Tag Archives: Creativity

Simple Solutions That Work

Posted on March 13, 2007 by John Hunter

Nurse, the maggots [the broken link was removed] Maggots clean wounds 18 times faster than normal treatments, can conquer MRSA and would save the NHS millions. … Recent studies have indicated that maggot therapy can cut treatment duration from 89 days to just five, and slash the cost from £2,200 to £300 per patient. Moon describes the grubs as “a highly cost-effective, highly efficient but forgotten and undervalued method of treatment”, and Caroline Flint, the Public Health Minister, says that … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Health care, Management, Science | Tagged ,

New Zealand Creativity

Posted on February 22, 2007 by John Hunter

Saving money by thinking creativity and leanly. $10 wok keeps TV station on air [the broken link was removed]: Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective? This is exactly how North Otago’s newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down. 45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Google’s Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm

Posted on January 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Google Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm. First, from a “what should I do,” view, I believe, Kevin Meyer’s advice is more appropriate: The False God of the Almighty Algorithm. But Google can do some things well that are unwise for others to try. Desperate to hire more engineers and sales representatives to staff its rapidly growing search and advertising business, Google — in typical eccentric fashion — has created an automated way to search for talent among the … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Google, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Create Your Own Book

Posted on December 26, 2006 by John Hunter

I received a custom made photo book from my brother. It is amazing. It is a hardcover book, full of photos. The quality is amazing. The book is printed by blurb. Looking on their web site the pricing is surprisingly cheap: 150 page full color hardcover book – $39.95 (for 1 copy! – 10% discount at 25 copies…), as little as $18.95 for a full color softcover book up to 40 pages. The site says books are normally printed in … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , ,

Systemic Thinking

Posted on September 23, 2006 by John Hunter

Systemic Thinking by Gary Bartlett provides a nice introduction to systemic thinking compared to analysis. Analysis is very useful however, the strong tendency to focus on only breaking apart systems to analyze components does result in missing insight into improvement opportunities (that can be gained by looking at the system as a whole). Conventional thinking techniques are fundamentally analytical. Systemic thinking is different – it combines analytical thinking with synthetical thinking. … That tool is synthesis – seeing how things … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Complicating Simplicity

Posted on August 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Complicating simplicity: Gah! Trying to read about the “Simplicity: The Art of Complexity” (er, what?) conference. But the description at the conference site is the exact opposite of simple, clear writing: An investigation of the essence of simplicity must necessarily get involved with the psychology of human-machine interaction. Why do we display such a strong proclivity to regarding technology as an externally imposed authority, to condemning or venerating it?…If we merely equate simplicity with simplification and reduction, simply let the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, quote, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Brainstorming Under Attack

Posted on June 14, 2006 by John Hunter

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 seen their article. The blog post makes good points about mistaken impressions of brainstorming: People do better on their own than they do in brainstorming sessions. This is really daft. I like to think of myself as a pretty creative … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , , ,

The Art of Work

Posted on February 20, 2006 by John Hunter

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 flow, there’s no creativity, says Csikszentmihalyi, and in today’s innovation-centric world, creativity is a requirement, not a frill. Excellent books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1991. People enter a flow state when they … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management Articles | Tagged

Management Lessons from Terry Ryan

Posted on January 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Management Lessons from Terry Ryan: Humility, Stability & Personality from Management by Baseball: competitors in any endeavor figure anything easy must not be a very important differentiator (bass-ackwards of course, but the erroneous mental algebra is that if it was important and easy both, everyone could/would do it and since they’re not doing it and it’s easy it, therefore, must not be important. Goofy but widespread thinking. As long as Ryan and his team make this seem like luck or … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The 70 Percent Solution

Posted on December 10, 2005 by John Hunter

The 70 Percent Solution [the broken link was removed] by John Battelle, an interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt: We spend 70 percent of our time on core search and ads. We spend 20 percent on adjacent businesses, ones related to the core businesses in some interesting way. Examples of that would be Google News, Google Earth, and Google Local. And then 10 percent of our time should be on things that are truly new. An example there would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Gary Hamel’s Idea Hatchery

Posted on December 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Gary Hamel’s Idea Hatchery [the broken link was removed] by Whitney Sparks: Q: So how do you hope to change the standard approach to management? A: Sometimes innovation is about creating a whole new class structure. Hierarchies are not very good at getting the best out of people. Communities are where people are most likely to give their gifts, bound not by economic dependency but [with] dreams. I’d like to make business more humane. How do you create organizations where … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Education, Innovation | Tagged | 1 Comment

Managing Innovation

Posted on November 16, 2005 by John Hunter

TQM, ISO 9000, Six Sigma: Due Process Management Programs Discourage Innovation? [the broken link was removed – so many organizations show how unable they are to act with a concern for anything but the very short term] “In the appropriate setting, process management activities can help companies improve efficiency, but the risk is that you misapply these programs, in particular in areas where people are supposed to be innovative,” notes Benner. “Brand new technologies to produce products that don’t exist … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Innovation in Organizations

Posted on October 10, 2005 by John Hunter

Assessing Your Organization’s Innovation Capabilities [the broken link was removed] by Clayton M. Christensen: Three classes of factors affect what an organization can and cannot do: its resources, its processes, and its values. When asking what sorts of innovations their organizations are and are not likely to be able to implement successfully, managers can learn a lot about capabilities by sorting their answers into these three categories. Innovation is one of the areas of management improvement that is not given … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, quote | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Traffic Congestion and a Non-Solution

Posted on May 9, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement, Problem Solving I read, Study: Nation’s Traffic Jams Worsening [the broken link was removed], today on CNN.com. That same headline could have appeared in newspapers every day for the last few years. For decades traffic congestion has been a problem in American cities and one that has continued to get worse. The typical proposed solution is to increase the number of roads. The theory behind this solution is not normally stated but, I believe, it amounts to: … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments