Pre-Ramble: For the uninitiatied, the word Flugtag is pronounced “flew’- tog” … rhymes with “blue’-fog” and it means something like ”Flight Day” in German. 

I consider myself an expert, now that I have attended the goofy event which was recently held in a big Saint Paul park on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi River. Once you’ve shared the Flugtag experience with 90,000 people, you can’t help but be a fan.

Basically, the Red Bull Flugtag features a bunch of teams of five folks who design and  fabricate largely aerodynamically challenged human propelled contraptions that are launched off a 30 ft. tall platform into a body of water below. The Flugtag events are as much about creativity and showmanship as they are about actual flight. (In some years, the winning teams put down some pretty pathetic distances.)

According to wikipedia, Flugtag was invented by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz, “… although the format was originally invented in a small English seaside town under the name “Birdman Rally.” The first Red Bull Flugtag was held in 1991 in Vienna, Austria. It was such a hit, that it has been held every year since in over 35 countries across the world.

Flugtag 101 – Anyone is eligible to compete in the Flugtag event, although I’m guessing that there is a mutant genetic component found in the DNA of individuals who would actually sign up. To participate, each team must submit an application and their contraption must meet the criteria set by Red Bull. For example, each flying machine (again, the term “flying” is used loosely) must:

• have a wing-span of no more than 30 feet
• have a maximum weight of 450 lbs. … including the pilot
• be powered by muscle, gravity and/or imagination
• be unsinkable (Wasn’t the Titanic billed as unsinkable?)
• be constructed entirely of environmentally friendly materials
• have no loose parts (… it is unclear how rules officials can control for the flotsam and jetsam created by entries that break into smithereenes upon impact)
• have no greater than one square foot of advertising
• be accompanied by some kind of clever/lame skit and choreography to cool amped up music

Team members must wear a helmet, life preserver, mouth guard, goggles and are probably asked to sign a big fat Flugtag waiver. Entries are scored by a random panel of judges in three categories – distance, creativity and showmanship.

The Take-Away:  Are you ready for this?!! … The record for the longest Flugtag flight is 207 feet, set on July 24th, 2010 IN SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA by the team “Major Trouble and The Dirty Dixies” (record-breaking contraption shown above) in front of more than 90,000 people, which also set a record for the biggest attendance at a Flugtag event in any U.S. city!!!  To see the record-breaking flight, click on the Red Bull Flugtag link here.

Pre-Ramble:  Just the sound of the word “innovation” gives me a rush of energy that rises up out of a cross section of art, science and the romantic notions of resourcefulness and hard work. Over the past decade, this glorified word has been slapped all over everything from business schools to soap, claiming the “frontier spirit” and trading on its appeal to dreamers and pragmatists alike. 

There is growing concern, however, that the U.S. prowess for innovation is in danger, and that steps must be taken to ”reclaim our edge.”  John C. Lechleiter, chairman, president and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company expounds upon that sentiment in a recent Opinion page article (WSJ, 7/9/10, p. A17).

A stream of inventions helped make the 20th century the American century … Unfortunately, America’s economy is in danger of losing what has always been our greatest competitive advantage – our genius for innovation. … A recent study ranked the U.S. 6th among the top 40 industrialized nations in innovative competitiveness, but 40th out of 40 in the rate of change in innovative capacity … In other words, we’re at serious risk of falling behind.”

(Forgive me if I’m missing something here, but how much farther behind can we fall if we’re already dead last?)

Building capacity. In crafting a turnaround plan, Lechleiter talks about an “ecosystem” of conditions that are required to foster an environment of innovation, among them the “seeds of innovation” meaning, us human beings with our talent and energy, creativity and insights, “…  a priceless resource and one that is woefully underdeveloped in this country.” Lechleiter goes on to suggest that, along with simplified immigration policies and adequate funding for our research infrastructure, one way to bolster America’s “capacity for innovation” is to step up the rigors of science and math instruction in our schools.

