03 Apr Oh the thinks you can think

Do you remember reading the Dr. Seuss book ‘Oh the Thinks you can Think’?  It gives the child in us complete permission to dream and create the impossible.

Imagination is a beautiful thing

Quotes will show up in my news feed every now and again.  This one caught my attention.  It fits a central theme in my work when creating probable futures with GenZ and Millennial clients – I encourage them to “think around corners” using their Imagination.

Sometimes we need to look at the problem from a different angle

And it dovetailed beautifully with the storyline from the episode ‘Convergence’ on Madam Secretary (Season 3, Episode 17).  An African nation once again asks for support to stop the increased poaching of an endangered species of Black Rhino.  The team sends out a request to the department and beyond for ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas as the conventional solutions have had little effect on reducing the massacre of these animals.  And a solution surfaces – from a department member who looked at the problem upside down, focusing on the demand side of the equation, rather than on the poaching itself. (No spoilers!)

It is clear that all the innovations that will occur over the next decades – whether they are a refreshing tweak on an existing idea or product or an uncommon use for a common item – will come because someone decided to ponder a while.

We may not all be inventors, but we can all be innovators

An invention is the creation of something new.  A bold new idea, like the internet, or a flying machine.

Innovation can be the creation of something revolutionary, but it could also be adapting an existing idea, tweaking a habit or routine, or indeed, hacking a current ‘technology’ – all with a little imagination.  It does not even have to involve technology.  Here are some that have caught my attention over the past years:

• The Hippo Roller – an innovative solution to help communities that have to transport water from wells

  

  Transporting water

  

  Hippo Roller

  

  Image credit: Carlos Morgado Foundation – Fundação Carlos Morgado, Mozambique

  
  
• Edible/biodegradable cutlery – To reduce the plastic in landfills 
• Evolution of ‘Mobile’ music – The boombox, the original Sony Walkman – and the iPod

  

  Boombox

  

  Walkman

  

  iPod

  
  

The world needs your idea – BIG or small

Because in a world of 7.5 billion people – the best idea can come from anywhere!

So take a minute to re-discover your inner child, no matter whether you are 5, 15, 55 or 95.  No idea is too small to make a difference.  And sometimes the best ideas come from looking at a problem from the left, the right.
Or from the bottom up.

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
Pablo Picasso

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‘} …  What is your favorite innovation?  Please share it in the comments – the less technical the better!  I am collecting a list of amazing innovations to inspire me when I am creatively challenged

Ask the younger members of your family what they would put on this list.  Share the post.  Let them see that grown ups can have imagination too!  In fact we need it.

HOPE FOR THE BEST, PLAN FOR THE REST

Whether it is time management, money matters or career ideas, Karena works with her community of clients to make life simpler and more efficient and to manage life stage transitions by encouraging uncommon perspectives and solutions to common problems.

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THANKS, INSPIRATION, REFERENCES, CITATIONS

• Dedicated to my very imaginative and inventive nephew
• Dr. Seuss – ‘Oh The Thinks You Can Think’
• Dr. Seuss image – Busy Mom’s Helper – http://busymomshelper.com/free-printable-dr-seuss-quote/
• Madam Secretary – A CBS show “MADAM SECRETARY … Secretary of State who drives international diplomacy … negotiates global and domestic issues” Season 3, Episode 17 “Convergence”  Email me if you want to know the plot line and solution!
• Sir Ken Robinson – TED speaker.  On The Power of Imagination.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywtLnd3xOVU
• www.lifehack.org
• Hippo Roller is a great community fund raising idea, and they accept donations
• “Think around corners” –  I paraphrase a brilliant comment that I heard on a presentation.  Let me know if you were that presenter so I can give you proper credit:
  

  A solution is often just around the corner.  (The trouble is) we have not yet evolved to see around corners.