Happy holidays to insitum
2011 was an exciting year at insitum, we accomplished lots of achievements together. We want to thank you all for your hard work; for giving it all for our clients and for our company; for doing the best you can everyday. Such a good year would not have been possible without the collective energy of all of us.
Here is our holiday card.
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Insitum has unselfish genes
I was reading this interesting article on HBR (click here for the short version) and it coincided with the main theme we are preparing for this years’ offsite: Networking and collaboration [within insitum]. The title of the article comes from Richard Dawkins famous book “The Selfish Gene”, which has been embraced by the social sciences for the last 30 years (in case you have not read it, do it).
The HBR article argues that people are not as selfish as we thought (prioritizing your self before others) and that in fact, as human beings, we are more cooperative and less self-interested than most people believe. Neuroscience shows that when we cooperate with others, our brains spark a reward circuit that makes us feel good. And empathy (one of insitum values) boosts this feeling because we are emotionally rewarded when we see others feel good.
This year we want to stress the importance of insitum as a network that encourages intra and inter-office collaboration to increase peoples’ consciousness of insitum as a whole, to share energy and to feel good about yourself when collaborating with people inside your office and in other offices.
To help us design such a cooperative system, the article suggests, we have to consider the following:
- encourage communication
- ensure authentic feelings of cooperation
- fostering empathy and solidarity between all of us
- guaranteeing fairness and morality (doing the right thing)
- using rewards and punishments that appeal to intrinsic motivations
- relying on reputation and reciprocity (pay-it-forward)
- ensuring flexibility and adapting to different motivations
I hope that in the coming months you can help us build such a system. Aristotle said: “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”, so I think that the success of insitum as a whole is more than the sum of each of our individual successes.
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3 problems with innovation in Latin America
I just uploaded my presentation given at the 35th year celebration of Diamond – Harvard Business Review in Japan. The conference was attended by some 200 Japanese executives from companies like Sony, Panasonic, Asahi, Kirin, Unicharm, and many others. I think a lot of people liked my presentation because they invited me to make a toast at the end of the event. I really need to polish my Japanese 
Here is the presentation:
HBR Japan nov 9 2011
View more presentations from Luis Arnal.
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DRC11 Chicago: My problems with ‘insight’
I had fun presenting at the Design Research Conference 2011 (formerly called ‘About With and For’ which was started by our own Roberto ten years ago) and is being organized by the Institute of Design in Chicago. The main purpose of my talk was to criticize the excessive use and abuse of the word ‘insight’ in the research and innovation world–to get this off my chest. But it seems to be the start of something more interesting which we’ll continue to explore in the coming months.
@luisarnal
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TIW#17 We always know why we exist
With such a wide variety of projects and client engagements we can lose track of why we do what we do. But no matter how difficult this is, we constantly remind ourselves our main responsibility, which is: to have a positive impact in the world.
And we do this by taking an obsessive care of three things:
- The sustainability of the COMPANY. For example by creating a healthy community that provides a fun and challenging environment; by doing projects you can be passionate about; or providing long-term economic benefits for all of us.
- The relationships with our CLIENTS. For example by giving them the most value for their money; doing things they could not do on their own; or helping them grow as people and as a business
- The wellbeing of SOCIETY. For example by providing jobs (like yours!), improving the quality of life of users, helping them make smarter decisions, or making them live more happy with the products, services and brands they use.
This is why we exist—please never forget it.
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TIW#16 We teach by example
One of the most effective ways to demand something from others is by showing them how to do it (I have a 4 yr old at home, so believe me I know). In insitum everybody is a role model for someone else. We know that people will mimic our actions; that clients will treat us the same way we treat them; that teams will work as hard as their director; that quality standards should be as high as those you can do yourself; that companies won’t innovate if we don’t innovate ourselves. Most people at insitum are well aware that we can’t demand ____ from others if we don’t do ____ ourselves. This behavior applies equally to inside our company as it applies to our relationships to the outside. Believe me, treat others as you want to be treated–or attain to the consequences.
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TIW#15 We are excessively optimistic
We believe in the power of “self fulfilling prophecies“, mostly when it comes to good things happening to us. Our positive attitude keeps problems away and helps mitigate their negative effects–if they ever reach us. Focusing on the positive keeps the negative (and useless) away. This attitude is not limited to us as individuals or as a network, but also to your family and friends, to our clients, to the projects we do, to our partners and most important, to society at large. Some people may think we are unrealistic, but so far it has worked quite well for us.
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TIW#14 Sink or swim
La mayor parte de ustedes lo ha experimentado: o nadas o te ahogas. Aunque nunca hemos dejado a nadie ahogarse, sabemos que la mejor forma de aprender es mediante la práctica. Por eso fomentamos situaciones donde la gente puede experimentar; decidir por sí solos; cometer errores (¡controlados!); y tomar riesgos dentro de ciertos límites. Todos sentimos una enorme satisfacción cuando resolvemos un problema en el que nos hemos metido; cuando nos demostramos a nosotros mismos que podemos hacer algo nunca antes hecho; cuando nos sorprendemos de nuestras propias capacidades; cuando aprendemos mediante la práctica (“learning by doing”). Si crees que te puedes equivocar al hacer algo en insitum, inténtalo—porque si no lo intentas, seguro te equivocas.
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Are you thinking fast and slow?
One of the best books of 2011 was “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. There have been numerous reviews of the book in English, Spanish and Portuguese because it is a good book and one which is very relevant to our work. Instead of writing here what it is about, read the reviews.
However, before you read the reviews, please answer this question: Which of the following horizontal lines is longer? Feel free to write down your answer in the comment box below.
Now read the reviews (and if you want, change your answer)