Paul Sloane's Blog

Many office workers take lunch at their desks. They grab a sandwich and carry on working. The old habit of going out for a lunch break is in decline. But there are some compelling reasons to go out for lunch with someone instead of eating at your desk:

Eat Out

Sitting at your desk all day is linked to various health issues. Walking to a cafe or restaurant, even a short distance, gets you moving and can help counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting. Stepping away from your workspace reduces stress and mental fatigue. A change of scenery and social interaction can improve your mood and help you return to work feeling refreshed and more focused.

Sharing a meal is a great way to build rapport with colleagues, clients, or friends. It fosters trust, encourages open communication, and can lead to stronger professional and personal connections. Furthermore, taking a relaxing lunch with a colleague can stimulate creativity. Discussing ideas outside the office can lead to fresh perspectives and innovative solutions that might not emerge in a typical work setting. Lunch with a larger group can open doors to new opportunities or collaborations. You never know who you might meet or what conversations could lead to.

Eating in a group can encourage engagement and motivation. A study by Kevin Kniffen at Cornell University studied the habits of firemen. It found that those that shared a meal during the working day performed better. A study in the USA by Tork found that people who took a lunch break every day scored higher on job satisfaction.

Don’t sit all day and slump into cognitive decline. Go out and enjoy your lunch break!

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Born Vera Buchthal in 1933 to a Jewish family in Dortmund, Germany, Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley’s life began amidst rising persecution. She was the daughter of a Jewish judge who lost his position under the Nazi regime. In 1939, aged five, she and her nine year old sister, Renate, were sent to Britain on a Kindertransport train, escaping the Holocaust as unaccompanied child refugees. She was raised by foster parents in the Midlands and this traumatic uprooting instilled in her a deep gratitude for her adopted country and a lifelong drive to make her life “worth saving”. She developed a passion for mathematics, a subject her all-girls school didn’t teach, forcing her to study it at a local boys’ school.

She worked at the Post Office Research Station, where she built and coded computers from scratch, . She took evening classes for six years to obtain an honours degree in mathematics. In 1959, she moved to CDL Ltd, designers of the ICT 1301 computer. Shirley grew frustrated with the rampant sexism and “glass ceiling” that blocked her progression. In 1962, with just £6, she founded a software company, Freelance Programmers, from her dining room table. Her vision was revolutionary for its time: to provide high-level employment for talented women who had been forced to leave their careers due to marriage or motherhood. The company offered flexible, home-based work decades before it was common practice. To get her foot in the door in the male-dominated business world, she adopted the masculine name “Steve” in her business letters, noting that it helped get her proposals read rather than immediately discarded.

Her company, which eventually became the F.I. Group (and later Xansa), flourished, taking on major projects such as programming the black box for the supersonic Concorde jet. A true innovator in corporate culture, Shirley pioneered co-ownership, eventually transferring a significant portion of her company to the staff, making many of her predominantly female employees millionaires. She challenged the notion that women couldn’t be coders, leaders, or entrepreneurs, and she proved that a business built on trust, flexibility, and female talent could thrive. Her legacy paved the way for generations of women in computing, software and technology.

Shirley’s personal life was marked by a profound challenge: her only son, Giles, was severely autistic. His condition was profoundly disabling, and she cared for him until his tragic death from an epileptic seizure at the age of 37. This deeply personal experience fueled her second career in philanthropy. Upon retiring in 1993, she established The Shirley Foundation, a grant-giving charity dedicated to pioneering projects in the field of autism spectrum disorders. Her foundation has initiated and funded groundbreaking medical research and practical projects using IT to improve the lives of autistic people. Dame Stephanie Shirley’s legacy is that of a tenacious entrepreneur who shattered conventions, a trailblazer who created a new paradigm for women in technology, and a philanthropist whose work has had a lasting impact on autism research and support.

Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley was a pioneering force in the world of computing, a fierce advocate for women in tech, and a philanthropist whose life was shaped by resilience, innovation, and compassion. She died in 2025. In 2013, appearing on BBC radio, Shirley discussed why she had given away more than £67 million of her personal wealth to different projects. She said “I do it because of my personal history; I need to justify the fact that my life was saved”.

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In his book, The Creative Shift, Andrew Robertson, Chairman of advertising giant BBDO, gives this succinct guidance for brainstorms and idea meetings:

Go Wide, Go Narrow, Go Deep, Go Public.

Go Wide. Use divergent thinking to generate a great number of ideas including absurd and silly ideas. No criticism or judgement allowed at this stage.

Go Narrow. Sift the ideas down to a shortlist using some agreed criteria. Shape bizarre ideas into creative, workable proposals. Select the best few.

Go Deep. Examine in detail the handful of promising ideas. What resources and approvals do they need? How could we test them quickly and cheaply?

Go Public. Take your selected ideas and plans to those with authority to approve them. Gain permission and resources to test them.

Good advice.

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A digital twin of an organisation is a dynamic, virtual replica of the entire enterprise, encompassing its processes, systems, data, and people. An organisational digital twin provides a complete view of the business, enabling leaders to simulate the impact of decisions before they are implemented in the real world. This powerful tool uses real-time data from various sources to mirror the organisation’s operations, allowing for improved strategic planning, risk management, and operational efficiency.

Here are five examples of organisations using digital twins to enhance their operations:

Unilever

The consumer goods giant Unilever employs digital twins in its factories to create virtual models of its production lines. This allows the company to simulate and test changes to manufacturing processes without disrupting actual production. Unilever can optimise efficiency, reduce waste, and improve product quality. For example, they can virtually test new packaging materials or adjust machine settings to see the impact on output and energy consumption before making physical changes.

Roche

In the pharmaceutical industry, Roche is exploring the use of digital twins to revolutionise clinical trials. By creating virtual replicas of patients and disease progressions, Roche aims to simulate how different individuals might respond to new treatments. This approach has the potential to accelerate the drug development process, reduce the reliance on traditional, large-scale clinical trials, and lead to more personalised medicine.

Bosch

The technology and engineering company Bosch utilises digital twins in its manufacturing and industrial operations. By creating virtual representations of their machinery and production facilities, Bosch can predict maintenance needs, prevent equipment failures, and optimise performance. This predictive maintenance approach minimises downtime and extends the lifespan of their assets, leading to significant cost savings.

Virtual Singapore

On a larger scale, the nation of Singapore has developed a digital twin of its entire city-state. This comprehensive 3D model, known as “Virtual Singapore,” integrates vast amounts of data from various sources, including real-time traffic information, weather patterns, and building schematics. The government uses this digital twin for urban planning, simulating the impact of new infrastructure projects, managing emergency responses, and analysing energy efficiency across the city.

Airservices Australia

Responsible for managing Australia’s airspace, Airservices Australia is developing a digital twin of the country’s air traffic management network. This virtual representation will allow them to simulate air traffic scenarios, test new procedures, and predict potential congestion or disruptions. The goal is to enhance the safety and efficiency of air travel by proactively identifying and mitigating risks within the complex airspace system.

Building a digital twin can bring some significant benefits to an organisation:

Enhanced Decision-Making and Strategic Planning

One of the most significant advantages of an organisational digital twin is the ability to conduct virtual “what-if” scenarios. This allows leaders to test the potential impact of big decisions before committing resources in the real world. By simulating changes to business processes, supply chains, or market strategies, organisations can anticipate outcomes, identify potential bottlenecks, and optimise for the best possible results. This approach to planning minimises risks and increases the likelihood of successful initiatives.

