Mark Linden, CEC AAC JUNE 2012 Greetings Fellow Culinarians and Associates I recently attended a "toolbox renewal" event that dealt with innovation. I have listed six key thoughts to help each of us as we look at our places of business and ways we can make improvements to keep us "out of the box" so to speak. As we prepare for summer and a brief rest from chapter meetings, please take a few minutes to reflect on how you can bring innovative ideas to us as a chapter and as an organization. The basis of these is from a Harvard Business Review Log on Secrets to Creating a Culture of Innovation (Tony Schwartz): - Meet People's Needs. Recognize that questioning orthodoxy and convention - the key to creativity - begins with questioning the way people are expected to work. How well are their core needs - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - being met in the workplace? The more people are preoccupied by unmet needs, the less energy and engagement they bring to their work. Begin by asking employees, one at a time, what they need to perform at their best. Next, define what success looks like and hold people accountable to specific metrics, but as much as possible, let them design their days as they see fit to achieve those outcomes.
- Teach Creativity Systematically. It isn't magical and it can be developed. There are five well-defined, widely accepted stages of creative thinking: first insight, saturation, incubation, illumination, and verification. They don't always unfold predictably, but they do provide a roadmap for enlisting the whole brain, moving back and forth between analytic, deductive left hemisphere thinking, and more pattern-seeking, big-picture, right hemisphere thinking. The best description of the stages I've come across is in Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Artist Within. The best understanding of the role of the right hemisphere, and how to cultivate it, is in Edwards' first book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
- Nurture Passion. The quickest way to kill creativity is to put people in roles that don't excite their imagination. This begins at an early age. Kids who are encouraged to follow their passion develop better discipline, deeper knowledge, and are more persevering and more resilient in the face of setbacks. Look for small ways to give employees, at every level, the opportunity and encouragement to follow their interests and express their unique talents.
- Make the Work Matter. Human beings are meaning-making animals. Money pays the bills but it's a thin source of meaning. We feel better about ourselves when we we're making a positive contribution to something beyond ourselves. To feel truly motivated, we have to believe what we're doing really matters. When leaders can define a compelling mission that transcends each individual's self-interest, it's a source of fuel not just for higher performance, but also for thinking more creatively about how to overcome obstacles and generate new solutions.
- Provide the Time. Creative thinking requires relatively open-ended, uninterrupted time, free of pressure for immediate answers and instant solutions. Time is a scarce, overburdened commodity in organizations that live by the ethic of "more, bigger, faster." Ironically, the best way to insure that innovation gets attention is to schedule sacrosanct time for it, on a regular basis.
- Value Renewal. Human beings are not meant to operate continuously the way computers do. We're designed to expend energy for relatively short periods of time - no more than 90 minutes - and then recover. The third stage of the creative process, incubation, occurs when we step away from a problem we're trying to solve and let our unconscious work on it. It's effective to go on a walk, or listen to music, or quiet the mind by meditating, or even take a drive. Movement - especially exercise that raises the heart rate - is another powerful way to induce the sort of shift in consciousness in which creative breakthroughs spontaneously arise.
PS: The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. (Steve Jobs, Apples "Think Different" commercial, 1977) May Meeting A special thanks to Chef Baldwin, his team and students for a great event for our may meeting. The appetizers through the dessert were very appealing and tasted wonderful. Sous vide is a difficult concept but they pulled it off successfully. We also appreciate Hilde and the service team for their efforts as well. The new teaching and restaurant kitchen show a great sense of planning with the end result of great food always being the paramount basis for the plan. I have tried three times to put in a "European" range but for one reason or the other it never came through. Maybe Chef will let me come out a play a bit??
Volunteer Opportunities
The annual Special Olympics Fundraiser has come and gone. We are forever indebted to Chefs Tony Parker and John Fisher for heading this up each year. The daunting task of preparing 6500 box meals is made somewhat easier by their great planning and execution of this event. It raises considerable funding for our chapter and educational projects and scholarships.
Our apprenticeship students would value greatly from exposure to other chefs. Many of us chefs would not be where we are today had it not been for the gracious time given to us by our mentors. The apprenticeship classes are held on Thursday at Renton Technical College at 6:00 PM. If you would like to share your experience in sauces and stocks, Chef Duncan would highly appreciate your time. Please contact myself or email Chef Fisher if you could spare an evening.
The Governors Inaugural Ball slated for January of 2013 is off and running as far as initial meetings go. Once again we have been asked to provide the reception event for this ceremony. It is the 100th anniversary of the Hall of Justice so there is a lot of hype surrounding this. Stay tuned for announcements of assistance needed.
June Meeting
We are going to have a summer appreciation bbq on June 24th from 2-4 pm in place of our regular meeting. This is a Sunday afternoon so bring your family. There will be a small donation charge. RSVP's are needed to plan accordingly. Please place this date in your calendar as we are still deciding on the location. We will have it catered by the Double Barrel BBQ Company, located in Skagit County. We will have a central Seattle location. Click here to visit the meetings page for more info... Join us on WE ARE CHEFS and FACEBOOK Gouter a la Cuisine
Mark Linden CEC ACE AAC Washington State Chefs Association Website |
