The Innovation Tools newsletter had some really good articles this week, and I thought I would share a couple of them with you.

How Can We Create a Climate that Empowers People?
By Paul Sloane

If you speak to people about what is impeding innovation in their organizations you often encounter a paradox. Senior managers feel frustrated that their people are complacent; they are not showing initiative or enterprise. People lower down the organization feel upset that they are
micromanaged, that they are not empowered to try out their own ideas and that their managers stop them from challenging the established way of doing things. Both groups blame the other. Who is really at fault here? It is often true that middle managers block new proposals. But the real problem lies with the leaders. It is easy for them to make visionary statements that include all the right words about how important innovation, change, enterprise and risk are. But unless they back up the words with actions they will be seen as paying lip service to innovation and not having the will to make it happen.

How can leaders become more receptive, more open to challenging ideas?

And:

Creativity: “Not Required”

November 23, 2009 by Daniel Rose 

I was talking to a large Canadian company about their possible need for facilitation consulting services. The person I was talking to is in HR and has “collaboration” in her portfolio. She suggested that her company would most likely not be in need of my services because the corporate frame of mind was one of “retrenching” and therefore no innovation or creativity would be required.

In my view this is a very narrow and myopic view of how collaboration, visualization and creativity (CVC) can be utilized in companies. CVC does not have to be about brand new product ideas, 10 year plans, hockey stick growth or “out of the box thinking”. A well designed, facilitated workshop with CVC can allow creative thinking to be applied to extremely tactical, operational details.

Please share your thoughts.

The folks at QuoVadis Blog assembled a team of people to review some notebooks:

Warm thanks to all Habana reviewers to date who sent me their comments or links to their reviews. As more come in, I will collect them and publish a second round of reviews.

Here’s a loaded question:  for those of you who have tried both notebooks which one do you prefer – the Habana or the Webnotebook?

- Innowen from D*I*Y Planner. (I love the little sticker on the cover!)

- Clement from Rants of the Archer.

- Tom from Bleubug (has a non-traditional review, a must read)

- Joni from Daydreamers Welcome.

- Audra from Nemu * Nemu, Kybikitsy’s Blog.

- Sophie from For Love and Idleness.

- Julie (Okami) from Whatever.

- Vickie from Bottoms Up and Tops Down.

- Rainbow from All the Colours of Me.

And last but certainly not least! – Kate from K’s Notebook.

Check’em out. (no affiliate links from me)

This post excerpt shows a detailed example of a very interesting Productivity Practice. I am sure that it is not for everyone, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it:

Time management: How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm

Living the Fixed-Scheduled Lifestyle

The steps to adopting fixed-schedule productivity are straightforward:

1. Choose a work schedule that you think provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation.
2. Do whatever it takes to avoid violating this schedule.

This sounds simple. But of course it’s not. Satisfying rule 2 is non-trivial. If you took your current projects, obligations, and work habits, you’d probably fall well short of satisfying your ideal schedule.

Here’s a simple truth that you must confront when considering fixed-schedule productivity: sticking to your ideal schedule will require drastic actions. For example, you may have to:

* Dramatically cut back on the number of projects you are working on.
* Ruthlessly cull inefficient habits from your daily schedule.
* Risk mildly annoying or upsetting some people in exchange for large gains in time freedom.
* Stop procrastinating.

In the abstract, these are all hard goals to accomplish. But when you’re focused on a specific goal — “I refuse to work past 5:30 on weekdays!” — you’d be surprised by how much easier it becomes to deploy these strategies in your daily life.

What do you think of this idea of a routine? Share your thoughts in the comments.

“Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday…The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.” ~Ayn Rand

This year on Thanksgiving day I would like to express my thankfulness for my lovely bride, my family and friends, and my readers that have made this blog such a success.

I am also thankful that my wife found a good job in New Hampshire, in a great little town. One year ago today we were in Lacrosse, WI for my little sister’s wedding, in the first leg of a long journey of self-discovery and exploration. Some might call it a vacation, or a sabbatical, whatever – it was fun and brought us closer together.

I am looking forward to an even better year in 2010, as my new job as a restaurant manager develops ( I am creating some cool content for a new e-book for that industry). I am looking forward to getting more focused on some personal development, especially in being healthier. This winter is going to be awesome.

God bless all of you.