What I Have Been Reading and Sharing This Week

Trying to get back in the swing of writing from time to time in this medium. 

Please enjoy what I have been reading and sharing this week. Comment welcome via Twitter or LinkedIn.

Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain via Dan Harris

Mossberg: The tyranny of messaging and notifications via Bob Ambrogi

On Being: Elizabeth Gilbert: Choosing Curiosity Over Fear

I grouped these three together for a reason: I am developing a theory (ok, not my theory but maybe I am adopting it), that distractions (and particularly tech distractions) help kill creativity. 

Broad brush, distractions interrupt boredom (and concentration) and boredom is a necessary state to spark curiosity, which in turn is a predicate to creativity.  I particularly like Elizabeth Gilbert's definition of creativity: choosing curiosity over fear.  And if we are never bored, in no small part because of the dopamine dispensers in our hands .....

When GCs Hire Law Firms Instead of Keeping Legal Work In-House, Legal Productivity

10 things that law firms are saying that kill innovation, by Shaun Temby  via Casey Flaherty

Why Law Firms Should Focus on Adaptation and Not Disruption, by Jordan Furlong

The next three links are some ruminations on law firms.  Obviously figuring out how to get work from in-house lawyers is important for an out-house lawyer like me. And innovating, or adapting to changes in how law is practiced, will continue to be a priority.

Healthy, Happy and Hands-Free (the Economist).

Finally, an article about how the driverless car may change the way we plan and use urban and rural space. Fewer parking garages can't be all bad ....

Hitchhikers, Slugging, and Ridesharing Websites

The current Freakonomics Radio Podcast asks Where Have All the Hitchhikers Gone?  Explanations for the decline in the number of people sticking their thumb out on the highway include the risks associated with getting in the car with a stranger, spikes in the number of licensed drivers and car ownership, and increased auto durability.

What I found most interesting is the statistic that the average commuting vehicle carries only 1.1 people, leaving roughly 80% of its capacity unused.

Some individuals and companies are responding to this huge inefficiency.  In the Washington, DC area, "sluggers" are picked up by total strangers in order to meet the 3-person high occupancy vehicle (HOV) requirement for various highways.  No money is exchanged because the transaction is mutually beneficial.

And a company called Zimride offers a ridesharing site where those needing a lift can be matched up with drivers going to or near that destination.

Greater use of those types of services would not only allow more efficient use of vehicles (and fuel), but would also help ease the burdens of harried parents.  And it also would lead to more interaction between people in our communities.

And I am for all of that.

Perfect: Enemy of the Good (and the Better)

Voltaire said that  "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien," or "the best is the enemy of the good." Jeff Jarvis' contribution to End Malaria goes further and argues that the best is also the enemy of the better, because it prevents getting things done, and stymies the "process of improvement and the possibility of collaboration."  In terms of practical decision-making, pursuit of the best often leads to  "READY…AIM…AIM…AIM…AIM…AIM… Wait a minute, why am I holding a gun?"

According to Jarvis, the beta, the product in development that is released publicly for evaluation and improvement,  is the antidote to the best.  The act of shipping product and inviting customers to help complete it is transparent, humble, and generous.  And "beta-think," and the processes of innovation, experimentation and risk, can be applied to many areas in addition to software development.

Once the fear of imperfection and its paralyzing effect is removed, "we can make what we do ever better because we are never done, never satisfied, always seeking ways to improve by working in public." 

What are you going to have the courage to create and share today?

Spend Some Time in the Margins of Your Attention

Much has been posted here and elsewhere about the importance of minimizing distractions and interruptions in order to have the time to create meaningful work.But if focused like a laser on a project with head down, door shut, and router disabled, is there some chance we also limit the ability to create new ideas in our work and life?

While reading End Malaria, I came across a piece called "Genius is in the Margins of Your Attention" by Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From: A Natural History of Innovation.

Johnson writes that ideas and innovation spring from the exploration of the "adjacent possible," (a phrase coined by Stuart Kauffman) or "all the different ways your work or creative life can be recombined into new forms." And opening up your mind to these possibilities-- located at the "margins of your attention"-- depends upon diversifying your interests (having a great many hobbies) and working on multiple projects in parallel (multitasking).

Johnson praises "slow multitaskers" who work on multiple projects involving different topics over the course of hours and days. Likewise, having many hobbies creates new potential connections and ways of approaching problems from different perspectives. Of course it is important to concentrate on a single problem, but do so mindful of the need to spend some time in the margins exploring the adjacent possible.

