Heads-Up! on Organizational Innovation

Oxymoronic Paradox

This comes from Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools:

An oxymoron has been wisely described as "a compressed paradox." Looking at it the other way around, I think of a paradox as "an extended oxymoron." To me, they're close cousins because they both link up contradictory or incongruous elements. And they both play around in the most fascinating way with the difference between literal truth and figurative truth. For this reason, I include both oxymoronic and paradoxical observations (and a few others, as you shall soon see) under the rubric of oxymoronica.

Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit & Wisdom From History's Greatest Wordsmiths by Marty Grothe $10
Amazon

Sample excerpts:

The superfluous is the most necessary.
Voltaire

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone
else.
Margaret Mead

I shut my eyes in order to see.
Paul Gauguin

We learn from history that we do not learn from history.
Georg Hegel

We are never prepared for what we expect.
James Michener

To be believed, make the truth unbelievable.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The final delusion is the belief that one has lost all delusions.
Maurice Chapelain

What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
Sydney J. Harris

Cartoons

Thanks to those of you who took the Cartoon Challenge ... here's some of our budding efforts:

From Tony LeBaigue:

From Jerry Kail:

From Valarie Willis:

From Anders Jangbrand

From Joyce Wycoff:

Cartoon Challenge

One of the respondents to our blog survey, suggested Dave Pollard’s “How to Save the World” blog.

Today Dave had a suggestion that sounds like fun … especially for any of you who have ever thought about being a cartoonist but, like most of us, can’t draw. Dave suggests using freely available clip art and shows a sample (be warned: Dave's a little twisted and has a definite political bias).

I thought it might be fun to have a cartoon challenge related to creativity and innovation. So, rev up your creative machines and create a cartoon and email it to us. Send it in PowerPoint format (with your name and email at the bottom) and we’ll put them into a cartoon show and post it on the website. What else do you have to do today? ;-)

In case you're drawing a blank on what your cartoon would be about, here are three suggestions:

* Go to your clip art source (Word, etc.), put in words of interest and just see what comes up.
* Find a quote you like and then find an image that fits .... or, even better, twists it just a little.
* Wander around your office and look for things that catch your attention and then force an association with creativity or innovation.
* Start with "innovation is like ..." and see where that goes.

Have fun!