Improved Operational Efficiency and Cost Reduction

A digital twin provides both a high-level and a detailed view of an organisation’s operations in real-time. This comprehensive oversight allows for the identification of inefficiencies that might otherwise go unnoticed. By analysing the virtual model, businesses can pinpoint areas for process optimisation, streamline workflows, and improve resource allocation. By simulating energy consumption and manning levels, organisations can identify opportunities for significant cost savings.

Accelerated Innovation and Product Development

In the realm of product development, digital twins revolutionise the innovation cycle. They enable the virtual prototyping and testing of new products and services in a simulated environment. This dramatically reduces the time and cost associated with physical prototypes and allows for rapid iteration and refinement. By understanding how products will perform under various conditions before they are built, companies can bring higher-quality and more resilient products to market faster.

Proactive Risk Management and Increased Resilience

Organisational digital twins are powerful tools for enhancing business resilience. By simulating various risk scenarios, such as supply chain disruptions, economic downturns, or even cyberattacks, organisations can develop and test robust contingency plans. This proactive approach to risk management allows managers to identify vulnerabilities and implement mitigation strategies before a crisis occurs.

Enhanced Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

A digital twin serves as a single source of truth for an organisation, breaking down data silos and fostering greater collaboration between departments. When teams from across the business can access and interact with the same virtual model, it promotes a shared understanding of complex processes and facilitates more effective cross-functional teamwork. This collaborative environment can lead to more innovative solutions and a more agile response to changing market dynamics.

Improved Customer Experience and Personalisation

By creating digital twins of customer journeys and interactions, organisations can gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour and preferences. This allows for the optimisation of customer service processes, the personalisation of products and services, and the creation of more engaging and effective marketing campaigns. By simulating the customer experience, businesses can identify pain points and areas for improvement, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Identifying the ten most influential innovators throughout human history is a challenging task and my choices are clearly subjective. I have tried to assess them on the brilliance of their creations and also the enduring and transformative impact of their innovations. The visionary ideas and groundbreaking inventions of these people have fundamentally reshaped our world.

At the pinnacle of the list stands Leonardo da Vinci, the archetypal Renaissance genius. His insatiable curiosity and visionary intellect led to conceptual designs for inventions that were centuries ahead of their time, including the helicopter, the tank, and rudimentary calculating machines. While many of his designs remained on paper, his innovative spirit and interdisciplinary approach to knowledge continue to inspire.

A pivotal figure of the modern era, Thomas Edison‘s relentless experimentation and business acumen earned him over 1,000 patents. His most celebrated inventions, the practical incandescent light bulb and the phonograph, revolutionized daily life and laid the groundwork for the age of electricity and recorded sound. His Menlo Park laboratory, a veritable “invention factory,” institutionalized the process of innovation.

No list of great innovators would be complete without Marie Curie, a pioneering physicist and chemist. Her groundbreaking research on radioactivity, which led to the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium, not only reshaped the fields of physics and chemistry but also opened new frontiers in medicine, including the development of X-rays and cancer treatments. Curie’s relentless dedication in a male-dominated field shattered barriers and continues to inspire scientists worldwide.

The modern world is, in many ways, a testament to the genius of Nikola Tesla. His development of the alternating current (AC) electrical system provided a more efficient and practical means of distributing power over long distances, forming the bedrock of our modern electrical grid. His fertile mind also conceived of wireless communication, radio, and remote control, technologies that are ubiquitous in the 21st century.

In the realm of communication and the dissemination of knowledge, Johannes Gutenberg‘s invention of the printing press with movable type in the 15th century stands as a watershed moment. This revolutionary technology democratized access to information, fueling the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the scientific revolution by enabling the mass production and widespread circulation of books and ideas.

The dawn of the aviation age can be attributed to the meticulous and persistent efforts of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Their successful achievement of the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight in 1903 irrevocably altered transportation, warfare, and our perception of the globe. Their methodical approach to aeronautical engineering set a new standard for problem-solving and innovation.

