Six Value Medals

Six value medals (The latest model of Debono)

Six value medals is the latest invention of Debono. It is intended to exmine values, prioritise which are the most important, and then ensure that best values are prioritized first and maximized every step of the process.

The following is the definitions of the medals by Debono.

GOLD MEDAL: Gold is precious, and so are people. The gold medal asks, what matters to people? Achievement, pride, a sense of belonging, hope, trust and growth.

SILVER MEDAL: Silver impacts the organisation. What matters to the organisation – what are its goals and how would a action help or hinder in the pursuit of those goals?

STEEL MEDAL: Steel must be as strong as possible. What are the implications for quality and how will the decision at hand impact the quality of what we do?

GLASS MEDAL: Glass can take the shape of many functional, often beautiful and colourful objects. The glass medal covers change, innovation, simplicity and creativity.

WOOD MEDAL: Wood spotlights ecological values in the broadest sense. Is ther a positive or negative impact on the environment if we take this route?

BRASS MEDAL: Brass looks like gold but is not. Brass medal values examine appearances and perception. How will this action be interpreted?Until now there has not been a concrete way to assess the impact that a decision may have on our attempts to create and protect value. When employees can scan, identify and prioritise values they become vital partners in growing the business

My opinion on six value medals method

Today, we have many things to do. The competition is very high. We have to work under time- pressure. We have time-limit. We can't do all things in detail. So, we need to know what we should focus on. We must know which things are the most important. To define value of things, this six value medals method will be helpful.

Ref: www.debonofoundation.co.uk

Habits of creative people

I love to read biographies of great people. I thought about them again and made a list to be creative. In biographies of very creative people, I noticed that

1. They just do what they love to do (for eg, Einstein just took care of the subjects he loved, and very bad in some subjects.
2. They want to be different. (for eg, Vicient Vangoh always try to be different with others)
3. They just follow their dream (for eg, Right brothers)
4. They do their best in their work(Every genius give too much time and effort to their work, some artists take 7 years to draw famous paintings)
5. They don’t care to the negative criticisms (for eg, Right Brothers)
6. And some use strange methods(for eg, Einstein used to think himself as Isac Newton sometimes while he was thinking)
7. They love their work. (I heard that a saying “love your work as your sweetheart”). But for me, work is not invisible, so, it’s difficult to make my mind according to the saying. That’s why I didn’t become genius. :-D
8. They try hard so much. (for eg, Thomas Edison just sleep 4 hours per a day.)
9. They just see failure as challenge. (for eg, Thomas Edison tried thousand times to invent a bulb)

Dream & Imagination

I think it is powerful for creativity & innovation process. Everyone can dream FOC. Wright Brothers maybe dream to fly like a bird in air. Who Knows???? Then, they could do experiments to realize their dreams. They might encounter the several failures and suffer agony & pains for it. Anyway, because of their dreams to fly in air, nowadays, we can fly in planes (a big bird) to visit around the world.

I also had a dream. :-) I had it after watching advertisement of “Transformer” movie on TV. I really like the way that a car transforms into robot. Moreover, I also come across with a nice Nike sneaker transforms into a robot toys in net.

I got one idea to transform something like that for me. As our lecture rooms are so cold for me, I have to bring sweater or jacket everyday. I put it in my bag and have to carry it whenever I have class. I would like to have a backpack that can transform into jacket. If so, no need to worry if I forget my jacket or sweater at home. If I reach to class, I pull out my stuffs from backpack, put it onto arm table of my chair and will transform this backpack into jacket and wear it. After class, I transform it into backpack and collect my stuffs into it. How nice!!! I really want to have one. :-)

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a very useful tool that to think creatively. It will be very helpful when we need to break the habitual condition and the regular patterns of thinking. By making brainstorming, we can get new ideas. During we make brainstorming sessions, there should be no criticism of ideas and inspirations.

When existing ideas can’t give the solution we needs, we need to make brainstorming. All team members can participate in brainstorming.

We can relate Brainstroming with lateral thinking process. People can come up with ideas that seem at first to be a crazy. Then we can improve those raw ideas or may get new ideas that are totally different with the old raw ideas. Anyway, one raw idea can create many useful ideas. In brainstorming session we need to open up possibilities Judgments and analysis at this stage will block idea generation.

