Ideas Inspire Innovation

“Place your forehead here, turn your head, and position your eye over the hole. Push your face gently against the bumper and look for the light to turn green. Now open your eye as wide as you can” Then the doctor’s assistant clicked the Optomap’s camera button and a huge flash of green light crossed across the screen. My retina had just been captured on film. After a few more space age machines puffed air into my eye to measure pressure and tracked my eye as it found a flashing red light, I was taken to a private exam room, where the assistant asked me questions regarding why I was there that day. It was the first time I had had an eye exam in more than a decade. I explained I’ve had an eye twitch for several years and am suspicious one of my eyes is stronger than the other causing strain and possibly the twitch. I can see fine, and I can read but heavy computer use followed by driving is a major strain. I feel squinty all the time. She had me hold an eye occluder over m...

We have some dog treats that Sadie doesn’t like; she seriously spits them out. Standing in front of the refrigerator, I say to my husband, “should we just throw them away?” “No, we’ll get rid of them little by little by throwing a few over the fence into the neighbors’ yards for their dogs,” Richard says with a sly grin on his face. “That’s not a bad idea” I say. This is not the first time I’ve used that phrase, and I’ve been catching myself using it more frequently with friends and family. Why do I say that’s not a bad idea rather than actually acknowledging a good idea, or dismissing a bad idea? As per my nature, I took to the internet to see if I could find some clarity on the origin or psychology of “that’s not a bad idea” but instead I was barraged by headlines and copy that used the phrase: “Paying Attention to PC Makers is Not a Bad Idea” Motley Fool June 12, 2013 “Tao of Pooh? Doing nothing not a bad idea in this market, says GMO’s Montier” InvestmentNews...

Last week I declared to my husband that this will be the summer of the bean. I will be inspired by beans. I will eat beans whenever possible, either by cooking them myself or ordering them at restaurants. Richard agreed but couldn't help following it up with a Bean-O joke. So go ahead and crack your jokes, I can handle it. But the fact is that beans are good for us. Or I read it somewhere anyway. Beans are a great source of protein and since my husband mainly only eats fish and soy proteins, I’m looking for something else that I can sink my teeth into on a regular basis when I eat dinner with him. Something nice and earthy with a crunch or a mush. Something that can go in salads, soups, stews, casseroles, or as a standalone dish. Something that can sit for hours in my crock pot. What’s better than a bean? To prepare for this, I beaned up late last week and bought every bean I could find at Safeway, except not the red kidney beans because I read that they are toxic unless p...

Named the No 1. CEO under thirty by Inc. magazine in 2006 for his innovative approach to fertilizer and recycled goods, in the two years that followed (2007-2009) Tom Szaky went on to write about 30 blogitles for Inc. and a book that surely has more than 30 pages – Revolution in a Bottle . Now it’s 2011 and he’s still under 30 but he’s worth at least 30 times 30 more than he was at the start of 2006. Tom, a Princeton drop-out, is a man on a mission to run a fully sustainable company. While he was still in his dorm room he was dreaming up TerraCycle, one of the fastest growing private companies named by Inc. magazine in 2009. TerraCycle started with an idea, 5th place in the Princeton Business Plan Contest, and a venture capitalist who believed in the organic fertilizer Tom stumbled upon while working on a “better tomato” project (worm poop packaged in used soda bottles). Canadian Home Depot and Wal-Mart were the first bites in the major retailer business but that is all history now...

What does Ideas Inspire Innovation mean? Below is a graphic created to show the flow and definitions of the message: If we interchange some of these definitions we come up with more tangible yet flexible combinations: Opinions influence introductions. Beliefs produce new methods. Thoughts bring about change . It’s easier to provide examples of these new translations, examples that are less reaching and more elementary, more everyday in their nature. Opinions influence introductions. I give presentations at work. Usually these presentations involve interpretation of data or research. Of course any information presented has a slice of opinion in it. After presenting to a large group it’s typical that I encounter a face I do not recognize but that recognizes me and has an opinion about what I presented. Another example could be regarding any organization, volunteer effort, or other group you have joined or wanted to join. Usually an opinion -- whether it’s a political affil...

I've been thinking about evolution and innovation lately.  What is the line that separates one from the other?  Dictionary.com tells us that evolution is any process of formation or growth; development; a process of gradual, peaceful, progressive growth or development; whereas, innovation is defined as something new or different introduced.  To me this means that innovation  IS evolution because it's a process of growth.  But then again if you rely on the second definition of evolution it must be gradual or peaceful growth.  If innovation occurs abruptly or disruptively, it is only innovative and not evolved.  So is it better to be peacefully evolved or disruptively innovative?  Oh, but how many sides of this coin exist!  How many people get to vote on the idea being new? Who gets to make the judgment that it's a peaceful progression.  A beaver builds a dam. That's peaceful to the beaver but could be dis...