At the recent Apsen Ideas Festival, education gurus like Bill Gates, Jeffrey Canada, and Howard Gardner discuss the future of education in America. They suggest all kinds of great ideas, innovative ideas even, that strive to engage young people in real learning and give them the tools they will need for a successful future. They talk about innovative models for reform … a longer school day, … an articulated curriculum, … more rigorous testing, … accountability for results, … teacher quality and parent involvement.  Certainly, these are all important elements in a high-quality education, and important building blocks for innovation as well.

Jack Hidary, a successful innovator/entrepreneur in the tech and finance camp, former philosophy and neuroscience student at Columbia University, and also a speaker at this year’s Aspen Festival, puts things in another perspective, 

“Problem-solving is not correlated with grade scores on a transcript.”

Science and reading and math – Oh my!  Sure, high performance in math and science (and reading ) are critical skill sets that must be nurtured in the well-rounded innovator, but so too are the critical traits of curiosity, independence and engagement. What is going to actually engage these kids?  Why are they going to want to sit in the classroom longer and take harder courses?  What is going to get them excited to come to school and apply themselves?  To get excited about learning?  How are they going to find what they are looking for in life unless they are given an opportunity to access their their imagination, their chi, their passion, their hidden sources of motivation? What is going to compel these students to shift their internal paradigm such that they see barriers and obstacles as exciting ”challenges to be overcome”?

Follow the yellow brick road.  Sometimes the answer is to go off of the beaten path and find yourself in a whole new place … maybe even one with rainbows, a tin man and ruby slippers (awesome, magical sparkliness shown above). Problem-solving – a gateway to innovation – involves critical thinking, exploration, resourcefulness and creativity. Future  innovators need to develop the motivation and capacity to snoop around … to follow their whims … listen to their gut, and rely on instinct and insight to make new connections among an infinite sea of random data points.

We need to provide kids with opportunities to venture down the yellow brick road … to get out of the black and white and see the world in color on a regular basis. In addition to a crabby Auntie Em and high winds, Dorothy’s data points were facilitated by her encounters with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.  The future entrepreneur needs a firm understanding of math and science and literature, AND art and music and team-work and a whole bunch of other random and wonderful things.

The Take-Away: We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Like Oz and the Fab 4, our the world is spinning and we need to figure out a way to make sense out of it. If we are to have any hope of rebuilding the American capacity for innovation, we need to engage and “nurture the seeds” in new ways. … Even clicking our societal heels in a spanking new pair of sparkly red shoes isn’t going to help us find our way back to innovation if we continue to ignore the critical role that the arts and extracurricular activities play in human engagement and continue to undervalue (cut funding for) them in our public and educational environments.

Parts of this post originally appeared in a feature that I wrote for the PUSH Institute. A new iteration of that piece appears below. 

Pre-Ramble:  A recent WSJ headline notes that at 3M, “Innovation Comes in Tweaks and Snips.”  3M CEO George Buckley charged staffers to find cheaper ways to make products like respirator masks as a way to improve products and cut costs, suggesting that in hard economic times like these, innovations can be found “at the bottom of the pyramid” rather than in pursuit of a single “grandiose invention.” 

Huh? Certainly, innovation can come in many shapes and sizes, but the brand of iterative chicken scratching suggested in this charge raises serious questions about the definition of “innovation.” For example, can any/every iterative maneuver, be it cost cutting, process improvement, or otherwise tweaking and snipping, be considered “innovation”? Where are the lines drawn around an “ah-hah moment” born of the elusive “creative spark,” and simple problem-solving?  Are we wrong to lump the concepts of innovation, invention and creativity into the same category?  Is being “skillful” the same as being “innovative”? What about resourcefulness?  And, where does novelty come into play?

With operations in more than 65 countries, 75,000 employees, and global sales of over $23 billion, 3M leadership must remain engaged on all levels of the innovation pyramid in these tough economic times. No stranger to innovation, Buckley’s training as an electrical engineer combined with a broad knowledge of physics and thermodynamics led to many patented, industry-changing inventions including early prototypes of the front-loading washing machine. In his role as CEO of 3M (current tagline, “Innovative Technology for a Changing World”), Buckley is both an idealist and a realist when it comes to innovation. The cost-cutting exercise around the respirator masks belies the true depth of Mr. Buckley’s creative nature. 