The digital landscape of the 21st century was profoundly shaped by the vision of Steve Jobs. While not an engineer in the traditional sense, his genius lay in his ability to foresee and create user-friendly products that seamlessly integrated technology into daily life. The Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone, and iPad are testaments to his relentless pursuit of perfection and his revolutionary impact on personal computing, music, and mobile communication.

A cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution, James Watt‘s significant improvements to the steam engine unleashed a new era of mechanized production and transportation. His more efficient designs powered the factories, mines, and locomotives that transformed societies from agrarian to industrial, setting the stage for unprecedented economic and social change.

The profound impact of Louis Pasteur on medicine and public health cannot be overstated. His discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization have saved countless lives and laid the foundation for the germ theory of disease. His work revolutionized our understanding of illness and prevention, leading to significant advancements in healthcare.

Finally, the architect of our interconnected world, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the World Wide Web. His creation of the fundamental protocols and technologies, including HTTP, HTML, and the first web browser, has transformed how humanity communicates, accesses information, and conducts commerce, creating a truly global village.

These ten individuals, through their extraordinary vision, relentless perseverance, and groundbreaking creations left an indelible mark on history and altered the course of human progress.

Who would you add to or delete from this list?

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Think about the last time something genuinely surprised you. Maybe it was a shocking sports upset, a wild plot twist in a film that made you gasp, or maybe just bumping into an old friend in a city hundreds of miles from home. That feeling, the sudden jolt where the world doesn’t quite work the way you thought it should, is a powerful and sometimes disturbing experience. The word “unexpected” creates a potent image. It speaks of a deviation from the anticipated, a disruption of the familiar rhythms of life. But the unexpected is more than just a momentary surprise; it is a fundamental engine of change, a relentless shaper of our history and culture.From the battlefield to the laboratory, the political arena to the sports stadium, we see critical events shaped by the unexpected.

We spend most of our lives trying to plan, predict, and control what happens next. But the truth is, the most important, game-changing moments in our lives are often the ones that come completely out of the blue. The unexpected isn’t just an interruption to the story; it is the story.  Life’s most important moments are the ones we never see coming

Fundamentally the unexpected is a direct challenge to our brains, which are basically prediction machines. Day in and day out, our minds build little models of reality, learning that if you do A, then B will happen. But when C happens instead, it throws a spanner in the works. This can be scary, like in a “black swan” event, a term coined by writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb for huge, shocking events like a global pandemic or a stock market crash that no one saw coming, but which everyone tries to explain in hindsight as if they were obvious. But it can also be wonderful. That jolt of surprise is where creativity, learning, and real change are born. It forces us to stop, look around, and consider fresh possibilities.

Science

In the world of science, the unexpected is often the guest who gives. We think of scientists as methodical geniuses, but many of our biggest breakthroughs have come from pure, dumb luck combined with a curious mind. The most famous examples is Alexander Fleming who returned from holiday in 1928 to find a petri dish with a mould which was resistant to bacteria.  He had stumbled upon penicillin.

A similar thing happened with the discovery of the Big Bang’s afterglow. Two astronomers, Penzias and Wilson, kept picking up a faint, annoying hiss on their radio antenna. They tried everything to get rid of it, even cleaning out pigeon droppings they thought might be the cause. It turns out that hiss wasn’t bird poop; it was cosmic microwave background radiation, the leftover heat from the creation of the universe. They had accidentally stumbled upon the proof of the Big Bang.

In November 1963, the crew of a fishing trawler off the coast of Iceland witnessed a shocking sight they mistook for a boat on fire. It was, in fact, something far more elemental: the birth of an island. A powerful, completely unexpected volcanic eruption had begun on the seabed, violently spewing ash and lava into the cold Atlantic.  Within days, the accumulating material breached the surface, forming a new landmass. The eruption continued for over three years, building an island that was named Surtsey, after the fire giant Surtr from Norse mythology.2This surprising geological event provided a priceless opportunity. From its sterile, fiery birth, scientists have been able to meticulously document the arrival of life. Surtsey became a unique natural laboratory, offering a real-time window into how plants, insects, and birds colonise a brand-new piece of earth, a process that continues to offer unexpected insights today.

