Category: Books

Exercise Idea: Creativity Flowmeter

In Chapter 2 of Tina Seelig’s book “Ingenius,” the topic of ridiculous inventions is mentioned with particular reference to Japanese “un-useless” inventions. I picked up one such book about a year ago – “The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions (101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions and 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions)” by Kenji Kawakami, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Dan Papia (Apr 17, 2005). When I first browsed it at a Kinokuniya in San Jose, I felt extremely “tickled” seeing the unabashed inventiveness of Japanese with high focus on their own culture.

Many of the inventions shown in this book and other similar ones could serve as prompts to measure reactions to the unusual creativity. I would compile a slide show of 20 or so of the inventions (perhaps just the image and not include the title/description) and have students fill in a “survey” of their reactions including perhaps: Useless, Ho-hum, Cool, I Could Have Thought of That! and I Wish I Had Thought of That! [<-to be refined.]

The idea is to gauge one’s creative flow as a result of viewing and judging the creativity of the un-useless inventions. This would not work so well with inventions that are familiar to our audience (eg, iPad) or are too complicated to understand the function. The lesson would also expose students to the idea that inventiveness can be derived from converging two or more apparently dissimilar objects, functions etc. This would be an exercise relevant to our discussion about divergence, convergence, crossover, spinoffs and parallelism in product design.

Stanford Report: Where does that creative spark come from? Stanford’s Tina Seelig has some ideas

This article in the Stanford Report promotes Tina Seelig’s new book “inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity” and makes connections to her class (possibly MS&E 277: Creativity and Innovation).

Personally, I prefer the title of the prior book “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World” which effused purpose, inclusiveness, accessibility and timing – all important persuasive and attractive elements.

Still, I am optimistic that I will find the new book a worthwhile read. I am looking forward to finding how her new insights can help improve the CSDGC Youth Development Program. My contribution to creativity and innovation through the YCISL program would be to cast intervention to creativity-poor education earlier in the process.

ExploreCourses Course Listing: MS&E 277: Creativity and Innovation
Factors that promote and inhibit creativity of individuals, teams, and organizations. Creativity tools, assessment metrics, and exercises; workshops, field trips, and case studies. Each student completes an individual creativity portfolio and participates in a long-term team project. Enrollment limited to 32. Admission by application. See http://creativity.stanford.edu.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Instructors: Seelig, T. (PI)

Article link: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/april/ingenius-seelig-creativity-043012.html

Book: Drive by Daniel Pink

This is the entry to review my thoughts on the book “Drive” by Daniel H. Pink. I found the writing style highly persuasive and engaging. For the YCISL workshop, there is quite a lot to relay [in fact, I did use several topics from this book in the June 2011 workshop].

The main idea that comes through is that intrinsic motivation is very powerful and enduring. While extrinsic motivators such as cash incentives can result in increased yield, its effects are temporary and decline in peak performance with every use – like with rechargeable batteries. Extrinsic motivators also include punitive actions which are equally unsustainable and ineffective.

For our YCISL context, particularly notable is the section “Type I for Parents and Educators: Ten Ideas for Helping Our Kids.” The idea of a DIY Report Card is interesting in the sense it might have a positive motivational effect (traditional report cards would have, I would hazard to guess, about a 50-50 chance of being motivational – because of the limitations to standardization) with little downside. Pink states that “Good grades become a reward for compliance – but don’t have much to do with learning.” I’m not sure I would agree with  exactly with how Pink proposes it should be done – his description sounds like an adult workplace performance review – another thing not to expose to youth. What if the report card, for say an elementary student, was done within the framework of a SkillScan card sort? Analyze how the cards get sorted at the start and the end of a term, and see if there is a correlation to the teaching effectiveness and student behavior.

Other notables:

(1) In the section “Words”, page 138: “And a powerful way to provide that context is to spend a little less time telling how and a little more time showing why.” I should constantly remind myself of this point. I am very focused on the typical failure to show “how” because of the attention paid to “Here’s point A, and there’s Point B”; to keep my message engaging, I need to periodically remind ourselves of “why.”

(2) In the section”Purpose”, page 130: If so, when am I going to do something that matters? When am I going to live my best life? When am I going to make a difference in the world?” The author’s point is that motivation is suppressed in adults to the point that delay after delay is the norm in leveraging that motivation. This suppression of course is that which we experience as children in our learning environments, and carries on in adult life in various other forms.

(3) In the section “Oxygen of the Soul”, page 127: “The days that people make progress are the days they feel most motivated and engaged.” Also, “You start to get ashamed that you’re doing is childish” <- this second quote is attributed to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

(4) In the section “Type I and Type X”, page 75: “Type X behavior is fueled more by extrinsic desires than intrinsic ones.” And “For Type I’s, the main motivator is the freedom, challenge, and purpose of the undertaking itself; any other gains are welcome, but mainly as a bonus.”