Part genius, part maverick. In 2007, I had an opportunity to sit down with Mr. Buckley to talk about the dynamic of creativity. An intensely curious and widely read man, he described himself as a life-long-learner, engaging in regular inquiry into a wide variety of topics including ancient history, biographies, classical music and the arts. Buckley is comfortable talking in both broad abstract terms and in the vernacular of the pragmatic, Fortune 500 business leader that he is. Introverted and thoughtful, driven to a state of near constant scanning, observation, processing and critiquing, Buckley believes that the creative process occurs at the intersection of intuitive vision, specialized “deep” knowledge and opportunity. He believes that creative discovery is something other than linear processing that “comes on another level of awareness … part genius, part maverick … a willingness to risk, to go out into an unknown realm.”

Whether it’s intensive, intentional brainstorming or pie-in-the-sky day-dreaming, innovation can come at any time in any place.  If the classic anecdotes are true, it would seem that innovations are more likely to come to those who are sitting at a bar doodling on a cocktail napkin. Seems to me that the flash of insight in the “ah-hah” moment is a much sexier way to go than the plodding, nose-to-the-grindstone approach, … some thoughts:

• Value-add.  The nature of the innovation and its value to society is a factor in assessing the innovative quotient of a product or process. Resourcefulness, for example, can be a component of innovative behavior, however it does not necessarily deliver social value. If you’re lost on a deserted island, there will be great personal value in being able to forage for food, fashion shelter out of palm fronds, and create an imaginary friend out of found objects …. But, beyond that immediate situation, what is the enduring or replicable outcome?  What is the value-add for mankind? Does there need to be one?
• Novelty.  Toys and games, can claim some real estate in the sphere of creativity, innovation and invention as well. Think Nerf ball. Invented by journalist-turned-toy-mogul, Reynolds Guyer, the Nerf was a literal game-changer, challenging the once unbreakable rule that “you can’t throw a ball in the house.”  The invention of the Nerf spawned an industry of fun, neon-colored, foam-based weaponry and continues to score millions in revenue every year.
• Context.  One man’s failure is another man’s innovation. Take the ubiquitous, highly innovative 3M product, the Post-it note. In the context of the 3M research department, inventor Spencer Sliver’s attempt to formulate a new super-sticky adhesive was a failure. Years later, however, colleague Arthur Fry conceived the application for Sliver’s easily removable glue compound that we celebrate today. 

The Take-Away: At the end of the day, innovation is as innovation does. If this week’s pull-out in The Economist, “The world turned upside down: A special report on innovation in emerging markets,” is any indication, we have not begun to exhaust the possibilities here, and, as it turns out, Mr. Buckley’s “tweak and snip” approach is spot on with global innovation trends. Woot!

NOTE: In recent efforts to “make the Post-it brand more relevant and ‘cool and hip’ with members of Gen X and Y, 3M marketers have released “Project Things We Forget” into the social media marketplace.  The project website has attracted 770,000 visitors; has 13,000 fans and 700 friends on Facebook; 1,500 followers on Twitter; 700 devotees on Stumbleupon (a website where you can collect and share neat stuff that you find online); reviews and features on over 674,000 sites; and a review on Singapore’s largest radio station.

Post-Note:  As for the challenge to 3M respirator researchers – consumers can breathe a sigh of relief; an ultra-low-cost respirator mask will be released into the marketplace this month.

Pre-Ramble: There is a lot of buzz and quite a few books out there that promote the value of “branding” yourself as a way to attract recognition and business. I just don’t know about that. As a dedicated “intuitive thinker” who delights in the pursuit of random stuff, the idea of nailing myself down to a single focus is more than a little scary.

Well, so, by ”branding,” of course, I don’t mean scorching your backside with a hot metal “K.” I mean representing yourself to others — who you are, what you do and what you are about in a specific and consistent way.  Beyond a title or symbol, a brand is a holistic summation of the character of a person or entity — its personality or reputation.

