The freedom of creativity

Creativity is the process of creating something original. When a thing has been created, others try either to re-create or optimize it. In business and in life, innovation and optimization play off each other, enjoying an almost circular relationship.

Seth Godin’s recent post, “The non-optimized life,” challenges readers to think beyond just maximizing or improving what already exists. Such ”a never-ending cycle of optimization can become a crutch, a place to hide when you really should be confronting the endless unknown.” Godin hits the nail on the head – while it may be practical and efficient to follow what’s already been done, at times we do so because it is simply easier.

In the month that celebrates Independence Day, we’re reminded of the spirit of innovation, which often means departing from what is known into the unknown. So when “two roads diverge[d] in a wood,” which one will be chosen?

The tiny house movement

The small house has just gotten tiny! An architectural and social movement, the small house rarely exceeds 500 square feet. and the tiny house can be as little as 90 square feet.

According to NPR’s “Do-It-Yourselfer Downsize: How To Build A Tiny House,” the uses of the small house are varied. Derek Diedricksen, a small house do-it-yourselfer, built a “hickshaw” (a rickshaw for hicks) on a wheel-barrow platform. The hickshaw is essentially a room with a view for one that can be wheeled to a specific location of choice.

Another small house enthusiast Peter King, 51, has several tiny houses on his geodesic dome property in Vermont. His words sum up the heart of the movement. “I just like the sense of economy…The sense of: you can’t put a lot of stuff in there, so you have to be careful of what’s important. And another beauty of the tiny house is that you can put them almost anywhere. They are moveable at this scale.”

A moveable house that holds the essentials — it speaks to a challenge that most of us feel, which is the desire to de-clutter. In response to society’s super-sizing on purchases and accommodations, the small house movement embraces frugality. If you’re interested in a small house but don’t want to build one, you can purchase a kit from Tumbleweed Tiny House Company in California for about $20K. It might be a long time coming before the small house is a prototype for new housing developments. For now, it’s an ideal option for communities surviving environmental disaster, serious campers, and those who seek sanctuary in a separate home office or playhouse of sorts.

Workplace motivators

When it comes to the workplace, there are varying motivational factors for the differing generations, according to Entrepreneur’s “Motivating Gen X, Gen Y Workers.” Baby boomers typically value work for the monetay reward, which is scaled to the quality and quantity of work completed. The harder one works, the better off one will be financially.

In contrast, since many Gen Xers grew up watching their parents overwork and sacrifice family time, work/life balance is priority. Gen Xers tend to be motivated by opportunities for personal and professional growth and mentoring.

Gen Yers or Millenials are accustomed to a fast pace environment with lots of stimuli. Their strength is in their ability to multi-task, but their challenge may be in being perceived as the “entitlement” generation. Millenials need collaboration, engaged leadership, open communication, positive reinforcement, technology, and positive challenges.

While we shouldn’t oversimplify it, a working knowledge of the motivating factors among the generations can do wonders for building team rapport.

Shigeru Ban builds houses with paper tubes

Historically, famous architects design buildings for the wealthy. Shigeru Ban is one exception to this tradition. He maintains a hand in each of the projects of his company, Shigeru Ban Architects, whose three offices (Tokyo, New York, and Paris) focus on a few projects rather than mega-structures. And his overarching desire is to bring architecture to all classes.

Mr. Ban is known for using recyclable materials such as paper tubes — waterproof and fire-resistant — to provide temporary shelter for victims of Kobe’s earthquake in 1995. He has also built schools in Sichuan, China, and a music hall in L’Aquila, Italy, after these regions experienced devastating quakes.

When interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about his hope for the profession to become more socially responsible, Ban shared that architects are an important piece to the success of recovery efforts in disaster areas. “We are responsible for disasters. After an earthquake, when a building collapses…it is not because of the earthquake itself but because of the structure of the building. That is the responsibility of the architect.”

For more on Ban, tune into the WSJ interview.

What’s all the BUZZ about?

Last week, Google launched Google Buzz, a social networking service to compete with Twitter and Facebook. The service is based on the 176 million users of Gmail. If you have a gmail account, Buzz will automatically create a “built-in circle of friends” for your networking and chatting conversations.

Amid the excitement of the launch, the talk around Google Buzz is not all positive. Critics say that Buzz invades privacy by assuming the right to create a potential friend list without asking for the user’s permission. Todd Jackson, product manager for Gmail and Google Buzz, responded that the company will make necessary changes in the weeks ahead.

In a business world where products are often introduced and then improved using real-time customer feedback, some wonder if Google launched their social networking rocket too soon.

“It was a terrible mistake,” said Danny Sullivan, a specialist on Google and editor of SearchEngineLand, an industry blog. “I don’t think people expected that Google would show the world who you are connected with. And if there was a way to opt out, it was really easy to miss.” Time will tell if Google can alter course before the market runs out of patience.

When in Rome, eat like an American

Recent controversy in Italy highlights the clash between culture and change. Last month, the McDonald’s Corporation launched the McItaly, an all-Italian hamburger served not on a sesame seed bun but on ciabatta-like bread. According to New York Daily News (”McItaly burger sparks controversy for McDonald’s in Italy), Italy’s Agriculture Minister Luca Zai heartily sponsors the McItaly (made with Italian beef, Asiago cheese, and artichoke spread), purporting that farmers will get a much needed financial boost, or roughly an additional 4.8 million per month. McDonald’s flagship restaurant opened in 1986 in Rome’s historic center, the place that also birthed the Slow Food movement, which champions home cooking with locally grown, organic products over the consumption of fast food.

The McItaly takes fast food to another level that some Italians (not just those in the Slow Food movement) believe is antithetical to their country’s long-standing culinary identity. It’s a familiar conflict that all people in business face. Do the ends (economic growth) justify the means?

Want fries with that?

Daizi Zheng has created a new kind of food packaging with Stereotype. Project Stereotype’s aim is to change people’s poor eating habits by encouraging them to make better choices — carrots in a pseudo-cigarette box, blueberries in a blister pack, and celery in a french fry container.

Whether the Stereotype marketing project proves successful remains to be seen. An interesting point does surface, however. The creative packaging points to our tricky relationship with food. It’s not just about eating what’s good for us; it’s about having some “fun” while doing it. Our hedonistic tendencies move us out of the bounds of “healthy” many moments throughout our lives. Can you mix healthy and forbidden fun? Maybe so.