Playfulness, creativity, and imagination. Remember when it was just as much fun to play with the box as with the toy? Tim Brown in a wonderful Ted Talk you've got to see if you need to reclaim your creative freedom.
Tim Brown on creativity and play Video on TED.com
Tim Brown on creativity and play | Video on TED.com
Starbucks, Amanda, and her Tea Leaves Idea
Routine has got to be one of the biggest killers of creativity. Agreed?
As I sat at my local Starbucks at lunch today, a now routine go-to spot for my daily cubicle break, I ordered not my usual drink, but a cup of tea. Tazo tea. And that's normally not remarkable except that I noticed they'd gotten in a new style of tea bag. (well, new for Starbucks anyway). It's a sachet filled with whole tea leaves.
A barista I hadn't seen before today watched me remove the sachet then examine the soggy bag with a quizzical expression.
"Isn't it nice?"
Her question took me by surprise. I hadn't thought about a used teabag's better qualities, but there it was, sitting there on top of my lid, just looking kind of, well... nice, like a tiny silk pillow of colorful potpourri. It smelled really great, too.
"They use whole tea leaves now. I use it for an air freshener in my car."
Then she told me she'd even written to the powers at Starbucks (my terminology, not hers) and handed them her idea - air fresheners that smell like tea. I thought it was genius. No harsh chemical smells, no scent-alikes that have absolutely no business trying to mimic nature. Just tea.
"Do you mind if I write about this?," I asked. "I have a blog about creativity and want to include your idea."
So here it is, Amanda DeRienzo's little idea, which is actually rather Big. It's green (recycled tea bags, natural scents). It enhances the brand because it serves as a reminder of where the customer has purchased the item, and after use to make a lovely cup of tea, is absolutely free to freshen my cubicle all afternoon.
You go, Amanda. Starbucks, are you listening?
A barista I hadn't seen before today watched me remove the sachet then examine the soggy bag with a quizzical expression.
"Isn't it nice?"
Her question took me by surprise. I hadn't thought about a used teabag's better qualities, but there it was, sitting there on top of my lid, just looking kind of, well... nice, like a tiny silk pillow of colorful potpourri. It smelled really great, too.
"They use whole tea leaves now. I use it for an air freshener in my car."
Then she told me she'd even written to the powers at Starbucks (my terminology, not hers) and handed them her idea - air fresheners that smell like tea. I thought it was genius. No harsh chemical smells, no scent-alikes that have absolutely no business trying to mimic nature. Just tea.
"Do you mind if I write about this?," I asked. "I have a blog about creativity and want to include your idea."
So here it is, Amanda DeRienzo's little idea, which is actually rather Big. It's green (recycled tea bags, natural scents). It enhances the brand because it serves as a reminder of where the customer has purchased the item, and after use to make a lovely cup of tea, is absolutely free to freshen my cubicle all afternoon.
You go, Amanda. Starbucks, are you listening?
Pants on the Ground - Larry Platt's Little Idea Rocks a Trend
If you've ever needed a reminder that the best ideas may be the simplest and come from unexpected places, ask "General" Larry Platt who could never have anticipated the groundswell under his Pants On The Ground.
The success of his performance seems somewhat assisted by Simon Cowell's pronouncement of the song as a probable hit, but Mr. Platt's idea is brilliant in that he's tapped into a common American sentiment.
Someone just had to lead the backlash against those ridiculous low-slung britches.
The story behind those pants.
Mr. Platt's audition:
Pants on the ground original lyrics by "General" Larry Platt
Pants on the ground
Pants on the ground
Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground
With the gold in your mouth
Hat turned sideways
Pants hit the ground
Call yourself a cool cat
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin' downtown with your pants on the ground
Get it up, hey!
Get your pants off the ground
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin' talkin' with your pants on the ground.
Get it up, hey!
Get your pants off the ground
Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground
The success of his performance seems somewhat assisted by Simon Cowell's pronouncement of the song as a probable hit, but Mr. Platt's idea is brilliant in that he's tapped into a common American sentiment.
Someone just had to lead the backlash against those ridiculous low-slung britches.
The story behind those pants.