Brands of businesses are all around us … the bold FedEx letter forms, the Nike swoosh, the little blue Twitter bird, the Target … target, the Apple … apple … They all have a distinct look and feel … they all have a unique differentiated point of view.  Alina Wheeler discusses the many dimensions of “brand”  in Designing Brand Identity (2003) …

There is substantial evidence that companies whose employees understand and embrace the brand are more successful. What began as “corporate culture” under the auspices of human resources is fast becoming branding, and the marketing department runs the show; … each touchpoint is an opportunity to strengthen a brand and to communicate about its essence; … brand identity increases awareness and builds business.” 

I get it. I can see the value there. The more people recognize you/your brand for what you “do,” the more likely they are to seek you out when they need someone to do that for them (… or with them … to them … whatever).  I am so all over this in the business world. I believe that businesses who are able to articulate a clear consistent message about who they are and what they do are ideally positioned to attract meaningful (and prosperous) business opportunities. So, I guess it is no small stretch to apply this same principle to the individual.  At any given time, in any given place, you as an individual may be called upon to perform as the brand that you are.

I guess what that means is, that at any given moment ”you” are a potential business … or a potential business opportunity.  By establishing a consistent set of attributes, skill sets, a look and a feel for yourself, … you are constantly marketing yourself in the world marketplace. I guess that’s the big hairy deal about the “new social media” venues – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. In launching a Home Page, or a Profile, or even a blog (!), you are, for better or for worse, putting yourself out there as a brand. Yikes – no pressure there.

The dilemma I have is, if in order to successfully be “a brand,” you have to forsake the enticing array of random very-cool-stuff that lurks around so many corners, it that worth it?  Creativity and its kissin’ cousin, innovation, are made from the very stuff of random collisions/conjunctions of things and ideas. So, does a guy have to sacrifice the capacity to think big, out-there thoughts for the privilege of having a successful business or personal brand?  (How do the folks whose brand is that they Think Big Out-There Thoughts make that work?)

The Take-Away: Doomed.  If I need to be together enough to align my appearance, environment, family members, pets, possessions, activities, attitudes, disposition and every confounded twittering thought in my head with my designated “brand,” …

… JUST SHOOT ME NOW.

Pre-Ramble: Buried in the newspaper between stories about the Palin book tour and Tiger’s “bad lie” is a tiny snippet worth writing about — In an effort to show young kids “how cool science can be,” President Obama has announced that he will convene a national science fair in 2010 to honor young inventors “with the same gusto that professional athletes celebrate their victories” at the White House. Knucks to that, oh, self-proclaimed Nerd-in-Chief!

I’m fired up about this news for a couple of reasons … First, because I love science fairs!  If it involves pipe cleaners and paper Mache — I’m in!  … Adobe villages made out of popsicle sticks … the African veldt in a shoebox — bring it on! You can imagine my thrill when the kids came home with the annual science fair flyers in their backpacks. 

One year, I was able to convince my daughter to do a project on the solar system.  Designed to demonstrate the sizes of the planets relative to the sun, we called it, “What if the Sun was a Basketball?”  … The poor kid never saw it coming.  She looked on in disbelief as I raced around the kitchen in search of small round objects that could represent Mars … “Do you think it should be a marble or a pea? … Do we know anybody with a bebe gun? … What about a poppy seed for Mercury?? … How in the heck are we going to get this tennis ball to stick on the tag board???”  As I recall, we got an A on it (and nobody misses that green bocce ball).

