July’s dinner was a meeting of two great innovation networks. David Weekly shared his remarkable story of creating the Hacker Dojo. A rich discussion followed as SVII’ers shared their own experiences of innovation culture at its heights.
Continue reading
Passive solar design is quite possibly one of the most efficient building techniques ever. Yet we rarely see the conscious implementation of this timeless way of building structures which are in-tune with the energy balance of their environment.
Continue reading
At SVII’s April 6 Wednesday night gathering Bill Veltrop unveiled his nomination for “The Next Big Thing” — and it wasn’t a thing. It was a strategy for growing a Societal Metamorphosis Movement, with the “region” being the primary unit of design.
Continue reading
Numbers speak for themselves. Placed into their proper context, numbers can begin to sing. Setting context depends on effectively expressing what a company is really all about, it’s story. This is where intangible assets come into play, the brand, the IP, and the human capital. How can these be presented and understood in such a way that stands out across a world of information?
Continue reading
What is the current state of innovation tools? Is the best way to create a breakthrough still a skunkworks project? Or have collaboration and innovation tools reached a level of sophistication where they provide a sensible alternative to the old school method? How does social media factor in?
Continue reading
On April 6th SVII hosted Bill Veltrop, a leading “architect of generative change” and a co-founder of Monterey Institute for Social Architecture. Bill revealed his daring vision of “regional metamorphosis” and the transformation of our myriad social systems from finite to infinite games as a pathway to the Age of Conscious Evolution.
Continue reading
Paul Masson set the context for the evening by presenting his research on maximizing innovation effectiveness. Drawing upon Aristotle, Darwin, and modern neuroscience, Masson made the case that there are inherent human tendencies of personal fulfillment, group engagement, cooperation and competition that are always in tension with one another.
Continue reading
Mark Yolton deeply engaged our audience about SAP’s stupendous success in collaboration through social software.
Businesses see a fundamental shift to a dynamic world of deep, relentless change, which demand companies to adopt informal interactions to remain competitive; so they “need to accelerate the pace at which they respond to change, make decisions and overcome unforeseen obstacles”.
Continue reading
The reverse panel at SVII’s 1st Wednesday January event turned out to be a great discussion about local and independant business among the business owners and innovators. The discussion focused on five tough questions.
Continue reading
When Jeremy Sutton asked us to make sure there was a bit of space up at the front for him to dance during his presentation, I wondered what we were in for. It turns out we were in for a powerful look at the intersection of art, technology, music, and improv, with a bit of swing dance thrown in for good measure.
Jeremy Sutton is a physicist turned artist who uses a combination of digital tools and traditional painting techniques to create his artwork. We’ve all experienced the magic of listening to someone create music. Or watching someone perform dance. It’s much more rare that we get to see art in the creation stage. Jeremy took it one step further, and did his best to draw us into the creative process, from the beginning stages of percolating ideas, to the loose throwing of paint onto a digital blank canvas, to the final steps of reigning in the wild brushstrokes to make something that really captures the subject.
In this case, the subject of the painting was SVII’s director, Howard Lieberman. Howard was also an active participant in the creative process, offering improvised piano music that helped influence the rhythm of the brushstrokes. Piano pairs very well with art.
At our August event, our topic was improv. We talked a lot about how improv relates to business. It opens up our thinking and lets us accept what is, rather than what we’d like things to look like according to our careful plans. Jeremy’s presentation touched on many of the same things. He mentioned that he never uses the “undo” button, although you’d think that would be one of the blessings of being a digital painter. He doesn’t use undo, because he sees every brushstroke as a gift, as a step towards something bigger. Mistakes are worked into the creative process, not “undone”.
As innovators, this mentality should feel familiar. People who keep trying to undo errors to manage their creative process won’t allow themselves the freedom required to make breakthroughs. It’s beyond a simple willingness to fail. It’s a knowledge that what we’re trying to reach is about ten steps past failure, and that failure was necessary and helpful part of the process.
If you’re interested in seeing more of Jeremy’s work, check out his websites: http://www.jeremysutton.com/ and http://www.paintboxj.com/. You can also stop by his studio this weekend (Oct 8-10) for his Fall Open Studios event. Or check out his live performance as Vincent Van Gogh at the de Young on October 15th or October 22nd.