Innovator's DNA: SESA Development Tracking- Forming a Habit Day 6: Implement 21 Days to form a Habit

Tuesday May 1, 2012 12:30am

Goal: Finish a blog post by 1:00am
Status: Completed at 1:30am

Page view start: 116 ( from 95 to 116 is 21 views).

Personal thoughts and reflections: 

I feel like I'm starting to refine myself in a sense that I'm paying attention more to the details.  I think that is a good thing.  So, I'm implementing a SESA 21 days to form a habit and my own personal 21 days habit development.  My personal one is now day 8.  On my personal day two, I added a habit to implement an index card per day.  That way, I can see the developmental progress.

At first it started off as a checklist of habits I wanted to do. Then I mixed in some to do list items. Some got checked off the list, some remained on the list. Then, as each day went by, I reviewed it. On today's card, I aggregated the pending to do items and habits into the today card.

Now, it is a focused card. Today,  I implemented a daily aggregated card.  It's really cool, because I soon realize there are things on this list that are reoccurring.  So, it is becoming a checklist. When I reviewed the past cards, I did say to myself I should at least give it a 21 days chance before I break it.  I really wanted to break one habit today.  But I didn't and was glad that  I hold on.  Whether it is for better or worst.  I should give it a full 21 days a try.

Which leads me to the topic of the Innovator's DNA.

Topic: Innovator's DNA

Side note: I'm trying to find the article to link it to via the Harvard Business Review Site. Where I stumbled upon the side blurp below.

Your Voices

Art is more about how you create things (the process) than what you create or how successful you are.

Reader Evelyne Kuoh on
Turn Your Career into a Work of Art

I feel this 21 days project is an art form of making me write and reflect my thoughts.  I do question myself, what am I doing?  Does this make sense?   What I realized it is whatever or however one thinks make sense. Weird right?

Time check @ 12:57am: 

Okay maybe you will have better luck finding the article online.  SESA member Ben exposed me to read The Innovator's DNA by Jeffrey Dyers in the Harvard Business Review December 2009.  There is a book version, but there is also an article version of nine pages. I read the nine page version.



I'll re-type out The Idea in Brief:


The habits of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and other innovative CEO's reveal much about the underpinning of their creative thinking.  Research shows that five discovery skills distinguish the most innovative entrepreneurs from other executives.


*Questioning allows innovators to break out of the status quo and consider new possibilities.

*Through observing, innovators detect small behavioral details- in the activities of customers, suppliers, and other companies- that suggest new ways of doing things.

*In experimenting, they relentlessly try on new experiences and explore the world.

*And through networking with individuals from diverse backgrounds, they gain radically different perspectives.
 
The four patterns of action together help innovators associate to cultivate new insights. 



Discovery Skill 1: "Associating- Associating, or the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields, is central to the innovator's DNA." (page 3)

Discovery Skill 2: Questioning- "More than 50 years ago, Peter Drucker described the power of provocative questions.  "The important and difficult job is never to find the right answers, it is to find the right question," he wrote.  Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge common wisdom or, as Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata puts it, "question the unquestionable" (page 4)

Discovery Skill 3: Observing - "Discovery-driven executives produce uncommon business ideas by scrutinizing common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers. In observing others, they act like anthropologist and social scientist." (page 4)

Discovery Skill 4: Experimenting- "When we think of experiments, we think of scientist in white coats or of great inventors like Thomas Edison.  Like scientists, innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots. ( As Edison said, : I haven't failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that do not work.")  The world is their laboratory.  Unlike observers, who intensely watch the world, experimenters construct interactive experiences and try to provoke unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge." (page 5)

Discovery Skill 5: Networking - "Devoting time and energy to finding and testing ideas through a network of diverse individuals gives innovators a radically different perspective.  Unlike most executives- who network to access resources, to sell themselves or their companies, or to boost their careers- innovative entrepreneurs go out their way to meet people with different kinds of ideas and perspectives to extend their own knowledge domains.  To this end, they make a conscious effort to visit other countries and meet people from other walks of life." (Page 6)

Idea Generation: SESA Development Tracking- Forming a Habit Day 5: Implement 21 Days to form a Habit

Monday April 30, 2012 2:00am

Goal: Finish a blog post by 2:30am; Yay, done at 2:30am (No visuals, but I kept my promise to post a post. It is hard to stick it through... keep it up! )

Page view start: 95 ( from 55 to 95 is 40 views... interesting, kinda exciting) 


Topic: Idea Generation

Here is a quick link to what it means...Click here to go to the Wikipedia reference to Ideation (Idea Generation)

Here is a link to free small business development workshops:
Click here to go to Baruch Schedule Listing.

