MY FAVOURITE PICTURE FOR THE WEEK

This is an interesting 'thought diagram' from Walt Disney Studios (dates back to 1957).

Some bloggers refer to it as a 'mindmap'. Who says Tony Buzan invented 'mindmapping'?

[Source: Peter Duke]

A GLIMPSE OF RAW IDEAS FROM 'INNOVATION LIFESCAPE'

One of Dilip's newest books in his thought pipeline is, tentatively titled, 'Innovation Ecosystem Lifescape'. In many respects, it's a work-in-progress.

Below, I have taken the liberty of giving readers a glimpse of one of his many raw ideas:

There are four 'Interconnected Pathways to Innovation', as follows:

(1) Seeding: Ideas arrive ready to refine … after initial market sensing (*).

This is where sensations of fun, frolic, and free-spirited, freewheeling, freethinking, ideation are encouraged. Creative conversations are sparked through toys, puzzles, random images and objects, merging and morphing through a sense of purposeful play. This is a birthing stage, where idea seeds emerge as raw materials for prototyping, to be followed in subsequent stages by options for development into products, services, processes, systems, or relationships.

(2) Growing: Ideas arrive ready to develop.

This is a what-if? stage, where the prototype (physical or virtual) is created. Serious play involves experimenting with options and ideas, converging on, for example, experimental design concepts, service layouts, risks and uncertainty analysis, resource planning, technological acquisitions and development, and deeper project scaling.

(3) Harvesting: Ideas arrive ready to use.

This is the how? stage, where focus is directed at a successful realization of innovation objectives. For example, some items on the agenda might include development and testing of system functionality, beta-prototype trials in the market, pre-production/service trials and feedback, specifications and documentation, and qualification and certification.

(4) Reaping: The invention becomes an innovation through commercialization of the original idea.

This is where focus is placed on market penetration and revenue generation. Procedures might include identifying specific markets, distributors, and retailers, defining and determining point(s) of sale, sourcing and selecting commercial partners, defining financial accounting systems, and deciding on a commercial marketing strategy (profit, place, position, and promotion).

The process is highly dynamic, fuzzy, ambiguous. Chaos eventually gives birth to order to chaos to order, inspired by nature, where multiple systems run in parallel.

Thus, we have all four stages interacting with one another, and not always sequentially as described above. The trick is to remain focused on real-world results in real-time. Only then will the emergent innovations be timely, relevant, and profitable.

[According to Dilip, 'The Stages of Innovation' runs as follows:

(1) Market Sensing (*)
(2) Idea Generation
(3) Idea Sorting & Focusing
(4) Idea Development
(5) Piloting & Prototyping
(6) Rolling Out & Distribution
(7) Receiving Feedback, Measuring, & Analysing
(8) Scaling Up, or performing Creative Destruction;]

Say Keng's personal comments:

Dilip is absolutely right on the ball with regard to putting 'market sensing' as a prelude to innovation.

I always hold the view that enhancing perceptual sensitivity to the environment - marketspace, to be precise - is not only the vital key to creativity & problem solving, but also to innovation & entrepreneurship.

Perceptual sensitivity (or sensory acuity) - to express in more specific terms, acute perception, fluidity of perception & multiple perceptions - empowers one's ability to recognise opportunities.

Some food for thought:

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

~ Marcel Proust, (1871-1922), French novelist;

"You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence & success. The problem is, you just don't see them."

~ Jay Abraham, marketing strategist & author of 'Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got';

"Everyone is surrounded by opportunities. But they only exist once they have been seen. And they will only be seen if they are looked for."

~ Edward de bono, creativity guru & author of 'Opportunities: A Handbook for Business Opportunity Search';

To share one great example from the real world:

When Walt Disney took his young daughter to play in a park, he noticed the details around him: the adults were bored, the rides were run-down, & the ride operators were unfriendly.

He thought: "Wouldn't it be fun if there was a place where kids & adults could play together?

From those initial observations, he hatched the idea of his famous theme parks.

STORYBOARDING: MY PERSONAL JOURNEY & PERSPECTIVES

In retrospect, I had actually learned the storyboarding technique from the intellectual works of three gurus (not in any particular order):

One is Mike Vance, the creativity guru who once worked with the legendary Walt Disney & his animation studios. [He now runs the Creative Association of America creativity consulting outfit.]

The second one is Jerry McNellis, who calls his storyboarding methodology, 'compression planning', in conjunction with group problem solving.

The last one is David Sibbet of Grove Consultants International. David's methodology has a different twist to it, as it resonates more closely with what is now known as 'graphic facilitation', in conjunction with strategic visionising.

I still own the basic equipment, materials & resources, which I had procured from each of them respectively during the nineties.

It is often acknowledged that the legendary Walt Disney pioneered the storyboarding methodology.

Incidentally, Mike Vance wrote the book, 'Think Out of The Box', with Diane Deacon in the nineties. The book had a profile on Walt Disney, among many others.

Mike Vance calls his storyboarding process, as applied to creative thinking, 'displayed thinking'.