Business

The business world is just as vulnerable to big surprises. For most of the 20th century, Kodak was photography. They sold the film, the paper, and the cameras. They were a giant. Ironically, they even invented the first digital camera back in 1975. But the executives couldn’t imagine a world without film, their main cash cow. They saw digital as a cute toy that would never have the quality of film.  But it became a revolution.  Kodak, the giant, went bankrupt.

Many business innovations and discoveries were the results of happy accidents. Viagra and Post-it Notes spring to mind.  Both are mentioned in more detail later in the book.

Summary

While we continue to make our plans and fill our diaries, it’s worth remembering that life’s most profound and defining moments will likely be the ones we never anticipated. The unexpected is what keeps us on our toes. It’s what fuels innovation, sparks revolutions, and creates the legends we tell for generations. It’s the universe’s way of reminding us that the best parts of the story are the ones that haven’t been written yet. 

The unexpected is not a mere footnote to human progress; it is an integral and essential propulsive force. By disrupting our plans, challenging our assumptions, and forcing us to adapt, unexpected events can be the catalysts for profound transformations.

How can we harness the power of the unforeseen?  How can we prepare for or even encourage the unexpected?  In my new book I will try to show you how.

The post Why the Unexpected is so Important appeared first on Destination Innovation.

Booking.com runs over 25,000 tests every year. This approach has transformed a small startup into a giant of the travel industry. Extensive experimentation has been crucial for their marketing and innovation strategies. According to Lukas Vermeer, Director of Experimentation, they run over 1000 experiments at a time. They run tests for individual website visitors to test specific ideas and learn what works better. These are mostly A/B tests, where they assess the results from two alternatives. In this way they can find an ideal sequence for each customer journey on their site.

How does Booking.com set this culture of experimentation? Stuart Frisby, who was Director of Design, set these guidelines. First, no HIPPOs (highest paid person’s opinions) are allowed to dominate. Secondly, every decision is a democracy, but every decision is tested. Thirdly, trust your tools.

Building a culture of experimentation within a business means that unexpected opportunities are stimulated and exploited. It can lead to groundbreaking innovations, improved processes, and a workforce that is more engaged and adventurous.

How can this be achieved in practice?

Creating this culture starts with the leaders. Commitment across the leadership team is crucial in fostering a spirit of experimentation. Leaders should redefine what success and failure mean. They can encourage a growth mindset that accompanies a culture of experimentation. This involves creating an environment where employees feel empowered to share new ideas, test them, and rapidly scale the winners. The leadership team should live this culture day in and day out to ensure the organization keeps pace in a rapidly changing business environment.

Empowering employees to test hypotheses and iterate quickly is essential. This involves providing the time and the tool for experimentation tools and encouraging all employees to use them. By empowering everyone to test, organizations can drive innovation and prevent stagnation. This approach allows team members to become comfortable with trying out new ideas and applying a “test and iterate” approach to their day-to-day activities. Some organizations allocated a specific amount of time each day for employees to pursue their interests and try out new ideas. 3M famously allowed its researchers to spend 15% of their time to investigate any scientific topic that caught their interest regardless of whether it had a direct bearing on the job objectives.

Google encourages creativity by allowing all employees to spend 20% of their time on side projects. This has led to many innovation including Gmail and AdSense. This approach spurs experimentation and allows employees to explore new ideas without fear of criticism. By encouraging creative exploration and making it an expected part of the job, organizations like Google and 3M can foster a culture of continuous trialing and innovation.

Leaders of innovation encourage employees to take small bets and risk failure. They publicly praise the efforts of those who experiment, even if the results are failures. Some companies encourage staff to take risks by gamifying the process with rewards for people for their experiments and ideas, regardless of the outcome. This approach can help combat the natural instinct to avoid failure and encourage more experimentation.