Ideas and thoughts should just be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming session . Then we can explore solutions further using conventional approaches.

If the team get no intuitive ideas during brainstorming, we can use lateral thinking tools such as random entry and so on.

Individual Brainstorming

In individual brainstorming, you can get a wider range of ideas than with group brainstorming because you do not need to worry about other people's opinions, and so you can be more freely creative. But, you may have some difficulties because you can’t get advices from other experiences.

Team Brainstorming

Team brainstorming is more effective than individual brainstorming because it uses the creativity of all members of the team. When individual members reach their limit of creativity, another member's creativity can take the idea to the next stage.

My Definitions for CIIE

Creativity = the power or ability to think and act for new & improvements

Innovation = the act of introducing somewhat new on something that already exists.

Invention = creating something that did not exist before

Experimentation = the process to test or implement one’s creativity in order to come true

Innovation Tips from IDEO

1. Observe people, customers and non-customers

2. Play with physical workplace in a way that sends positively body language to employees and visitors

3. Think “verbs” not “nouns” in products and services offerings for creating wonderful experiences

4. Break rules and “fail forward” so that change is part of the culture and little setback is experienced

5. Stay human, scale your organizational environment so that there’s room for hot teams to emerge and thrive.

6. Build bridges from one department to another, form your company to your prospective customers and ultimately form the present to the future.

Left Brain and Right Brain

The two different sides of the brain control two different "modes" of thinking. Experts said each of us prefers one mode over the other.

The two different sides, of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking.

Left Brain : Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts

Right Brain: Random, Intutive, Holistic, Subjective, Synthesizing, and Looks at wholes.

We have a distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking. Some, however, are more whole-brained and equally adept at both modes.

In order to enhance creativity we need to use both sides of our brain balance.

Here’s a good link to decide your brain type.

http://homeworktips.about.com/library/brainquiz/bl_leftrightbrain_quiz.htm

How to create innovation - my thoughts

Here are some points in my thought about how to create innovation in our lives, in our workplace, in over environment etc.

• Take risks. Don’t play with safe

(Risk taking is challenging in life. It speed us to going forward to beat the competitions in life. It will improve our abilities and enhace our characters. It encourage changes in our lives)

• Make mistakes. Don’t try to avoid them

( Failure is the seed of success in some case. Great success may come across at the end of failure. So, dont be afraid to be mistaken. It will teach us how to do problem solving and how to steel ourselves against all odds)

• Take initiative. Don’t wait for instructions

(Instructions & procedures are not useful in some case. Seek our own ways to reach our goal. Follow our dreams to smell success in life)

• Welcome destruction. It is the first step to success in the creative process.

(Dont accept things easily. Everything can be changed in our hands & in our thoughts. Everything needs improvements. We all have equal chances to change it. Nobody will blame!)

• Focus on opportunities, not only on problem

( Because of existing problems, we have chance to find out solutions. However, we should also focus on opportunities how to implement the our abilities, established technology, etc. into current problem solving situatition. It will be noticeable changes and encourage innovations)

• Experiment

(I think experiment is a testing and a kind of preparation. We need prepareness to face the changes. Furthermore, luck is prepareness(experiment) meets opportunity.)

• Take personal responsibility for fixing things. Don’t blame others and Stay calm

(Noone is perfect in all time. Accept failure and try to solve it out. Dont blame on others to cover the loosing face of yours. Take personal responsibitiy and accept the result. Failure is not totally failure if you can't accept it.)

• Smile

(Smiles are effective and cheerful language of human beings. It is a sign of affectionate on someone. Create a perfect and live smile to build a friendship to strangers. It really works for me!)

• Have fun

(Do fun stuffs when you are bored. It will give ways to refresh your brain to create something new. Your will feel happiness and have a break from tension of work while doing fun.)

Ten faces of innovation: what kind of persons can drive the creativity into organization?

I come across the book named "Ten faces of innovation" in Amazon a few days ago. The Authors are Tom Kelly and Jonathan Littman. I have been read "The art of innvation" by Tom kelly and I like it. I couldn't help the desire of reading the book and surfed NUS libriaries portal to borrow this book. Unluckily, it is on borrowing and 3 persons hold it. Therefore, I read book reviews of others and tried to be happy with it. Here are some knowledge I found out from it.

