Crystalis Biz

PARAGONE 2015

for ACTON & WEST EALING COMMUNITIES

‘Take 3 Stone Angels’ 

aka ALLBRIGHT CLUB (proposed)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Please flick through the presentation below, using the arrow keys.

When you have viewed the 8-pages* scroll down this page to read more about 'Take 3 Stone Angels,' a paragone project for Acton and West Ealing, from Isabella Wesoly at MaKing Murals.

* Depending which browser you are using, you can control the speed of the slideshow, using the increase/decrease scale. If you don't see a speed control, simply click on each thumbnail, below the presentation, in order (left to right, top to bottom).

In order to take the first steps towards making unique and/or repeat creations three stone angels designs will be offered for the Acton and West Ealing communities to work with. 

• Approximately 800 angels, 200 of each design is offered for this project, i.e. 200 blue, plus 200 brown for Acton and 200 blue, plus 200 green for West Ealing. 
• Additional varied selections of fittings, beads and straps will be added but if sponsorship is given to this project it will enable participants to source additional fittings and findings like the ones provided. 
• The intention behind offering a variety of fittings and findings is to permit a free reign in creativity and for participants to develop their own copyrighted designs.* 
• Sales made from initial designs will enable further stock purchases. 
• 100% of sales revenue goes to groups taking part, allowing them to plan expenditure on new/replacement components (fittings and findings). 
• Participantsalso  open to managing a design inventory, as well as their own future spending and so birthing enterprise in West London.

DO LIKE MONDAYS!

This project will need an approach of patience and discipline from parties involved.  Isabella Wesoly feels it's a fine way to start the working weeks creatively and garner involvement in this paragone project.

.. ‘Life is a combination of impatience and discipline’   Bob Gedolf

Creative Economy: How people make money from ideas John Hawkins, Penguin Press, 2001, p.120

Also, from the author:  

‘Everyone must begin to trust their dreams because out of that trust is born the artist, 

and the artist is the role model for the entrepreneur we all need’ p.118 

John Hawkins states that ‘the cost of copying or replicating an idea is often negligible’ (p.121), because once created the cost of copying is insignificant. His rationale for this is rooted in the fact that intellectual inputs are needed at the ‘thinking, research and development stage’. However, in order to promote equality and fairness within this project the knowledge, skill and competencies needed for managing creativity can be all inclusive. A step back in time to the Renaissance of the Middle Ages holds clues for how to stimulate innovation.

*MaKing Murals own designs are offered for sale in collections, using the developing brand name of ’Blue Naga Collections’ and may only be copied with a licence. agreement. 

Crystalis FOSTERING CREATIVITY

In fostering creativity the intention behind the enterprise is to generate feelings of usefulness and appreciation, which is passed on from maker to user. There are further ways that ‘Crystalis Fostering Creativity’ assists in innovations for work

FURTHER OPPORTUNITIES: In fully embracing the methodology and ideas offered, opportunities arise for project participants to create gift items like these:

Even though estate agents are used as an example, there are other businesses which can be considered, the suggested focus in on those who yield a very high selling price per transaction in the current economic climate.  Whoever offers sponsorship to this project, it is certainly possible to use healthy rivalry to stimulate innovation without disrupting a culture of collaboration.

N.B. MaKing Murals paid casual workers (family and friends) £10 per 100 charms for joining a pendant to a pre-made decorated strap, which took up to one hour to complete. A time and motion study fairly assessed this amount.

The slideshows provided on Making Murals’ hosting website gives more detail of what is offered by ‘Crystalis Fostering Creativity’, but for clarification some additional information on paragone is provided below.

Rivalry is an important but often over-looked lever for catalyzing innovation’

Mark Little

Head of General Electric’s Global Research Group, Senior vice president (GE)

Source: 

www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Using_Rivalry_to_spur_innovation_2599?pagenum=3

Mark Little sees that the adoption of paragone is:

• infrequently discussed , often plays second fiddle to collaboration as a cultural norm.
• gives people space, stretches goals, encourages diversity

Little encourages the notion of ‘cooler ideas’, where people can dream up their own ideas independently and say ‘let’s look at this idea’.

LITTLE’S PARAGONE - seen benefits are as follows:

• pools of money for seeding ideas.. 
• get ideas to blossom to a point of interest, pick them up, fund them, and turn them into products. 
• It’s not people sitting around having a lot of free time to do whatever they want to do. 
• access to money, which gives people flexibility to do more. 

Mark Little recognizes that this is how we get new ideas and that there are no winners or losers, when we make rivalry work.

Supporting notions:

GUEVERA‘S PARAGONE:

• forces a kind of creative thinking and manoeuvring that leads to new/better ideas.
• Leaders must provide ample room for collaboration once the initial winner emerges
• Competitive teams create prototypes knowing only one will be selected as the winner. 
• By bringing the competitors together as a single team after the initial set of competition, a leader can give all the chance to be part of the larger creation even for team was not the initial winner.’

‘using teams.. to create healthy rivalry affords everyone an opportunity to win.’ 

Jonathan Guevera, CEO, 

Community College of District of Columbia, Washington DC, USA 

SHARMA’S PARAGONE:

• extract the best out of a class/group by dividing it into teams and make them compete.  
• create a form of peer-evaluation within each team to arrive at the best contributor. 
• inter- and intra-team rivalry excites.. and spurs them on to the path of excellence’

‘comparison with Europe of the Middle Ages.. is novel‘ 

Sham Sharma, Visiting Faculty, Merut, U.P. India

HAZAPIS’ PARAGONE:

• Dependent on levels of investment in innovation to generate new processes/operations, new products/technologies, new ventures and new business models. 
• technology enables innovation. 
• people + processes + technology that foster business opportunities
• innovation is innovation if valued is attached. It is that value that generates revenues.

‘Rivalry to spur innovation’ 

Gearge Hazapis, Senior Exec, Business Support Services, 

Dbai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Dubai, UAE

PURSUING INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

It is possible for business leaders to pursue innovative partnerships through better education and workforce training. MaKing Murals is open to partnership support and uses McKinsey’s recent insights from an article entitled ‘Breaking the US impasse’ (August 2013) as possible indicators of the next step/s:

McKinsey 'Breaking the US growth impasse' August 2013

Susan Lund, Principal with MGI (Washington DC); James Manyika, Director MGI (San Francisco); Scott Nyquist, Director MGI (Houston)

Source: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/growth/breaking_the_us_impasse 

Crystalis Fostering Creativity is ready to shift! Are you?

click below for our Fostering Creativity slideshow