Fostering many small bets has been crucial to Amazon’s success. They continually test new styles, products and methods to see what works best for buyers and sellers. This worked wonders with Amazon Prime and the Kindle but led to many marketing disasters including the Amazon Fire and Amazon Destinations (a hotel booking service).

We need to run more experiments.  Learn from Booking.com.  We need to change our corporate culture to be more open, curious and experimental.  We need to overcome the tendencies to be risk averse and avoid appointing blame for failure.  We need processes that enable and fund multiple tests and trials. 

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Employee suggestion schemes may sound old fashioned but they remain one of the best sources for ideas for improvement, cost saving and innovation. Bosses are increasingly turning back to their staff to find more suggestions. Employee suggestion schemes are not new. Toyota started with the concept in 1951 and now receives over one million ideas a year. The Sony PlayStation was the result of one engineer’s suggestion.

Jamie Dimon, who runs America’s largest bank, JP Morgan Chase has asked employees of the bank to email him examples of waste. “I’m just asking you to sit down and have a little fun thinking about the stupid stuff we do, the bureaucratic stuff we do — about things you would change if you were able to change them.” Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon, in his letter to shareholders wrote that last year he had asked “teammates to send me bureaucracy examples that they were experiencing. I’ve received almost 1,000 of these emails, and read every single one.” He claims he has made over 375 changes based on this feedback.

Jermaine Lapwood, director of customer innovation at the clothes retailer Primark said, “I don’t think that we have all the answers within our head office and we need to unlock the power of the ideas within our 80,000 colleague base.” So, Primark runs campaigns asking staff for ideas. A shop assistant in the Netherlands said Primark needed to reintroduce the slit at the back of its trenchcoats. It turns out that the slit is very useful for cyclists. Primark reintroduced the slit and sales in the Netherlands went up. . Any Primark employee who has a suggestion accepted is rewarded by leaving their day job temporarily and spending time at head office bringing their idea to life.

At Balfour Beatty, the construction company, has five full-time staff who work on its staff suggestion which is called My Contribution. It says that last year 2,000 ideas were submitted with 24 per cent of the workforce submitting something. Of those, 271 were deemed good enough to act upon, saving the company £3.2 million and 53,800 hours. One idea was from the Tilbury flood barrier site. Instead of the normal practice of installing cabling for high-powered lights during construction, use solar-powered lights. This saved £9,600 and three days of digging trenches for the cabling.

In most schemes, all ideas submitted on the platform can be seen by other workers. They can either add comments or vote for it to be implemented. This collaborative approach brings better employee engagement and better ideas.

Based on an article by Harry Wallop in the Times

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Marcel Duchamp, was born in 1887, in Normandy, France. He became a painter, sculptor, writer and chess player who is now recognized as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He was one of seven children who were brought up in a creative and intellectual household. Four of the seven became successful artists. At school he won prizes for Mathematics but his great love and skill was art.

Duchamp’s early career was characterized by a rapid exploration of various contemporary art movements, including Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism. However, he quickly moved beyond these styles, seeking to redefine art itself. He rejected conventional painting as “retinal,” intended only to please the eye. Instead, he wanted to use art to serve the mind. His painting “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2” (1912) caused a sensation and marked his break with conventional approaches. This work, which combined elements of Cubism and Futurism, exemplified his innovative approach and challenged traditional figure painting.

Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2

One of Duchamp’s most significant contributions was the development of the “readymade,” where ordinary objects were elevated to the status of art simply by being chosen by the artist. His most famous readymade, “Fountain” (1917), was a porcelain urinal signed “R. Mutt.” This piece was submitted to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York. The company’s board of directors rejected it on the grounds that it was not art. Duchamp, who was a member of the board of directors, resigned in protest. A storm of debate and controversy ensued. Duchamp won the argument and huge publicity. In 2004, the urinal was voted the most influential work of art of the 20th century. He firmly established the principle that it is the intention and choice of the artist that make a work of art.

