IN THIS ISSUE:

• Letter From Sarah
• Out of the Box - 3 Ways Optimism Drives Innovation
• Events and Resources
• The Edison Awards
• About Sarah Caldicott

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Dear Innovator:

At the beginning of the year, I always feel like I'm starting everything with a clean slate. Whether it's work- or life-related, come January, I try to view what's happening with fresh eyes.

I don't know where or when this feeling sprang up, but somehow a sense of optimism has always been with me. In college, I felt it was always possible to get all A's. In my corporate career, it felt was always possible to meet project deadlines.  At the gym, it is still possible to become more flexible AND get stronger...even at my advancing age.

While my optimism certainly flags at intervals, underneath any blue mood lies a constant undercurrent of belief that things will always work out - even if I can't see how. What I've come to realize is that I am a "born optimist."

Are you? Or are you perhaps a "learned" optimist? (See this month's Events & Resources for resources from "learned optimist" Steve Goldberg.) Maybe you're a born pessimist! If you're unsure, take the 8-question Optimism quiz in this month's Out-of-the Box article.

Optimism Propels the Future
As President Obama noted in his State of the Union speech, innovation is about "winning the future." He also quoted Robert Kennedy, saying: "The future is not a gift. It is an achievement." Founded on the "idea" of freedom, Americans uniquely understand that achieving a future that looks different from the past requires dreams, goals, innovation - and optimism.

Which of these two men is an optimist? Connor Caldicott, or the Blue Man?

This month's edition of Edison's Notebook explores the relationship between innovation and optimism.  It's packed with insights and resources revealing how you can expand your ability - or the ability of your key employees - to become more optimistic and innovate successfully. 

Our Optimistic Tendencies Lie Within Our DNA
While preparing for a speech last October at the Women's Vision Foundation's annual conference in Denver, I had the good fortune to connect with Ms. Marty Lassen, principal at Complete Intelligence. She and I somehow hit on the topic of Optimism.

As a training consultant and executive coach, Marty works with individuals to improve their emotional intelligence and creative capacities. She often draws upon the work of Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychologist who holds a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford. Sonja's work reveals that within our DNA lies our "set point" for optimism, accounting for 50% of our ability to be positive in our general outlook.

Sonja has determined that our intentional actions - such as goal-setting, choice of positive language, or modeling of positive learned responses - accounts for another 40%. These intentional actions allow us to point ourselves in the direction of optimism even when it may not be easy to do so. (The use of humor is one of these - hence the humorous photo above, taken over the Christmas holidays.)

Dr. Lyubomirsky's research reveals the remaining 10% of our ability to become more optimistic relates to our response to circumstances beyond our control. (Actually, this percentage strikes me as low, but maybe I'm being pessimistic...)

Take the Optimism Quiz
Despite the many setbacks he experienced in his career and personal life, Thomas Edison was an optimist. To weather the toil of his painstaking experiments year after year, he needed to be! Here is my favorite Edison optimism quote, taken from the 1910 Edison biography written by Dyer & Martin:

An element within Edison's first competency of innovation (Solution-centered Mindset), Edison's breed of optimism was so contagious that I termed it "Charismatic optimism." Without optimism, Edison believed innovation could not flourish!

Test your own level of Optimism by taking the 8-question QUIZ in this month's Out of the Box section. The Quiz uses actual questions Marty gave me from a certified 125-question emotional intelligence tool her firm uses, called Emergenetics®.

Want to hear from another born optimist? Check out the 2-minute video taken from an interview with 2011 Edison Achievement Award Winner Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford. Voting for the 2011 Edison Best New Product Award winners is taking place now...so watch next month for news of this year's finalists!

To follow the latest happenings in innovation, follow me on Facebook or Twitter! If you're a LinkedIn maven, let's get connected! Send me your score from the Optimism quiz and let me know what you intend your next step to be!

Keep innovating,

PS: Please share this newsletter with a co-worker or a friend!

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Out of the Box

3 Ways Optimism Drives Innovation Success…Quiz Yourself!

One of the toughest mental qualities to maintain through the rigors of the innovation process is Optimism. Phrases like, "Will we ever find the solution we're seeking?" and "How many more obstacles can we endure?" float through our minds, often taking us to the worst case scenarios first.

Thomas Edison's employees often remarked at his uncanny ability to maintain an optimistic view even under the most trying circumstances. For example, right before the Christmas season in 1914, 13 of Edison's factory buildings at the West Orange Laboratory's manufacturing campus burned down.

Rather than being depressed about losing millions of dollars in the blaze, Edison watched the fire in amazement, sketching layouts for new factories which would replace the burning ones. Edison was up and running via contract manufacturers in 30 days.

Any one of us would be hard pressed to demonstrate optimism like that.

Indeed, Edison considered "optimism" a fundamental success criterion for every innovator...including his employees. Edison's love of experimentation meant that employees had to develop a sense of optimism about their ongoing laboratory trials. He told them, "Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."

This proved helpful advice when Edison's core team endeavored to develop the first storage battery. They conducted 10,000 experiments in the first year of their explorations alone (1901), none of which yielded a single outcome they'd anticipated. Rather then viewing these as useless findings, however, Edison believed each experiment had brought him closer to a solution.