The art of science.  The second reason I’m so charged about the White House science fest is that where there’s science, art isn’t far behind. Like art, science is the result of the inspiration of brilliant minds. From the tiniest pixel to the largest expanse of the universe, the collective scope of art and science is vast and wondrous. Whether you’re dealing with neutrinos or Neoclassicism, the same kind of inquiry and invention is at play. Designer Bruce Mau describes the symbiotic relationship between art and science:

” … My commitment to scientific knowledge in no way diminishes my belief in the mystery and power of the arts. It is art that sings to us and opens our hearts to one another. It is art that gives meaning to things that would otherwise go unnoticed … that connects us to our past … that laughs at our hubris and limitations, while speaking to us of the darkness we cannot say out loud. In the end, it is art that allows us to understand, express and share science. While science works to order the matter of the world, art orders the meaning of the world. In my practice of design these two worlds of meaning and matter, of aesthetics and scientific knowledge, of quality and quantity, of mystery and certainty, of intuition and expertise, come together to create new possibilities for shaping our world.”

The Take-Away: Put on the safety goggles and throw down some tarps – the next wave of brilliant and inspired minds is headed to Washington. In the great search for knowledge and discovery, art and science are essential elements.

Post-Note: Visions of kryptonite …  If you’re looking for an artfully scientific stocking stuffer, look no further than The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. There is also an amazing website that brings the Periodic Table of Elements to life.

Pre-Ramble:  So, four things happen pretty much every year around the end of October that signal that the fall season has officially arrived:

1. tons of acorns fall into the backyard until you feel like you’re walking around on marbles; 
2. the local bakery rolls out its seasonal frosted pumpkin cookies (unbelievably yummy);
3. the classic animation, “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown“ is on at 7:00 on a school night;
4. the closing story on the local news is some rural yahoo hurling pumpkins 500 feet through the air with one of those medieval homemade catapults as cheering bystanders watch them crash to smithereens in an adjacent corn field. 

Yep, it’s officially fall in the upper Midwest.

It’s that fourth indicator that I’d like to discuss — the catapult, or trebuchet (pronounced treb-yoo-shet). According to our experts at Wikipedia, a trebuchet works by “using the mechanical advantage principle of leverage, releasing a sling and arm mechanism to propel a stone or other projectile towards a target with great force.” The trebuchet was used in the Middle Ages (and in the Broadway play “Spamalot“) to smash into masonry walls or to throw projectiles over them. Recorded flings could apparently send “350 lb+ projectiles at high speeds into enemy fortifications.” (Caution: skip this next part if you’re squeamish or eating breakfast.) “On occasion, disease-infected corpses were flung into cities in an attempt to infect or terrorize the people under siege – a medieval form of biological warfare.” (Eeeeeoww!)

Over the past decade, the sport of “pumpkin chucking” has become somewhat popular, with the annual World Championship Punkin’ Chuckin’ Contest held in Sussex County Delaware bringing a variety of launching machines, including the trebuchet, to the fore.  The record-holding toss in the competitive 8 pound pumpkin event is the Yankee Siege, a 51 foot tall, 55,000 pound apparatus developed by former dentist Steve Seigars. Owing to the miracle that is constantly updated, open-sourced information, “as of October 2009 (which would basically be now), the trebuchet has unofficially broken the 2,000 foot mark, with a possible throw of up to 2,300 feet.”

Boys will be boys -  Well, so, there are these four guys in Minnesota who have designed and constructed a trebuchet in one of the guys mother’s backyard. We’re not talking about Beaver Cleaver and a group of Cub Scouts messing around with sticks and rubberbands (”Wash up for dinner, boys!” … ), these guys are in their mid-thirties and presumably have day jobs. 

In the spring of 2008 they began construction on their machine using reclaimed materials like construction lumber, landscape timbers, slabs of aluminum, old garage-door parts (”stuff you can get at any Menards … “), and a 265-gallon fuel tank that they found on Craigslist.  The initial goal was to launch old bowling balls into the nearby field, but after a few ”successful” attempts, they began to branch out. “The trebuchet team is now testing the flight and crash-landing characteristics of obsolete consumer electronics” including old televisions, computers and clothes dryers.  This could be ”David Letterman, the Rural Edition.”

William Gurstelle, author of “Backyard Ballistics,” suggests that,

Most people who build stuff like giant catapults are doing what they’re doing because they’re seeking a challenge — the challenge of creating something big and wonderful in a physical, tangible way.”

