The mistake that became an international best seller

In 1943 a Naval engineer by the name of Richard James was working on a design to mount ship instruments with a spring-loaded base of sorts.  He was experimenting with a number of different types of springs when somehow, somewhere in the process the springs fell off the bench. One of them kept falling, or stepping as it turned out, down various levels until it reached the floor.

The ‘Slinky’ was born. The simple toy (in fact a soft spring that walks down steps), that has delighted millions. As a kid, who hasn’t cried because their slinky got tangled?

Seeing the potential, Richard with his wife, invested some time and money and created the James Spring and Wire Company and the rest is history.

Quite often things pop up unexpectedly that are pure gems. From out of nowhere something occurs or emerges that at first appears to be either a total mistake or a complete failure but is in fact a total goldmine. If we just recognise it. If we just see it. If we are open and receptive enough to see it as an opportunity or gift when it appears.

The Slinky was one of these things. From out of a failure came something magic.

And I can’t help think - what if Richard James hadn’t seen it for what it was - or what it wasn’t. What if he saw it as just another spring that didn’t work? What if he hadn’t been receptive and open to new ideas and change? What if he didn't see it as a new possibility and opportunity - we may never have seen the slinky.

I also wonder how many other ‘slinkys’ are out there that have never seen the light of day. Or how many times each of us has let a slinky slip through our fingers because we weren’t open minded enough to see it.

It’s a matter of perspective

Have you ever noticed that the moon appears so much bigger when it’s on the horizon than when it’s up in the middle of the night sky? Guess what – it’s not! If you measure it at both positions it’s exactly the same size. I didn’t believe it so I checked and the moon doesn’t change size as the night progresses.

So why does it appear different? Well there are many theories but they all come down to one thing really - it’s a matter of perspective. The main consensus is that when the moon is on the horizon we view it in relation to other things such as buildings and trees – so it looks much bigger than the surrounding objects. But when the moon is at its zenith we have nothing much to compare it to, and as a result it appears much smaller.

In other words it's all in the way you look at it.

Changing the way you look at something can often lead to whole new areas of innovation and discovery.  We get so caught up in our own perspective that it’s often valuable to see things through the eyes and point of view of others.

So ask yourself how you can look at your project or problem from a different point of view? Can you put yourself in someone else's shoes and see things from their perspective? Your client, your boss, your competitors, your child - anyone butyou. Can you break the topic down and focus on the different elements.

Can you look at it purely from a budget perspective, a delivery perspective, a sales or design perspective? What would happen if you ignore any of these and look at the problem without any budget constraints, for example? How would that change your perspective and your solution?

Ideas Board

Okay this isn’t mine - it's been a round for a long time - but it’s an extremely useful creativity tool. (I first came across via Michael Michalko work - ‘Thinker Toys’).

In a main thoroughfare at your workplace, or your home, put up a pin board, a white board or designate a section of wall to stick things up on.

When you’re working on a project or need some creative input write or pin up your problem onto the board. Make sure you give it a heading and then write any ideas you currently have beneath that heading. You can use cards, post it notes or just write them up - who cares - just get them up there. If you’re totally stuck and have no ideas at all, great - just write the heading.

Here comes the good bit. Invite people to contribute to the board. Let them know it exists, where it exits and why it exists.  The purpose being that as they wander past they can view the topics and ideas and add comments, thoughts, extend existing ideas or add their own ideas and thoughts, even their own projects.

In this way the ‘ideas board’ becomes a dynamic tool. You’ll get different perspectives and different points of view, you’ll also see how ideas from one project may cross over to another.

Remember it’s important that your ideas board is in a visible area that gets lots of traffic. Your ‘ideas board’ can hold a number of ideas at the same time – in fact the more the better because it will then encourage collaboration.

It’s also a great tool not just for capturing and leveraging ideas but also for inspiring and nurturing the creative strength of your workplace community.

Why not put it up online I hear you cry.  Well you can of course, but the physical nature of the board is what makes it inviting in its own right (we all spend most of our day online) and so this actually a tad novel and will stand out.


The hidden opportunity

Ideas have a habit of revealing themselves in the strangest of places and strangest of ways. Quite often what appears to be an insurmountable challenge or unbeatable adversity is in fact great opportunity.  We just need to be open enough, receptive enough and creative enough to see them when they arise.

Take one evening in the dining room of the McViker family for example. The McViker’s owned a small business called Kuto Chemicals, which back in the 1950’s was in a tad of bother. They made a product, a wonderfully ingenious product, a softish, clayish compound which you would roll along the wallpaper in your house and all the grime and dust would stick to it. Clever really. Problem was that the wallpaper industry itself was in turmoil because of fashion trends - more and more people were using paint for their interiors and less and less were using wallpaper. As a result, sales of the ‘Magic Wallpaper Cleaner’ were in drastic decline and with it also the fortunes of the McVikers.

Enter a kindergarten teacher named Kay Zufall, a friend of the McVikers who had other problems. As a teacher of younglings, she was sick and tired of how messy the modelling clay was that kids used. Too wet - and the stuff would just sliny and oozy and never hold its shape, too dry - and it became brittle and just crumbled under the pressure of a two year olds hands. Either way,  there would have been a lot of crying children.

So back to dinner, because one evening, over a dinner one assumes, legend has it that Kay mentioned her frustration to her good friends the McVikers. Following that was an unrecorded conversation which resulted somehow in one of the McVikers saying something like ‘try this’ and then handed Kay Zufall some ‘Magic Wallpaper Cleaner’.  Not too hard, not too soft, it held it’s shape and worked like a charm.

‘PlayDoh’  was born.

Fortunately for us the almost tragedy which was 'Magic Wallpaper Cleaner' became an instant hit and children all over the planet have grown up knowing the joys of ‘Play Doh’, and parents all over the world have spent countless hours pulling the stuff out of carpet.

And here’s the best part, the McViker Family was smart enough to see the evolution of their product and the opportunity it offered them. By being open to possibilities,  the McViker Family turned potential oblivion into enormous success, and became very rich in the process.