(5) The Three Elements are “AUTONOMY”, “MASTERY” and “PURPOSE.” I would call these the ideals for motivation.

(6) The Four Essentials of Autonomy are “TASK”, “TIME”, “TECHNIQUE” and “TEAM.” I would call these the ingredients that need to be assembled into an engagement in order to attain the Three Elements.

(7) Motivation 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0: overall, I am not certain that version 3.0 is going to supplant version 2.0, and even whether version 3.0 is real or better or even an actual stepping stone (maybe it’s actually an alpha or beta version currently?). There is mention on page 19 about version 2.1. Perhaps for the time being, we would be better off using version 2.1 and waiting for version 3.1 instead of jumping into 3.0? Version numbers aside, it would seem that we want to focus on the features of 2.0 we should retain, and add a digestible set of new features – in order to design a new way of doing things. Granted this isn’t “disruptive” which is how some people think things should be done (aka the grass is always greener on the other side).

Book: Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

I just finished reading “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions” by Guy Kawasaki. It joins my collection of Could-Not-Put-It-Down books. It was overall a fluid and well-structured treatise filled with practical suggestions and insightful observations on behaviors that trigger responses of inner attraction and appeal. (Underlines are my way of “sucking up.” Read the book and you’ll get the idea!)

[I will digress for a moment to put enchantment in terms of the ion attraction models that I am familiar with. If two bodies are at infinite distance apart, there is theoretically zero attraction. At any real distance however there is some level of attraction (think exponential decay, approaching but never reaching zero). As the bodies get closer, there is an increase in attraction. At some point, the bodies are close enough to be involved in some weak holding pattern (the outer layer of influence -> speaking in 2d but we could just as readily say outer sphere for a 3d model). Closer still, the bodies interact and actually form a strong bond (high energy) and deviation becomes limited (an inner layer that is somewhat structured and ordered). If the resulting proximity of the bodies can result in a reaction, then the two bodies might transform into a new entity (hopefully stable) OR if there is a propensity for it, a smaller body might bind in the inner channels of the larger body.]

So how did that relate to the book at hand? Enchantment discusses a phenomenon like the inner layer bonding. Enchantment happens at a point at which reactions are likely to occur and there is a level of fixation. But the bodies need to get close enough, through the outer layer – and in a realistic scenario there will be many competing bodies that will serve to thwart bodies reaching the inner layer level (unless sheer Brownian motion or physical momentum causes an actual or near collision).

Time to list my favorite parts of the book:

(1) I found Chapter 2 How to Achieve Likability – Make Crow’s-Feet a great way to show that Enchantment is a genuine and honest pursuit. You can think about your own likability as shown by your muscle behavior, or detecting other’s likability. Likability may be difficult for some to pervade or one may have a phobia about putting forth a likable personality. However, understanding that Likability is an early step to achieving a connection will help our students find an opportunity to even “step into the ring” to start their journey of innovation and leadership.

(2) Chapter 5’s discussion about the “First Follower” is worth presenting to our students.Working in teams in a school (where social structures generally guarantee the availability of first followers), it would be useful to begin the presentation of a new product or idea by having a first follower become engaged in plain sight of potential additional followers. [Quick digression: I guess this has started to get me to think about Flash Mob Dancing – what an exhilarating phenomenon!]

(3) In Chapter 8 How to Use Push Technology, I like the section on Email. Perhaps I will try it by composing an email to Guy Kawasaki, and see if this works for me (I realize mileage may vary). In particular, I like the advice to “Keep it to six sentences.” This is highly consistent with how I have created assignments in my teaching career. When I design an assignment or question, I am looking for an initial response showing that the student is revealing thoughts in an appropriate direction. I would prefer to leave it to the student to determine the depth to which they would go to be satisfied, and develop their answer in a short form just to convince me that that is where they are headed.

I would close by noting that there are many useful tips in this book that could potentially fit into the YCISL content and benefit the participants. These tips could help inspire us to create some great modules. However, the book does seem to weigh closer to adults so some refining or contextual adjustment may be necessary but when it comes to life lessons, there is great value that Guy Kawasaki has shared.

I am also quite excited to start a new analysis based on the fact that for the books I am reading in printed format, I am attaching PostIt tags when I find something that I may want to go back to because it might contribute to the YCISL program. Enchantment received 18 tags. For an 184 page book, that becomes an Earned Tag Percentage (ETP) of 9.8 (divide tags by number of pages then multiply by 100). I am also attaching a photo of the book with its tags showing, and will retroactively update earlier wiki entries with photos and their ETPs. What fun!

