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Here a a couple of interesting links.

1. Scientists at NIST show DNA wrapped SWCNT of 200nm or less enter ex-vitro lung cells where longer ones don’t.  Not sure if this is like saying 200nm DNA stands enter lung cells, while longer DNA stands don’t?  Another confusion in the the debate on the safety of “nanomaterials”.  How does your company deal with  EHS and nanotubes?
2. I had a long drive this past weekend and was listening up on Phil McKinney’s Killer Innovations Podcasts from 2006.  This one on “Listening Skills and Rules of Future Forecasting”  was one that I enjoyed.
3. Ditto on the Podcast  “Observation Skills and Contradictions”  deals with a quick exercise for improving observation and the most concise and true-ringing explanation of TRIZ I have seen anywhere.
4. So how do you really test how building behave in an earthquake?  You build one on top of a giant shaker table and deck it out with sensors.  Pretty Amazing.
5. Inkblot Earth has a post about The first person killed by a robot.   Not the science fiction of Asimov, but  interesting.
6. Endless Innovation has a post from Design Sojourn about 7 ways to unleash your creativity  originally from IDEO.   (three level link action).  Those IDEO guys are great,  I got to meet a few through work.
7. Again with IDEO,  The 10 Faces of Innovation changed my outlook on how people work and what drives them.

I just made a post recently about Glowing Bacteria and how it is a good example of “convergence problem solving”. Basically where you are leveraging advances in adjacent fields with your core piece or expertise of technology to really do something beyond the scope of any of the individual pieces you are combing.

I think this advancement is a great example for a creavity excercise I call “List Combination”. This is a great example of convergence for one application. Where else can I use this same solution to make money in another application or field? (Something we all wish we could do more of?)

It basically works like this. In this case I have a new technology which might turn out to have a short list of useful attibutes (lets us use 3, while this technique works well with less 3 or 4, you’ll see why later, any more you can’t get it done).

• It allow you to spread out a liquid or paste
• Detect something you usually can’t see
• Does it quickly in a remote location (with a device you can carry).

S o here is the excercise. Start by making a couple of lists of answers to questions based on your 3 attributes. Be careful and general in your question definition. In my case I would use.

1. What can I spread a paste or liquid onto?
2. What would I like to detect that I can’t see?
3. Where (or in what context) do I need to know something is present?

Now make a list of answers to your questions. Set a target # that you want to work with for each list (example start with 25). It is really important to set a target for the list length, because you have to make it high enough to get out of the context you have already created in your mind. This is really effective if you can get someone to help you that you haven’t told the example technology to yet.

The next step is to build the three possible 2-D matrices where Lists 1-3 are your axis. So cross lists 1/2, 2/3, and 1/3. I do this in Excel . Basically start picking cells at random and decide if the juxtaposition you have created for each X & Y combination makes sense. If so put a X or a green color in the box. For those you don’t like or don’t make sense color them grey or red. Do this for all threee matrices separately. Then take the green squares and list out your combinations or your short lists of only the green cells.

At this point you will have 3 lists of pairs based on your three lists. Now iterate through these combination lists with whatever 3rd axis you didn’t do in teh combination. So these are the three: (If I have 4 attributes, I choose to do only the best 2 combinations I see and combine those, 6 combinations to start with is too many)

1. Intersection of List 1 & 2, with List 3
2. Intersection of List 2 & 3, with List 1
3. Intersection of List 1 & 3, with List 2

Given this activity you should be able to generate 3-5 good adjacent markets or uses for this convergence technology that you can then go and explore in detail. I really like this because of the juxataposition that occurs as you do the list comparisons. Set your lists big enough that you have to get outside your first assumption. And this really works in 2 or 3 man teams. Sometimes those crazy combinations get you very far away from what you were thinking.

Good luck and think about this next time you have to look at the “Where else can I take this Convergence Technology?” type of problem.

If you use this to solve a problem, let me know by dropping me an email or comment.

Disclaimer: I cannot remember seeing an example of this anywhere but can’t be sure that someone else didn’t come up with this method 1st as it seems pretty intuitive.

