Say you have 2 rooms, Room A and Room B .
In Room A, you have 1,000 people and the two smartest individuals (based on job, test scores, etc) are chosen to be the problems solvers and inventors (designated by test scores). The rest of the group watchs TV or even sleeps.
In Room B, you have 1,000 people , but all 1,000 to be potential problems solvers and inventors. At specific time intervals (maybe ever Friday), all individuals are to write an idea proposal that will be presented to the group, and then will be voted on whether it should be considered for implementation.
Which Room do you suppose would be the most productive? I believe that most (if not all) countries follow the Room B approach.
IMHO, the problem is that we aren’t really using our brainpower potential to its fullest. I think if everybody started thinking of ideas instead of wasting so much time watching TV, many problems might be solved.
The reasons why most people are not in Room B are:
- The complexities of the legal system. Nobody wants to think of great ideas only to have them stolen by other members that know how to create patents and can secure financing.
- We are not trained that way. From childhood we are taught to be followers.
- Lack of desire to learn. Just learning to learn doesn’t work for everybody. But if students are shown how what they are learning works in real life or can be used to problem solve or invent things, perhaps kids would want to learn.
- Financing. Creating prototypes cost money.
- Self Confidence. This is really a combination of all the above mentioned bullet points.
I wonder what the world would be like if we all did try solve problems?
Look at Benjamin Franklin, he didn’t start inventing things until he was rich and retired at the age of 43. Until that point, his primary goal was running his newspaper business and becoming wealthy. Could you imagine what incredible inventions could be in existence if he started seriously inventing things starting in his 20s?
Can you imagine what a radically different world we would live in if we all did use our brainpower to problem solve and invent a few things? Which room do you think you are currently in as work, Room A or Room B?
MR
Interesting concept.
The reason I love the school my kids attend is because kids are taught to present and be leaders starting in kindergarten. There are opportunities for everyone, and very few people come out as followers. They are taught to respect everyone’s opinions and much of class time is spent on discussion. However, I know that is not the typical classroom environment. Schools are so focused on test scores that a lot of the discussion and creativity has been drained from the school system.
I think a lot of adults are just plain reluctant to share their opinions for fear of rejection or mockery, possibly because of experiences in their youth. Or, maybe people just feel stuck in their jobs and they just don’t feel motivated to ‘take the next step’. Instead, they just want to collect their paycheck.
Regardless, I think the workplace is way too populated with those willing to take the easy way out. Could be an internal issue, or maybe the work environment is not conducive to open sharing and collective thought.
Not sure I answered your question, just venting I suppose.
Sounds like a pretty smart school system up there!
I think being a leader all starts in school, so it will be interesting to see how the students up there fair…
Oh, it isn’t all schools by any means. We pay plenty of money for that education!
We know that collective wisdom is greater than the wisdom of any one or two individuals. That is why the internet has become so valuable in order to spread thoughts and ideas.
Everyday tips, I am curious as to whether that kindergarten is public or private. I am impressed if public and the mentality can be maintained through high school.
Ahhh yes, the internet as a way to share ideas and thoughts… Good point!
Everyday tip’s kids go to a private school. Very impressive, and a big plus for private schools (if they all do that).
I agree that our society isn’t maximizing our brain power. Dove tailing on Everyday Tips’ thought, those taking the easy way out often will fill (out of their shear numbers) spots that might be great opportunities for others who have more initiative, smarts or energy.
I also think there are two more compounding problems. First, not enough people are well trained in execution; someone might have a great idea but be completely unable to articulate how it would practically work out. Few people are forced to cope with complexity and even fewer are forced to deal with it. We also have lower rates of students attending engineering and hard science programs than many other country. This effect is compounded because people are not well networked, the second problem. When you have a great idea you can neither execute it yourself nor know someone you can so you drop it and a great idea is wasted.
What a great discussion point!
The more comments that I read, the more I come to the conclusion that leadership need to be taught and the skills that go along with leadership need to be focused on. I’m not 100% if school is the appropriate place for it, unless it’s done as Everyday Tip’s school system does.
I have my Room A days and my Room B days, lol. It really depends on how pooped out I am and who the 999 other people would be. 🙂 If they are annoying, I rather watch tv. If they are friendly, I’ll sit around bouncing ideas around until the wee hours of the morning.