Mr. Platt's audition:
Pants on the ground original lyrics by "General" Larry Platt
Pants on the ground
Pants on the ground
Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground
With the gold in your mouth
Hat turned sideways
Pants hit the ground
Call yourself a cool cat
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin' downtown with your pants on the ground
Get it up, hey!
Get your pants off the ground
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin' talkin' with your pants on the ground.
Get it up, hey!
Get your pants off the ground
Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground
A mllion brilliant little ones
If and when I ever grow up, I want to be like my friend Jayne.
This is something I've been promising myself for a long time, and really do think I'm making progress, but still, she continues to surprise me by seeming to raise the bar when all she's really doing is being consistently Jayne, which when all is said and done, is all she ever needs to be.
What's brought this post on is that today I checked the mail.
Back in October Jayne had paid me a weekend visit. I took her around to all of the local places I haunt including Bookwise, one of my favorite places on earth and to most, that's a well-kept secret. And what do you suppose was in a birthday card I got from her today but a gift certificate I didn't even know was offered.
Looking at the gift, I remembered the time I'd stayed with Jayne for a while. She'd just moved into a new apartment and when it came time to create her alarm code, she thought to use my birthdate so that I'd be able to remember how to disarm it.
That's Jayne's secret. Anticipation, planning, thoughtfulness, and follow-through. She's full of the little bright ideas like these and they all roll up into the kind of person who's easy to be around, who leaves a trail of goodwill in the wake of her personal and professional successes . As, on December 20, I still struggle with coming up with a Big Idea for my husband's Christmas gift this year, Jayne doesn't wait for the single big idea to come to her. She's got a million brilliant little ones.
Note to myself: Stop waiting for the Big One.
Two-Oh-One-Oh
Good Lord, it's December already and it looks as though this blog thing has been.. shall we say, sporadic?
Giving good thought to what this blog is supposed to be all about - Ideas (forget Big Ideas because those are hard to come up with, consume way too much time, and require the kind of fortitude and undivided attention I'd rather divide.), I've decided that this shall be about Littler Ideas. Manageable Ideas. Nonthreatening Ideas. Brilliant Ideas. After all, this, I claim, is the space in which they can be nurtured and grown. Besides, it's all most of us with bright dreams and full time jobs have the time or energy for.
With that being typed, I can tell you that I've also been giving lots of thought to ways in which I can bring lots of terrific Little Ideas to my personal life in order to grow a bigger and better 2010.
Whew. 2010. I think that may be the first time I've written that. (By the way, how will you pronounce that? Are you a modernist going with Twenty-ten or traditionalist sticking with Two thousand ten?)
Back to growing Little Ideas. See, I'm feeling the whole hope of a new year thing and have been inspired by various Happiness websites like, well... The Happiness Project for instance. But I'm not going to follow the project online because that probably involves more commitment than I've time for. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make one tiny resolution per day in 2010, and they're going to be the kind I can complete in a single day and therefore easily keep. They're also not going to be the kind that'll set me up with a dreaded daily task in order to fulfill empty self-improvement goals. They're just going to be the kind that'll force me outside myself and get me to to live mindfully and purposefully, if even for one resolution.
The tiny, manageable, less than earth-moving resolutions are going to look like this:
Day 1: Make (from scratch) a thank you card.
Day 2: Spend time with my spouse watching one entire televised sporting event from beginning to end.
Day 3: Do 1 nice thing for someone I really can't stand.
Etc.
The challenge is to come up with 365 new little things to do in 2010. And, then, of course, write a weekly wrapup of them Right Here. See? There's the goal right there, the place where this Little Idea rolls right up into its bigger one, to regularly write throughout the coming year.
Easy, right? That's it. That's the 2010 Biggest Little Idea I could come up with.
Boca, Steal This Tweet
If you've ever wondered what really goes on in your local police department, I'd suggest you find out if your city or town sponsors a Citizen's Police Academy. Then sign up.
At the very least you'll figure out what goes on during the in-between times, the stuff they don't show on TV, and if you're my kind of lucky, you'll get an exciting ride along with an officer who helps make the 10-week program all worthwhile.
