The fundamental atomic structure of an innovation is comprised of at least two molecules: the idea and the founder. While these two are inseparably linked, the natural tendency is to overly-fixate upon the idea side of the compound…

Acclaimed HBS Professor Linda Hill makes a regular practice of choosing a particularly promising 22 year old to co-author her books with her. Talk about appreciating the perspective of a novice!…

Apple's ability to capitalize on the breakthroughs of Xerox PARC is fairly well documented. Not that they're the only ones who did so... In fact, when Steve Jobs angrily summoned Bill Gates to Cupertino to vent about Microsoft's newly rendered graphical user interface in a non-Apple product, in a software called "Windows," Gates' reply is telling…

The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is one of the coolest places I've ever visited. I was stunned to learn that Pablo Picasso created over 20,000 pieces of art in his career…

I was struck by a revealing criticism in Henri Poincaré’s otherwise glowing recommendation of Albert Einstein for an academic position in Zurich. It spoke to me of how subtly a conventional paradigm can sneak into our thinking about exploration…

One of the quirks of the creative process is that it's accelerated by "premature sharing.

We often see this in design workshops, especially among working professionals. We come to a "share out," where we are going to review folks' work, and ask for a show of hands: "Who feels ready to share with the group?" Almost always, not a single hand in the house gets raised…

I may end up doing a short series on the fantastic "A Technique for Producing Ideas" which is, page-for-page, the single greatest guide for the practice of generating ideas that I have found. In it, James Webb Young give voice to what every individual pursuing a creative end has experienced: sometimes it feels like the answer will never come. He explains that hopelessness is every bit as important a step in the creative process as any other…

A hallmark of the "not done, but begun" mentality is regular, disciplined practice. It's how we improve in any skillset, and creative thinking is no different.

From the fantastic "A Technique for Producing Ideas"…

Speaking of gardening...

One of the things that's truly special about Amazon is their ability to build new businesses. You might even say it's their competitive advantage, the ability to build new businesses that seemingly have little to do with the original vision. Much has been written about this phenomenon, so I won't go into too much detail here…

For all of the important benefits that the notion of "the design sprint" has conferred upon the corporate world, I think it has done the practice of innovation one great disservice: it has unintentionally implied that great ideas are easily come by, and are the function of episodic, momentary bursts of effort.

Nothing could be further from the truth…

I was talking with a good friend of mine the other day, the CEO of a 100,000+ employee organization. We were talking about the challenge of designing space for spontaneous meetings in the midst of a pandemic which has most office building shuttered…

Noodling on yesterday's post about Einstein's productive diversion, I found myself wondering: when is diversion NOT a waste of time? When is it the good kind of procrastination, and NOT the bad kind?

When, if you will, does one have permission to seek diversion?…

We've all been there: struggling against some challenge, banging our head against the wall. The ideas aren't coming. Maybe it's a work problem, or even a personal challenge…

One of my favorite passages of Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" is where Steve describes the rationale behind the unique elements of Pixar's headquarters in Emeryville. Reflections on the implications on mid-COVID innovation follow…

Yesterday I mentioned the importance of LOVE in driving a team to push beyond the competition in designing spectacularly lovable products. Paul Graham wrote a recent post ("Think For Yourself") that touched on this idea, at least superficially…

I have been absolutely spellbound reading Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs." It's an incredible piece of living history that pulls back the curtain on so many of the innovations that have shaped the world in my own lifetime…

In case you missed the post from Thanksgiving Day (and who can blame you? Certainly not this guy, who allowed a guest post from a science fiction writer who died nearly 30 years ago), I wanted to underline one portion in particular, as it has special bearing upon an idea I mentioned earlier in the week: the rules of engagement that Ben Franklin laid out for his Junto. I’m more and more persuaded that such gatherings are an indispensable tool for individuals seeking to drive fresh thinking in their own unique context…

I've written a couple of times about the phenomenon that quantity tends to drive quality when it comes to idea generation (see posts here and here if you're new here... really, they're not that long. We can wait...).

For Thanksgiving I figured I’d do something a little different and allow a guest post. :-)

Fascinating research by Dartmouth’s Kevin Dunbar reveals why gatherings like Franklin’s Junto spark fresh insights and fuel innovation.