Посты с тэгом: division template

Innovation Sighting: The Division Template on Music

Published date: February 21, 2011 в 3:00 am

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The power of the SIT method lies in the fact that inventors, for thousands of years, have embedded five simple patterns into their inventions, usually without knowing it. These patterns are the “DNA” of products that can be extracted and applied to any product or service to create new-to-the-world innovations.  Here is an example of an innovator working diligently to create a new innovation in the field of music – called “Music for Shuffle.”  The inventor, Matthew Irvine Brown, is using the Divison technique to create musical phrases that can be played together in any random order.  The phrases interlock with each other to create a continuous stream of music – a song.  Listen:


Music for Shuffle #01 from Matt Brown on Vimeo.

While this music may not make the Billboard top 50, it may open up a whole new way to think about song generation.  With this innovation, he introduces the idea of taking a song, physically dividing out parts of it, and rearranging it to create a better outcome.  Music exists because of patterns.  Blues music, for example, is a 12 bar I-IV-V progression. The Division technique works by dividing a product or service (or one of its component) either physically or functionally and then rearranging them to form a new product or service.  The technique is particulary useful to help break structural fixedness, the tendency to see objects as a whole.

To extend this idea, imagine taking the most popular phrases out of songs and “repacking” them together to create a new song.  For example, take a phrase from “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin and a phrase from “Freebrird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and link them together at natural interlocking point to create a new phrase.  Now imagine taking tens of thousands of phrases from top selling songs and interlocking them randomly to find the most interesting sounding ideas.  These new phrases would create the starting point to make adjustments and improvements for better sounding music.

For some, the use of a template seems to defeat the creative purpose.  But in fact, most creative people used some form of pattern to “bootstrap” their innovations and get to a higher level.  The Beatles, for example, have sold more records in the US than anyone.  How?   They used templates.

Innovation Sighting: Innovating Political Elections with Division

Published date: October 25, 2010 в 3:00 am

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The Division template of the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., works by listing the components of the product or service, then dividing out a component either physically, functionally, or by preserving the characteristics of the whole.  Here is a unique example of the Division template with political elections.  This idea comes from innovation consultant, Lauchlan Mackinnon, in his blog, Think Differently!!.

“Political parties may say or do ‘anything’ to get elected. They will make alliances of convenience with powerful interests such as the media, big business, or unions, and they will take populist poll driven positions (which is not necessarily bad in itself in a democratic system). When a party gets elected however, it is not always the best person for the job who fills any role: it is a complex allocation system that balances party relationships and internal politics with the capabilities and contributions of members to fill the leadership roles. 

My proposition is simple: what if we could split western democratic elections in to two phases or stages: a first election about the ideas and directions for the next term in government – the goals and aspirations that the people want the government to fulfill. Then run a second and completely independent election to determine the best people to fill those specific roles. Thus for example a democratic population could vote in not only the directions that are appropriate, for example health reform or financial reform, but they can also then call for suitable candidates to lead each portfolio and vote in specific people with appropriate backgrounds (for example in health reform or financial reform) to lead those portfolios and the implementation of those changes. A professor of health administration or economics or business administration or someone with deep industry experience in those areas would then have a much better chance of being selected than in our current system. And perhaps also we could focus each individual representing the country on serving the country and the world, rather than any party system.”

To extend this idea further, imagine “dividing” the political candidate out from their constituency and territory.  Voters from another area would choose a candidate knowing they would not have to live with the results.  After listening to the campaign promises, they elect a candidate based on issues that do not affect them.  The benefit would be these voters can be more objective and not take into consideration territorial factors.

Another division observable in the U.S. midterm elections is separating the candidate from their party affiliation.  Many campaign advertisements leave the political party out so voters pick candidates on the merits of their case rather than through party biases.

“Preserving” division divides the product or service into many smaller versions, each preserving characteristics of the whole.  In this example, imagine voters had 100 votes instead of one.  They could distribute votes to more than one candidate as a way to express preference on the issues.  For example, if they liked a candidate from one party yet still liked some aspects of the other candidate, they might cast their 100 votes with a 70-30 split.

Innovation Sighting: The Division Template on a Cell Phone

Published date: March 8, 2010 в 2:00 am

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LG Winners LG Electronics is about to announce their third annual Design the Future Competition.  Last year, more than 800 entries were submitted by consumers with their take on the future of mobile communications.  The winning entry is the focus of this month’s Innovation Sighting.  From LG:

“LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) recently named Emily Albinski from Wading River, NY the winner of its 2nd Annual Design the Future Competition.  The idea competition challenged participants to create a concept to define the future of personal mobile communication.  First place winner Albinski, a professional full-time freelance designer, created the CC on the theme of connectivity. The winning concept of a modular phone, which could be used by LG in the future, includes a “core” phone that can be inserted into a touch screen or netbook shell depending on the user’s needs.  By design, the winning concept would allow users to connect in many different contexts and environments. Albinski, a science and technology enthusiast, refined and laid out her concept in just four days.”

Her concept demonstrates the Division Template of the corporate innovation method, S.I.T..  Division works by listing the components of the product or service, then dividing out a component either physically, functionally, or by preserving the characteristics of the whole.  Emily “divided” out functionality of the traditional cell phone, then embedded it into different environments and platforms to create new innovations.

Umbrella-today To make it even more interesting, it is useful sometimes to place the divided out function into less obvious environments.  For example, imagine the cell phone functionality is embedded into an alarm clock. A musical instrument.  An umbrella.  Using SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM thinking, imagine how this would work.  What problems would it solve?  What benefits could it deliver?  Who would want such a device?  For example, perhaps your umbrella is notified when it should be carried with you that day.

Congratulations to Emily and all the winners.  I am looking forward to the next round!

The LAB: Creating Mobile Products with the Division Template (November 2009)

Published date: November 23, 2009 в 2:00 am

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Lab_2

Mobility is a good thing.  As mobility increases, so does our standard of living.  Mobility expands job opportunities, enriches our personal life, and boosts prosperity.   For nations, mobility expands trade, creates wealth, and makes countries more competitive.  Mobility even helps us live longer.  For hundreds of years, life expectancies hovered around 40 years.  During the 1800s they began to shoot up when road transport improved.  Today life expectancies in many advanced societies approach 80 years thanks to improved mobility in transportation, communications, and network computing.

How can we use structured innovation to create more of it?  How can we make the products and services  we use every day more mobile?  For this month’s LAB, we will use the Division Template.  We begin by listing the product’s (or service’s) internal components.  Then we divide one or more of the components in one of three ways:

  • Functional (divide along functional roles)
  • Physical (cut the product or component on any physical aspect)
  • Preserving (each part preserves the characteristics of the whole)
Using Function Follows Form, we envision potential benefits of the new form and other ways to adapt the form to make it more useful.  The trick is to use each type of Division with the specific intent of increasing a person’s mobility.  Each type of Division results in a different type of mobility.  Here is how.

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