Category Archives: Creativity

Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs

Excerpt from Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow’s Crisis…Today by Russell L. Ackoff, Jason Magidson and Herbert J. Addison: How Bell Labs Imagined — and Created — the Telephone System of the Future in the 1950s. Great stuff and another … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Patent Review Innovation

Michael Crichton wrote an essay critical of the current patent law: This Essay Breaks the Law. I believe the US is making significant mistakes in how we are proceeding with the patent system, see: The Patent System Needs to be … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Innovation, IT, Management, Process improvement | 2 Comments

Interviews with Innovators

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston is an interesting looking book to be published in a few months. The book consists of interviews with founders of technology companies exploring the initial efforts to create a … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Creativity, Innovation, IT, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Interviews with Innovators

The Long Tail

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson is now available. This books explores the huge market for goods outside of the mass market. The few popular items that dominate the media … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Creativity, Management | Comments Off on The Long Tail

CEO Flight Attendant

Street Smarts: Learning From JetBlue by Norm Brodsky. The Jet Blue CEO works (once a month he estimates) as a flight attendant. He interacts directly with customers in real world situations (not just talking to travel managers in his office). … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Management, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Brainstorming Under Attack

Brainstorming under attack: 8 errors in the WSJ [the broken link was removed]. The WSJ has their content behind a wall [the broken link was removed] so their content is not part of the web and so I have not … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Brainstorming Under Attack

TRIZ – Managing Creativity

The World According to TRIZ by Reena Jana: TRIZ is the brainchild of late Russian inventor Genrich Altshuller (1926-98), who worked as a patent inspector. In the process of observing invention after invention, Altshuller sought to identify a consistent formula … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Management | Comments Off on TRIZ – Managing Creativity

Creativity Overflowing

Creativity Overflowing [the broken link was removed] : It was clear that Whirlpool needed to reinvent its corporate culture. To do so, it had to figure out the answers to basic questions that managers everywhere struggle with: How do you … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Management Articles | Comments Off on Creativity Overflowing

Flow

“Flow” and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [the broken link was removed] by David Farmer: How does it feel to be in “the flow”? 1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating – with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Art of Work

The Art of Work [the broken link was removed] by Ann Marsh: These companies are now using Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas to learn how they can get the best out of their workers or create more compelling connections with their customers. Without … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Management Articles | Tagged | Comments Off on The Art of Work