Creative new show created by Drew Carey

Drew Carey's  Improv-a-ganza is a very creative new show that mimics Whose Line Is It Anyway.  After participating and hosting Whose Line Is It Anyway, Drew Carey has decided to start his own show of world-class improvisation.  Drew's new show features various scenarios for actors/actresses to improv a scene for the audience to enjoy.  The show even consists of actors who used to be on Whose Line Is It Anyway.  I used to watch Whose Line Is It Anyway all the time when I was a kid but I never got the opportunity to participate in an improv until my creativity class.  I enjoyed the improv activity my class did and I finally realized how difficult improvisation really is.  It made me realize how absolutely amazing the professional actors/actress are on these improvisation shows.  I am very interested in watching Drew Carey's new show and see some of the best improvisation in the world has to offer.  I suspect Drew Carey's Improv-a-ganza to be a big hit now and in the future.

Four Keys Principles of Personal Innovation

Anne Mulcahy, the chief executive officer (CEO) who revived Xerox after a brush with bankruptcy, was asked recently whether she looked for different qualities in job candidates than in years past.

“We look for adaptability and flexibility,” she replied. “We have to change all the time. The people who really do the best are those who actually sense the need to change, and enjoy the lack of definition around their roles and what they can contribute.”

Asked how she gets a sense of whether a person has that quality, she explained that Xerox now looks at a candidate’s “appetite for not just vertical career ladders, but their appetite for what I call horizontal experiences, where it wasn’t always just about a title or the next layer up. And there was this desire to learn new things, to kind of grab on to things that were maybe even somewhat nontraditional.”

What you’re going to find in this book are nontraditional skills. They will demand you learn new ways. They will require that you adopt a new mind set. In this chapter, we’ll begin our exploration of personal innovation by examining what I call the four I-Skill Principles. They are:

PRINCIPLE 1: Innovation is not something you do after you get your work done; it’s how you do your work

Innovation is about approaching your daily work and the challenges you face with an open mind and a creative, can-do attitude. It’s about seeking unconventional solutions to the problems on your plate. At work, it’s looking at everything you do and figuring out where you can do better, in less time, with fewer motions, in a way that adds value to both internal and external customers.

Instead of approaching a single task with the attitude, “Okay, now I‘ve got to get creative,” the innovator approaches everything in life with this attitude. Instead of looking at “being creative” as something you need to do consciously, see it as something you do unconsciously, like breathing.

You can innovate in any job, any department, or any organization. Innovation is about taking action.
Ordinary people “innovate” every day. They find slightly better, easier ways to accomplish some routine task. They figure out new ways to close a sale, design a clever slide, increase production, or satisfy an internal customer’s request for a solution to a problem that has never come up before.

The list goes on and on. And sometimes they’ll notice an opportunity with great potential, which is what happened to one facilities manager.

Paulette I, a facilities manager, got the call from a new boss asking for help in transforming a division. “I was working at a large bank, supporting the head of the credit card division,” she explains. “He came in wanting to create a new culture. I got inspired. I began looking at how workspace could add value to the culture. I thought long and hard about what that could mean to me as a facilities manager. I concluded it meant I needed to look out ahead, anticipate our needs in the future, and not wait for management to figure out how facilities management could help. I needed to go to them, and I did.”

The basic role of facilities management is providing space for people to work in. “A lot of people in this profession leave it there,” says Paulette. “We’ve talked for years in our professional association about being more strategic. That’s often meant life-cycle management of buildings, looking for greater cost savings and green buildings. To me, being strategic means something different. It means innovating, finding new and better ways of doing things,” she explains. “There are no hard and fast rules for doing what I do. Things are changing so fast that you ’re confronted daily with problems and situations you’ve never faced before, and I’ve been doing this work for 20 years.”

The same attitude of experimentation that permeates the research lab can fill every area of your thinking. It involves coming up with possibilities and putting ideas to work to solve problems and generate opportunities — for yourself, your team, your company, and your career. It’s not something you do after you get your job done. It’s how you get your job done.

PRINCIPLE 2: Innovation is about more than inventing new products; it’s about figuring out how to add value where you are

When the global economic crisis hit, everything changed. Four dollar lattes suddenly became unaffordable luxuries. McDonald’s attacked with McCafé. Dunkin’ Donuts began serving premium coffee. Starbucks was forced to shutter 800 stores, lay off 5,000 employees, cut $500 million in costs, offer discounts, advertise, and look for even more ways to become efficient.

Innovation is about more than innovating new products. It’s understanding where you can add the most value where you are.

PRINCIPLE 3: You can innovate in any job, in any department, in any organization

Many times I’ve heard people voice the assumption that “My company doesn’t want me to be creative. They just want us to get our work done.” The question isn’t whether innovation is wanted and needed in your firm, it’s where and when.