The Take-Away:  Great! Never mind the trauma that would be visited upon Linus and the gang should they have cause to witness their much beloved pumpkins subjected to the vaulting/smashing exercise, the homemade trebuchet is appealing for a number of reasons. It is inventive, over-sized and somewhat whimsical; it uses recycled materials; incorporates movement; invites anticipation; and ultimately, it provides an oddly simple, down-to-earth form of entertainment. While I’m not generally a fan of wrecking stuff, anything that facilitates and celebrates the creation of “something big and wonderful” is a potential personal growth opportunity and worth a second look.

Post-Note: I wonder how far a fully-loaded golf bag would go?

Pre-Ramble:  We interrupt this blog entry to bring you a breaking weather alert … (just when you thought that nothing new could possibly happen in that random wacky world of meteorology… ) … 

Hailed as the first newly reported cloud formation in more than 50 years, the ominous-looking undulatus asperatus (Latin for turbulent undulation and not it at right) has been sighted in the Scottish Highlands.  Characterized by a droopy “rolling wavy effect,” the “atmospheric anomaly” is being considered for induction into the International Cloud Atlas.

I know!!  Gavin Pretor-Pinney, president of the UK-based Cloud Appreciation Society couldn’t be more pleased:

The formation has probably been around for a long time, but it’s only now getting attention … before the Internet and digicams, people might have mentioned it to a few friends and that would be it… Once the news got out, I was inundated with emails [and photos].”

Powerful, universal and unpredictable, the weather is probably the most frequently used conversation starter on the planet … “How ’bout that weather?? … Hot enough for ‘ya??” … It’s no wonder then, why the Weather Channel, founded 30 years ago by Frank Batten Sr., who passed away earlier this month at the age of 82, continues to be such a hit. Rob Long describes its appeal in the Wall Street Journal (9/18/09):

Despite a widely held belief in the television industry that a channel devoted entirely to the weather would not and could not work, [Batten Sr.] started one. He called it, with refreshing and diabolical directness, the Weather Channel. … It was a pretty instant sensation. People, it turns out, absolutely love the weather. … The Weather Channel delivers its information in the most tedious way possible — through static grids and blurry maps — but, for some reason, we keep watching. Its dryness is a big part of its appeal … just cold fronts and high-pressure areas … just the constant regular clockwork of a planet, raining and snowing and shining with indifference on us all … “

Weather is all around us — temperature, humidity, rainfall, prevailing wind, dew point, snow storms, and hail the size of name your round object here.  Weather is constant, and constantly changing. It literally provides a backdrop for our days and adventures, and for our lives.  Memorable moments are imprinted with the ”atmosphere” of the weather conditions at the time.

More than just a show – weather is a constant presence, a universally held experience, and a rich text for observation and metaphor.  Ralph Waldo was certainly on to something … the power to be mined in the quiet pondering of one’s environment — billowy wisps that drift above our heads on lazy afternoons or the sparkling sunlight on a small pond. Equally, if not more valuable for us in this hectic new millennium, is the awareness of the weather’s mighty presence on busy days.

The Take-Away:  Putting your head in the clouds can be a powerful strategy for living. Checking in with the mood, movement and context of weather systems can lift you out of your daily issues, help you get your bearings, put things in perspective, and inspire you to look at things in new ways. It is on this plane, this free, open and random space, that new, creative ideas and solutions can roll in.

Post Note: Based on a whimsical children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett, recently released animated movie, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” proves that the weather can inspire some pretty silly scenarios as well.

The general premise is that food falls benignly from the sky to feed the local townspeople (talk about the “five second rule”! … ).  Then the weather takes a turn for the worse — a sudden storm of giant pancakes (and downpour of maple syrup) that forces school closings, a salt and pepper wind (think of the sneezing), a tomato tornado (”seeds and pulp everywhere“), and of course, the headliner shower of meatballs — causing a whole bunch of problems. … Cute, … fun, … can’t wait to see the movie.  Excuse me while I head out to Perkins for a quick short stack.

