The biggest compliment to me is to see me as
original,
fresh,
and creative.
In one word, innovative.
Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.
Tom Freston,
entertainment industry executive
(in 2006 Time magazine included him as
one of top 100 most influential people in the world)
I believe that is how I lead.
I like to take two ordinary things and put them together in a new way.
It is evident in how I participate in life.
Following an innovative leader
When I was 21, I landed at Arcosanti, the city of the future. Arcosanti is architect Paolo Soleri’s vision of the radical reorganization of the built environment.
He offered an innovative way to live as an alternative to congested cities, sprawling suburbs and remote rural living. Urban planning is a complex problem, and this innovation is a solution that I experienced as excellence.
In Soleri’s innovation, he took two things and put them together differently. He recognized our human social nature in which we love to be close in order to interact with each other.
As well, we have an inclination to be in nature, surrounded by wide open spaces.
He designed a city which is open to both: a social environment with complex 3-dimensional buildings on the inside so that people can meet face-to-face and interact, leaving nature to remain untouched on the outside. Either meeting people or walking in nature is just a step out the door, each in a different direction.
Although the Arcosanti experiment is not complete, I got to experience its potential daily during my 12 years living there. In addition, the experience was amplified during concerts, conferences, and other events.
Managing with innovation
For three years, I managed the Bakery at Arcosanti and baked up a storm. As manager, I got to innovate in the Bakery.
I took the ideas of “healthy” and “baked goods” and brought them together in a new way that did not compromise on deliciousness.
We made cookies with alternative sweeteners, using honey and dried fruit instead of sugar. For the vegans, we eliminated all animal products, including eggs. We substituted a flax meal mixture to bind the batter, and it worked well.
We used a vegetable, pumpkin, in our famous Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread. It was made in a way that a fresh loaf just begged you to pull off a piece and eat it just like that.
Mmmm mmmm.
Innovation in a social environment
One spring when I was working at the Bakery at Arcosanti, I was inspired to organize a picnic with a twist.
It was innovative. It was a collaboration. It was creative.
It was innovative in that we were bringing together the look of the food and the taste of the food in a different way.
It was collaborative because everyone brought a dish, and I asked everyone to be creative. I asked that everyone bring food that does not look like it tastes. I asked participants to make food mimic a different kind of food.
I, from the bakery, fashioned bread into a turkey with drumsticks, sprinkled with sesame seeds looking like the turkey skin. Hey, it was brown and the right shape.
There were hot and spicy bean cookies.
There was a soup that looked like tomato soup but was made of fruit.
The beverage looked like a urine sample.
The risk with this plan is that some people were apprehensive to eat food that they didn’t know what it would taste like.
The creative, imaginative people showed up. And we chowed down, with caution.
Innovation Now
I have given you a glimpse of my life as original, fresh, and creative. I am always open to ways to innovate.
I can’t see it from the perspective of my current life as a doctor, but I am sure I am being innovative here and now. Perhaps it is giving you tools like homeopathic remedies and bodywork moves to do when you are in a particular situation, like after a fall. Perhaps it is looking at your life in a different way that you combine healthy practices in what you do daily.
Now it’s your turn. Bring to mind two things that already exist in your life. How can you put them together in a new way?
When you put those two things together in a new way, I will call you an innovator too.