Book: Out of Our Minds by Ken Robinson

It was slower going through this book (Out of Our Minds, 2011 edition, by Ken Robinson) compared to the time I read The Element. It might have been that there was less for me to “grab on to” or “reach out for” in terms of relatable situations, or perhaps there wasn’t much I was making notes of that would pertain to the youth program. In this entry (at least in the initial draft), I note some notable parts:

– “Creative schools are creative with the schedule”, p. 260. This reminds me of the curriculum at Bowman International School in Palo Alto where there is no strict subject schedule – except for a regular language class where it is essential for students to be feeling immersed in the language and speaking to each other and the teacher in that language. But even so, there is a thought-provoking argument as to whether having schools’ daily schedules suit the traffic schedule, the parents’ work schedule or the teachers’ workload schedule (as opposed to an optimum schedule for student learning) – are detrimental to the desired outcome of learning in depth and to a command level. What do the students in the YCISL workshops think?

– “Digital natives and digital immigrants”, p. 75 and 253. These terms are attributed to Mark Presnky, and are used to denote a phenomenon that moves in the opposite direction of [traditional] cultural transmission. With new technologies and platforms flying out of the idea factories, youth are far quicker to adopt, adapt and embrace these new ways of life, and often end up teaching the older generation (the digital immigrants – those moving out from the non-digital world). In normal cultural transmission, the older generation is typically engaged in trying to pass down traditions and processes that they grew up with in order to preserve them. So, for those youth who feel that they have something to teach adults, how would they do it?

– “The task of  a creative leader is to facilitate a resilient relationship between the internal and external cultures”, p. 224. We could think of this in terms of a cell which has several internal components that are somewhat protected as a group by a semipermeable (selective) membrane but nonetheless must interact with the external environment to survive as well as thrive. This makes me think about the layers of a web site where there is an external interface but several layers of  hidden internal function, form, design and architecture. The creative leader has to deal with all these layers.

– ” A culture of innovation depends on cultivating three processes”, p. 219. These processes are imagination, creativity and innovation. I don’t exactly agree with how this concept has been structured (including the exact definitions of the three processes in the book). If we are to follow the argument in The Element, imagination and creativity, don’t necessarily need to be “cultivated”, they need to be uncovered – by social or organizational pressures.  On the other hand, I think it is fair to say that “innovation” is cultivated. However, I would further the book’s definition of “innovation” to say that this process is a selective one. With regards to the definition of “creativity”, I would not exclude ideas because they are not “original” – the same creative idea could come about by different routes – and it all requires energy and expression. I guess you could think of this as a multi-path chemical reaction with similar reactants but the exact same product (albeit perhaps with different yields, energy of reaction and activation energies).

– “The intellect cannot work at its best without emotional intelligence”, p. 186. Perhaps something Stephen Murphy-Shigemtasu can address? More on Emotional Intelligence on p. 175.

– “Academic ability is based on the two capacities for logico-deductive reasoning and for propositional knowledge”, p. 83.

Book: Understanding Other People by Beverly D. Flaxington

Just finished reading the book “Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior” by Beverly D. Flaxington. The byline on the front cover says “How to stop being frustrated by the actions of others and start taking charge of your own life – and reactions.” It seemed like a promising resource with potential lessons for youth, especially those who may be encountering significant adult pressure. Can you imagine a youth trying to communicate with their parents or teachers, but having to deal with the “filters” described in this book? (Note: I think “filter” is not the best term since it implies a consistent loss of information processing whereas I feel it may be more a matter of translation or interpretation fidelity/efficiency at play). The premises from this book are:

1. It’s All About Me. To be able to view things from different perspectives is very important, especially with regards to innovation and leadership. However, there are times when “me” is an essential motivator and the “me” (or “us”) perspective matters the most.
2. Behavioral Styles Come Between Us. Recognition of behavioral styles is essential in any new situation. In a negotiating or mission critical scenario, it may be necessary to put aside prejudice against a certain behavior type; but an appreciation for behavior compatibility is crucial for healthy and productive teams.
3. Values Speak Louder. Values tend to intangible and difficult to identify accurately. Therefore, some latitude or additional data to analyze may be necessary before trying to rationalize a reason for a conflict. A values difference is quite easy to imagine as being an impediment in a youth-adult situation. Even if the youth has role models, it is difficult to list accurately the values that are being adopted.
4. Don’t Assume I Know What You Mean. Youth may be so anxious about being in the presence of adults that they don’t invest much time in setting context. They either want to get the encounter over with as quick as possible because of shyness/fear, or they want to get back to their friends or something they would rather be doing. It may therefore fall on the adult to encourage the youth to provide context.
5. I’m Okay; You Are Most Definitely NOT Okay. This is perfect advice for the adult who is interacting with youth. Critical judgement is definitely not the right message to send to youth when they are making their best effort. Makes me think about the frame of mind judges in a Science Fair should be in (they’ve already invested much of their time into the project before presentation day).

