Make Connections

Written By Jeremy Utley

Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just connecting things.”

I don’t know how many people deliberately attempt making new connections, but it’s a good skill to develop. Multi-sport-athlete (world record holder!) and entrepreneur Laura D’Asaro pushes herself to make connections every single day. She is hands-down one of the most creative people I know, and one of the most inventive entrepreneurs I have met. In our fantastic conversation (available here) she described her process.

What’s your process for connecting things?

A couple of our favorites at the d.school are the Wonder Wander, Analogous Exploration, Divergent Diversions, and radical collaboration. Or you could tempt lightning with scrappy experiments.

The fundamental task of the innovator is to make connections.

As obvious as that sounds, I wonder how many folks go connection hunting.

Related: Seek Random Inputs
Related: Explore Analogies
Related: Divergent Diversions
Related: Recombine Existing Parts
Related: Tempt Lightning

Click here to subscribe to Paint & Pipette, the weekly digest of these daily posts.

Featured
Diversify Your Bets
Diversify Your Bets

Finance 101 says diversification — holding a broad range of investments from safe bonds to growth equities — is the best way to reduce your risk and maximize return. So why is your AI strategy all municipal bonds?

The Imagination Ceiling: Why 70% of Your People Are Stuck on AI
The Imagination Ceiling: Why 70% of Your People Are Stuck on AI

AI adoption is plateauing. I analyzed 5,000 anonymous survey responses looking for the culprit. I found it. And it's not what I expected.

Close the Loop
Close the Loop

A senior executive called to tell me my talk was "one of three ingredients in the best idea I've ever had." That almost never happens. Here's why it should.

The Doing Gap Will Kill More Companies Than AI
The Doing Gap Will Kill More Companies Than AI

89% of HR leaders believe AI will impact jobs next year. Only 67% say it's impacting work now. That 22-point gap between belief and action is where companies go to die.

Your Board Can't Imagine the Future
Your Board Can't Imagine the Future

If your board members haven't personally experienced what AI can do, they cannot exercise their fiduciary responsibility. Fiduciary duty used to mean financial oversight. Then it expanded to include strategy, risk, culture. Now it includes imagination.

You're Not Tired of AI. You're Scared of It.
You're Not Tired of AI. You're Scared of It.

Everyone's “exhausted” by AI talk, or at least, that’s what I’m hearing. But there’s a more nuanced undercurrent. When I asked a room full of executives to show me what they'd actually built, everybody froze. That's not fatigue. It's something else entirely.

The First Time AI Blew My Mind
The First Time AI Blew My Mind

Standing in my hallway surrounded by broken glass, I asked AI for 10 terrible ways to respond. What came back changed how I think about parenting—and about AI.

Stop Being a Hypocrite
Stop Being a Hypocrite

Here's what I've noticed over the past year. (And yes, I include myself in this.) Leaders are really good at telling their teams to embrace AI. They're much less good at embracing it themselves.

The Advisor You Didn't Know You Had
The Advisor You Didn't Know You Had

A generation ago, you had to be independently wealthy to have access to intelligent assistance. Not anymore. I’ve got a team of advisors at my fingertips. And so do you.

The AI Multiplier: Why Your "Organic Capabilities" Matter More Than Ever
The AI Multiplier: Why Your "Organic Capabilities" Matter More Than Ever

Your organization spent years building innovation capability. Now AI arrives, and folks ask: 'Should we keep investing in creativity, or redirect that budget to AI tools?' The answer will determine whether you dominate the next decade—or get left behind.

Jeremy Utley
Previous

Be Brave
Next

Diagram Your Last Breakthrough