Guy Kawasaki has a good post on TrendHunter Magazine (warning, some content not suitable for work on there). Guy’s post gives some great examples.   Also look at the Science category and the Art and Design Category. This is a mix of the weird and strange mixed with the  insightful and coo .    As with anyone that is a trendsetter they are usually on the fringe which is extremely evident from the links above. You can see the tongue-in-cheek in this publication, but take a look at the about trendhunter page and the associated list of publications at the bottom.

An Example of one trend post is the M3 Heliodisplay from iO2 technology.

So how do you use Trendhunter? Where are the gems there you can develop? Are there some common threads on there that would make the basis of a trend you could ride and tailor your products to? Can you market to a fringe customer base? Should you?

On a related subject Phil McKinney has a great podcast over at Killer Innovations that deals with the “Trend Safari.”  Well work the listen.  The transcipt is also there for the podcast/mp3 challenged.

The Innovation index

• Is your company on it?
• Do you agree with the list?
• Who is missing?

How is the Innovation Index doing today?

I guess the list originated from this Business Week Article.

I think everyone knows someone that thery would call a creative or innovative person. Hopefully you have had the experience of working for an innovative/creative boss also.

I was thinking to myself there are a lot of lists of “what leaders do”, or “traits for a leader” or ” the Successful Manager”, but I haven’t really seen one for the  innovation manager.
That is until I ran across this list that Sanjay Dalal has up on his website “Top Ten Creative Leadership Traits”.

So what are the top ten characteristics and traits of Creative Leaders?

1. Great at generating many ideas – innovative, game changing and even commonplace.
2. Always looking to experiment with good ideas. Sometimes, trying out a few times.
3. Unwavering belief in their creativity and innovation, coupled with originality in thinking.
4. Smart and bright with a positive self-image. More often, they are not born geniuses.
5. Passionate, expressive and sensitive to their teams, colleagues and surroundings.
6. Demonstrate superior judgment, and do not make quick decisions (although have a gut feel).
7. Non-conformists and independent, requiring less social approval than most people.
8. Innate ability to understand and solve the problem, and manage the consequences.
9. Born dreamers with strong imagination; however, manage to keep things in perspective.
10. Create and launch game changing products meeting a high level of quality and design.

One thing that I don’t see captured here is the ability to motivate and inspire his team.  This is an essential part of the equation.  The good leaders can do this  with what seems like  little effort.  Some people call it charisma or presence, but if it more than just like-ability.  It is that trait that will cause people to get behind someone and unify towards a common targeted goal.

Do you know a creative leader?  Did they have some of the traits on this list?

Hugh MacLeod from GapingVoid fame has a whole series of articles on “How to be creative.”  You really should check them out if you haven’t read them  before.  Although the Hugh was approaching this from a artist point of view, there is some universality to  some of these comments that each person can adapt as needed.   One that happened to strike a cord with me today was:

“6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like my crayons back, please.”……..”

This really is very qutie striking. The engineer and scientist in me likes the order and rules that we build up to explain the world, control our environment, and make the future.   We  didn’t start out with models, or rules,  or equations, we had to be trained.  All of us started out as uncontrolled little minds that didn’t know or care for the rules.   We dripped of “outside the box” thinking and creativity, but over time had to learn the proper way of things.

S o what does this have to do with you or your career or innovation?   Well a couple of things.   One is the importance of stepping out of your training and experience to imagine what might be possible if you ignored the rules temporarily.   What opportunities do you miss because you use the current paradigm that everyone accepts?  Have you ever had a situation where an answer was simple and elegeant, yet it was counter-intuitive to the “right way”?    What happens when you remove the lens through which you view reality and replace it with someone else’s?

Second is to leverage those fresh perspectives when you have a chance to come across them.  One great example of this is the finding yourself in a situation where you have a fresh employee to your company or a fresh new team member?   Take this blessing and use it.   Give them enough information to see the problem and then step away.  Let them identify the problem details and come up with those solutions that you would never think of due to your “training”.

After reading the article do any of you have a favorite.  “guest author” spot up for grabs.  Just shoot me and email.