“As a first-year auditor, I am not encouraged to be innovative,” grumbles Jonathan A., at a Big Four accounting firm in Los Angeles. “We are given large amounts of tedious work and asked to complete it as accurately and quickly as possible. They do not want us to be creative or try things our way. My peers and I often feel like we could improve the procedures, but it is discouraged. They want us to listen to directions and complete things exactly as we are told without resistance.”

A lot of young workers will no doubt relate to Jonathan’s lament. He’s bright, ambitious, and eager to make changes. He’s also in the apprentice phase of his career, so innovation is not appropriate just yet. Being a good apprentice means mastering how things are done in your organization and allowing yourself to be amazed that they work as well as they do.

Be curious when a veteran employee or manager tells you why things are done the way they are. Certainly listen to that voice in your head when you see a better way of doing something. And then channel that big – picture opportunity- spotting mind set right back into how you do your work.

In the course of our conversation, Jonathan mentioned that quite often he has to “eat hours.” He explained: “Let’s say I am given a work paper to complete and they budget ten hours for me to finish it. I work my ass off but it takes me 12 hours to complete. I can either book 12 hours and look inefficient or only book 10 to look good. If I were to charge 12 hours on that project, my manager would question me. HR would want to know why it took me so long. I would have to write a memo explaining all the issues. It is much easier to just eat the hours.”

“Are any of your first - year colleagues not having to eat hours?” I asked. “Have they figured out how to shave time while still following procedures?” Jonathan tells me that “the innovators here are the most efficient workers, cutting out unnecessary testing, discovering quicker ways to finish work papers, testing multiple things at once, etc. Innovation for you would be to figure out what they do that you don’t. Ask them about their techniques, and make changes in your methods.”

Certainly there are those jobs where, at first glance, innovation would seem to be nobody’s business. Certainly we don’t want any innovative thinking from airline pilots, right? We want them to follow the rules, conform to procedures, and get us safely to our destination.

But what about when the pilot is not actually flying the plane? Wouldn’t he or she be able to contribute ideas for increasing safety, or cutting fuel consumption, or reducing turnaround time at airports? In the wrong context, deviating from established procedure to try out some new idea would be a serious breach of company policy. But in the right context, any job in any department in any organization can use an injection of creativity — as long as it’s done in the appropriate context, at the appropriate time.

Had I not probed Jonathan’s situation further, I would have come away convinced that he’d found one of them. As we continued speaking, he offered: “The firm asks that we learn to do things their way for the first few years. Once we have been promoted, we are able to try things our own way with total responsibility for our testing.”

PRINCIPLE 4: Innovation is about taking action

Nurse Sue Kinnick was in charge of tracking and reducing medical errors at the Topeka, Kansas, Veterans Hospital. Sue’s research showed that medication errors — either giving the patient the wrong medicine, the incorrect dosage, or a duplicate dose — were common. One estimate was that 770,000 medication errors occurred each year in U.S. hospitals, while untold cases went unreported.

On a trip to Seattle, as a rental car agent scanned a bar code on her agreement and issued a receipt, a thought popped into Sue’s head: “If they can do this with rental cars, why can’t we do this with medicines? ”She was so excited about the idea she almost missed her flight.

By the time she got to her office, Sue had become convinced that a hospital bar-code system had the potential to greatly reduce medical errors and save many lives. An added benefit was that it would streamline the process for delivering prescription drugs to patients. Sue and her team became passionate champions for the new method, got seed capital of $ 50,000 approved, built a prototype, worked with the scanner manufacturer to develop a bigger screen, and collaborated with software developers. They piloted the system on a 30-bed long-term care ward for a year and then rolled it out in the entire Topeka hospital. Soon the entire VA system converted to Sue’s way.

At the Topeka hospital where Sue worked, errors involving the wrong medication or dosage have been cut by two thirds. Errors involving the wrong patient or the medication given at the wrong time have been reduced by more than 90 percent. Even though breast cancer would cut her career short, Sue continued her crusade for as long as she could. On her dying day, she told her colleagues gathered around her in the hospital to keep looking for ways to reduce medication errors and serve our veterans.

Like all of us, Sue could have had a good idea and not followed through with it. She could have blamed bureaucracy. She could have convinced herself that innovating a new method went “beyond her job description.” She could have turned the idea over to someone else to pursue. But she didn’t — she took action. And she overcame the obstacles and built the buy-in for her new idea and refused to take “no” for an answer.

Sue Kinnick knew that it’s not enough to have a good idea. You also have to take action.

These principles show that innovation is a mind set, not a job title. That innovation means adding value. That innovation is possible for everyone. And that innovation is about action.

