Oct. 28, 2010: Innovate

Halloween costume day at school is an example of what I think it means to innovate. Innovation begins with a problem, in this case, the problem of Halloween costume day and the dreaded question, “What do you want to be this year for Halloween?” 


 That a child can only dress up as one thing at a time is tragic. 


As with any problem, you have to have the motivation and resources to work on any solution… why invest the time and energy to create something new or different? Do you even have the material or intellectual resources necessary to solve it? In this case, motivation is clear—our children—but our resources are very different. Whether you set out to make a costume (and kudos to you parents who achieve that! WOW!), or did as I did and went to the Piex, Oca Loca, or Burbujas, you were motivated and used the resources at hand to end up with what was basically a garment and props. Now, I specifically use the description of garment and props, because these items alone do not a costume make; costumes have to be brought to life! 


And so enters what I consider to be THE essential element of innovation: imagination, the transformation of something as we know it to become different, hopefully for the better.  


Students did not come to school yesterday. No they did not. Yesterday, our halls were filled with Toy Story® characters , super heroes, princesses, ninjas, monsters, witches, vampires… even the Mario Bros. came to school yesterday. I actually had to stop a samurai sword fight in the lunch room. Unleashed imagination is a powerful and beautiful force. Imagination is the gift that children give to adults everyday, and what we must give in return are the necessary resources and motivation to put that imagination to use and to construct better solutions to problems. Collaborate to Innovate, Together Succeed.