Anthropologist – person who observe people, processes and interactions “with a fresh eye” and discover ways to help them.

Experimenter - person who is willing to take a chance and to explore alternatives and test concepts through prototyping, trial-and-error and applied science.

Cross-pollinator – person who enjoy connecting different cultures, like a bee flitting between the private parts of flowers, the cross-pollinator spreads good ideas and techniques between specialism, breaking down silos and sharing good practice

Hurdler – person who knows that the path to innovation is full with obstacles but never give it up to overcome or outsmart those roadblocks and able to leap tall buildings (well project hurdles anyway) in a single bound.

Collaborator – person who can persuade people and teams together to perform collaboration by finding common interests and objectives among them.

Director – person who can gather talented crews together and help them to spark their creative talents under his/ her coaching to innovate.

Experience architect - person who can put himself in the customer’s shoes and visualize products and services that can meet at a deeper level with customer’s latent or expressed needs.

Set designer - person who can create a stage on which innovation team members can do their best work by transforming physical environment into powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude of innovation.

Caregiver – person who support their colleagues, providing a sympathetic sounding board and gentle encouragement when times are tough and motivating and inspiring people by care giving to them.

Storyteller – person who can tell the stories about people, products, process and services in creative and interesting ways using his/ her excellent narrative or communication skills.

The above persons are who contribute different ways of creativity and innovation to teams. These individuals can fuel innovation inside the organization and should company hire these kinds of people to adopt innovation in their orgainization.

I wonder what kind of person should I be? What kind of person I would like to be? I strongly would like to be Anthropologist. I love this kind of study!

Creativity and Politics

Yesterday, I read the news of our country, in a newspaper. Now, I have an idea to relate the political problems of our country (Burma) with creativity.

I felt sorry to read the news of my country. I’m very sad to hear that many people died in the demonstration.

The current government of my country(Myanmar) and other politicians need to solve the current problems with creative way. I think politics is a non-zero sum game. So, both can win simultaneously. Both sides should play win_win game.

To play a win_win game, both sides need to be mature. Both sides must not be selfish. Anyway, if one site deny to play win-win game, it can’t work. In the case of politics in my country, the game is just one-sided. Government wants to apply force and don’t want to negotiate with others.

So, Leaders of the opposition need to use more creative way. And all people need to think creatively. People need to think from other persepectives. If we can’t get the democracy easily right now and we can’t change the government right now, we must change ourselves. We must practice democracy in our everyday life. Then, later, we will get the government that will suit with us. We need to change our perspectives and views. We need to change our thoughts. Most of people think freedom can be given by government. But, at the situation of my country, we Burmese people need to think that we must create freedom in our mind first. (Of course, political freedom is also important.)And then later, I think we will get political freedom and democracy, because there is a rule that everyone gets just they deserve at long term. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to act political actions to against the ditactors. I just mean we need to combine political actions and following self disciplines.

Anyway, my idea may not be practical but I think that thinking from different points of views may get useful answers. By following our dream and making some efforts to modify our raw ideas must be fruitful somedays.

Can creativity be taught and practiced?

Some people think that creativity can’t be taught and practiced. I don’t think so. I think we’ll be more creative by changing our habits. To be creative, we must think freely. We must play with everything in our mind. No need to judge our ideas at first. Just need to improve our draft ideas by making effort. The essence of creativity lies in its freshness, its freedom, its newness. So, we need to think freely. To be creative, we may need to break existing rules if required. We need to apply every tool (that will enhance our creativity) in our daily life.

In my MT5003 (Creativity and Innovation) class, I have to learn many tools that will enhance my creativity. I also surfed Internet to find more tools. Here are some tools that will enhace our creativity.

1. Six thinking hats
2. Six action shoes
3. Lateral thinking
4. 7 step models
5. 6 Wh and how and I(how,what,why,when,whrer,who,which, and If)
6. Laddering and so on.
   

