by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 24, 2015 |
Part one of our article on lessons learned about innovation from a mathematical genius. Read part two here.
What do solving impossible mathematical equations and marketing strategy have in common? Well, if you squint and turn your head sideways, you’ll realize that both have something to do with innovation and discovery.
What can marketing strategy learn from a mathematical genius?
That was the key takeaway from a recent talk by Cedric Villani, the 2010 Fields Medal winner for his work on Landau damping and the Boltzmann equation. (Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know what those were either, so here’s a link)
While my knowledge of mathematics is severely limited, I am fascinated by what takes place inside the mind of a renowned genius, wrestling with the most important work of his or her career. And this is the topic of Villani’s recently published book, Birth of a Theorem.
In his talk, Villani highlighted his journey of discovery, one he embarked on with fellow researcher, Clément Mouhot. I was struck by the relevance between many scientific research concepts and the development of a marketing strategy to solve customer challenges.
Want innovation? Prepare for surprises…and failure
When you set out to solve a difficult problem, Villani suggests that the only outcome you can predict is ‘that we will get surprising results.’ This requires a level of open-mindedness and a willingness to live with uncertainty.
You also can’t predict what the process looks like. Scientific discovery is usually a zig zag of dead ends, false starts, incorrect assumptions and premature conclusions. The key is to take your time. Don’t rush to a solution. And be prepared: You have to be able to tolerate interim failures.
“The process of mathematical discovery starts when you understand nothing and then, a faint flickering of light and then, all of a sudden, it’s “ah!” – light everywhere and illumination.”
Much has been written about the importance of failure in the creative process. But how do we really embrace this idea when we set out to solve hard marketing problems? It is often too easy for “experts” to sell their clients a set of deliverables—known outcomes based on proven methodologies and frameworks. This may be a red flag for those who are looking for real innovation as a way to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. But then, as Villani suggests, this approach requires a tolerance for ambiguity, experimentation and luck.
Next up: The 7 ingredients for discovery
by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 16, 2015 |
Do we really know where people in our community who are living with severe mental illness go for support?
Most likely not. Why? Resources are generally few and far between and often lacking. And let’s face it: We aren’t quite past the stigma associated with mental illness.
It wasn’t long ago that I discovered a genuine asset in my own neighborhood: Transitional Resources (TR). This organization provides integrated services to help people living with severe mental illness succeed and experience recovery: housing and residential treatment, community, intensive short-term crisis support, case management, vocational opportunities and community activities.
A Model of Excellence for Mental Health Support
The value of TR really hit home at their annual fundraiser. I was introduced to individuals whose lives had been utterly transformed. They had gone from a world of chaos and confusion to stability and a life with meaning. TR, however, is a non-profit that also needs support. I knew right away I wanted to be involved. Today, I serve on the board and assist with development and fundraising.
TR started small, growing from one residential treatment program for 15 patients to six different programs serving over 220 individuals each year. It also serves as a model to serve a clearly unmet need in every community. Without the support of organizations like TR, people living with mental illness are vulnerable to devastating outcomes, including homelessness, institutionalization and incarceration. It doesn’t have to be this way.
TR’s mission is simple: Respecting autonomy, dignity, integrity and recovery. Who can’t get behind that? There are many ways to volunteer.
by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 15, 2015 |
Volunteering has been a lifelong passion for Boost! team mate, Allison May. She believes it is our responsibility and privilege to help others build community.
Build houses and hope as a Habitat for Humanity volunteer
Habitat for Humanity’s vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. To that end, the organization builds, renovates and repairs houses all over the world with the help of volunteer labor and donations.
Moving away from chaos and back to normal
The first time I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, I was part of a team that worked alongside Miami homeowners who had lost their homes during Hurricane Andrew. Their lives had been turned upside down. With the help of Habitat for Humanity—good organization, effective planning and hard work— I witnessed the positive impact Habitat had on their lives. Soon, normalcy emerged after months of chaos and devastation. I did my share of hammering, pounding nails into more roofing straps than I care to remember. And it was truly rewarding.
I went on to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity’s International Global Village program in a low-income community in Kauai Hawaii. The proud homeowner (pictured left) supervised and participated in the home’s construction.
Habitat for Humanity is working tirelessly to secure home ownership in areas where affordable housing is slipping away from many in the community. Whether you’re handy with a hammer or not, please consider joining a Habitat for Humanity team and make a difference.
by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 14, 2015 |
April 12-18 is National Volunteer Week #NVW. Boost! team member, Gretchen McLaurin sheds a light on her volunteer experience.
What is a Master Gardener volunteer? It’s all about roses and strawberries, right?
Nope. The purpose of the Master Gardener program is to train volunteers to be “effective community educators in gardening and environmental stewardship.” Channeling research and education from university systems, the Master Gardeners provide a vital link between commercial and consumer horticultural practices.
As a Master Gardener, I am a Volunteer Community Educator, cultivating plants, people, and communities. Since I started, the program has continued to flourish. Founded in 1972 by the Washington State University Cooperative Extension in the greater Seattle area, the Master Gardener volunteer corps has truly taken root. As of 2009, we were 95,000 strong and counting more than 5.2 million annual volunteer hours. Given the growing interest in urban horticulture, food security and local farming, the Master Gardener (MG) community grows and thrives in new and unexpected ways.
Want to make a difference? Get your hands in the dirt
The most exciting component of the program is the positive impact it has on a community. As one example, in 2009, 700,000 pounds of produce grown in demonstration gardens was donated to local food banks—which are also run by countless, dedicated volunteers!
