The First Law of Ecology

Before we talk about ideas, we need to understand ecology.

Well, basically the term "ecology" was first coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, who defined it as "the comprehensive science of the relationship of the organism to the environment."

The key words here are "relationship" and "environment". We need to understand that in the larger context of an all encompassing environment, organisms are related to each other one way or another.

Which leads us to the quote by Barry Commoner that "the first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything".

And from my observations, people who are deemed as innovative and enterprising are usually those that are able to put two seemingly unrelated areas together to create a new way of doing things.

One of the greatest individual with that ability is Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo is a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

Another, perhaps, lesser known individual is Reed Hastings of "Netflix". Netflix rents movies on DVD using the Internet as the ordering platform and the postal service as its delivery system. How Hastings came up with the idea was because of a "late fee" that he incurred for returning a movie late, as the rental services charge a rental for the movie and a late fee for not returning on time.

As he was driving to the gym, he thought about the gym's business model whereby they charge a flat fee and do not monitor his usage. And that's how he came up with the business model for Netflix. Netflix has a huge library of movies where customers can choose from. It charges a flat monthly fee but restrict rental of up to four movies at any one time. Customers are sent their selection through the postal service and provided with a return envelope. They can choose to return the movie at any time and they can only rent another movie if they return the current ones.

Here is a classic example of using a business model of one industry to tackle an issue of another. At LINE Consulting - Singapore, we have also experimented with a similar idea in the past where we observed how the software industry was using the 30-day trial for their programs so as to enable the potential customer to experience it before buying. It has paid off handsomely through our LINEAR™ Program where Schools get to experience the kind of work we do before deciding if they want to engage our services.

One more example that we can quote is that of combining a cellphone, an iPOD, and an internet access machine; iPhone. When Apple introduced the iPhone it was not only a phone to die for, it also set the industry standard for smartphones and cellphones alike. Its touch-screen function is unrivaled (Samsung's Omnia doesn't even come close). Of course there are many other flaws, which Apple claims the iPhone 3G-S addresses those concerns such as battery life, copy and paste function, and an anachronistic 2 mega pixel built-in camera. Of course with Apple's ingenuity in marketing solved many of those issues.

With the above as the "mind-set", we will need to look at what is the "skill-set" required here. And that is to be able to bring together two or more seemingly unrelated areas together in creating a value proposition.

Three things you can do to enhance this skill that you already have is this:

(1) Over the next seven days, while driving or riding on the sub-way, pick any object that you come across. Then set a target for yourself to come up with as many uses as possible for that object. For instance, on day one, after picking an object, set yourself a target (say 7) and then challenge yourself to come up with seven usage for that object before you reach your destination. After doing that for three days, then set yourself a higher target, maybe 13. And then either you scale this target by increasing the number or by keeping the number but shortening the time frame. After doing this for seven days you would have activated your mind to finding relationships for a chosen object.

(2) For the next phase of another seven days, you would want to randomly pick not one, but two items such as "elephant" and "newspapers" and look for possible combinations from these two items. For instance, here we may think of using elephants as a logo for a newspaper or using newspapers to educate the public on why they should not buy ivory products. Again, set a target for each exercise and scale it over the seven-day period. For this, you would have developed the ability to find relationships when given two seemingly unrelated items.

(3) Now, for the next seven days, you will then identify a work area where you want to see improvements or you have an issue with. You will then search for plausible solutions by adapting practices from other industries. For this phase, we just want to explore possible solutions, so throw that "critical mind" of yours out of the window. Because having honed your skill-set of finding relationships in the first two phases, you are now better equipped to see the interelatedness.

Once you have done this exercise for 21 days, you will be prepared for using the "tool-set" provided by James Webb Young, in his little (but important) book titled: "A Technique for Producing Ideas".

Young stated that the key talent in generating new ideas is an ability to find relationships and patterns among things you already know. Which is why we want you do that exercise above to first hone the skill.

Now, with this five-step process you now have a structure or approach to help you generate ideas that work. Briefly, the five steps are:

Step 1: define the problem - frame the problem not too broadly or too narrowly.

Step 2: research relentlessly - it prompts lots of different thoughts about how to solve the problem. Some people call this step "brainstorming".

Step 3: let it cook - trust your subconscious mind to find patterns, combinations, and possible solutions to the problem.

Step 4: catch the ideas as it flies by - be alert to possible solutions that may come up, capture it - this is where you have to program your conscious mind to catch it.

Step 5: shape and polish - run the solutions in your head, with a group of people, "future pace" it and see what kind of criticism (real & imaginary)

For details on the five-step, please pick up a copy of Young's book or simply drop me an email for detailed description of these steps.

We hope you will experience tremendous success here. Please drop me a note to let me know how you are doing.

Your friend,
Melvyn
(Sent from my Blackberry Bold)