For the YCISL program, I think the above premises can be used to design an exercise (to be described later) to help youth become more confident in asking questions (a skill that should be nurtured as early in life as intelligently possible, but as we know often gets suppressed in school and at home ). Skilled question-asking is a powerful mode of communication and enables highly interactive discussions. Questions allow leeway in interpretation and (in network-speak) error-checking, and promote interaction continuity. It also has utility in innovation and leadership.

http://www.understandingotherpeople.com

Book: Uncertainty Avoidance in “Outliers”

In “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, Singapore is listed as the “culture best able to tolerate ambiguity”, or the country with the lowest UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE. This led me to http://www.geerthofstede.nl where we find more detail about this and other cultural features (termed “cultural dimensions” when quantified on a relative scale).

Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance deals with a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth:  “there can only be one Truth and we have it”. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side. People within these cultures are more phlegmatic and contemplative, and not expected by their environment to express emotions.

Also from the website…”Because values are acquired in childhood, national cultures are remarkably stable over time; national values change is a matter of generations. What we see changing around us, in response to changing circumstances are practices:  symbols, heroes and rituals, leaving the underlying values untouched.”

In this search, I also found CultureGPS (http://www.culturegps.com) by sales-genetics (http://www.sales-genetics.com) and downloaded it onto my iPad via the App Store.

Perhaps it would be an interesting exercise to show the values of the various cultural dimensions and see if they are expected among the youth participants. It would also be interesting to see whether aiming change at youth (by youth and among youth) has greater influence on promoting a value change.

Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance and Individualism Values from CultureGPS Lite (listed in order; downloaded 5/4/11; no version number):

Life-Action Planning

One of the things I learned from Amanda Itliong when she was with the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford was the need for an “individual learning plan” which charts out a person’s steps towards leadership objectives. Here is some text from the Haas website (http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/haas/principles/document)…

Reflection Questions
What does your personal plan for preparation look like? How might you creatively build preparation into your program design? How has your academic work prepared you for this experience? Where do you see connections between your academic/intellectual background and practical application? What have you not been prepared for in the past and what did you learn from that?

I picked up the book “Me: Five Years from Now” by Sheree Bykofsky. It provides some ideas on areas of life to focus on for life-planning. This showed me that there are at least two approaches: (a)  we could discuss how a learning plan is comparable to strategic navigation and risk management, or (b) we can keep it at simple by just asking “Where will you be 6 months from now?”,  “…1 year from now?”  or “5 years from now?”

I favor the latter for youth but it should be framed as an action plan where not only are there places/positions listed, but also actions/directions to get there (addressing the getting from point A to point B problem we often see). From Bykofsky, we also learn that we should ask ourselves “Which actions can we start today?” and “Which tasks will take time?” There should be a forward-moving tendency to the action plan and minimal chance of inertia.

The Homework Myth

I’ve just finished reading “The Homework Myth” by Alfie Kohn (2006) and found a few sections that are associated with creativity.
– on page 111, math is identified as a “creative enterprise” where students should be challenged to invent solutions to “unfamiliar problems” and understand how and why each other’s solutions work as a comparison.
– on page 169, it is suggested that homework may be excessive and therefore out of reach of many students from the get go. Punitive measures as a result of being put in this impossible position discourages students from wanting to take responsibility for learning.
– on page 178, there is a discussion about choice. “The best teachers know that children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.” The section also points out that students have the instinct to detect whether work is thoughtlessly assigned and therefore not really worth doing.
– on page 181, the author concludes that “this shift is associated with intellectual benefits: Kids are freed up to do more stuff that matters, that stirs their thinking,that both flow from and stimulates their interests, when homework doesn’t get in the way.”
This is an extension on the thought that schools stifle youth creativity. The school goes even as far as outside of actual school hours to ensure that youth do not get the opportunity to be creative (on their own) by (a) consuming what should be free time, (b) demoralizing students to the point where they mainly anticipate judgement, failure and punishment, and (c) burdening the student with perceptibly low quality tasks. For our YCISL program, we need to make it absolutely clear that they are to take charge and they can choose to pursue their creativity in their chosen context (even school) with ample free time in a no risk situation where they take responsibility for the quality of tasks.

Idea from “the Homework Myth”

I am presently reading “the Homework Myth” by A. Kohn, and came across (page 111) how “terrific teachers” encourage students to create their own problem solving techniques (without prior demonstration of a specific solution) and have them discuss each others solution. This positions math (or any subject for that matter) as a “creative enterprise” and creates understanding of the problem-solution as opposed to black-box programming. This is probably a good example to mention in the discussion about creativity and how it leads to innovation and possibly leadership. For youth, this is a good situation to explain because there are many possible solutions – and the advantages may only manifest themselves best in particular situations.