When we last left on in this blog, I posted about the last place my curious nature had taken me, and that was to a stint as a kgb_ agent, answering text questions for pennies on the dollar. What it earned me was a shiny new Palm Pre and the chance to take my recent Twitter obsession mobile. Then I began to wonder who might be tweeting right here in my neighborhood. Add to that setup the healthy dose of Cops my husband has subjected me to for years, and toss in my need for constant learning.
Enter Chief Dan Alexander (@bocachief) and the Boca Raton Police Department spokestweeter (@bocapolice). As soon as I saw a message about a Citizen's Police Academy (CPA), a ten-week course about our police department, covering Everything-I've-Always-Wanted-to-Stick-My-Nose-Into-But-Never-Had-The-Chance, I jumped, tweet first.
"Sign me up" I tweeted, wriggling my toes in juvenile excitement.
I think the poor volunteer coordinator must have heard from me three times before class began.
"Sorry. I'm like a little kid with this." I explained.
I could hear her patiently smiling on the other end of the phone. She must get that line a lot.
So back to the CPA. My class happens to be the largest they've had, with 40 of us eager citizens standing in line to become informed on the machine that is our police department. The list of topics was impressive, covering everything from the high-tech communications system, to SWAT, to Crime Scene Investigation and all things in between. I settled in the first day, wondering what new bits of information I'd learn.
Turns out that the biggest lesson I learned had nothing to do with the proper usage of a tazer or the number of patrol cars on the streets of Boca Raton, It was the fact that police officers have to be some of the most tolerant and patient people on earth. Want proof?
With a class of 40 personalities, some of us squirmed in our seats as our presenters were interrupted several times during the course of each of the evenings. Yes, we were a curious bunch, but interrupting the speakers quickly began to become a point of irritation with several in the group. And I've got to give those presenters a whole lot of credit because they handled each question with professionalism and patience, delivering brief but complete answers that completely satisfied the query.
That's when I figured it out.
One of an officer's biggest challenges is to cut through to the crux of a problem or situation and filter out what's unnecessary. In an environment where everyone wants to Tell Their Whole Story, the officer has to keep in mind that it is just that- a whole story. And we've all got a million of them. One of the biggest talents or skills comes in listening to the thousands of stories they hear a year, and filtering each one down to its essence. Each one's got to feel like a psychology lesson topped with a 10-page literary term paper. And all of it due that day, most times that moment. I also got to see that skill and talent at work in the field with the officer I had the opportunity to ride along with for four hours. She's the person who really drove home what a tremendous asset a good conversation "distiller" can be, especially because she allowed each person to walk away feeling heard while still extracting all information necessary to her investigation. Customer service professionals could take good lessons from that officer.
The second lesson I'm taking away from my 10 weeks is that social media and community relations are a match made in public relations heaven. My interest in the CPA was piqued mostly because I saw Boca Raton as a progressive department making use of new technology to reach out to the community. In Florida, that's an effort not to be taken lightly. We're a state of transplants, especially in South Florida. Many of us have left our sense of belonging to a community behind, along with our winter coats and snow shovels. We're not just Transplants, but Uproots, accountable to fewer people than ever. The communities we've left were in some sense safer ones because of a communications network of neighbors, family, and friends. Back in my home of Rhode Island, it was a pervasive belief that if you messed with someone, you could be sure his cousin, uncle, friend, or neighbor was probably going to be close by to give assistance or give you up. The network of accountability was tightly knit.
Establishing new communities in far away places means leaving a void ready to be filled with something new. Departments like the Boca Raton Police Services are re-creating that sense of a network of neighbors and friends who have a direct line to each other in times of need, whether the need is for information or assistance.
I'm not sure how much convincing it's going to take to have other police and community service professionals follow the lead of those utilizing Social Media as a community assistance tool, but I hope they're well on their way to researching what's happening here in my neighborhood. I've gotten a glimpse of an exciting model, a terrific Big Idea.
CPA graduation is tonight. I'm going to see if I can convince my family to throw me a graduation party. ;)
At the very least you'll figure out what goes on during the in-between times, the stuff they don't show on TV, and if you're my kind of lucky, you'll get an exciting ride along with an officer who helps make the 10-week program all worthwhile.
