, a professor at Babson College and a stalwart of the Strategic Leadership Forum, likes to pose the following question: “How long will it take before half the knowledge you need in your job is obsolete?” If he poses it to a group, a third of the audience members usually say that the half-life of their knowledge is less than two years, another third that it’s less than five years.

Like money in a mattress, says Hugh Macdonald, “intellectual capital is useless unless it moves. It’s no good having some guy who is very wise and sits alone in a room.”

This is totally applicable to the world of ideas … ‘bureaucratic’ needs to make way for ‘bureau-creative’!!!

Getting results from investing in creativity requires a corporate culture that allows it to flow freely. This simply means scrapping rules that stifle new ideas."

Well, you just got to read the entire book to make yourself more creative & recreative.

As the author puts it:

"This book incorporate a spectrum of contemporary applications designed to meet today's corporate & educational needs. The vast repertoire of knowledge & techniques cater to our diverse areas of performance. We now know that our primary source of wealth lies in the development of intellectual capital. You will find the ingredients between these pages."

[For readers' information: Adrian Slywotzky wrote 'Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate & Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business'; Robert Duboff, 'Market Research Matters: Tools & Techniques for Aligning Your Business'; Adam Gordon, 'Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions, Manage Uncertainty, & Profit from Change '. All my personal favourites!]