Anne Mulcahy has redefined how businesses view and use innovative ideas to become a successful business.  Mulcahy's I-Skill Principles have shaped the way business will foster innovative practices.  These four principles can be applied to IDEO's project with the shopping cart.  Principle 1 - Innovation is not something you do after you get your work done; it's how you do your work:  IDEO split into teams that used various practices to inspire innovation.  IDEO did field research to see what qualities customers look for in a shopping cart.  Each group came up with ideas for the shopping cart to add to the final product.  Principle 2 - Innovation is about more than inventing new products; it's about figuring out how to add value where you are:  Each team came up with an idea that added value to the shopping carts.  Teams came up with ideas such as grocery crates inside the cart that customers are able to take out and move about the store and also a creative way to ensure children's safety inside the cart.  Principle 3 - You can innovate in any job, in any department, in any organization:  IDEO used cross-functional teams within the organization to help with the final shopping cart.  IDEO's idea generation teams worked with the design department to help construct the ideal shopping cart.  Principle 4 - Innovation is about taking action:  IDEO was able to take ideas from each group and combine them to make the final product.  In conclusion, IDEO developed an outstanding product that changed the way customers view shopping carts.  Anne Mulcahy's principles are fantastic and if companies will follow suit as Xerox did, then I believe innovation will be a tremendous tool for business to be successful in the future.

Creativity with the new iPad 2!

Apple has once again outdone itself in creating the iPad 2.  The iPad 2 has revolutionized the way we look at the tablet bubble.  The iPad 2 offers an operating system that is twice as fast as the first iPad.  This is a huge competitive advantage for Apple because we all know that faster is better in our technological world. The iPad 2 also offers a front and back camera for users to take pictures on the go as well as facetime capabilities.  Clients are now able to contact one another across the world that will allow businesses to have video conferences with clients abroad.  This innovative technology will pave the way for businesses in the future.  I recently purchased an iPad 2 for graduate school and I am very pleased with my buy.  I no longer even have the need for a laptop.  The iPad 2 has a Microsoft office app that allows me to create and edit word, excel, and powerpoint documents with the touch of my fingers.  I also have instance access to the Wall Street Journal as well as updates on stock markets such as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 index.  I believe the iPad 2 will be a game changer in the tablet market and I look forward to what other companies like Google will come out with to challenge the iPad 2 for market share.

Smartphone Alternative For Peek

A simpler way to get email on the go

Not everyone wants a phone that does it all. Some people just want to stay connected to their email without being chained to their computer—or carrying around an expensive, feature-heavy smartphone. To meet their needs, Peek joined forces with IDEO to design a streamlined mobile device that delivers one thing and one thing only: unlimited access to email.

The result is an inexpensive gadget that’s stylish, lightweight, and straightforward. The design team paired a large (2.5 inches), high-contrast display with a full keyboard and a scroll wheel to make reading text and navigating onscreen menus easy. A soft rubber skin over the keypad promotes typing comfortably, and the metal frame with aluminum backing is sturdy and sleek. The device is extremely thin (10mm) and light (3.8 ounces). (For comparison’s sake, an iPhone is 25 percent thicker, and a Blackberry is nearly 2 ounces heavier.)

The Peek supports up to three email accounts, Web-based or otherwise. At setup, it prompts users to enter their email handle and password. The device, available at Getpeek.com and Target stores, sells for less than $100 and unlimited nationwide service is $19.95 per month; no contract required. Bonus savings: When using the Peek to send email, consumers use 97 percent less electricity than emailing from a PC.

Time magazine named the Peek one of the best inventions of 2008. Forbes featured it as a “Gadget We Crave.” And Wired magazine gave it top ranking in its gear that helped them forget the year’s economic downturn.

“It won’t satisfy convergence-rabid smartphone fetishists, but for the rest of the world (i.e., the majority of it), this one-trick pony is a godsend,” wrote Terrence Russell in Wired. “In terms of looks, its slim profile stands up to the big boys. But the real treat is the interface. Instead of forcing you to wrestle with laborious setup menus, the Peek asks for a name, email address, and password. That’s it."

Peek has asked the always faithful IDEO to join together and help come up with a device that can compete with the extremely popular smartphone.  Through extensive research, Peek has introduced the first portable emailing device.  I would assume that Peek discovered that a number of smartphone users only had a smartphone to have instant assess to their email account.  To obtain this information, researchers more than likely went out into the field and asked smartphone users directly.  Many creativity advocates suggest that field research fosters creativity.  Peek's new emailing device could possibly be a game changer that dampens the light on smartphones.  With affordable monthly rates, this innovative device will be attractive to smartphone owners that are primarily interested in their emailing needs.  I am interested to see how big of a dint the Peek emailing device will put in the smartphone market.