ORGANIZING?

"For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned."

Unknown

Organizing is the time first spent thinking about what is to be done, plus the time required to create a plan to get it done, plus the time required to actually execute the plan provisions.

Shortchange any of that and you diminish your chance for success.

LEST YOU THINK OTERWISE

"Thought makes every thing fit for use."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet/essayist/lecturer.

As a seed can grow to become a tree so too can a thought evolve into something great.

However, in the beginning, each is only a suggestion of what it might become.

THE CREATIVE SELF

"The creative adult is the child who survived."

Ursula K. Le Guin

20th/21st century American author

Notice she does not distinguish between types of creativity.

We are all potentially creative in things far beyond what is generally considered art.

We have only to foster that part of us, at the very least, not stifle it.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

"Thought is free."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) British poet/playwright

And yet it sometimes seems there's too little of it or that which is thought was not thought carefully with full consideration for what would follow.

I REASON SO

"Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation."

Charles Baudelaire

19th century French poet

Both to make those things as well as to find that made by others.

The last one in particular.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SHOW YOU!

"The mind conceives with pain, but it brings forth with delight."

Joseph Joubert

18th century French moralist

We enjoy sharing what we worked hard to create.

What does that say about what is easy to do?

THE PHILOSOPHY OF BUSINESS

"Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery."

Henry Miller 

20th century American author

Which well sums up the creative thinking process in business.

Of course we're too "buttoned down" to call it philosophy.

Much better to use terms such as "strategic vision".

Call it what you will it is the conception of something new (genuine philosophy) that leads to a plan (action), which in turn becomes something great (wonder).

"Enduring fact of mystery? Beats me.

Creative Structure

"There ain't no rules around here, we're trying to accomplish something."

Thomas Alva Edison

Late 19th/early 20th century American inventor

Free thinkers love quotes such as this coming from people noted for their successes.

However even Mr. Edison would not suggest this for everything, all times.

The trick is to adapt structure (rules) in which creativity can flourish.

No small task.

The Wonder Of It All

"No wonder lasts over three days."

Proverb

This is one I'm glad isn't true.

I'm still in wonder of the fact that we went from man's first flight to man on the moon in less than 70 years.

That as imperfect as it is the human body works as well as it does.

That seemingly insurmountable grief will ultimately be bearable in most although unfortunately not all cases.

Because of this and much more my problems, business ones in particular, suddenly diminish in importance.

Adding To, Not Taking From

"Begin with another's to end with your own."

Baltasar Gracian

17th century Spanish writer/philosopher

In the extreme, plagiarism, however with proper recognition of what others have done you can create something new.

Stagnant Thinking

"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."

William Blake

18th century British poet/painter

Notice there is no qualification regarding which opinion.

All opinion.

If you don't believe that to be true, it's time to alter your opinion.

Imagine There's No Imagination

"Imagination is the eye of the soul."

Joseph Joubert

18th century French moralist

If you don't consider yourself to be particularly imaginative, hire some people who are.

Imagine That!

"To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything."

Albert Einstein

20th century German-Swiss-US scientist

Well, I do think knowing counts for something, but less so when it gets in the way of imagination.

How's your balance between knowing and imagining?

Let Me Think About That

"There is music in words, and it can be heard you know, by thinking."

E. L. Doctorow

20th century American author

In business the "music" may be wisdom but call it what you will it is only there for you to see and hear if you first think.

I Wonder

"All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance."

Samuel Johnson

18th century British author
photo by Will Koffel
http://will.koffel.org/

A "wonderful" thing already seems identified as good whereas something I wonder about does not necessarily.

It might one day be but until I declare it wonderful . . .

Given all the uncertainty (ignorance) in our business lives, do you employ process to categorize things as wonderful versus those you should wonder about?

Identifying the presence or absence of novelty relative to what you don't understand may be where you start.

That's pretty wonderful.

Imagine Tomorrow

"The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

19th century American poet/essayist

and namesake of my elementary school

Everything is business comes from imagination.

Without it you will not succeed but if you do you will ultimately fail if you do not continually reinvent what and how you do what you do.

While some of the "wisdom" contained within these quotes is debatable, this is not.

(You Don't Always Have To) GET REAL!

"It is respectful to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull."

Joseph Conrad

Late 19th/early 20th century British novelist

Not always profitable.

Success in business is more often dependent on assumptions than facts, and that includes many things that begin life as an illusion.

Free To . . . ?

"Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depths; that there are no walls or fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought."

Robert Green Ingersoll

19th century American politician

True, but do you?

Mind Fire

"The fire of glory is the torch of the mind."

Unknown

More than patents, equipment, technology, or money in the bank, the company who realizes the worth of their employees minds, and rewards them accordingly, will be those who succeed the most.

Is Everything Old, New Again?

"All cases are unique and very similar to others."

T.S. Eliot

20th century American-English poet, playwright

Look for completely new ideas.

Create new variants from that which already exists.

Which works best for you?