We hope you are having fun with this Live-With and will post your experiences below. Please also share your thoughts about matching how you spend your time with your values, goals and what you love to do. Go for progress, not perfection... Remember the “Love-to-Do Commitment” you have made. How is it progressing?
We covered a lot of material about IDEO and we encourage you to share any reactions or questions that were stimulated. Based on the video and the discussion, you can share some ideas and comments about this company? What are some of the concepts that might be useful for YOU in your own organization?
Have a great week.
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ReplyDeleteI can definitely do things I like—but why should we like everything we do?
ReplyDeleteThe fear (& experience) is that one gets so used to "liking" what we have to/need to do that it becomes difficult to identify what I really like!
After much thinking -- Two things that comes to mind.
In professional life, after creating the demand for information based decision making in an organization, and hard work in building a cohesive team with a high productivity.
I simply could not start ‘liking’ to let go of rock star team members particularly when I do not understand the reasons for letting them go!
In personal life, I fail to develop the ‘liking’ for shopping for anything other than necessary things.
If it is shopping for children then at least the thought of the smile on their faces help me go through it.
But when is shopping for consumer durables, there are so many choices to choose from yet nothing that appeals in first 10 min.
Hence do not like to spend so much time—which of course has a high opportunity cost.
I mean I could be doing a lot of other things that like during that time!
The Q is; why should we aim for “liking everything” we do?
Isn’t the existence of opposites natural? The dark nights help us appreciate the bright days!
Kirtida, as I think about liking or loving to do something I currently don't, I wonder, using your example of not liking to shop, if we were to say “I’m going out shopping and feel grateful that I am able to … and while I’m at it will make a point of paying attention to the people and the opportunity to discover something new”… or, to go out shopping with a friend just for the fun of it … might we then like/love it???
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestion, Sharon. I will try and let you know. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love the leading@google and authors@google series on YouTube. I can recommend to watch these two videos:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfRgjW4hFcU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ5k_Byd9Fs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
@Hal and Julie: I would love to ask them dumb questions...
Kirtida, you know what is helpful for me? Just going out for shopping and have the feeling of adventure. Don't have the pressure that you have to buy something. I go there just to find own ideas. In fact I buy nearly never more than necessary. I spend sometimes an hour in a store with a friend and we talk about politics or religion. By the way we find a funny hat or a silly product. At the end we had a good time and bought nothing ;)
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about the IDEO segment that we watched in our last class and I reread the IDEO case. The reader is left wondering what happened with Simmons and IDEO as there has been no real interaction since the presentation.
ReplyDeleteKurt Ling told IDEO associates early on that Simmons didn't "think much in terms of new, new, new. We do better with new on old." Simmons successful marketing of the "no-flip" mattress is an excellent example of "new on old." However, as innovative as the products that were presented to Simmons seemed, it must have been overwhelming for them to understand where to go with these ideas. It is possible that Simmons did not initiate further contact with IDEO after the presentation because they were feeling like they didn't know what to do with these new concepts and they didn't want to show IDEO that, although these were great ideas, we don't have the culture which would enable us to move forward with the production and implementation of the suggested new product ideas.
This week I examined my actions at work and outside of work much more carefully than I normally do. I noticed that there are often times that I will do something because it's been a part of my routine. Even though I may not like a specific activity very much, I will sometimes do it just for the need for routine. I decided to shake things up this week. I changed my routine in the mornings before work and gave myself more "me" time before going into the office. It made my mornings much more pleasant. At work I paid attention to what I like and dislike about my job and tried to find activities that I could bring into my day to day to help increase the positives. After work, I was much more flexible than I usually am and ended up getting to have experiences that I may have normally skipped, due to routine. Overall, paying careful attention to my actions and what I really enjoy doing helped me to have a great week. When I came across activities that I did not really like, I looked for ways to transform them into activities that I might like more (either by adding an additional element to the activity, like interaction with a friend or coworker, or by approaching the problem or activity from a different angle).
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the IDEO case study and video, I'd really like to do a better job of thinking of multiple approaches to solving problems before jumping in. Recently, I've found myself quick to try to solve problems without thinking of the numerous ways that it might be able to be solved. By being more exhaustive during the evaluation and planning phases, I believe that I'd be able to come up much better ideas and ideas that I'd "love" to develop.