Duchamp’s conceptual approach to art was not limited to readymades. He also created a female alter ego named “Rrose Sélavy,” which he used to sign several works of art and engage in various artistic exploits. This alter ego allowed him to further challenge conventions and explore the fluidity of identity in art. The name is a pun. It sounds like the French phrase Eros, c’est la vie, which may be translated as “Eros, such is life.”

Duchamp’s influence extended beyond his own work. He was a key figure in the Dada and Surrealist movements, although he refused to be affiliated with any specific artistic movement. His insistence that art should be driven by ideas above all else led to his recognition as the father of Conceptual art. His radical critique of art institutions made him a cult figure for generations of artists who, like him, refused to follow a conventional, commercial artistic career.

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Duchamp was a keen chess player and appeared in the film “Entr’acte,” playing chess with Man Ray. He played for France in the Chess Olympiad of 1928. He studied and perfected the game throughout his life, reflecting his lifelong commitment to intellectual pursuits.

Duchamp’s impact on the art world is immeasurable. His innovative spirit and challenge to traditional art forms have left a lasting legacy. His works, such as “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even” and “L.H.O.O.Q,” continue to provoke thought and inspire artistic experimentation. Duchamp’s philosophy of art, which emphasized the importance of ideas over aesthetics, has influenced countless artists and movements, including minimalism and performance art.

Marcel Duchamp died in 1968. His life and work continue to be celebrated for their profound influence on the development of modern and contemporary art. Duchamp’s legacy is a testament to his unyielding commitment to challenging conventions and pushing the boundaries of what art can be.

Lessons for Innovators

Challenge traditional notions. Duchamp defied conventional aesthetics, perceptions and the role of the artist. He embodied conceptual thinking, questioning of authority, and advocacy for artistic freedom and autonomy.

Marcel Duchamp’s relentless pursuit of artistic innovation and his challenge to established norms is an inspiration to artists and innovators everywhere.

Think Like an Innovator by Paul Sloane is published by Pearson

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Image by Alexas_fotos on Pixabay1. Ask questions: Keep asking questions, even if they seem silly or obvious. Children are always curious about the world and are always asking questions. Be more childlike.2. Read widely: Reading is the best way to expose yourself to new ideas and perspectives. Make an effort to read books, articles, and blog posts on a variety of topics, even if you don't think you'll be interested in them. Take books on strange tropics from the library.3. Explore new places: Traveling to new places is a proven way to learn about different cultures and ways of life. Make an effort to meet the locals. Even if you can't travel far, make an effort to explore new places in your own city or town.4. Talk to new people: Talk to people from different backgrounds and with different experiences - people who are different from you. Make an effort to strike up conversations with people you don't know. Listen actively. Pay attention not just to the words people say, but also their tone, body language, and emotions5. Take classes or workshops: Taking classes or workshops helps you learn new skills and knowledge. There are many opportunities to learn new things, both online and in class.6. Meditate: Resist the urge to fill every silence with an answer. Sit with the discomfort of not knowing and allow your mind to wander and explore possibilities.7. Be More Open-Minded: Challenge your own assumptions and recognise that you have biases. Be willing to consider different perspectives and entertain ideas that may contradict your own. Welcome doubt and uncertainty into your thoughts.8. Take a Break from Technology: Disconnect from the digital world and spend time in nature or simply observing your surroundings. This can help you reconnect with your senses and foster a sense of wonder.9. Don't Be Afraid to Be Wrong: Curiosity is not about having all the answers. It's about the journey of discovery. Embrace mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth.10. Cultivate a Sense of Wonder: Approach the world with a sense of awe and wonder. See the extraordinary in the ordinary and never stop marvelling at the mysteries of the universe.

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