Pre-Ramble: In the aftermath of the global finance fest in Davos, Switzerland, business and political leaders from around the world continue to wring their collective hands in search of policy level solutions to curb what is rapidly being identified as the most serious global recession since the 1930s. They’re asking themselves and each other where all this is going and what it will take to kick-start the growth needed to end it.

If American businesses and the new administration have anything to say about it, economic recovery will involve an elephant gun of bail-outs followed by a whole bunch of ”innovation.”  Intel recently ran a front-page ad in the WSJ headlined, “Today’s education. Tomorrow’s innovation,” proposing that education is the key to solving global challenges and tossing $120 million into the ring for science fairs and youth outreach. In the same issue, Shell (oil and gas) stressed the role of innovation in solving our most challenging problems stating, “In the new energy future, if it doesn’t exist, we’ll need to invent it.”  They go on to concede that “it won’t be easy; but innovative solutions rarely are.” …

Ok… sure, leaving the specifics of Shell’s renewable energy policy aside, there seems to be some kind of effort here to speak to the need for a new way of thinking. It’s one thing to invoke the “i-word”, quite another however to actually bring it about. If our political and business leadership is looking to innovation to drive economic recovery, they better take a closer look at the investments they’re making in education.

The Big Disconnect: Meanwhile, back in Minnesota… (Yes, yes, we’re still shuffling those disputed ballots around…) Governor Tim Pawlenty champions the state’s “world-class” public education system and competitive workforce, while delivering repeated body blows to state funding for the arts. Similarly, Massachusetts’ Brandeis University, proclaims art to be “the great legacy of human accomplishment, essential to interdisciplinary learning” as its curators prepare to sell off the entire collection from its esteemed Rose Art Museum — long regarded as an important teaching resource. If kids in the K-12 and higher education pipeline aren’t equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to think about things in new ways (creativity), how on earth are they supposed to merge into the workforce ready to innovate?

The Take-Away: If an innovative workforce is the goal, then step up policies and practices that foster creative thinking in the learning experience of kids. Gee,… there’s an innovative idea! 

One way we could do that is by teaching kids, beginning on the first day of pre-school, to explore ideas in different ways… maybe using shape, color, light, shadow, spacial relationships, connections, perceptions, dynamics, systems, motion, movement, tone, harmonics, intervals, blending, etc. … It could be embedded in the daily curriculum and an integral part of their everyday learning all the way up to grade 12. We could expose students to the work of great thinkers and craftsmen, and help them uncover the connections between societies and their forms of expression and invention. We could inspire children to think in new ways and prepare them to compete in a global economy. We could make this kind of creativity content a priority at the state and national levels …  We could call it art innovation education.

Pre-Ramble: Hi, it’s me Daisy… Mom asked me to write the blog today, since she’s busy working on the book. The door to her office closed, so I guess she means business. Frankly, it’s about time… I’ve been dogging her for weeks to get going on that. I’ll give her at least 20 minutes before I start barking and carrying on.

Today I’m going to bring some much-needed synchronicity to President Obama’s economic recovery plan. While he has called upon each one of us to step-up and do our part, I’m guessing that he and his new pack of advisors have inadvertently overlooked a huge untapped resource – the doggy demographic. Dogs basically lie around all day; why not put that boundless bundle of exuberance and potential energy to work?

Cut to a story that I heard on Science Friday (National Public Radio) last week about a little slice of heaven called the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Deep Sea Sample Repository. Founded by Maurice Ewing in 1949, this place collects and archives “sediment cores” - essentially, long tubes of dirt – taken from sites all around the world. A special oceanographic research vessel scopes down through 2 or 3 km of water and 30 to 40 feet into the ocean floor to extract the muddy time-capsules which reveal invaluable historical climate data dating back millions of years. There are currently over 18,000 of them on file in the refrigerated basement repository.

Dirt!!!…  Digging!!! … Barack!! … Hello!?! …We can totally help with that!!!  Personally, I don’t like to get my paws dirty, but my buddies, like Turbo at right, are all over it. Who wants to chew on shoes or rawhide (a seriously disgusting and misguided notion) when they can be digging on the beach and making a meaningful contribution to science?

