Innovative Brain Food from New & Improved

Improve your Vision

Study the lung x-ray below.  Do you see something unusual?  83% of radiologists didn't.

 

 

Keep the momentum going

With the year nearly half over, you may need a boost to keep your momentum as your organization tackles its remaining 2013 projects.

The Innovative Brain, our monthly e-newsletter, will give you the energy and direction that you need.  This month, you'll find articles to energize your company's innovation efforts including The Myth of Happiness and the Death of the Innovative Organization.  You can also enjoy New & Improved's latest video, 12 Key Drivers for Building a Culture of Innovation with Natalie Jenkins.

Want to make sure you have The Innovative Brain coming right to you?  Great! -click here to sign up.

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Thinking, Innovation and Dads

You’ll enjoy this inspirational 6 minute video from a father who almost died. Today's fuel for your innovative brain is a short video posted on TED called “Lessons From a Plane Crash."  

It's delivered by the man who was sitting in seat 1D on flight 1549. The plane that crashed in the Hudson River. It is a great, inspiring video for fathers, mothers and those aspiring to a life of creative connection. Enjoy it.

The Myth of Happiness and the Death of the Innovative Organization

Here is an interesting piece of the puzzle with respect to building a more innovative you: There is a phenomenon in psychology called hedonic adaptation.  Essentially what it says is that we adapt to the fact that life does not give us all we might wish by re-creating stories that allow us to be comfortable with the reality that life is difficult and/or the reality that life has dealt us. This explains why, over time, we become pretty comfortable with the way things are and perhaps lose our passion for the change that is inherent in innovation.

Becoming a Superhero - How your Stories can Change the World!

"Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, but to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On a daily basis, you face challenges at work, at home and in your community.  While some of these challenges can be daunting, they are surmountable.  Be inspired by individuals that took risks and made significant changes to benefit their organization and society.  

What the Internet Is Doing to our Brains

No denying that the internet has given us easy access to more information than we could ever have imagined possible 20 years ago. Virtually every question can be answered with a quick internet search. We're glad we don’t own a business making card-catalogue cabinets. Our kids don’t even know what those are!  YouTube's vast library of "how to" videos is astounding, not to mention its collection of cat videos, funny commercials, moving inspiration and other seductive brain feed.

But there is a downside....

Poems that solve all innovation difficulties

We’ve learned through our research and work that six key attitudes are necessary for steady innovation - humility, curiosity, courage, tenacity, passion and integrity.    Read our white paper, The Way of the Innovation Leader, to understand how successful innovation leaders are models of these values.

There is some great poetry that can inspire living a life which demonstrates these values.  We’ll share two poems we love, and hope, if you have an innovation-value inspiring one,  you'll share it as well.

 

 “It Couldn’t be Done” by Edgar Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

 

 “The Quitter” by Robert Service

 

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child,
    And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil, it's according to Hoyle
    To cock your revolver and . . . die.
But the Code of a Man says: "Fight all you can,"
    And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it's easy to blow . . .
    It's the hell-served-for-breakfast that's hard.

"You're sick of the game!" Well, now, that's a shame.
    You're young and you're brave and you're bright.
"You've had a raw deal!" I know — but don't squeal,
    Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
It's the plugging away that will win you the day,
    So don't be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit; it's so easy to quit:
    It's the keeping-your-chin-up that's hard.

It's easy to cry that you're beaten — and die;
    It's easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope's out of sight —
    Why, that's the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each grueling bout,
    All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try — it's dead easy to die,
    It's the keeping-on-living that's hard.

 Have a poem to share? Please do!