Paraphrasing what I learned from one of the Baruch workshops called "Idea Generation".

To sum up the process:

Step 1: Start with an assumption aka your point of view? 
Step 2: Reverse that assumption
Step 3: What solutions and or ideas pops out?

The point is to have your brain plays double advocate.  With any assumption, you can reverse it working both side of your brains causing conflicts and making you think of different alternatives, perspectives and ideas. 

So let's try an example:

My assumption is that ambitious people need time management.   
The reversal of this assumption is that lazy people don't need time management.

Then you ask yourself okay so what is the solution? What can be done about this?
and you repeat the two statements until an idea pops up....

For me I feel like there should be a quick way to track your time and be able to produce a snapshot of how your time was allocated. For example, if you want to divide your time  for work, family, friends, and self.  You can allocate your time to each category. ( I actually can elaborate  more on this, but that will be another blog post - "It would be my ultimate personal time manager system." Still in developmental phase.)

If that doesn't work, create another assumption and keep repeating these steps until you have a list of different ideas.  Then pick the best ideas and apply the core value proposition aka "study your competition."

After you study your competition, you can tweek your unique advantage.

That is it!

Develop Your Core Value Proposition: SESA Development Tracking- Forming a Habit Day 4: Implement 21 Days to form a Habit

Sunday April 29, 2012 3:29 am
Goal: Finish a blog post by 4:00am; Yay, done at 4am (No visuals, but I kept my promise to post a post. It was hard, I almost gave up and went to sleep.  Glad I pulled through. )

Page view start: 55 ( from 41 to 55 is 14 views... cool) 

Topic: Developing your Core Value Proposition or Customer Value Proposition

Here is a quick link to what it means...Click here to go to the Wikipedia reference to "Customer Value Proposition" also know as Core Value Proposition.

Here is a link to free small business development workshops:
Click here to go to Baruch Schedule Listing.

Paraphrasing what I learned from one of the Baruch workshops called "Core Value Proposition".

Basically it is studying your competition under three categories. Functionality (What is the purpose of this product or service to the customer), Interface (How is the delivery?) and Aesthetic (The look and feel using the 5 senses).

Supposedly this is the very first step before you develop your business plan.  The point is to research your competitor first in order to realize what is missing in the market and how your business plan will fill the gap. I thought that was an enlightening moment.  This basic concept is so basic and yet so very easy to skip over.

The exercise is to think in the point of view of the customer.  What would they want and need versus what you want or need.  At the end of the day it is not what you want, it is what the customer wants.  Then base on that demand you figure out how your competitor is delivering and interacting with their customers. 

Then you decide how you can make it better or complement your product and or services.  That is your core value proposition.


Viola! Simple right? Now do your homework and study your competition and do it better and or complement your product and services so that you can co-exist. Now that is a win-win situation. =)

Assess with the Maslow Hierarchy Chart: SESA Development Tracking- Forming a Habit Day 3: Implement 21 Days to form a Habit

Saturday April 28, 2012 12:48 am
Goal: Finish a blog post by 1:18am; yay done. Web page is acting up so, at least i did a quick post.

Page view start: 41

Topic: Evaluate everything with the Maslow Hierarchy Diagram.


I did a quick google search on Maslow Hierarchy under Google image and quickly choose some visuals that is a good start to learn about the Maslow Hierarchy.   The point is to view your business in a way of how are you helping people? At what level on the Maslow Hierarchy is it catering to?

Click here to go to the source of this image.

Here is another image

Click here for the source of the image 

I did a quick test and I found out I need Self- actualization

Click here to go to a quick one minute assessment what your need are.