The Take-Away: Innovation is the name of the game here. If we are going to unearth real solutions to our toughest problems, we need to be willing to think about things in new ways. Whether it’s bringing in the dogs to help with the dirty work, creating new alliances with AmeriCorps, or appointing a Chief Innovation Officer - in this “flat new world” we need a strategy that nurtures the core values of ingenuity and hard work that are the foundation of our heritage as a nation.  

Carpe caninae, Barack! … Seize the dogs!

Pre-Ramble: As you know, one of my goals for this site is to showcase and celebrate creative solutions. Based on the title, I bet you thought this entry was going to be about the 2008 presidential election. It’s not. Although, creatively speaking, our man McCain was definitely trafficking outside-the-box when he came up with his scrappy, high-heeled running mate, Tina Fey. Like many voters, I can’t help but think that there would be a better, more seasoned person out there to step into that “heartbeat away” veep role… Glen Close, Meryl Streep… Even a younger actress like Kate Blanchett or Kirsten Dunst would bring more gravitas to the ticket than a woman who, while gifted, is essentially a comedy writer. What was he thinking?

Today’s posting features a creative solution that was first brought to my attention by an article in the Wall Street Journal – Floating a New Idea For Going Wireless (by Amol Sharma, 2/20/08, p.1A). According to the article, 36% of rural Americans don’t have internet connections (…hang with me now, this is a hot topic). This “digital divide” limits the potential of the American workforce in a global economy and is also seen as a line of demarcation between the haves and have nots. How are folks in rural areas supposed to reap the virtual cornucopia of benefits offered in our Flat New World, if they can’t even Google their own name? Alas, the task of stringing cable or erecting cell towers in remote areas has proven to be expensive and tricky.

I can totally relate. Last year my husband, who is pretty good with a tool belt, brought the wonders of wireless networking into our house. As a home-based, freelance writer, I thought this was a fabulous idea. With wifi technology, I could potentially trot my laptop into any room in the house and set up shop, untethered and hassle-free. It wasn’t until I came home to a snarl of cables (think docking lines for the Queen Mary) snaking across the dining room and down through a hole in the carpet, that I started to have second thoughts. But, I digress.

Enter Solution. The article goes on to describe hot air entrepreneur, Jerry Knoblach and his company, Space Data Corp. These guys have devised a way to bring wireless Internet services to rural Americans in a handfull of southern states using a battalion of electronic transmitters which dangle from hydrogen-filled balloons floating 20 miles up in the air. Apparently, the airborne, shoebox-size units function as mini cell phone towers scattering coverage over thousands of square miles. (Here’s where the idea gets really creative.) As Jerry’s balloons are only able to keep the transmitters aloft for 24 hours, the units are equipped with tiny parachutes that enable them to drift gently back down to earth. To keep a constant supply of transmitter-laden balloons at an optimal altitude, Jerry hires a ground crew of dairy farmers (a very reliable bunch) to launch new units from their fields each day. (Ingenious, right? But wait, there’s more.) To retreive the fallen $1,500 electronic units, Space Data pays local hobbyists with GPS devices to retreive them – from random fields, swamps, trees, cliffs – wherever.

Yipes….  What does this business plan look like? Is anybody else thinking “Mouse Trap: the Deluxe MBA Edition”?? Are there line items for “dairy farmers” and “tiny parachutes”? The DVD boxed-set of MacGyver episodes maybe? The critical path on this operation is incredible in every sense of the word. I would have paid money to be in on that first venture capital pitch meeting.

The Take-Away: While my tone may seem disparaging, Space Data’s solution to the digital divide problem is not nearly as far-fetched as it sounds. Sure, there’s room for refinement in the concept, but for now, in addition to a nod and a snicker, it deserves closer contemplation for the elegant and uplifting, almost whimsical demonstration of innovative thinking that it is. Space Data’s hot air balloon solution is a great example of the random, resourceful, collaborative, risk-taking, “out there” dynamic that marks truly innovative ideas.