Three Core Links Between Optimism and Innovation Success

We can look to Edison's own innovation successes and connect them to findings about optimism today drawn from the realms of neuroscience and emotional intelligence.

Data reveals that optimism is crucial to many forms of success, including innovation success.  Here are three important links:

• Optimism encourages the brain to keep percolating on an idea rather than abandoning it for fear it will lead to failure. In this sense, Optimism develops a form of persistence that yields deeper, more creative solutions.

• Optimism is linked to high levels of emotional intelligence, confidence, and a high regard for "self." Optimism enables members of an innovation team to be advocates for their work even with skeptics who may not be "warm" to their project, finding ways to shift skepticism to advocacy over time.

• Optimists have a high ability to engage the passions of others in a positive way. This yields deeper and broader networks of "thinkers and doers" which can yield results in an organization without requiring close supervision. Optimism is thus hugely important as a precursor to the ability of a company to develop complex systems.

Do you see any of these qualities of optimism present in yourself?  Or your organization?  Try taking the 8-question quiz below and see how you stack up as an Optimist.   (Note: All questions are sourced from the EmergeneticsÒ assessment.)  Note that two action steps for enhancing optimism are found below the quiz, along with additional readings and resources that include how to avoid self-sabotage.

Take the Optimism Quiz!

Directions: Circle the number which most closely identifies your level of agreement with each statement below. Add your scores together and match your total to the answer key.

What You Can Do to Become More Optimistic

The work of Dr. Martin Seligman and Howard Goleman offer insight into ways to release the grip pessimism can have on us. (Also see pages 55 – 58 in Innovate Like Edison for more ideas.) 

• Don't take criticism or poor results personally. Pessimists often personalize everything that doesn't go their way, believing it to be "their fault."  Extensive emotional resources are drawn into maintaining this negative outlook. Optimists say, "this situation represents a temporary glitch." Their resources focus on evaluating what they might have done differently, learning from it, and moving on.

• Setbacks won't last forever. Pessimists tend to believe that negative outcomes are pervasive, and will continue into the future ceaselessly.  Optimists say, "this is an isolated phenomenon" and turn to a creative view of what can come next!

• In 2011, resolve to be an Optimist!  Engage in practices that will free up more mental and emotional resources toward innovation!  Here are resources with practical steps and more information:

1. Read Dr. Martin Seligman's book Learned Optimism. Much of Seligman's work has been conducted at the University of Pennsylvania.  Here's a link: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
   
   
2. Read Howard Goleman's seminal book, Working with Emotional Intelligence.
   
   
3. Here are dozens of archived articles about adopting a positive outlook if you're an entrepreneur or small business owner: http://www.entrepreneur.com/
   
   
4. Check out Marty Lassen's website: http://www.completeintelligence.com
   
   
5. Read The Upside of the Downturn, by Steve Goldberg and Barbara A. Taylor, referenced in this month's Events and Resources.
   

Next month: Developing Dense Networks That Drive Innovation

Events and Resources

The Edison Awards
Dedicated to America's Innovation Competitiveness in the 21st Century

OPTIMISM ENABLED FORD CEO ALAN MULALLY TO DRIVE SALES GROWTH

Members of the Edison Awards team had the rare opportunity to interview Ford CEO Alan Mulally, one of this year's winners of the 2011 Edison Achievement Award.

In this clip, listen to Mulally's response to the query from Edison Awards Steering Committee member Dr. Paul Israel about Ford's current work on an electric car. Did you know that Edison's battery was used to power Ford's Model T in the early 1900's?

Mulally's own extraordinary Optimism, communication skills, and leadership have enabled him to lead Ford to new heights.

Dr. Israel is the world's foremost expert on Thomas Edison, and serves as the Director and General Editor of the Edison Papers archives at Rutgers University.

What Would Edison Say About How Innovations Are Marketed Today?

What would Thomas Edison say about the apps Ford has introduced for its newest line of cars? What would he say about the latest batteries, and cell phones? How would he go about marketing these innovations of today? Click here to read my article "Illuminating Edison" in the Jan/Feb edition of HUB Magazine. You can also find the article on iTunes by clicking here. The cover story of HUB also features an interview with Ford's CMO, Jim Farley. Have a look!

About Sarah Caldicott

Sarah Miller Caldicott is a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, a 25-year marketing veteran, and co-author of "Innovate Like Edison: The Five-Step System for Breakthrough Business Success." She has assembled teams of highly experienced consultants and trainers to assist her in bringing Edison's Five Competencies of Innovation™ to organizations of all sizes. Sarah and her teams are capable of addressing business challenges from a diverse array of industries, in either a business-to-consumer or business-to-business environment.

Sarah is a dynamic and award-winning speaker, whose engaging style combines substantive business content with humor. Her invaluable experience offers an ideal resource for organizations seeking innovation success in today's rapidly integrating global marketplace.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Sarah received a BA from Wellesley College, where she was named a Wellesley College Scholar. She also holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Sarah resides in Oak Park, Illinois, and has two teenage boys, Nicholas and Connor. For additional information on Sarah, click here.

©2011 by Sarah Miller Caldicott. All Rights Reserved.