If think if it’s the culture of the groups, Room B would be natural, friendly and conductive. Room A would be harder to be taken seriously in.
I also want to add another reason: We’re already maximizing our brain power. Sure, not all of us are Thomas Edison but you have to give soft skills credit. Every time you adjust your entire day, week, month, life based on a news out of the blue, that’s brain power. Every time you figure out a new way to get that #$^! person at work to see things your way, that’s invention. Every time you have to think outside the box because your boss tells you they need the project finished sooner, with a smaller budget, that’s creativity.
Soft skills (EQ) is just as important and sucks up just as much brain power. There’s a reason why the world’s most famous inventors were all pretty much big jerks who were completely reliant on other people. If they had to slow down and take time to develop social skills and learn how to take care of themselves they wouldn’t have time to become extraordinarily brilliant. It’s also why we all seemed so much smarter in high school/college. In our learning phase we get to focus on learning, our parents provide for us so we can focus on one thing. Once we’re grown it’s hard to remember basic math sometimes because we’re pulled in so many directions.
Oh, and just to play devil’s advocate I will argue that Room A is better than Room B. Imagine Room A has Tessler and Einstein. Imagine Room B has 1,000 people from your neighborhood/community. I would rather be in Room A with the two genius who are working their geniuses magic creating cool things while the 9,998 of us are resting, cooking, cleaning, playing, helping out the geniuses, and basically enjoying life. Room B can’t get anything done because they lack the stand out science geniuses and they’re stuck in the politics of voting. I’m sure they’ll come up with some great ideas (a reverse microwave that instantly chills!) but they won’t be able to carry it out. They’ll get burned out and start coming up with the kind of things you see on infomercials. If the rooms were countries Room A will be far more advanced that Room B.
Hmmm, I see your points and think they make sense.
But, I would rather be in Room B though. I want to be part of the creative process, even if I we don’t have something like nuclear power or Tesla’s Death Ray Machine. That’s not to say we have to be “ON” all the time. That would mean that we a slave to the invention process. Perhaps I need a Room C that’s a blend of Room A and Room B.
I have a good friend who works at Apple and he says that it’s room A. There are only a small handful of people there that come up with the inventions and ideas, and everyone else’s job is to figure out how to make it happen on a commercial scale, technically, marketingwise, etc. His job actually is to scour the planet for special ceramics and new manufacturing technologies that would enable specific ideas to happen.
I think you can be wildly successful with both models. Just like Jin said, it really depends on how far off from the curve those two superstars are. If they are genius visionaries, then it may be all you need.
Great real world example!
I think that such models as you describe works well for companies.
I wish I had the money like Franklin to conduct my own experiments and create wonderful things. I’m willing to bet that there quite a few people in a poor environment that given the opportunity could really shine and do some incredible things, but they never will because they don’t have the resources. In a Room B environment, they would get to shine though. Hypothetically speaking of course.
Room B is far more productive! This can be said with sports too. Less talented players who act as a team can easily beat super stars. The LA Lakers are a good example! Working in a good supportive environment can yield great things. That is one of the reasons, high tech companies like Google are successful. As a manager, I would rather have employees who work well together and use the collective intelligence and energy of the group to accomplish the task.
Such environments would be rewarding beyond the paycheck! Especially if they were to do incredible things working together.
Where I work at, my company encourages innovation and even creates patents on some of their employee’s works.
I would say Room B. I wish more people would write down ideas as they come to them. Since I’ve been doing that I’ve come up with several business ideas and a few inventions.
You identified one of my biggest weaknesses. I constantly have thoughts of great ideas (or I think they were), but I can not remember them 🙂
Kudos to you for writing them down, I will try to do that same soon!
I think one of the big problems is that school at all levels stifles creativity and individualism, from Elementary school all the way through college. That, and we have a much more sedentary, consumer culture right now than we have had in the past, with no major challenges or goals for us all to concentrate and work on. I often wonder what it would have been like to live during World War 2 times, when every single individual was encouraged to do something to aid the war effort, even if it was just collecting aluminum cans to provide metal for the production of war materials. Having such a common purpose throughout our country isn’t something I’ve seen in my lifetime.