We’ve been using this particular category of our blog to provide examples of out-of-the-box thinking that are actually taking place in our everyday lives. It’s our hope to demonstrate that creativity and innovation can be found at every level of our society, can require a large monetary investment or cost next to nothing, and is needed today more than ever before.

The term “find a need and fill it” has been around a very long time. It’s a simple strategy that can very easily lead to success in many areas. Some have credited this battle cry to a blacksmith, John Deere, who later created the world’s leading producer of farm equipment while others attribute it to an American writer, editor, and speaker, Ruth Stafford Peale. She was the wife of The Power of Positive Thinking author, Norman Vincent Peale, and co-founder of Guideposts magazine and the Peale Center. Regardless of who first said it, it’s quite obvious that it’s going to be around for quite some time due to its wisdom, simplicity, and potential.

Here’s still another example of a very low-cost but particularly practical innovation which could easily have found its creation as a result of that age-old battle cry.
 
Tell me this isn’t a need which demands being addressed. I see it happening in break rooms from coast to coast. An employee arrives at work in the morning to place his/her lunch in the break room refrigerator before tackling the challenges of the day. Lunch time finally rolls around and that famished employee dashes to the break room with anticipation of devouring that delicious triple-decker speciality sandwich waiting in the fridge. Bursting into the break room, the refrigerator door is thrown open to reveal the alarming sight of an empty sandwich bag. Someone stole your luncheon masterpiece leaving you frustrated, empty, and violated as you nibble the few carrot sticks the thief apparently overlooked or ignored during the illegal appropriation!

Don’t underestimate the impact of such a hideous act and don’t think it happens only in your break room. This is a very common occurrence in most office settings which continually leads to depression, suspicion, hunger and loss of productivity.

Well, someone has finally done something about it. A trained mechanical and aerospace engineer, New York-based Sherwood Forlee, has focused his vast experience, talent and imagination to create a solution to this universal problem.

He’s created a designer Anti-Theft Sandwich Bag. Simply put, Anti-Theft Lunch Bags “are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides providing the appearance of a dreaded mold.” It causes your sandwich to take on an unappetizing shade of green. In short, your sandwich looks disgusting, scaring away any potential thief.

Be honest, doesn’t this simplistic approach to a common problem cause you to wonder why you didn’t come up with this idea yourself?

What’s next … a giant car bag that makes your new Corvette look like a 1958 Ford Edsel!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

It was inevitable! And I’m sick about it!

As much as I fly …

As often as I’ve been stranded at airports and forced to sleep at the gate …

As often as I’ve been forced to get up at 4:30 a.m. in a strange hotel to grab a cab to rush to the airport to get an early flight—only to have the flight delayed …

I should have been the one come up with this idea … me and a million other “frequent fliers” who have enough airport horror stories to write a book. I guess this is another perfect example of the knowing-doing gap. At the very least, a million of us KNOW the need for this creative innovation and yet none of us did anything to DO something about it.

However, someone did. Oscar Dios, longtime owner of a hostel and hotel in Uppsala, Sweden, saw a need and proceeded to fill it. In December of last year, ground was broken near the entrance to the Stockholm-Arlanda International Airport for a new Jumbo Hostel, housed in a genuine jumbo jet aircraft—a Boeing 747 to be exact!

This creative idea emerged as a near necessity considering that 17 to 18 million travelers pass through this airport every year. Couple that fact with a trend of late and delayed flights, increased passenger traffic, fuel price increases, and strikes, mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies. … all of which combine to add frustration to the stressed travelers hoping to reach their destination.

By the way, a hostel, as defined by HostelManagement.com, is a budget-oriented dormitory accommodation that accepts individual travelers for short-term stays, and that provides common areas and communal facilities.

This 747 is currently being converted into a 25-room hostel with 3 beds per room. The first phase of the conversion was the dismantling of the old interior, new paint and new decorations for the rooms. 450 seats were taken out and the plane was sanitized in its entirety. The plane has been placed on a concrete foundation with the landing gear secured in two steel cradles.

