Social media is a giant cocktail party. I am not the first person to point this out, as the existence of this book would suggest (I haven't read it but since the author's title confirms my opinion, I am inclined to believe it's brilliant). I recently attended an interesting presentation at the Business Innovation Factory by Francois Gossieaux, author of The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media. His main theme was that in order to successfully leverage web 2.0, you need to understand human 1.0. According to Gossieaux, businesses should worry less about what the latest and greatest technology can do and think more about the fundamental human behavior it can facilitate. He argues that humans are instinctively social creatures and the same basic principles apply online as they do in face-to-face interactions. I could not agree more. Yet so many social media marketing efforts ignore common courtesy and exhibit behavior you couldn't get away with at a cocktail party. I must admit I am guilty of committing some of these sins myself, but hey, we are all still learning the best way to play in the world of social media, aren't we? Here are 5 personality types that are sure to ruin the party.
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Topics:
Chris Dolan,
Social Media,
strategy
In case you missed them, here are our picks for the Top 10 Tweets for the month of April (a slight twist on Top 10 Retweets, but isn't that what innovation is about, change?)
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Topics:
Chris Dolan,
Clay Maxwell,
Ideas,
Amanda Hines,
David Culton,
Twitter,
Innovation
Flipping through the channels over the weekend, I came across one of my favorite movies of all time: Old School. Like the subject of this clever Onion article, I ended up neglecting my plans and re-watching this comedy classic in its entirety. I saw the movie from a whole new perspective, a business innovation perspective. The movie is fundamentally about a group of guys implementing a seemingly absurd idea that breaks the mold. They are creative problem solving geniuses. Believe it or not, this comedy can teach us all a few things about business opportunities, innovation initiatives, and creative problem solving skills. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this hilarious movie and the serious insights they contain.
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Topics:
Chris Dolan,
open-minded evaluation,
Innovation,
creative problem solving skills
During a brainstorming session, we have a technique to help the group generate fresh, novel ideas, which we call an excursion. It is a deliberate step away from the task to help gain a fresh perspective, like “sleeping on the problem.” [See Chris Dolan’s post on Relaxed Concentration here] An excursion is flexible; it can be run at several points during a creative problem-solving session, but is particularly powerful at the Wishing, Ways & Means, and Overcoming How-Tos steps in the process.
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Topics:
Amanda Hines,
Absurdity,
Innovation,
creative problem solving
Is your organization built for innovation? Does your company culture foster creativity and collaboration? Have you established a sound innovation strategy? How do you know? Just as defining "innovation" requires an agreed upon language, the pursuit of innovation can seem like an abstract, messy endeavor without some established yardsticks to determine how you are doing. Part of the challenge is simply knowing which questions to ask.
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Topics:
Innovation Diagnostic,
Innovation,
creative problem solving
It seems that every magazine article I have picked up lately has related directly to creativity and innovation. The trend continued this morning, when I discovered the The Atlantic's special culture report on How Genius Works. In Project: First Drafts, the magazine asks some of the world's most creative and famous artists to explain their process of turning inspiration into art. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the feature.
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Topics:
Chris Dolan,
creativity,
creative problem solving,
creative problem solving skills
In
The Possibilian, a riveting
New Yorker profile of the neuroscience and Renaissance man Dr. David Eagleman, Burkhard Bilger explores our understanding of time. Eagleman is obsessed with understanding how the human brain processes time and whether that perception is influenced by one's mental state. For example, does fear make time slow down? This is just one of the many topics that interest Eagleman. The article is well worth a close read, and I also recommend checking out the
transcript of the chat Bilger and Ealgeman hosted. Here, I would like to highlight three key takeaways that relate to innovation and creative problem solving.
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Topics:
Chris Dolan,
creative problem solving,
creative problem solving skills
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