Thinking about Thinking, Creativity, Innovation and Design
In an earlier post in the series "21st Century Challenges" about Who Owns Your Medical Data? we discussed the following: In the future, Big Data algorithms and biometric sensors may detect and diagnose a disease before we have started to notice any discomfort or signs. But would you like your insurance company to tell you to stop …
Continue reading "Medical Data: Stagnant Law and Blocking Technology"
The circular economy is a concept has gained in tremendously in popularity in recent years. The circular economy model is described as a pragmatic win-win solution. Almost a magical fix to our environmental problems. The overall aim is to use closed-loop production to ensure that resources are in play for as long as possible. Our …
Continue reading "Circular Economy and Problems with More-of-the-Same Approach to Thinking"
In a recent post What’s (not) an Innovation? we mentioned that an innovation consists of a new combination of a function - the innovation has the purpose of satisfying a need a principle - there is a mechanism or idea how to deliver that function a market - the innovation has a value that can …
Continue reading "More-of-the-Same or a Breaktrough Innovation?"
Nowadays, innovation is very in fashion. As a person, you should be innovative (creative?). A product should be innovative to tempt you to buy it (why?). Research should be dedicated to innovations (instead of discoveries?). Or even worse, boards of directors feel compelled to proclaim a "year of innovation" or ask their employees for …
What If there would be Olympic Games in which thousands of thinkers from around the world participate in a variety of competitions? It would definitelety differ from TED-talks or Edge-papers that are basically unilaterally spreading novel ideas and insights in a non-competitive way. In an Olympic Games for Thinkers participants compete in thinking skills. But it is …
In many business competitions out of ten people short-listed, there is just one woman- frequently out of over 1000 applicants to the competition. What is going wrong here? Why is it that business ideas presented by women are not chosen as winners? There are many examples of discrimination of females. like in the workplace (the wage gap, the glass ceiling effect), …
Coming up with real break-through ideas is not easy and will require some training and experience. However, the trickiest part of an idea generation session is in its first phase: defining the focus. Defining the thinking task is the first task you should undertake when you are trying something like a "20 Minutes Idea Boost". …
When do you know that you have stumbled on a great idea? When do you assess and harvest the fruit of a creative session? When has idea generation delivered an invention? When is has a thinking breakthrough been attained? Unfortunately, books about brainstorming tend not to provide an answer to these questions. At least, have …
Why should you avoid selecting the "best" idea? Below is an extract from Jeffrey Baumgartner's Report 103, which he has kindly given us permission to reprint. Jeffrey's website is filled with inspiring articles about how to be creative and make your business more innovative. In the article below, he writes about ways to select a solution and …
Today’s world is characterised by quick and dramatic changes. This means that there is a constant search for new ideas. Yet, there is a difference between innovation and ideas. Most of us have ideas, some of them good, other not so good. Miguel de Icaza, the founder of the GNOME and Mono projects …
thinkibility 