‘LIFECYCLE: 365 days in the life of a bike in NYC’
“Get a bike. Lock it to a post. Take a pic every day for a year.
Last year, Red Peak Branding conducted a unique urban experiment for Hudson Urban Bicycles. On January 1, 2011 we chained a fully loaded bike – bells, basket, lights and more – to a post along a busy Soho street. We took a picture of the bike everyday for 365 days, watching it slowly vanish before our eyes.”
This experiment gives you an opportunity to exercise the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Create Distance’ – even if only as a mental exercise.
How?
Creativity thrives on diversity – of experiences, vantage points, mind sets, habits…. If someone took a picture of you every day for 365 days, what would it tell you about the amount of diversity incorporated into your lifestyle?
‘Feeling Like I’m 70
MIT’s Agelab created an empathy enhancer, and example of the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Be More Sensable,’ for its young designers by developing a suit they call AGNES.
“Put on this suit and you feel increased fatigue, reduced flexibility in joints and muscles, spinal compression, and difficulty with vision and balance” … and gain critical insights into “… how a product, service, or environment is used and navigated by an older adult.”
How could “walking a mile” in the shoes of those you work with and for help you do better work?
Emotional Equations
Dan Pink posted a short interview with Chip Conley on his creation of emotional equations.
With an interesting twist on the Fresh Ideas strategy “Draw It Forward,” Chip Conley crafted simple formulas to illustrate universal truths, creating a “visual lexicon for mastering your life challenges.”
For example:
Regret = Disappointment + Responsibility
Jealousy = Mistrust – Self Esteem
Authenticity = Self Awareness X Courage
Happiness = Wanting What You Have / Having What You Want
Wisdom = the square root of Experience
What formulas (+ – / X = ) could you play with to capture relationships between the forces at work within your challenge?
Scarcity Sparks Innovation
Uri Neren et. al. reviewed 162 invention methodologies while assembling The World Database of Innovation. Their findings align with the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Remove a Core Component:’
“… the one element that comes through loudest and clearest: the value of scarcity as a spur to creative problem-solving.”
“ By deliberately imposing scarcity of one kind or another on their problem-solving, inventors became demonstrably more creative, and the ideas generated under such conditions enjoyed greater success in the marketplace and society than ideas invented in more “blue sky” modes.”
The real world implication is “… by capitalizing on external constraints such as the economy, and by intentionally imposing scarcities of time, money, options, and other resources, you and other innovators stand to launch inventions that succeed better in the marketplace.”
Learn more here.
New Offices Designed for Employees Not to Work There
Many companies offer the option of telecommuting, but Plantronics exemplified the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Turn Up the Volume’ when it designed it’s new Santa Cruz offices.
The new headquarters “doesn’t have assigned desks, has enough desk space for just 60% to 70% of its employees, and houses a number of giant wall-mounted TV screens, which are intended to bring telecommuters into office conversations. The screens are virtually everywhere, including in the cafeteria…. We wanted to be more open to smarter working, anywhere anytime.”
Starting with something familiar can make a new approach easier to implement – how could you take an established practice and apply it in a bigger way?
A Sudsy New Solution
Nathalie Staempfli is cleaning up with new products that leveraged the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Remove a Core Component.’ She designed home dispensers that turn a hard soap block into sudsing soap flakes.
Removing the water, plastic containers and emulsifying agents from liquid soaps provided a new approach that is more hygienic and ecological.
How could removing something “essential” open up new possibilities for you?
“Beating Them By Eating Them”
Sushi chef Bun Lai created a tasty example of the Fresh Ideas strategy “Use Your Blocks” by turning an invasive species into … sushi!
“… Asian shore crabs, an invasive species that first showed up in the Sound in the 1980s. It’s made itself right at home, attacking the limited supply of plankton and larvae that native fish and shellfish need to survive. So Lai did what any sustainability-minded seafood chef would do: He excavated the crab meat from its shell and turned it into a sushi roll.”
You can read about more dishes he’s created with this strategy here.
Multi-Cultural Insults
Well now here’s an interesting way to practice the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Stock the Pond‘ – Rude Hand Gestures from Around the World teaches you how to be insult others in multi-cultural ways.
You can see a quick slide show with examples here.
The creative thinking opportunity lies in asking, “How could other customs from another culture help me solve my challenge?
The Beetle That Inspired A Life Saving Solution
Edward Linnacre plumbed the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Relocate Good Ideas’ when he was inspired by the behavior of the Namib Desert beetle. This beetle survives by collecting droplets of moisture on its outstretched wings in the early-morning fog.
Recognizing that even the driest air in the driest deserts contains water molecules, Ed created a low tech AirDrop Irrigation that rural farmers can install and maintain.
- A turbine intake collects and drives air underground
- through piping that cools the air until it becomes condensation;
- the water droplets are stored in an underground tank
- and pumped through to the roots of crops via underground drip-irrigation hosing.
In areas where yearly rainfall is only a couple of inches, this can be a literal life saver.
Fiverr: What You Can Get For $5
Fiverr can help you practice the Fresh Ideas strategy ‘Collect the Eclectic.’
It’s “The place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5.”
Postings range from the practical (create an Excel model, improve your resume, appraise your vintage guitar) to the offbeat (toilet train your cat, make an emotional rant, send you a mini sod of irish turf for burning.)
You can also request gigs (someone needs advice how to get a job in mining industry in Australia).
