See the World From a Different Angle

The last several blog posts have dealt with Innovation. This blog post continues with movie clips from one of our favorite movies, Dead Poet’s Society. In this clip, Mr. Keating challenges his students to view the world from a different perspective.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about innovation.

The word paradigm comes from the latin word paradigma. It was originally coined by Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. You can download this book in PDF format here.

Thomas Kuhn found that expectations of scientific results were just as powerful a determinate of the outcome of an experiment as the experiment itself. That’s why we have double blind studies today to win FDA approval for new drugs.

As it relates to paradigms, I remember a quote from Joel Barker in his early work video, The Power of Business Paradigms.

What is impossible to do today in your business, that if it were possible would dramatically change and improve how we do things?

As you answer this question for yourself, you are now on the edge of your own paradigm…..perhaps ready to discover the future.

Joel Barker also says that major innovation usually doesn’t come from people heavily invested in the old. New paradigms come from people who are not heavily invested in the old. Therefore, ask people who don’t know any better. Value the perspective of people on the fringes that are not heavily invested in the old paradigm.

Joel Barker’s latest work is related to looking for opportunities at the Verge. Here is a recent video clip describing the Verge.

To quote an Apple ad where Richard Dreyfuss voiced the following narration:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

If you are interested in speaker’s or workshops on innovation, contact us.