Each room features a flat-screen TV where you can, among other things, watch the times of departure for all flights. Everywhere in the jumbo jet you have wireless broadband Internet access for your convenience. The upper deck of this 747 has several more luxurious rooms with their own bathroom facility. For the ultimate in overnight luxury, you will even be able to spend the night in the cockpit, where you can enjoy a fantastic panoramic view of the live air traffic at the international airport.

As though all of that were not enough, how about an excursion area where visitors will be able to walk right out on the wing of the Jumbo jet? Not too many people can make claim to that unusual experience.
And should you get hungry, the 747 has its own café where you can buy breakfast, coffee and cookies and basic meals. You can also heat up food you may have brought along.

Can you imagine the peace of mind spending the night right there at the airport knowing that when you wake up in the morning you’re just a short stroll of your gate?

The Jumbo Hostel will open its doors for reservations in December and is guaranteed to be a unique and outstanding experience at a good price.

If this creative adventure proves successful, and there’s no reason to think it won’t, you can expect to see similar hostels popping up at every major airport in the U.S. before long. Convenience and comfort for fliers, strong competition to existing hotels, and profits for those undertaking the challenge of closing that knowing-doing gap.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

“To-do lists” have always been a powerful time management tool. Most everyone uses them in one form or another in hopes of increasing productivity. However, another strategy, much less well-known but just as powerful, suggests the opposite approach of the renowned to-do list.

It’s nothing more than a “don’t-do list” or a “stop-doing list.” This concept certainly isn’t new, and I doubt that it would qualify as “out-of-the-box thinking.” Management guru Peter Drucker mentioned it in many of his 39 best sellers over the years, and more recently, author Jim Collins (Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last) shares his support of the simple concept.

A few months ago I described this powerful tool in Start a “Stop-Doing” List. I explained that a “stop-doing” list is nothing more than a simple inventory of bad habits or negative actions currently practiced by an individual, team or organization that would provide better results if they were discontinued.

While this strategy may not represent “out-of-the-box thinking,” the method of application certainly can. I recently saw a perfect example of this strategy while flying to Philadelphia to deliver a keynote presentation. Due to the aftermath of several tropical storms in the Gulf, my plane was rerouted through four separate airports before reaching Philly in an effort to circumvent bad weather heading east from the devastation in Texas.

In printing my boarding passes, I immediately noticed that only one boarding pass emerged from the ticket kiosk machine. Fearing an even longer delay, I approached the ticket agent and explained my dilemma. She quickly suggested that I review the pass in my hand as she explained I only needed one pass. The airline now issues a single boarding pass regardless of how many connections you may be scheduled to make before reaching your final destination. In an effort to save paper and ink, they have eliminated separate boarding passes for every city on your route. This procedure also reduces your chances of losing one of those passes in route.

Later, on the plane, I couldn’t help thinking about this small gesture on the part of the airlines and the enormous impact it was going to have on the industry. I couldn’t help but wonder why this idea had not been carried out years earlier. It’s so simple … very little cost … very little effort … quick transition time … tremendous savings.

At my hotel that evening, I did a little surfing to further my investigation. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the Department of Transportation (DOT) keeps track of commercial passenger traffic for the United States. For the 12 months ending February 29, 2008, there were 735 million U.S. passengers flying over 366 days, which equals about 2 million passengers per day on average.

Let’s low-ball this equation by assuming that, using this new strategy, the airlines saved one single boarding pass for each customer. It’s quite obvious that many of those passengers would have required several boarding passes. However, assuming one pass per passenger, the airline industry saved a minimum of 735 million pieces of paper over the past year and who knows how much ink. It would indeed be interesting to calculate what that means in dollars and cents. In addition, I can’t imagine another industry that needs that savings more than those flying our costly skies today.

Share this example with your team members in the near future. Allow them 24 hours to brainstorm the application of this simple but powerful strategy to your own business. Meet the following day and chart the results of their efforts. What are some of the things you might “stop doing” to reduce costs and increase efficiency? Remember, your findings don’t have to involve large projects, policies, or procedures. Little changes can make an enormous difference!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.