Six Flowers Rule To Get Success (My own ideas)

I love flowers. Everytime I see flowers, I can’t help myself to take photos of them.

Four days ago, while I was reading six thinking hats of De bono, I got an idea to imitate him. I got an idea to map flowers into the rules that we should obey to get success in our lives.

The following is my idea. I named it “Six Flowers Rule To Get Success”.

Red Tulip (Burning Desire)

Red Tulip represents Burning desire. In my imagination, I think the appearances of those flowers and the way they blossom are like people who will fight all obstacles for their dreams. That’s why I use Red Tulip flower to represent burning desire. The Burning desire is the starting point of all achievement. We must have burning desire to success in life. All of genius have burning desire in their jobs. Majority of people don’t have burning desire. A saying said “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Desire empowers us to draw inspiration from our subconscious mind. It can help us to achieve our objectives. Thomas Edison experienced about ten thousand failures before he invented the light bulb perfectly. His desire to get success never waned. Finally he got the achievement. So, to be a successful person, we must have a burning desire.

Sun Flower (Constructive Thinking)

Sunflower represents constructive thinking. At sunrise, the faces of sunflowers are turned towards the east. Over the course of the day, they move to track the sun from east to west. They always face the Sun. They always try to see the light. So, we also should find the light in everything we see. There’s a saying. “If life gives you lemons, learn to appreciate lemon juice!” I like that saying. We must have constructive thinking. We must take problems as challenges that will enhance our abilities. Constructive thinking is a mental attitude that expects good and favorable results. Constructive attitudes can provide happiness, better health and successful outcomes of every situation.

Rose(protecting myself)

Rose represents protecting myself. Every rose plant has spines to protect themselves from herbivores. We must protect ourselves from everything that can attack us (for eg, from diseases). We must protect ourselves from our enemies. To protect ourselves, we need to improve our weak-points. We need to accept positive criticisms and we must try to improve ourselves by accepting lessons that are given via positive criticisms. But, we need to ignore negative criticisms. If required, we need to respond to negative criticism calmly.

Orchid (flexibility)

Orchid represents flexibility. There are various types of Orchid flowers. Their colors and appearances are different. So, I’d like to choose Orchid flowers to represent flexibility. Nowadays, technology is changing rapidly. And business is changing rapidly, too. To respond dynamically and effectively to rapidly changing business requirements, we need to be flexible. Flexibility is required in many aspects of our life too. Although we should stick on our goals, we should be flexible in our approach. Anthony Ribbons said "If you are truly flexible and go until...there is really very litttle you can't accomplish in your life time.

Forget-me-not (Helping others)

Forget-me-not represents helping others and making ourselves to be useful. If I help my friend and other people, they can’t forget me. When they need help or they need a friend to share things, they will miss me. They will love me and they will be willing to help me. I will get good things back from them. My social network will be wider and I will get more successes in life.

Daisy (Cheerful Heart)

Daisy represents a cheerful heart. Every time I see that flowers, I feel cheerful. That’s why I choose Daisy to represent a cheerful heart. I want to have a good sense of humor. I want to have a cheerful heart. Humor is very helpful to cope with pressures and problems. Humor can ease tensions. With cheerful heart, life can be fun. Life will be an interesting game. And we will be more creative. We will be able to learn effectively. With cheerful hearts, our working environments will be lovely places. We will be able to handle all challenges effectively.

Some may not agreed with my choice of flowers to represent characteristics. Anyway, this method is useful for me. Moreover, we have learned the subject “Creativity and Innovation”. So, just applying other’s techniques is not enough. We should be creative. We should create our own techniques. We must have the desire to create new ideas. Those creations will be exercises for us. Copying other ideas and writing others’ ideas with our own words (paraphrasing) will block our creativity. So, we need to create own ideas.

My creation may be crazy. But, I value all of my creations because I created them by myself. My own creation can show my identity. So, in future, I’ll exercise my mind on by creating new ideas.