We need to choose the suitable that will suit with us. No need to use all these tools simultaneously. By using those tools, later, we’ll have a good habit of thinking. We’ll have a habit to think all things from various perspectives and will be creative. And for me, using those tools is also a fun. I’ll use those methods appropriately to enhance my creativity.

Flowers in Compus & My Thoughts

Here are some beautiful flowers in our campus. I took it with my hand phone camera. These all are booming beautifully in campus. I feel happy whenever I saw it and I set my hand phone to camera mode. Some of my classmates laughed at me to shoot this flowers on road sides. However, they really marvellous of beauty when they saw photos of it. All flowers are beautiful! In this way, every body has value. Each has a brain to think & act! Cheers up!


















I have so many photos of flowers on compus. But, I cant upload all on blog. If you want to see all, pls contact me. I will share to you all. :-)

IDEO’s five-step methodology for innovation

IDEO is one of the world’s most innovative companies. It creates innovative products, services, spaces and experiences for such companies as Intel, P&G, Pepsi-Cola, Samsung, Metro, Prada, etc. and helps many other companies with their innovation.

IDEO’s process of innovation have improved the design of mouse for apple computer, soft-handled gripper toothbrush for Oral-B, “keep the change” account service for Bank of America, Game platform for Nokia, ergonomic monitor position design for Samsung, etc. Since 1991, IDEO has in the list of winners of annual Industrial Design Excellence Awards, and in 2005, Business Week showed IDEO is one of the twenty most innovative companies in the world. There are more than 400 employees from all disciplines of studies: engineers, designers, human factor experts and business strategists. They all create their workplace to make innovation by applying creativity, diversity, knowledge, and empathy.

Here is IDEO's methodology for innovation in my point of view after reading about IDEO and its innovation methods.

Understand the market, the client, the technology, and perceived constrains on the giving problems
(Understanding)


Observe real people in real-life situation(Observation)


Literally visualize new-to-the-world concepts and customers who will use them (Brainstorming)

Evaluates and refine the prototypes in a series of quick iterations (Prototyping)


Implement a new concept for commercialization. (Implementation)

Seven sources of innovation by Peter Drucker

The followings are seven sources of innovation guided by Peter Drucker.

1. The unexpected
2. Incongruities
3. Process needs
4. Industry market and structures
5. Demographic changes
6. Changes in public perception
7. New technology and scientific findings

I surfed on net to found out the high tech medical devices for my pleasure and I found non-invasive & continuous glucose monitoring device. So, I think whether this product is related to Drucker's Seven Sources of Innovation. The following is my thoughts :

Unexpected
All of typical diabetic testing devices are only in invasive formats. One thing that can be sure is everyone can not be eager to take out blood to test his or her diabetes everyday. However, there is a new way to innovate somehow unexpected in diabetic testing devices by using ultrasound waves. Human’s sugar level in blood can be monitored by using ultrasound waves via very small skin pad, glucose sensor, on skin. The handheld device collects the data from glucose sensor. It can not only store the results but also analyze it and can predict how sugar levels are likely to change in next few hours.

Process needs & Demographic changes
Non-invasive medical testing will be popular because all people are aware of transmission of diseases by blood transfusion from one to another and will more concern about health care products with high technology, non-invasive methods. Nowadays, most of people have knowledge about health care and want to maintain good health by themselves at their home for some minor cases.

Changes perception
Non-invasive and continuous glucose monitoring devices use existing ultrasonic technology but apply it in new application to combat with typical glucose monitoring devices. Blood in human body can be measured wirelessly. It is marvelous and unexpected.

Innovation is a key to success

Here is my view of how innovation become a key to success in a company. I did it with clip art gallary in MS word.

Six Action Shoes

Occasionally, thinking is an end in itself, but usually thinking is to choose or design a course of action. Sometimes, there is a distinct thinking phase (where you might use a technique such as the Six Thinking Hats) and then an action phase, where you can use the Action Shoes. Below is my implication after reading about six action shoes by De Bono. :-)

Put on Orange gumboots to take urgent action to overt a crisis or to deal with an emergency situation.

Put on Pink slippers to take caring or helping action in a situation where it is vital to consider and respect human feelings.

Put on Navy formal shoes to take action which requires authority or rules or regulations to be established or adhered to. When action should follow set routines.