Johnson's ideas are echoed just three pages later by Josh Linkner, author of Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity. In "What's Your Idea Schedule?" Linkner advocates taking 5 % of your time (2 hours) each week to reflect, think, create, and explore possibilities instead of cranking out assignments. According to Linker, resting the left brain and energizing the right brain stokes productivity, efficiency and innovation.

So maybe being too focused on focus is not such a good idea after all.

Healthcare and Legal Costs: Defining, Measuring (and Slashing)

A couple of recent pieces discussing costs in healthcare and legal services.

Much ado these days about the exploding costs of health care, and the necessity of managing those costs. An HBR Podcast entitled What Health Care Really Costs provides one explanation why the costs of healthcare have become so unmanageable: we simply don't know what they are.

Robert S. Kaplan of the Harvard Business Business school is the author, along with Michael Porter, of an article called, "How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Healthcare," to be published this fall in the Harvard Business Review.

According to Kaplan, we have no idea how much it costs to deliver healthcare, due to the way the system has developed. He uses the metaphor of the Galapagos Islands-- where land split off and developed its own species of animals, completely unaffected by what is taking place on the mainland-- to highlight how healthcare costs and charges are different from those found in any other industry.

In a typical hospital or doctor's office, charges for service are based on how much providers get paid or would like to get paid. In other words, a provider wants to maximize reimbursements, and is not concerned with either the effectiveness of the outcome resulting from a practice or procedure, or the costs associated with that practice or procedure. Costs and charges are completely unrelated, with one result being a great many delivery inefficiencies and redundancies.

Kaplan and Porter propose to measure the outcomes resulting from the treatment of a patient and what costs you incur in order to produce those outcomes, and are looking for new ways of reimbursement rewarding practitioners for good outcomes and lower costs. If you organize the flow of activities based upon the needs of the patient and the costs to serve her, unnecessary costs can be eliminated and service delivery improved.

Similarly, several new types of firms are using technology and alternative fee structures to offer lower cost legal services to clients. As described in the Economist this week, Clearspire offers cost estimates for each part of a legal project. If the actual costs are greater, Clearspire must eat them. If the project comes in under budget, Clearspire keeps part of the savings, thus getting part of the benefit of its own efficiencies.

Axiom Law uses a flat-fee structure, or charges by the week or month for its legal team.

Both companies use technology (and its ability to make physical location irrelevant) to minimize costs. Clearspire has created "virtual offices" connecting lawyers who are actually working from home with each other and their clients, while Axiom has placed its headquarters and lawyers in lower cost locales.

These articles (and many others) continue to demonstrate that identifying and measuring costs and the outcomes associated with them (and then reducing costs when appropriate) are crucial to the survival of any organization in any industry.

Friday Observations on Creativity, Modern Businesses and Innovation

Several very important posts below. My apologies if I have not hat-tipped the folks who pointed them my way. Chances are Melissa Brumback or Kevin O'Keefe had something to do with my finding them.

An Anti-Creativity Checklist- by Youngme Moon at the Harvard Business School and author of Different. Very provocative. Every manager and owner should take five minutes to watch this video and critically consider how many of these items are on their respective lists.



Foundation Elements for modern businesses. My favorite observations in this Seth Godin post: "When the marginal cost of an interaction approaches zero, you benefit by creating plenty of them," and "Match expenses to cash flow-- don't run out of money because it's no longer 1999."

Six Secrets to Creating a Culture of Innovation. Tony Schwartz blogs on the Harvard Business Review about the moves an organization must make in order to foster real creativity and innovation (the hard work of applying those creative ideas to your business). The points:

1. Meet People's Needs
2. Teach Creativity Systematically
3. Nuture Passion
4. Make the Work Matter
5. Provide the Time
6. Value Renewal

The Miracle of Making Mistakes and A Hierarchy of Failure

Vineet Nayar has a very insightful piece on the connection between making mistakes. learning, and innovation in the workplace. Does our fear of making mistakes stifle prevent growth and understanding?

"Do you have the nerve to encourage the mistakes that people will inevitably make on the path of discovery?" And can you share with your colleagues the knowledge of your own fits and starts?

Crucial to the learning process is the recognition that there are different kinds of mistakes (failures) with different consequences and significance. Seth Godin has created a a hierarchy of failure worth following, in which some failures should take place often (proposals, brainstorming), while others should never happen (keeping promises to your constituents).

While Big Law Lays Off, Small Law Reinvents

Article from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. Money quote: "The Path to Riches, is through niches."