Google's nine points of innovation

I came across a good article about innovation tips of Google on businessweek May 17, 2007. Jim Lecinski, managing directore from Google broadcast this finding on second day of Digital Signage Expo 2007 in May. Google's nine points of innovation are as follow:

Idea comes from every where

Google expects everyone to innovate, even the finance team

Share everything you can
Every idea, every project, every deadline - it's all accessible to everyone on the intranet

You're brilliant, we're hiring
Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin approve hires. They favor intelligence over experience


A license to pursue dreams
Employees get a "free" day a week. Half of new launches come from this "20% time"

Innovation, not instant perfection
Google launches early and often in small beta tests, before releasing new features widely

Don't politic, use data
Mayer discourages the use of "I like" in meetings, pushing staffers to use metrics

Creativity loves restraint
Give people a vision, rules about how to get there, and deadlines

Don't kill projects - morph them
There's always a kernel of something good that can be salvaged

When I fell my ideas dry up

When I feel my ideas dry up, I usually do the following things.

Listening to the music
It makes me relax. All of my tensions and stresses melt, while I’m listening music. And most of the songs have good lyrics. So, they can enhance our imagination.

Reading poems
In poems , words are so powerful. Poems can make us to be creative and imaginative.

Going to the new place
When ours’ ideas are drying up, we should walk to the new places. We need to change our environment. That will make us fresh and will enhance our creativity.

Taking a rest
I often take a rest and just forget problems, when I feel my ideas dry up. Taking a rest can make me fresh. If we don’t have enough fun, there is not much room for creativity. Breakthrough ideas usually come when we relax. I often got good idea when I played a sport or took a bath.

Picture (Creativity to Innovation)

Imagination, Visual thinking and Creativity

To get breakthrough ideas or to resolve problems creatively, we need to visualize things in strange ways. We need to use the ability of imagination visually.

Many scientists use this technique to get ideas. For eg, Einstein used to formulate his subject in the visualization technique. He imagined that he rode a train on a beam of light. By using this technique, he can think of relativity theory.

Kekule's dreamt of a circle of tail-to-mouth snake in his fireplace gave the idea him the structure of the benzine ring.

So, being able to imagine visually can give breakthrough ideas to us. And, we need to jot down those strang valuable ideas because they can fade away.

I decided to practice to be imagine and to use the the visual thinking technique.

Difference between Creativity and Innovation(Thomas Edison's view)

"The definition of innovation is commercial success. It's not just about creativity.

Thomas Edison

How do you think? Do you agreed with him?

Joke

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Albert Einstein

Do you agreed it, my friends? I know, you'll agreed 100 % because we are students. Almost all students are very bored to think and we can't do anything without surfing net. :-D :-D :-D

We hardly think ourself. All of our assignments and projects are just copy from other ideas exactly or just paraphrasing. ( Except me. :-P )

Idea and Experiences

Our past experiences can affect how we interpret data. So, we will interpret the data differently and conclude differently. So,
there can be many right answers and creative solutions from many different people. So, we shouldn’t ignore other’s ideas just because those ideas do not fit our experiences. We should be quiet and listen, without judging. In a team, we can get valuable ideas from many experiences of all members.

Creativity and Logic

I think thinking logically will block the creativity. During the creativity process, we should ignore logic. Though, logic is very important in our daily lives, but it should be ignored in brainstorming activities. After brainstorming, we have plenty of time to think logically. During creativity process, w need to ge as many ideas as we can get, whether the ideas seem ridiculous or not. So, there is no place for logical thinking during brainstorming. The role of logic will be after brainstorming process.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a good source of inspiration in a team and everyone should come up with one idea i.e. stupid or usable during brainstorming sessions. Brainstorming is the best way to get good idea from all of team members

How can a team brainstorm?