I’ve dedicated most of my volunteer hours to helping kids. I worked with middle schoolers who were growing their own gardens as part of a science curriculum. This was a fully integrated and —more important — fun approach. The goal was to teach kids science and math by getting their hands in the dirt. They planned garden plots, calculated growth rates, read seed packets and learned about fertilization and pest management.
This is just one part of the big picture. The Master Gardener program is diverse and there is a horticulture outlet for everyone. Volunteers teach local community science-based garden management techniques focused on sustainability and environmental and social priorities. They are also advocates for reducing the impact of invasive species and healthy living. If you’re looking for a way to give back to the community by doing something you love, consider becoming a Master Gardener!
by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 13, 2015 |
This year, National Volunteer Week is observed April 12-18, 2015 and to celebrate, the Boost! team will be sharing information about organizations we volunteer for.
Advocate for children in foster care – become a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate
In today’s Volunteer Spotlight, we are drawing attention to an organization that is very near and dear to my heart. I have been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for six years and believe passionately in the power of this program to change the lives of the most vulnerable children in our communities – those who are in foster care.
CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in inappropriate group or foster homes. Volunteers stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence in their lives. This was certainly the case with two siblings I advocated for over a period of four years. Every adult in their lives had changed – from the social worker to their therapists to foster parents. I was uniquely able to provide input during legal proceedings because I held their history and could tell their story.
Independent research has demonstrated that children with a CASA volunteer are substantially less likely to spend time in long-term foster care and less likely to reenter care.
If you are looking for an opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life, please consider becoming a CASA. Every CASA program across the country is in desperate need of volunteers.
If you live in Seattle, please contact the King County Dependency CASA Program.
If you would like to ask me a question about being a CASA, please leave a comment below and I will respond.
by Jacqueline Koch | Mar 24, 2015 |
Guest Boost! Blogger Ulrike Langer on social media and SXSW.
Ulrike is a media innovation journalist who just returned from the SXSW Interactive conference and sent us this report.
The “Marshmallow Experiment” is a famous psychological test from the 60’s where young children are left alone in a room with a marshmallow on a plate. The children are told they will receive two marshmallows as a reward if they can resist eating the first one for a few minutes. Not surprisingly, the research found most four or five-year olds will eat the single marshmallow. Some children, however, are able to overcome their desire for instant gratification. According to a long-term study, those self-disciplined children tend to cope better in adult life.
The daily marshmallow challenge
Today, it is not only the youngest among us who face this challenge; we all do, every day, all day long. The marshmallow on the plate is the smartphone in your pocket. And even though we’re adults, we often don’t think about how much time we spend updating our Facebook status or checking to see if we got another 20 likes for a cool photo we posted yesterday. We tend not to think about the inherent tradeoff between social media activities and more taxing, less fun pursuits that will yield greater benefit in the long-run.
At the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin last week, the phenomenon was addressed in a panel titled “Tech My Mind: The Age of Instant Gratification.”
The enemy within
According the panelists, if we resist ‘the marshmallow’ by remaining logged out of Facebook or leaving our phone in our pocket when it is ringing, vibrating or pinging, we have to fight against powerful chemical opponents. The neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin and serotonin—which all are otherwise known as ‘temptation’—flood our brain with short-term rewards.
Andrew Yee, the Online Program Administrator at Biola University in California, knows something about outwitting these opponents. He is responsible for ensuring educational software at Biola offers rewarding experiences. When potentially boring learning materials are instead designed like video games with levels, points and challenges to make them more fun, this is called gamification.
Yee knows that immediate rewards and constant self-affirmation can be quite addictive. That’s why we feel the need to check that our standing in social networks hasn’t decreased in terms of how many likes, comments, favs and retweets we are getting. If our tally gets too low, we need to refuel by adding new funny pictures and witty tweets.
Birds of a feather feel good together
Erika Gronek, Director of the New Media program at Arizona State University says this is why we tend to digitally befriend the people who confirm our world view. This, however, is not an entirely new phenomenon. We have always tended to be selective in choosing our friends, whether we know them from school, from work or from the Internet. We’ve always preferred to be surrounded by people we share interests and values with. But now, in the social media era, this old phenomenon is called “filter bubble” and regarded as a new trend.
Of course, we should all try not to constrain our horizons but socializing with naysayers or people who challenge our beliefs can be exhausting. A bigger problem, to my mind, was raised by Yee and life coach Julie Barrios. Barrios helps stressed-out coders and tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley look beyond short-term goals (more clicks! more hype! more sales!) and not lose sight of their long-term purpose in life.
A return to love
News sites, Barrios said, tend to promote superficial distraction rather than help their users focus on a story. We all know these kind of sites. They are full of “Click here” banners, “Like us on Facebook” buttons, and “This could be interesting too” lists. All to ensure that we click and like and fav and feed our hunger for short-term rewards in the form of dopamine. And by falling into this trap, we don’t even notice how much more satisfying it is to be totally immersed in a topic, to focus on a good story to the last sentence and to really love it instead of just liking it on Facebook.
During the panel at SXSW, I couldn’t help but think about a beautifully written essay by Robin Sloan. It is called “Fish” and is available as a free app. I have read it at least 10 times since it was published. Sit back, take 15 minutes, and read it to the very end. I am sure that some of you will love “Fish”, not only like it.
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