Put on Brown brogues to take practical action, that which seems sensible in the situation

Put on Purple riding boots to take “extraordinary” action that is defined by the wearer of the shoes

Put on Grey sneakers for investigation and collection of information.

About this blog

I’m a student of National University of Singapore (NUS). My major is Master of Science in Management of Technology. I develop this blog to fulfill the requirement of the subject, MT 5003: Creativity and Innovation.

For my portfolio, since the first day of the class for this subject, I started to write down my portfolio on paper to tell the readers about myself from a creativity and innovation point of view. Few weeks ago, I got idea to make a blog for my portfolio. So, I need to put things that was written on paper on my blog.

I’m very happy to make a blog relating with this subject. I’m very interested in this subject. So, I’ll continue to develop this blog even when my school finish. Pls stay with me:-)

Wearing on Six thinking hats on my head(Applying six thinking hats technique to make my personal decision)

After learning the approach "six thinking hats", I'm very interested in that approach and decided to practice my thinking skills and problem solving skills by using that tool. While I'm studying here, I do a part time job. But, the exam is so near. So, I can't decide whether I should do part-time job in these 3 months or not. I decided to use the approach six thinking skills to solve the problem. First I wore blue hat and thought that which hats would use in which sequences. Then I wore white hat first to collect information. If I do the part-time job in these 3 months, I may lack of money. But, if I do the part-time job in these 3 months, I may not have enough time to study well and to do my projects. I don't like both two situations. But, I prefer not to do part-time jobs. That's my feeling. That was wearing a red hat. Then I wore a yellow hat. If I don't do part-time jobs, I will have enough time to study and enough time to sleep. Otherwise, I can't sleep enough and that is not good for my health. And I'll have enough time to do some social works. Then, I wore a black hat. If I don't do part-time job, I may have financial problems within these months. Anyway, I don't like lacking money and I want to have enough time to study. So, I need to be an intuitive solution. I wore a green hat. I have an idea to borrow some money from one of my friends. :-D Am I so intuitive? :-D Anyway, there are friends who can borrow some money to me. I know. So, I think my idea will work. I satisfy my answer. That was wearing a red hat again. Please give me some comments about my decision. To criticize my thinking process, you can wear all hats. But I prefer that you'll criticize by wearing a yellow hat. :-D And I think you may want to lend your money to me. Just kidding.

Six Thinking Hats

White Hat : Information & Neutral

Yellow Hat : Postitive Thinkging

Blue Hat : Manage Thinking Process

Black Hat : Negative Thinking

Red Hat : Emotions & Feelings

Green Hat : creative Thinking

About Me

My name is Sandar Hlaing. I’m from Myanmar(Burma). I’m a student of National University of Singapore (NUS). My major is Master of Science in Management of Technology. I develop this blog to fulfill the requirement of the subject, MT 5003: Creativity and Innovation. Anyway, when I finish my study in NUS, I’ll continue to develop this blog because I’m very interested in this subject.

Myself

Name : Sandar Hlaing

Birthday : 2nd November

Weight : 98lbs

Eye color : Black

Martial Status : Single

Location : Singapore

Home Land : Myanmar

Hobbies : Hiking, Gardening, Photography,Listen to music, Gardening, Sightseeing, Window shopping

Interests : New Product Development, User Centered Design & Product Development, Creativity & Innovation, Quality Planning & Management, Six Sigma, Intellectual Property Management, Management of Industrial R&D, Project Management, Human Factors in Engineering & Design

Favorite color : Red

Favorite Foods : Beef burger, Chicken rice, ice- cream, chocolate, plain donuts

Favorite Songs : Dust in the wind

What I would like to be: I would like to see myself who can help others in needs. I would like to spend my life in happiness & pleasure and want to share it with all persons through my life.

The way gravity was discovered(funny Video)

Hello buddies, Do you know how did Newton discover the gravity? You may think that an apple fell on Newton's head and he got an idea about the gravity. No. It's not true. To know the truth about his discovery, watch this video clip. Enjoy it. :-D hahaha...



Hahaha.....Whatever,laughing will increase your creativity. :-D

David Lynch: Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain

Left & Right Brain: An Artistic Approach