-
Strategy Leadership & the Soul – YouTube
Inspiring video to help us rethink what is possible with our organizations.
-
Tips, tricks and resources to make your own gorgeous infographics
Infographics (or Information Graphics) are graphic visual representations of data or information, presented in a way to make it easier to consume information. Infographics gained popularity in the mid-2000′s with the advent of sites like Digg and Reddit, and have quickly become one of the most popular methods to display researched data.
-
You don’t make widgets: why design is about function, not things — dMASS
The same idea can be applied to business models. Don’t think about how to deliver a service better – think about the benefit that you’re delivering to your customers and whether there’s an entirely different and less resource-intensive way to deliver it.
-
The business of learning from eggs: how to rethink your organization’s function — dMASS
Think about your company’s or organization’s function. What benefit does it deliver? Your first answer might be a physical product. But is it the really product, or is the product just the means to get some benefit
-
3D Printing: The latest dMASS newsletter
One of the major advantages of 3D printing is that it can be used to produce any shape. Another important aspect of 3D printing is its potential to eliminate waste during the manufacturing process, which will decrease resources required for production and save money. A third important aspect of 3D printing is its potential to disrupt business models and current approaches to supply chain management, as well as reduce the resources needed to transport goods.
-
Four Ways To Spot Opportunities Ripe For Break-Out Innovation | Co. Design
So, instead of large pain points, you should spend your time looking for–and addressing–something much more subtle: small “tension points,†the things that aren’t big enough to be considered problems. The challenge, however, is that tension points are usually hard to spot, because the symptoms are easy to overlook. They’re not screaming for attention the way “real†problems are. They’re typically little inconveniences that people have grown complacent about.
-
Seth’s Blog: Three things clients and customers want
1. Results. If you can offer a return on investment, an engineering solution, more sales, no tax audits, a cute haircut, the fastest rollercoaster, a pristine beach, reliable insurance payouts at the best price, peace of mind, productive consulting or any other measurable result, this is a great place to start.
2. Thrills. More difficult to quantify but often as important, partners and customers respond to heroism. We are amazed and drawn to over the top effort, incredible risk taking on our behalf, the blood, sweat and tears that (rarely) comes from a great partner. A smart person working harder on your behalf than you’d be willing to work–that’s pretty compelling.
3. Ego. Is it nice to feel important? You bet. When you greet us at the door with a glass of white wine, put our name in the lobby of the hotel, actually treat us better than anyone else does (not just promise it, but do it)… This can get old really fast if you industrialize and systemize it, though.
-
Shareable: Participatory Budgeting Gains Steam in San Francisco
A really interesting look at “participatory budgeting” in Chicago and San Francisco. Worth reading because it also has some good analysis. Two things I’ll call out:
First, you have to be very careful about how you structure these processes. When authority over a chunk of discretionary dollars was pushed down to the local level in Chicago, participants prioritized investments with immediate, local benefit (pedestrian-oriented improvements, dog parks, benches, murals, etc.) at the cost of road maintenance that benefits the broader populace. Personally, I like the local bias that these processes seem to create, but you need to go in knowing that these biases are there – and figure out how to compensate for the bigger whole.
Second, decentralizing decision making like this makes it much harder for special interests to penetrate and exert influence. It’s just way more efficient from a lobbying perspective if you can do it all from the state legislature, or better yet, in D.C.
Third (yep, I said two…oops) – not everything can be volunteer-driven. Sometimes people who work for government actually do know what they’re doing, and are better equipped to manage the tradeoffs and technical details of certain aspects of budgeting and government more generally. Yeah, imagine that…. -
The Technium: Scenius, or Communal Genius
Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or “scenes” Â can occasionally generate. His actual definition is: Â “Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius.”
-
Focusing On Problems Instead Of Solutions
When it comes to journalism about social change, writer David Bornstein thinks the media isn’t doing it right. Instead of showing the positive effects that innovative ideas can have, most coverage involves bad news. “I’ve been covering social innovators for 20 years now,” he says. “It’s occurred to me that the theory of change behind journalism is wrong.”
-
Bruce Springsteen on Creativity
Bruce Springsteen insights on the creative process and dealing with fame.
“You pull something that doesn’t exist out of the air. It doesn’t exist… on any given night when your standing there in front of you audience. Nothing exists in that space until you go 1,2,3,4 VOOM.
-
The commons are our shared wealth without which people cannot survive and thrive. This wealth is comprised of common goods which we have inherited or created, are entitled to use, and are obliged to restore and pass on to our children.
-
THE CONTRIBUTION OF HUMBERTO MATURANATO CONSTRUCTIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY