Sometimes we can find inspiration in likely places, like a museum. Other times we find inspiration in the most unlikely of places, like a simple story from a colleague. This week’s on ramp is a little of both, and comes from Hillary Bleckley by way of an e-mail she shared with some of her innovation teammates. Here’s her thoughts… “Last night, Andrew (Hillary’s Husband) and I made a late night visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I had been telling him about the small, but impressive, exhibit, Photographs from Paris, and insisted that we also visit another new installation by artist Diana Al-Hadid. (It’s this prodigious, enchanting art form that overtakes an entire room). After checking out both exhibits, Andrew asked if we could make our way to the modern art wing to view his favorite piece, Landscape with Wing, by Anselm Kiefer. I’m not particularly taken by Kiefer - many of Kiefer’s paintings incorporate straw, tar, and ash, depicting post-war Germany – but this one is quite captivating with the juxtaposition of a massive metal wing floating above the desolate landscape. While Andrew and I stood in silence at the back of the room to take in the full breadth of the painting, a docent came up to us and asked us if we knew much about the piece of art. We didn’t really, other than what was detailed on the little plastic placard to the right of the massive painting. The docent proceeded to tell us that the painting was inspired by an Icelandic myth. The story was about a boy mason worker who became a slave to a Viking family, who neglected the boy and made him toil for years. Determined to escape and seek retribution on the evil family, the boy spent months fashioning a pair of metal wings. Upon final construction, the boy mercilessly killed the family, strapped on his wings, and escaped by flight from the farm never to return. The story was disturbing, and alarming, but it gave the painting new meaning. It put the painting in context. It gave it emotion. Within a matter of minutes, that wing told a different story. I found myself studying it differently. Suddenly, from the painting, emerged themes like freedom, desperation, hope –themes that certainly resonated in post-war Europe. It was a good reminder that everything has a context. Everything has a story. Whether a company, a brand, or a person. When we take the time to dig a little deeper, uncover the story, it shapes our interaction, our connection, to that thing. The beauty of art is there is always room for interpretation, but the beauty of telling a story is the depth of understanding and opportunity for connection that it brings.” *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

Sometimes we can find inspiration in likely places, like a museum. Other times we find inspiration in the most unlikely of places, like a simple story from a colleague. This week’s on ramp is a little of both, and comes from Hillary Bleckley by way of an e-mail she shared with some of her innovation teammates. Here’s her thoughts…

“Last night, Andrew (Hillary’s Husband) and I made a late night visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I had been telling him about the small, but impressive, exhibit, Photographs from Paris, and insisted that we also visit another new installation by artist Diana Al-Hadid. (It’s this prodigious, enchanting art form that overtakes an entire room). After checking out both exhibits, Andrew asked if we could make our way to the modern art wing to view his favorite piece, Landscape with Wing, by Anselm Kiefer. I’m not particularly taken by Kiefer - many of Kiefer’s paintings incorporate straw, tar, and ash, depicting post-war Germany – but this one is quite captivating with the juxtaposition of a massive metal wing floating above the desolate landscape.

While Andrew and I stood in silence at the back of the room to take in the full breadth of the painting, a docent came up to us and asked us if we knew much about the piece of art. We didn’t really, other than what was detailed on the little plastic placard to the right of the massive painting. The docent proceeded to tell us that the painting was inspired by an Icelandic myth. The story was about a boy mason worker who became a slave to a Viking family, who neglected the boy and made him toil for years. Determined to escape and seek retribution on the evil family, the boy spent months fashioning a pair of metal wings. Upon final construction, the boy mercilessly killed the family, strapped on his wings, and escaped by flight from the farm never to return.

The story was disturbing, and alarming, but it gave the painting new meaning. It put the painting in context. It gave it emotion. Within a matter of minutes, that wing told a different story. I found myself studying it differently. Suddenly, from the painting, emerged themes like freedom, desperation, hope –themes that certainly resonated in post-war Europe. It was a good reminder that everything has a context. Everything has a story. Whether a company, a brand, or a person. When we take the time to dig a little deeper, uncover the story, it shapes our interaction, our connection, to that thing. The beauty of art is there is always room for interpretation, but the beauty of telling a story is the depth of understanding and opportunity for connection that it brings.”

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

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Venezuela’s University of Momboy started an ambitious program to promote “reading, health, and sustainable development” in remote Andean villages. Using a very basic approach, mules loaded with books that travel to remote Andean villages, the group is promoting access to something as basic as knowledge. One of their key objectives is to “develop the child and adult farmer, not only as mere reader and consumer of information, but also capable of producing, narrating and writing.” The bibliomulas, or book mules, are the equivalent to book mobiles – mobile libraries that take books to villages without access to libraries. Except in this case, the bibliomulas go to villages without access to roads. The founders, Roberth Ramirez and Jose Luis Briceño were interviewed for an innovation award from “America Learning Media” discussing some of the challenges of the Bibliomulas program. They face many of the same challenges most corporate innovators face. Here are a couple of excerpts from the interview (courtesy of Google Translate). The group discussed, among other challenges, the difficulty of getting buy-in for a program that others viewed as too idealistic and unrealistic. Through passion and perseverance, the group illustrated the purpose driven benefits of the bibliomulas program. “El promover la lectura en las comunidades y especialmente en niños, fortalecer la educación rural, potenciar la relación comunidad – escuela, el estimulo a la creatividad y apoyar la actualización de los docente rurales; nos brinda la oportunidad de imaginar una mejor realidad.” [Roughly translated: “Promoting reading in communities and especially in children, strengthens rural education, enhances community relations, and stimulates creativity, giving us the opportunity to imagine a better reality.”] The group also discussed the obstacle of constant innovation and continuous improvement, going beyond books to create “Bibliomulas 2.o” (could not resist). Since its inception, the program has expanded beyond books to include cybermulas, mules loaded with laptops, projectors, and mobile phones that access the internet through wireless connections. (I very cool marriage between high tech and low tech). The founders, when sharing their passion for the program, paraphrase Argentinean Poet Jorge Luis Borges: “Sin duda, la lectura es el descubrimiento más grande y hermoso que ha tenido el hombre, ya lo decía Jorge Luis Borges: la lectura es la mejor de las conquistas del hombre. De tal manera, que llevar la lectura a un niño lo va a convertir en otro ser humano distinto a su padre, que en la mayoría de los casos no sabe leer.” [“Without doubt, reading is the largest and most beautiful discovery…reading is the best of men’s achievements. Thus, to take reading to a child is going to make another human being different from his father, who in most cases (does) not read.”] Check out their blog here - (http://bibliomulasuvm.blogspot.com/) And think about what new innovations you can create through the marriage of old and new technologies. *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

Venezuela’s University of Momboy started an ambitious program to promote “reading, health, and sustainable development” in remote Andean villages. Using a very basic approach, mules loaded with books that travel to remote Andean villages, the group is promoting access to something as basic as knowledge. One of their key objectives is to “develop the child and adult farmer, not only as mere reader and consumer of information, but also capable of producing, narrating and writing.”

The bibliomulas, or book mules, are the equivalent to book mobiles – mobile libraries that take books to villages without access to libraries. Except in this case, the bibliomulas go to villages without access to roads.

The founders, Roberth Ramirez and Jose Luis Briceño were interviewed for an innovation award from “America Learning Media” discussing some of the challenges of the Bibliomulas program. They face many of the same challenges most corporate innovators face. Here are a couple of excerpts from the interview (courtesy of Google Translate).

The group discussed, among other challenges, the difficulty of getting buy-in for a program that others viewed as too idealistic and unrealistic. Through passion and perseverance, the group illustrated the purpose driven benefits of the bibliomulas program. “El promover la lectura en las comunidades y especialmente en niños, fortalecer la educación rural, potenciar la relación comunidad – escuela, el estimulo a la creatividad y apoyar la actualización de los docente rurales; nos brinda la oportunidad de imaginar una mejor realidad.” [Roughly translated: “Promoting reading in communities and especially in children, strengthens rural education, enhances community relations, and stimulates creativity, giving us the opportunity to imagine a better reality.”]

The group also discussed the obstacle of constant innovation and continuous improvement, going beyond books to create “Bibliomulas 2.o” (could not resist). Since its inception, the program has expanded beyond books to include cybermulas, mules loaded with laptops, projectors, and mobile phones that access the internet through wireless connections. (I very cool marriage between high tech and low tech).

The founders, when sharing their passion for the program, paraphrase Argentinean Poet Jorge Luis Borges: “Sin duda, la lectura es el descubrimiento más grande y hermoso que ha tenido el hombre, ya lo decía Jorge Luis Borges: la lectura es la mejor de las conquistas del hombre. De tal manera, que llevar la lectura a un niño lo va a convertir en otro ser humano distinto a su padre, que en la mayoría de los casos no sabe leer.” [“Without doubt, reading is the largest and most beautiful discovery…reading is the best of men’s achievements. Thus, to take reading to a child is going to make another human being different from his father, who in most cases (does) not read.”]

Check out their blog here - (http://bibliomulasuvm.blogspot.com/) And think about what new innovations you can create through the marriage of old and new technologies.

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

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Hotels offer two main things – a room and a location. While I’m no expert in retail location, I imagine the cost benefit analysis of hotel construction relies pretty heavily on what nearby attractions are worth visiting. But how do you meet the demands of location if an “attraction” is temporary? Back in 2004 Jacksonville Florida was in the running to host the 39th NFL Super Bowl, making it the smallest city ever considered to host the game. However, the NFL had a stipulation that in order to be considered to host the games, a city must have a minimum of 17,500 quality hotel rooms – something Jacksonville was about 3,500 short of. Rather than withdraw from consideration, the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee suggested a unique alternative – cruise ships. The idea was a success, adding 3,600 rooms for NFL guests, sponsors, and other VIP’s. Great idea if you have an accessible body of water nearby. Snoozebox is a more recent innovation in “transportable, temporary hotel accommodation.” The European company offers “flexible configurations from 40 to 400 rooms, Snoozebox can be fully operational and ready to welcome guests within 48 hours of arriving at almost any event or location around the world” (from the Snoozebox site). Assembled from shipping containers, each room contains a “living area,” with bed and closet, as well as a “wet room,” with a commode, sink, and hot water shower. (see inside of a “room” here) “And Snoozebox is truly adaptable, being totally self-contained with no need for mains services or flat terrain to be sited.” The concept has been used for sporting events and concerts to house anyone from fans to project crews and production staff. Check out some upcoming events here – including accommodating performers for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle this coming September. Both concepts - Snoozebox and cruise ships - are great examples of using innovation by reframing the objective. In this case, both groups moved from the traditional “get people to the hotel” to the more innovative “get the hotel to the people.” It’s pretty audacious if you think about it. How might you reframe an objective you’re working on? *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

Hotels offer two main things – a room and a location. While I’m no expert in retail location, I imagine the cost benefit analysis of hotel construction relies pretty heavily on what nearby attractions are worth visiting. But how do you meet the demands of location if an “attraction” is temporary?

Back in 2004 Jacksonville Florida was in the running to host the 39th NFL Super Bowl, making it the smallest city ever considered to host the game. However, the NFL had a stipulation that in order to be considered to host the games, a city must have a minimum of 17,500 quality hotel rooms – something Jacksonville was about 3,500 short of. Rather than withdraw from consideration, the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee suggested a unique alternative – cruise ships. The idea was a success, adding 3,600 rooms for NFL guests, sponsors, and other VIP’s. Great idea if you have an accessible body of water nearby.

Snoozebox is a more recent innovation in “transportable, temporary hotel accommodation.” The European company offers “flexible configurations from 40 to 400 rooms, Snoozebox can be fully operational and ready to welcome guests within 48 hours of arriving at almost any event or location around the world” (from the Snoozebox site). Assembled from shipping containers, each room contains a “living area,” with bed and closet, as well as a “wet room,” with a commode, sink, and hot water shower. (see inside of a “room” here) “And Snoozebox is truly adaptable, being totally self-contained with no need for mains services or flat terrain to be sited.”

The concept has been used for sporting events and concerts to house anyone from fans to project crews and production staff. Check out some upcoming events here – including accommodating performers for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant at Windsor Castle this coming September.

Both concepts - Snoozebox and cruise ships - are great examples of using innovation by reframing the objective. In this case, both groups moved from the traditional “get people to the hotel” to the more innovative “get the hotel to the people.” It’s pretty audacious if you think about it. How might you reframe an objective you’re working on?

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

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This year marks the 100 year anniversary of LL Bean, the purveyor of high-quality outdoor gear and apparel based in Freeport, Maine. To celebrate the occasion, LL Bean has created the “Bootmobile,” a giant replica of the iconic “Maine Hunting Shoe” on wheels. The company is sending the Bootmobile around the country on a “Million Moment Mission,” collecting one million customer stories of great outdoor moments. The project speaks to the power of stories to connect customers to products through shared experiences. The campaign delivers on multiple levels. It’s a celebration of company heritage and a reaffirmation of their commitment to high quality products, customer service, and social responsibility. And it’s also a great PR and story-gathering vehicle (pun intended) that will only help to further fuel LL Bean’s understanding of their customers. (LLBean will then donate $1 for every moment shared to the National Park Foundation’s programs that are dedicated to helping underserved kids experience the outdoors - check it out here.) This is a company committed to the customer - one example includes a customer service representative who drove a canoe down to Boston from Freeport, ME to help out a customer in a bind. There are no locks on the doors of the flagship store in Maine because the store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Free shipping and a total product guarantee remain hallmarks of this brand. (LL Bean has so captured the hearts of their loyal customers that when founder Leon Leonwood Bean passed away in 1967, over 50,000 letters of condolences poured in.) Consider your brand’s products and services that are out in the world right now creating stories. If we set out to collect these tales what type of narrative would they create? *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Joanna Chow in our Chicago office. Happy Monday!

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of LL Bean, the purveyor of high-quality outdoor gear and apparel based in Freeport, Maine. To celebrate the occasion, LL Bean has created the “Bootmobile,” a giant replica of the iconic “Maine Hunting Shoe” on wheels. The company is sending the Bootmobile around the country on a “Million Moment Mission,” collecting one million customer stories of great outdoor moments.

The project speaks to the power of stories to connect customers to products through shared experiences.

The campaign delivers on multiple levels. It’s a celebration of company heritage and a reaffirmation of their commitment to high quality products, customer service, and social responsibility. And it’s also a great PR and story-gathering vehicle (pun intended) that will only help to further fuel LL Bean’s understanding of their customers. (LLBean will then donate $1 for every moment shared to the National Park Foundation’s programs that are dedicated to helping underserved kids experience the outdoors - check it out here.)

This is a company committed to the customer - one example includes a customer service representative who drove a canoe down to Boston from Freeport, ME to help out a customer in a bind. There are no locks on the doors of the flagship store in Maine because the store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Free shipping and a total product guarantee remain hallmarks of this brand. (LL Bean has so captured the hearts of their loyal customers that when founder Leon Leonwood Bean passed away in 1967, over 50,000 letters of condolences poured in.)

Consider your brand’s products and services that are out in the world right now creating stories. If we set out to collect these tales what type of narrative would they create?

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Joanna Chow in our Chicago office. Happy Monday!


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This week’s on ramp is inspired by the San Francisco office’s Amy Young, who noticed similarities between hackathons, and Prophet’s supporting pillars of liberating ideas, inspiring people, and driving impact. For those not familiar, hackathons, which usually occur within the software tech sector, are hardcore coding sessions during which engineers, programmers, and other techies collaborate to build new, or improve upon existing, products or product features. The intensive sessions, which last anywhere from 24 hours to one week, often serve multiple purposes – one part social or educational and the other part creating a usable product. (One of the first hackathons was a four day session in 1999 focused on writing java programming for the Palm V.) Most hackathons follow a similar format beginning with initial idea identification, followed by an iterative development process. Sessions start with sharing out the objectives and key subject matter with the group at large. The group shares initial ideas, then breaks out into smaller teams based on interests and expertise. These small teams begin an iterative development process – testing and learning until the session is over. The tone and energy of the sessions are shaped by the 24 hour nature of the approach, and often include pizza dinners, sleeping bags, and caffeine. Interestingly, organizations are expanding beyond software and applying the characteristics of the original hackathons to new objectives, including white space identification, solving social issues, and even talent identification. For example, Random-Hacks-of-Kindness is a hackathon organized by tech companies (including Google and Microsoft) in collaboration with NASA and the World Bank. The goal is to develop new innovations in disaster response and crisis relief. An early Random-Hacks-Of-Kindness output was a “mobile notification app that can be used when regular cellular networks are so bogged down people can’t make phone calls. Using the “I’m OK” app, people can easily notify friends and family members that they are safe via SMS by clicking one button. The “I’m OK” message is then instantly distributed to everyone a user has designated on a pre-set contact list.” (cNet Elinor Mills) How might you apply the characteristics and approach of a Hackathon to your objectives? *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

This week’s on ramp is inspired by the San Francisco office’s Amy Young, who noticed similarities between hackathons, and Prophet’s supporting pillars of liberating ideas, inspiring people, and driving impact.

For those not familiar, hackathons, which usually occur within the software tech sector, are hardcore coding sessions during which engineers, programmers, and other techies collaborate to build new, or improve upon existing, products or product features. The intensive sessions, which last anywhere from 24 hours to one week, often serve multiple purposes – one part social or educational and the other part creating a usable product. (One of the first hackathons was a four day session in 1999 focused on writing java programming for the Palm V.)

Most hackathons follow a similar format beginning with initial idea identification, followed by an iterative development process. Sessions start with sharing out the objectives and key subject matter with the group at large. The group shares initial ideas, then breaks out into smaller teams based on interests and expertise. These small teams begin an iterative development process – testing and learning until the session is over. The tone and energy of the sessions are shaped by the 24 hour nature of the approach, and often include pizza dinners, sleeping bags, and caffeine.

Interestingly, organizations are expanding beyond software and applying the characteristics of the original hackathons to new objectives, including white space identification, solving social issues, and even talent identification. For example, Random-Hacks-of-Kindness is a hackathon organized by tech companies (including Google and Microsoft) in collaboration with NASA and the World Bank. The goal is to develop new innovations in disaster response and crisis relief.

An early Random-Hacks-Of-Kindness output was a “mobile notification app that can be used when regular cellular networks are so bogged down people can’t make phone calls. Using the “I’m OK” app, people can easily notify friends and family members that they are safe via SMS by clicking one button. The “I’m OK” message is then instantly distributed to everyone a user has designated on a pre-set contact list.” (cNet Elinor Mills)

How might you apply the characteristics and approach of a Hackathon to your objectives?

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares an on-ramp to Monday with Prophet employees across the globe. We’d like to share the inspiration and expand the footprint of these weekly jump starts by sharing them here. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

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Help® Remedies is a start-up “small pharma” company dedicated to solving health issues as simply as possible. By stripping away the complexity prevalent in the health industry, it hopes to reinvent the world of over the counter medicine as friendlier, less confusing, and more accessible. Help’s products, or “solutions” as they call them, are made with a “single active ingredient.” In addition to the fewer ingredients, there are no dyes or coatings, and each solution (remember, product) is named after the symptom it treats. For example, the sleep aid solution is called “help I can’t sleep,” and the cold medicine is called “help I have chest congestion.” “Everybody in the drug aisle likes to talk about more, bigger, extra, super, and maximum. But we’re not going to talk about that. We think people get enough drugs, dyes, and nonsense from other kinds of drug companies. Help is a new type of drug company—a drug company that promises you less,” says the company on their website. Earlier this month Help announced a partnership with DKMS, the largest bone marrow registry. In an attempt to identify bone marrow donors, Help has added a simple bone registry kit to its “help I’ve cut myself” solution (yes, adhesive bandages) and created the “help I’ve cut myself and I want to save lives” solution. “Every year 10,000 people in the US need a marrow transplant to live. Fewer than half receive one. Help has partnered with DKMS, the world’s largest bone marrow donor center to provide bone marrow donor registry kits inside packs of help I’ve cut myself. Maybe if we reach out to people who are already bleeding, it won’t be such a stretch to get them to spare a drop of blood and possibly save someone’s life.” The “help I’ve cut myself and I want to save lives” is a smart partnership that helps reinforce and communicate the brands commitment to making over the counter drugs friendlier, less confusing, and more accessible. Here’s a video to a very entertaining (albeit bloody) Help and DKMS video thanking sharp objects. *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares a Monday on-ramp with Prophet employees across the globe. We’ll begin sharing them here, and encourage you to join the conversation by answering questions and providing your own comments below. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

Help® Remedies is a start-up “small pharma” company dedicated to solving health issues as simply as possible. By stripping away the complexity prevalent in the health industry, it hopes to reinvent the world of over the counter medicine as friendlier, less confusing, and more accessible.

Help’s products, or “solutions” as they call them, are made with a “single active ingredient.” In addition to the fewer ingredients, there are no dyes or coatings, and each solution (remember, product) is named after the symptom it treats. For example, the sleep aid solution is called “help I can’t sleep,” and the cold medicine is called “help I have chest congestion.”

“Everybody in the drug aisle likes to talk about more, bigger, extra, super, and maximum. But we’re not going to talk about that. We think people get enough drugs, dyes, and nonsense from other kinds of drug companies. Help is a new type of drug company—a drug company that promises you less,” says the company on their website.

Earlier this month Help announced a partnership with DKMS, the largest bone marrow registry. In an attempt to identify bone marrow donors, Help has added a simple bone registry kit to its “help I’ve cut myself” solution (yes, adhesive bandages) and created the “help I’ve cut myself and I want to save lives” solution. “Every year 10,000 people in the US need a marrow transplant to live. Fewer than half receive one. Help has partnered with DKMS, the world’s largest bone marrow donor center to provide bone marrow donor registry kits inside packs of help I’ve cut myself. Maybe if we reach out to people who are already bleeding, it won’t be such a stretch to get them to spare a drop of blood and possibly save someone’s life.”

The “help I’ve cut myself and I want to save lives” is a smart partnership that helps reinforce and communicate the brands commitment to making over the counter drugs friendlier, less confusing, and more accessible. Here’s a video to a very entertaining (albeit bloody) Help and DKMS video thanking sharp objects.

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares a Monday on-ramp with Prophet employees across the globe. We’ll begin sharing them here, and encourage you to join the conversation by answering questions and providing your own comments below. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

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Why are you so brilliant during your morning shower? It might have less to do with the shower, and more to do with your mindset and capacity to focus. Psychologist and researchers Mareike B. Wieth and Rose T. Zacks recently published a study about the relationship between problem solving and an individual’s “optimal time of day.” The researchers linked optimal time of day to a person’s circadian rhythms , which in a way, determine whether you’re a “morning person” or an “evening person.” (There are parts of the day that your focus and thinking are optimized based on your “morningness” or” eveningness.”) The findings? If you want to get the best work out of your analytical team, schedule your meetings during their optimal times of the day – when they’re least distracted and able to grind through cognitive heavy and analytical tasks. The researchers characterized analytical problems as those that require focused thinking in which there’s only one answer and it requires a lot of mental capacity (analytics) to get there. (Think back to your college entrance exams, and the familiar “a train leaves the station at 3 pm travelling at 90 kilometers an hour” types of problems.) Alternatively, insight, or creative, problems often rely on alternative solutions or interpretations. So if you want to get the most innovative work out of your creative or R&D teams, try scheduling your meetings during their least optimal times of the day – when they’re more easily distracted. Scientific American writer Cindi May characterized the distracted mindset as being “less focused, and may consider a broader range of information. This wider scope gives us access to more alternatives and diverse interpretations, thus fostering innovation and insight.” That’s the key – “more alternatives and diverse interpretations.” That’s also the strategy behind Prophet’s inspiration spectrum of direct, tangential, and abstract stimuli – offering deliberate “distractions” through analogs and experiences. So the next time you need to solve a creative problem, get up and get distracted. *Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares a Monday on-ramp with Prophet employees across the globe. We’ll begin sharing them here, and encourage you to join the conversation by answering questions and providing your own comments below. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

Why are you so brilliant during your morning shower? It might have less to do with the shower, and more to do with your mindset and capacity to focus.

Psychologist and researchers Mareike B. Wieth and Rose T. Zacks recently published a study about the relationship between problem solving and an individual’s “optimal time of day.” The researchers linked optimal time of day to a person’s circadian rhythms , which in a way, determine whether you’re a “morning person” or an “evening person.” (There are parts of the day that your focus and thinking are optimized based on your “morningness” or” eveningness.”)

The findings? If you want to get the best work out of your analytical team, schedule your meetings during their optimal times of the day – when they’re least distracted and able to grind through cognitive heavy and analytical tasks. The researchers characterized analytical problems as those that require focused thinking in which there’s only one answer and it requires a lot of mental capacity (analytics) to get there. (Think back to your college entrance exams, and the familiar “a train leaves the station at 3 pm travelling at 90 kilometers an hour” types of problems.)

Alternatively, insight, or creative, problems often rely on alternative solutions or interpretations. So if you want to get the most innovative work out of your creative or R&D teams, try scheduling your meetings during their least optimal times of the day – when they’re more easily distracted. Scientific American writer Cindi May characterized the distracted mindset as being “less focused, and may consider a broader range of information. This wider scope gives us access to more alternatives and diverse interpretations, thus fostering innovation and insight.”

That’s the key – “more alternatives and diverse interpretations.” That’s also the strategy behind Prophet’s inspiration spectrum of direct, tangential, and abstract stimuli – offering deliberate “distractions” through analogs and experiences.

So the next time you need to solve a creative problem, get up and get distracted.

*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team shares a Monday on-ramp with Prophet employees across the globe. We’ll begin sharing them here, and encourage you to join the conversation by answering questions and providing your own comments below. This week’s post was written by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office. Happy Monday!

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Years ago, we had a speaking platform called “the Think Card Shuffle,” a rapid fire approach of random observations and provocative musings. The goal was to hit people with a range of disparate thoughts, which together, were designed to help them look at more stuff. It was like a verbal collage of inspiration. In the spirit of the Think Card shuffle, here are three random musings from this week. THE BEEF STRAW… so - Benny’s Beef Straw President (and former bartender), Ben Hirko, had the idea for a savory, beef flavored straw after bumming a Slim Jim from a customers – “While snacking on the stick, I thought to myself these would taste fantastic in a Bloody Mary! I began thinking of the best way to use it, and immediately thought it should be a straw instead of just a stick.” http://bennysbloodymarybeefstraw.com/ so what – You can innovate any part of a product or category. As Benny’s states on their website, most innovations in the Bloody Mary have focused on the recipe. “The plastic drinking straw has remained constant. Benny’s Bloody Mary Beef Straw is a game changer.” Like Benny’s, deconstruct your objective and look for opportunities to innovate anywhere and everywhere – even the straw. THE BUG REPELLENT T-SHIRT… so - Six-Legged Tees, a company that sells designer T-shirts that repel insects, is raising seed money on Kickstarter. The company’s founders, James and Wenny, discovered “Insect Shield® using a patent-pending technology to bind permethrin to clothing…it provides effective, invisible, odorless, and built-in protection against all sorts of bugs. The treatment lasts for 70 trips through the laundry machine.”http://www.6leggedtees.com/about.html so what – It’s a pretty simple (clear) example of breaking compromises. As James and Wenny explain “…we’d take a plain ole t-shirt any day if it kept bugs away, we really wanted a shirt we could wear that would be effective at repelling insects AND stylish.” Consider the compromises in your project or category – those tradeoffs you make. How can you innovate by changing the ORs to ANDs? THE ONE BILLION CAR TRAFFIC JAM…so - Driven by growth in emerging global markets, car ownership is projected to reach 1billion by 2020 (at about 860M today). That’s the potential for a giant traffic jam, compounded only by a nascent traffic infrastructure in some underdeveloped countries. During a recent industry keynote in Barcelona, Ford’s Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said the company is investing in technology that will help the cars themselves communicate with one another to locate parking spots, and avoid traffic jams and accidents. Enabled by cars that communicate with one another, auto makers like Ford will move beyond manufacturing cars to efficiently moving people. so what - Are traffic jams and congestion a barrier to car ownership? If so, imagine growing the category by removing the inconvenience of traffic. Ford has reframed the role of technology from “helping connect drivers” to “helping connect cars.” When exploring opportunities, consider all the stakeholders / elements (from cars to people) and how they might be reinvented.