Was a pretty tough live-with this week... Its easy to do what you love.. but like Kirtida mentioned above, was tough for me to "Love everything that I do" ... For the 1st 2 days I almost found myself in a rebellious mood, to stop doing things that I did not like, for e.g. I like to get into meeting with my colleagues and have design discussions and Road maps, but when it comes to documenting the same, I always find myself delegating that part, but what happens in that case is I cannot control the quality of the Memo. So to align with this weeks assignment, I thought of rewarding myself, by saying.. Hey if I do this document after the meeting, maybe I can do one of my "I Love to do list tonight when I get home".. it kinda worked.. Also with some manual things I have been shying off doing, I rewarded myself by listening to music while doing them, which actually made the work easier and enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI more emotions that I felt was like a Kid in a candy store when I "did what I love", and found myself wasting more time than I would otherwise (maybe it was baking in the Glory of freedom), however when I knew that I have limited time to do things that I love, for some reason I feel I was more productive, but I guess this just a paradigm shift that, I need to develop as part of this assignment, and do it often to be more productive.
ReplyDeleteSince the beginning of the course I could figure out things about myself that I didn't know before...This week I could see clearly what's my life purpose and I decided to quit some personal stuff that doesn't match with who I really am (which include habits and people I hang out with).
ReplyDeleteI guess I would love to quit my job but for me this is not an option right now so I started thinking and I concluded that there are so many other things that I don't like to do and I do (sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it just because of the routine)and just quitting those things but my major problem I can already feel relieved.
I 'lived with', 'Love what I do' this week and learned that I found myself much more present in the moment. I have been traveling on business and completely outside of my normal routine. This mindset made me feel more relaxed and positive. Normally, I would be spending much of my time worrying about other things that I need to be getting done. Instead, I embraced where I was and what I was doing and just trusted that this was where I was meant to be and what I was meant to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharon and Christina for your suggestions. I tried to go out with a close friend twice last week. Both the times, I was under pressure to "like it." Without much discussion, very spontaneously we walked out in 10-15 min. Instead of going home, we spent wonderful time in a nearby park.
ReplyDeleteFor me, knowing what I like and do not like and maintaining a balance is helpful.
At work also, there are tasks that I and my team members do not particularly ‘like’ but accepting the fact that although we do not like, they are necessary helps us to be at peace with it.
This reminds me of a quote from Charlie Chaplin’s biography. When his daughter developed kind of an angular personality- and started “hating” almost everything..including her core activity-stage performances.
One day, Charlie pushed her on the stage to perform..She did a wonderful job and after the show Charlie himself prepared drinks and served her. With tears in his eyes told her, “ ..I understand you do not like the sight of the blood .. but it very much runs in your veins!!”
“Liking everything I do” became rather artificial and stressful for me.
Instead; identifying, and being aware of activities of my interest, and creating opportunities for activities that I like and
equally important to accept certain necessary activities with a very positive perspective was much more meaningful. My ability and willingness to live with fewer ‘durables’ . .. comes with my ‘disability to like’ shopping-
Another way to say is, ‘I love skiing but hate cold.’ The fact is they go together-if we like skiing we better learn to accept the cold.
The article this week (just like some of the other articles for previous classes) definitely helped me analyze the work situation in a very well-structured manner.
After this weekend, I can say I fully understand the feeling of disappointment and frustration that IDEO people must have felt at the end of the Simmons project. I've spent almost the whole weekend making my 4-year old son's dream come true and preparing Caltrain Halloween costume for him. When it was done, he loved it and kept saying how cool it was. Unfortunately, the next day morning he didn't want to wear it to his preschool for Halloween parade – the silver-red outfit with logos, right shape, lights, and small teddy bear as the train's driver turned out to be too much and too revolutionary for him. How sad, but at least I had a great opportunity to practice my live-with for this week.
ReplyDeleteTo do what you love, and to love everything else. In this project I did 3 'Things I Love To Do' (including 'get the things done') and managed to like or at least to tolerate 2 'Things I Hate to Do' from the Creative Wellspring exercise. I had a chance to feel those 'intrinsic qualities' of power, and joy, positivity and faith in myself. Well, I felt all them till Monday morning...
Regarding the IDEO case for Simmons ... I would like to share a couple of comments of what I consider could have happened with Simmons.
ReplyDeleteThe Simmons project was not a typical tactical Product Innovation project for IDEO where the objective is more “what a product would be … looks like” based on a previously specified customer needs, rather it was a strategy innovation project where the objective is more “what a company business future would be … looks like” where opportunities need to be identified as part of the project. Although IDEO followed his approach for Phase 0 projects (Innovation Strategy), we could infer that they didn’t consider in their approach two critical success factors for this kind of projects: i) create empathy with the client organization (Simmons) and ii) consider impact in the organizational alignment when defining a new strategy ( here we can apply the 7-S Model).
With respect to the first aspect – empathy with the client organization-, it is critical to get to know the client organization in this kind of strategy projects… it is not sufficient to understand the end-user but the organization that actually will have to embrace the new ideas and implement them . However, IDEO just met twice with the client (the kick-off workshop and one short meeting with Ling) during more than a year and then went to the final presentation with the executive leadership. They were almost exclusively concentrated on their research, internal brainstorming, own ideas and paid little or no attention to understand Simmons organization and their key relevant people. So when final presentation came, they could have been perceived as scientists that were working isolated in their lab for more than a year with coming with great but strange ideas.