In this particular post, I will only concentrate on talking about my personal adaptation & single user experience with storyboarding.

In subsequent posts, I will share my insights with regard to each of the above-mentioned storyboarding &/or graphic facilitation processes, within the context of group dynamics.

In the light of its original & predominant usage in the movie world, a storyboard is just a visual organisation of the exact movie sequences, usually in the form of rough sketches drawn by artists, & arranged in a logical sequence, before the actual filming.

The storyboard, in this case, allows the movie director to define, show &/or flesh out some important aspects of the movie, together with the actors & actresses &/or action director, who will take care of the action choreography.

I have always used an adaptation of the original storyboarding process as envisaged by Walt Disney in my training design & development.

One of my early fellow trainers has often said to me, there are only three important elements in any successful training workshop:

1) Substance;

2) Sequence;

3) Showmanship;

I often use a rudimentary version of the storyboard to fulfill the second element.

To execute, you can use a white board or even a flip chart.

Firstly, jot down what you intend to teach the participants, & write each idea in a post-it note.

One idea, one note.

Next, display the completed note on to the board or flip-chart.

Then, repeat this process until all possible ideas are captured on post-it notes.

Upon final completion, i.e. after displaying all the completed notes on the board or flip chart, just stand back to take a close look. A big picture view, so to speak.

When you think of a new idea, just jot it them & paste the note into the arrangement.

Or if you think one of the ideas does not fit in for some reasons, just remove it.

Shift or shuffle the completed notes around to complete your intended sequence.

If necessary, think of idea clusters, especially when the training needs to extend into two or more days.

The post-it notes allow you to do wonders. You can also use different colour post-it notes to denote different idea clusters.

Once you are happy with the final arrangement, i.e. the storyboard, you can proceed to write out the curriculum for your training design.

In a brainstorming session, you can also use the storyboard to work out the sequential steps of implementation.

I often take the opportunity to teach small kids how to use the storyboard to fish out important aspects in the life history of any famous person.

For example, I will give the kids a comic book on Albert Einstein.

Then, with the aid of an A2 sized construction paper, some post-it notes of 3 colours, & through the journalists' questions (5W1H), I will get them to chart out the life history of the famous person, especially his major influences & notable accomplishments, covering three phases of his life as follows:

- as a young boy;

- as a young man;

- as a successful physicist;

Like me, kids are always fascinated by Albert Einstein as well as the power of storyboarding.

They are most happy to use the opportunity to display their memory skills as well as drawing/sketching abilities, in addition to learning a useful planning tool.

In a subsequent post, I will also share with readers another variation of mine, with regard to storyboarding.

In execution, it's actually my fully adapted version of the industry-strength 'PERT CHART', a visual planning & project management tool, for parents to help their kids & teenagers to chart out their academic as well as life pursuits.

In his excellent book, 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital for the Knowledge Economy', Dilip Mukerjea, has introduced a more elaborate form of storyboarding, under 'Creativity Technique #10: Storyboarding: The Disney Methodology', from page 123 to 131.

Another good book that touches on the 'Disney Methodology' is William Capodagli & Lynn Jackson's 'The Disney Way'.

The beauty of storyboarding is this: It makes your thinking VISIBLE!

As one of the gurus put it: Think it! See it! Do it!

As a group process, it's great fun, & synergy happens when everybody is having fun!

It also leverages collaborative time. It gets every body on their feet, facing the storyboards on the wall, fully involved in the outcome. Best of all, it fully utilises multiple avenues of learning modalities.

[to be continued in the Next Post.]

SAME PHOTO, BUT A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT STORY

This digital snapshot or photo, probably taken towards the tail end of the nineties, has already been used in my blog post dated 7th April 2008 in the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.

Readers can read it at this link.

I am now using the same photo to tell a slightly different story.

To recap, the guy sitting on the extreme left of the photo was the late Bob Lewis, environmental ecologist & museum designer from United States.

The guy with the blue shirt/white vest is yours truly. On my immediate right is my good friend Dilip Mukerjea.

My late wife, Catherine, was sitting on my left.

[I have actually forgotten the names of the two gentlemen sitting from the right of Dilip. Dilip has however informed me that the gentleman next to him is Brother Michael Broughton, Vice Principal, La Salle College of the Arts.]

Interestingly, I had also written an earlier post about Bob Lewis. Readers can read about him at this link.

Dilip had told me the other day when we had our pow-wow that Bob once served as a coffee boy to the legendary Walt Disney.

Most readers may know that Walt Disney actually pioneered the use of storyboarding techniques in the development of his animation movies as well as the construction of his theme park projects.

So, in a way, Bob had first-hand observations about the storyboarding techniques at work in Disney's studios.

Dilip had also revealed that Bob had shared many interesting insights about the storyboarding techniques, which enabled Dilip to adapt them for other uses, e.g. story-crafting for dissecting stories in English Literature, writing an autobiography, business as well as project planning.

Come to think of it, the six degrees phenomenon is no joke.

Anyway, please stay tuned for a quick lesson in storyboarding.