Humans are peak performers

My post on "The most important factor driving innovation is a company's internal culture" got me thinking about my own motivation, and what happened during a day - where some things happen easier than others, and where time-of-day, timing in general, task, people, environment and so on all makes an impact on my overall performance RIGHT NOW.

Many years ago i attended a company course day - called something like "organize yourself" or "find your personal rhythm". Focusing on the energy level and thus focus that each person could maintain during different phases of the day. Each attendee ended up with a chart where we plotted our personal feelings on energy and focus during the phases of the day. On top of this we then allotted time boxes with tasks like "checking e-mail", "meetings", "project time" and so on... The idea was great, and I think it helped... as long as you remembered to look at your personal chart when booking meetings and so on ;)

As the title suggests, I do not believe we can stay "on the top" during a whole day, and when that is said, of cause you need to put the tasks at the right time... but also ,and more important, you need to do ONLY the tasks that is right for you- with your specific "rhythm".

I tried to define some simple elements, from which I could create a cart.



For each of the elements, I've put a value between 0 and 5 for each of the phases of the day; Morning, Before noon, noon, After noon, Evening, Night.
The elements I've decided for is; Concentration, Creativity, Happiness, Energy (and ? - because there are probably a lot more you could track)

The following chart then appears.




I've not spend to much time on actually defining the right values for myself - but set them from a general perspective. By that I've made some general assumptions like.
- Energy is low at night and high in the morning.
- Most people are creative either in the morning or just before they go to sleep.
- You are more happy when not working ;)
- Concentration has a dip just around noon - you are hungry, energy is taking a small dip as well and maybe not feeling too creative.

Now, a chart like this is actually not static at all. All of the elements can be more or less directly influenced by outside disturbances - positive and negative (symbolized by the red and green arrows). But just as important, the elements them self influence each other.

- Energy levels can be influenced by sleep, food, and happiness - among a few.
- Concentration - as explained above...
- Happiness can be influenced by other persons (with their own element-chart)
and so on...

I've just scratched the surface on a workspace / GTD related issue, and I'm sure lots of people has done much more research in this direction in relation to which elements to track, how they are best tracked and which outside elements influence each of the elements.


I also think this is interesting in regards to which job's and tasks a person would do particular good. I imagine that a similar chart could be made from the definition of a job- a chart that would be more static that the one for a person.

Addition:
Just read about an out-there version of charting a persons different elements during a day.
An auto diary which depicts a day automatically based on sms's, pictures, movement and pulse... other element that I'm talking about but still...

Another great article in Report 103 on Visual Brainstorming

Jeffery Baumgartner brings a thoughtful description on using more visual tools in a brainstorming process. I agree with most of it - though i do believe that conventional text/word based brainstorms still has it's rights in some instances.

One thing I especially like is this:

Incidentally, research has also shown that while verbal brainstorming in a single location often brings less creative results than individual creativity, on-line brainstorming using web based tools is more effective than on-site brainstorming or individual brainstorming.

I've had more successful on line brainstorms facilitated by everything from a shared document, mind map, skype or even a combination of text messaging, sending pictures, links and drawings, than localized ones with the same success factor. So I think there might be some truth in this.

I also think that Anand Chhatpar - which I'm fortunate to have had good chats and brainstorms with, thought of this a while back when he created http://www.brainreactions.net/

I've used it far less than i should and could have, but I think it might come to it's rights, especially if you use it even if the brainstorm is localized. I think it has great potential regarding idea-collection and later idea management.

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The most important factor driving innovation is a company’s internal culture

New ways of measuring innovation points to internal company culture as one of the lead factors in defining a company as innovative.

I know there has been discussions weather beanbags and such could spur the innovative culture in a company - which it still can't !! But rather it's the overall mindset of the people working in that company which defines the culture.

This is also interesting when it comes to talking about idea-generation and management systems such as Dell's Ideastorm and Idéoffensiv - a danish county's idea generation tool made by Socialsquare.

Because one thing is setting up the physical collection of ideas from various sources, another is actually qualifying those ideas into use full information and in turn projects/solutions.

This is where the culture of the company comes to play - if the ideation is not supported in the company, a lot of ideas won't make the difference. They have to be matured...


Read the whole article on Innovationtools

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Passive and Active Creativity

In the September 07 issue of Report 103 is a very interesting article on creativity. For many creative involved people, this might seem as just a precision of something they all ready know, but I especially like this paragraph:

Although the exact process is not clear, it seems that the biochemical process of the brain restructures memories before storing them during the night. This restructuring most likely allows our minds to see problems in new ways and so bring new solutions to them. (Ref: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/21/sleep.creativity.ap/index.html)

As stated in the article - sleeping on a problem is not exactly new, though this gives me a clue as to why i often describe my "most creative" period as being in the shower each morning.

The article also touches another interesting creativity-issue - the space or beeing-space. Getting out and about, changing the setting in which you think is a powerful but yet overlooked tool in today's company culture. (No IKEA been bags is not enough - an article about where your ideas come from in Danish)