- Encourage wild idea
- Write everything down
- Learn from experts
- Working through complex problem
- Be visual
- Take and use photos often
- Prototype everything
- Use post-it-note to vote

A Creativity Game

I surfed the net and I was too bored. So, I try to find a game in Net. I think game can make us active and make us creativity.

http://www.thiagi.com/game-zoom.html

1. Divide the participants into two or more teams of three to seven members each.
2. Ask each team to identify an opportunity or a problem. Ask them to convert this opportunity or problem into a question, using the format suggested by Van Gundy: In what ways might we . . . ?
   Give an example to illustrate the task. Here's one that I use:

   In what ways might we sell books to professionals on the internet?

3. Ask the team to transform this question into four higher levels of abstraction, one level at a time. Give an example such as this:

   Original question: In what ways might we sell books to professionals on the Internet?

   Question at the next higher level: In what ways might we sell books on the Internet?

   Question at the next higher level: In what ways might we sell things on the Internet?

   Question at the next higher level: In what ways might we sell things?

   Question at the next higher level: In what ways might we persuade and influence others?

4. Distribute five index cards and a rubber band to each team. Ask the teams to write their five questions, one on each card. Then ask them to put the question cards on top of each other, with the question sides on top. The most abstract question should be visible on the top card and the other questions should be hidden below. The most specific question (the original question) should be at the bottom of this packet of question cards.
5. Ask the teams to place a rubber band around the packet of question cards, give the packet to another team and receive a packet from yet another team. (No two teams may exchange their packets with one another.)
6. Ask the teams to read the question on the top card and spend 3 minutes brainstorming alternative responses. The team should record its answers on a flip chart or a piece of paper.
7. After 3 minutes, ask the teams to remove the top card and to read the question on the next card. As before, team members should brainstorm alternative responses for this question for the next 3 minutes, building on the earlier responses.
8. At the end of 3 minutes, ask the teams to read and respond to the question on the next card. Repeat this procedure two more times to end with responses to the most specific form of the question.
9. Ask the teams to return their packet of question cards along with the lists of brainstormed responses to the appropriate teams. The teams should review the responses, select the most useful ideas, and integrate them into an action plan.

Source: http://www.thiagi.com/game-zoom.html

Letral Thinking from MsnEncarta

Letral Thinking (Overview):

Edward de Bono has written extensively about the process of lateral thinking -- the generation of novel solutions to problems. The point of lateral thinking is that many problems require a different perspective to solve successfully.

De Bono identifies four critical factors associated with lateral thinking: (1) recognize dominant ideas that polarize perception of a problem, (2) searching for different ways of looking at things, (3) relaxation of rigid control of thinking, and (4) use of chance to encourage other ideas. This last factor has to do with the fact that lateral thinking involves low-probability ideas which are unlikely to occur in the normal course of events.

Although De Bono does not acknowledge any theoretical antecedents for lateral thinking, it seems closely related to the Gestalt theory of Wertheimer . His work is also highly relevant to the concept of creativity . Visit the De Bono web site for up-to-date information on his work.

Scope/Application:

Lateral thinking applies to human problem-solving. DeBono (1971a) discusses the application of lateral thinking to management development and DeBono (1971b) provides an interesting study of lateral thinking in children. Some of his recent work has focused on schools (e.g., DeBono, 1991).

Example:

The following anecdote is provided by DeBono (1967). A merchant who owes money to a money lender agrees to settle the debt based upon the choice of two stones (one black, one white) from a money bag. If his daughter chooses the white stone, the debt is canceled; if she picks the black stone, the moneylender gets the merchant's daughter. However, the moneylender "fixes" the outcome by putting two black stones in the bag. The daughter sees this and when she picks a stone out of the bag, immediately drops it onto the path full of other stones. She then points out that the stone she picked must have been the opposite color of the one remaining in the bag. Unwilling to be unveiled as dishonest, the moneylender must agree and cancel the debt. The daughter has solved an intractable problem through the use of lateral thinking.