When we last left on in this blog, I posted about the last place my curious nature had taken me, and that was to a stint as a kgb_ agent, answering text questions for pennies on the dollar. What it earned me was a shiny new Palm Pre and the chance to take my recent Twitter obsession mobile. Then I began to wonder who might be tweeting right here in my neighborhood. Add to that setup the healthy dose of Cops my husband has subjected me to for years, and toss in my need for constant learning.
Enter Chief Dan Alexander (@bocachief) and the Boca Raton Police Department spokestweeter (@bocapolice). As soon as I saw a message about a Citizen's Police Academy (CPA), a ten-week course about our police department, covering Everything-I've-Always-Wanted-to-Stick-My-Nose-Into-But-Never-Had-The-Chance, I jumped, tweet first.
"Sign me up" I tweeted, wriggling my toes in juvenile excitement.
I think the poor volunteer coordinator must have heard from me three times before class began.
"Sorry. I'm like a little kid with this." I explained.
I could hear her patiently smiling on the other end of the phone. She must get that line a lot.
So back to the CPA. My class happens to be the largest they've had, with 40 of us eager citizens standing in line to become informed on the machine that is our police department. The list of topics was impressive, covering everything from the high-tech communications system, to SWAT, to Crime Scene Investigation and all things in between. I settled in the first day, wondering what new bits of information I'd learn.
Turns out that the biggest lesson I learned had nothing to do with the proper usage of a tazer or the number of patrol cars on the streets of Boca Raton, It was the fact that police officers have to be some of the most tolerant and patient people on earth. Want proof?
With a class of 40 personalities, some of us squirmed in our seats as our presenters were interrupted several times during the course of each of the evenings. Yes, we were a curious bunch, but interrupting the speakers quickly began to become a point of irritation with several in the group. And I've got to give those presenters a whole lot of credit because they handled each question with professionalism and patience, delivering brief but complete answers that completely satisfied the query.
That's when I figured it out.
One of an officer's biggest challenges is to cut through to the crux of a problem or situation and filter out what's unnecessary. In an environment where everyone wants to Tell Their Whole Story, the officer has to keep in mind that it is just that- a whole story. And we've all got a million of them. One of the biggest talents or skills comes in listening to the thousands of stories they hear a year, and filtering each one down to its essence. Each one's got to feel like a psychology lesson topped with a 10-page literary term paper. And all of it due that day, most times that moment. I also got to see that skill and talent at work in the field with the officer I had the opportunity to ride along with for four hours. She's the person who really drove home what a tremendous asset a good conversation "distiller" can be, especially because she allowed each person to walk away feeling heard while still extracting all information necessary to her investigation. Customer service professionals could take good lessons from that officer.
The second lesson I'm taking away from my 10 weeks is that social media and community relations are a match made in public relations heaven. My interest in the CPA was piqued mostly because I saw Boca Raton as a progressive department making use of new technology to reach out to the community. In Florida, that's an effort not to be taken lightly. We're a state of transplants, especially in South Florida. Many of us have left our sense of belonging to a community behind, along with our winter coats and snow shovels. We're not just Transplants, but Uproots, accountable to fewer people than ever. The communities we've left were in some sense safer ones because of a communications network of neighbors, family, and friends. Back in my home of Rhode Island, it was a pervasive belief that if you messed with someone, you could be sure his cousin, uncle, friend, or neighbor was probably going to be close by to give assistance or give you up. The network of accountability was tightly knit.
Establishing new communities in far away places means leaving a void ready to be filled with something new. Departments like the Boca Raton Police Services are re-creating that sense of a network of neighbors and friends who have a direct line to each other in times of need, whether the need is for information or assistance.
I'm not sure how much convincing it's going to take to have other police and community service professionals follow the lead of those utilizing Social Media as a community assistance tool, but I hope they're well on their way to researching what's happening here in my neighborhood. I've gotten a glimpse of an exciting model, a terrific Big Idea.
CPA graduation is tonight. I'm going to see if I can convince my family to throw me a graduation party. ;)
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