The second aspect, organizational alignment, is an important element as IDEO Phase 0’s outcome could significantly change Simmon’s strategy. If we think of the Organizational Alignment 7-S model, we could say that if we attempt to change the Strategy of Simmons, considerations of how the other 6 elements could be impacted must have been analyzed. However, it is not evident from the case study that IDEO had put a lot of emphasis in this kind of analysis. Actually, the fact that they barely met with the client during more than a year suggests that IDEO had little basis to conduct such an impact analysis.
As stated by IDEO, “the thing that kills most ideas is not that they are not good ideas, it is that they are not good ideas organizationally or culturally”.
I really like the positivity of this week's Live-With. I was a little skeptical at first, especially since housework features prominently on my "Hate To Do" list, and I definitely do not love scrubbing the toilet. Well, the Live-With did not make me love scrubbing the toilet, but it did help me to think about the fact that I love having a clean house. I also thought about how I waste a lot of time dreading certain tasks. Cleaning the bathroom is not a fun thing to do, but it doesn't have to be a source of misery; I just need to do it, be proud of myself for accomplishing it, and move on.
ReplyDeleteI thought the article "What Is an Organization's Culture" was helpful in providing a concrete way of looking at an abstract concept. Most of the ideas were clear, and I think they were useful in reading the WestJet case, but I am having a hard time understanding how the section on "When Strategic and Cultural Change Are Required" would work in practice. It would be helpful to have a real-life illustration of a company that has achieved a change in strategy/culture by creating a separate team and then adding new members to that team, one by one. It seems like this process would take so long that by the time the change had been achieved, it would either be too late (e.g., some competitive advantage would be lost or earnings would suffer) or the market would have changed again, so that yet another separate team would have to be formed.
I love learning more about Ideo. They have an envy worthy way to harness creativity that the film industry could really learn from. In film, we are expected to brainstorm and collaborate, but the majority of the time what ends up happening is people marrying themselves to their idea and the loudest person (not necessarily the best idea) winning. This is why you see so many uninspired films. However, if an environment was created where it required collaboration, crazy ideas were lauded and criticism was looked down on, films would be so much more original. The other thing I found to be a fascinating take away from Ideo is the empathy stage where they speak with their customers. I always found that I learned so much when I would speak with my family and non-industry friends about what films they liked or were looking forward to. It was always so different from what we necessarily expected in the business. Test screenings are one of the best ways for studios to learn how to market, edit and distribute a film, however, imagine if we went to the customers before the films were even written to see what they wanted to see. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI really did love the approach of IDEO and their humble and insightful CEO.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely think the coworkers feel that they are part of the process and are contributing all day every day, being a much more stimulating and fun workplace than most, hence inspire to greater creativity resulting in better innovation = better success.
I especially loved their slogan: 'fail often, succeed sooner' and the CEO's approach and management style, delegating the full responsibility and problem solving to the team, giving them the tools to be creative, and letting them come up with their own solution by 'trail & error', as he didn't think he was any better by any means, they become the 'dream team' and experts. The part about the project leader not because seniority, but because he was 'good with people' was another aspect that other companies also should replicate, and even though this was filmed in the 90ies so many companies are still so far behind these guys...
I imagine IDEO will have even more applicants after this class and every time this film get shown.
Ok, I am going to do this again. I had an accident last week where I ended up getting 40 stitches in my head. I am ok! I was doing what I love!! lol I was meeting new people, talking, dancing and then I fell. But the funny thing is after I wrote my initial blog and I was in my car on my way home I couldn't remember if I actually finished. Oh head injuries are so fun.
ReplyDeleteSo doing what I love...
I have recently found that I have a lot of things that I like to do, a hand ful of things that I love and a few things that I do not enjoy so much. As I filed out the exercise sheet with all these things I realized that there are so many things I can do to ensure that I love what it is I am doing. At work I love challenges but I am always so hard on myself that I forget to enjoy the project. I love walking and reading (at the same time) and I find that I actually get excited when I am reading for work and I get a burst of motivation and I go back to the office less afraid of not doing something right and I just enjoy or "love".
I am going to actually submit this now... I hope I don't forget again...
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI just realized that my post from last week didn't upload for some reason. What I really loved about IDEO was the fact that their managers and CEOs did not manage from top down. I think a lot of companies feel like this is the best way to do things, but it really squashes creativity. Especially when the managers are very removed from day to day activities. I also loved that their brainstorming really did seem like an open, say anything session. A lot of "open meetings" are actually anything but, because everyone is concerned that what they say will reflect poorly on them or show up in their performance review. This does not encourage open thinking, which is often the cornerstone of creativity and problem solving.