Ref: MsnEncarta, http://tip.psychology.org/debono.html,

Company Culture and creativity

I think company culture can influence to creativity of people. We need to move traditional corporate communities to the community which is full of tolerant, diverse and open to new ideas. If our environment can’t support, we need to create that environment to be able to support creativity. To create good company culture

• Top management must welcome new ideas from everyone within the company

• The person who can give good ideas should be rewarded

• The negative criticism should not be allowed.

• Family spirit should be adopted within the company.

Increasing the learning skills of a team

To enhance the learning skill of a team, we can use some methods such as

• breathing
  
• relaxation
• music
• expectation
  
• constructive play
  
• repetition without boredom.

Those methods will make all team members to learn things more quickly, remember longer, and recall more easily.

TRIZ

The 4 Is of Innovation

• Imagery - using five senses freely (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling)

• Intuition - bringing into conscious focus the subconscious mind's combination of experiences, memory, logic, and the contributions from other sources which the conscious mind can't explore on its own

• Incubation -Moments of insight and clarity

• Implementation - the essential step of action and accomplishment, of organizational movement and approval

Ref: http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/51-100/article96_body.html

Factors to be creative

Three days ago, I and my friends play a game to list the factors that will make us creative. We can find many factors. Hey…I won in that game. :-D Here are the factors in our lists.

curiosity
rebellion
collaboration
suspect
change
courage
creating excitement every day!
Doing at least one new thing per a day
Brainstorming
Reading
Making discussion
Listening good music
Watching movies in active way
Making competition
Challenging ourselves
Love, romantic thoughts [of course, Love is the most powerful tool to be creative. I think :-) ]

Some innovative ideas that applied TRIZ

• Using the sound of a burglar alarm that produces the voices of barking dog, without

the barking dog.

• Using many microprocessors in a parallel processor computer
• Electronic microchips mounted on both sides of circuit board
  
• A Handle of a toothbrush contains toothpaste
  
• Inventing the lunch box with special compartments for liquids and for hot and cold solid foods

Ref: Wikipedia

Advantages of Triz

TRIZ

TRIZ is a popular problem solving process. It is based on universal principles of invention that are the basis for innovations. TRIZ is widely used today to improve products, services, and systems. It greatly reduces the time to produce breakthrough ideas and inventions.

Advantages of TRIZ

Achievement of inventive design depends on how fast the needed knowledge can be found. TRIZ can help us to organize the fast search for required knowledge. TRIZ can give a systematic access to the previous experience of many generations of inventors. In some cases, it might be clear what function is needed but unclear what physical principle can be used to deliver the function. To organize and guide the search for proper physical principles, TRIZ pointers to natural phenomena and effects are used. All design products evolve over the time according to the same domain-independent trends. These trends are used for effective problem solving as well as for forecasting the further evolution of a specific design product. TRIZ does not replace human creativity. TRIZ restructures the thinking process of a designer and provides fast access to the needed knowledge, but it does not solve problems independently of the designer. No previous inventor's skills are needed to effectively solve new inventive problems.

Another E-card from friend

Birthday Messages for me :-)

Before the clock strikes twelve let me take the opportunity to let you know that you have grown a year more...
Happy birthday...

Somebody up there Loves you
Somebody down here cares for you
Happy Birthday!!!

How do you expect me to remember your birthday, when you never look any older? Happy Birthday!!!

Its a nice feeling when you know that someone likes you, someone thinks about you, someone needs you;but it feels much better when you know that someone never ever forgets your birthday."HAPPY BIRTHDAY".

Sending birthday blessings
Filled with love and peace and joy
Wishing sweetest things happen
Right before your eyes !

My brother sent me those birthday messages to me via email. I was very happy. :-)

Today

Today, Today,

I like today.

No other day's

quite like today,

Not tomorrow

or yesterday.

I like today

In every way.

Today, today,

Today,

My birthday!

by John Archambault