Years ago, we had a speaking platform called “the Think Card Shuffle,” a rapid fire approach of random observations and provocative musings. The goal was to hit people with a range of disparate thoughts, which together, were designed to help them look at more stuff. It was like a verbal collage of inspiration. In the spirit of the Think Card shuffle, here are three random musings from this week.

THE BEEF STRAW… 
so - Benny’s Beef Straw President (and former bartender), Ben Hirko, had the idea for a savory, beef flavored straw after bumming a Slim Jim from a customers – “While snacking on the stick, I thought to myself these would taste fantastic in a Bloody Mary! I began thinking of the best way to use it, and immediately thought it should be a straw instead of just a stick.” http://bennysbloodymarybeefstraw.com/

so what – You can innovate any part of a product or category. As Benny’s states on their website, most innovations in the Bloody Mary have focused on the recipe. “The plastic drinking straw has remained constant. Benny’s Bloody Mary Beef Straw is a game changer.” Like Benny’s, deconstruct your objective and look for opportunities to innovate anywhere and everywhere – even the straw.

THE BUG REPELLENT T-SHIRT… 
so - Six-Legged Tees, a company that sells designer T-shirts that repel insects, is raising seed money on Kickstarter. The company’s founders, James and Wenny, discovered “Insect Shield® using a patent-pending technology to bind permethrin to clothing…it provides effective, invisible, odorless, and built-in protection against all sorts of bugs. The treatment lasts for 70 trips through the laundry machine.”http://www.6leggedtees.com/about.html

so what – It’s a pretty simple (clear) example of breaking compromises. As James and Wenny explain “…we’d take a plain ole t-shirt any day if it kept bugs away, we really wanted a shirt we could wear that would be effective at repelling insects AND stylish.” Consider the compromises in your project or category – those tradeoffs you make. How can you innovate by changing the ORs to ANDs?

THE ONE BILLION CAR TRAFFIC JAM…
so - Driven by growth in emerging global markets, car ownership is projected to reach 1billion by 2020 (at about 860M today). That’s the potential for a giant traffic jam, compounded only by a nascent traffic infrastructure in some underdeveloped countries. During a recent industry keynote in Barcelona, Ford’s Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said the company is investing in technology that will help the cars themselves communicate with one another to locate parking spots, and avoid traffic jams and accidents. Enabled by cars that communicate with one another, auto makers like Ford will move beyond manufacturing cars to efficiently moving people.

so what - Are traffic jams and congestion a barrier to car ownership? If so, imagine growing the category by removing the inconvenience of traffic. Ford has reframed the role of technology from “helping connect drivers” to “helping connect cars.” When exploring opportunities, consider all the stakeholders / elements (from cars to people) and how they might be reinvented.

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