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Project Platypus: A haven for innovative thinking

Toy giant Mattel devised a haven for radical and innovative thinking.  They called it Project Platypus.  12 team members were selected from the company with various skill sets and backgrounds and from all levels of experience. They are given the task of conceiving and developing a completely new brand. They work in a separate building-2000 square feet-that looks like a playground. The desks are on wheels. There are lots of toys and materials. For three months they leave their jobs and their titles behind to take part in this experiment.


Why?  According to Ivy Ross, the brainchild of Project Platypus, "  I have 450 people who work for me. Everyone is busy all the time-practically 24/7-just growing our existing brands. No one has time to become truly immersed in the possibilities. Through this project we are trying to create a way of working together that is more of a living system. Take a cow, for example. If you want to get milk out of a cow, you have to give it time to graze. These days, no one has time to graze. No one has time to explore. It's not just about giving people the best equipment and software to work with, it's about feeding their soul, their mind and creating an environment that each of them can grow in."

 

"For the first two weeks I don't ask anything of the new Platipi. The first two weeks are a gift. I bring in outside speakers. One of them is a guy who teaches improv comedy. We've been taught that ideas should be judged by quality rather than quantity. In improv you learn just to react quickly and allow other people to build on your idea. You start with an idea. It may sound dumb to you but someone else takes it and runs with it. All the sudden something brilliant emerges from your dumb idea. I also bring in a Jungian analyst who talks about patterns and archetypes as it relates to toys. If we are working on a project that has to do with buildings, I bring in architects to talk about structure. But mainly we have fun. We have fun trying to get people going on the same wavelength. We have a special sound chair that we play CDs through. The sound causes vibrations that penetrate your whole body. These vibrations are at a special frequency designed to put you in the theta state, which is where creativity occurs. Basically, the vibrations bring both halves of your brain together."

"Everyone works as hard as they can to make this idea work, because they are invested in it. We're really collaborating and building ideas together as opposed to the old model where everyone works in silos and is competitive with one another. This is true collaboration. Everyone moves through the entire process. There's no baton passing. Marketing doesn't pass the business objectives to design, so that design can create a visual and then pass it off to engineering who then passes it off to packaging. Everyone is present from the moment of conception and it really creates a feeling of ownership. In Platypus everyone is responsible for the end result. It is more of the feeling you get in a small company except that we are producing a product that will be a $25 million dollar brand out of the box. The results have been phenomenal. I promised the company that we would do three of these a year and if the company got one new brand a year then it would be a success. So far we have done two workshops and we have produced two incredible new products and we still have to do the third session. And the people have been renewed. They have a renewed sense of value. I hoped that some great brands would come out of this project. What I didn't expect was the extent to which people would really be transformed. I heard from one Platypus who had to take some time off. He called up to tell me that for the first time he actually missed coming to work. It meant so much to me to hear that. This program has helped people experience work as a place that goes beyond earning a living."

 

How you can build a haven for radical thinking. 

1.  Get a space. Claim it.  

2.  Assemble a team of diverse thinking styles

3.  Make it a room that is business as [un] usual.

4.  Make a place where everyone has a stake in the outcome.

5.  Give the group a goal or challenge and put a time limit on it.

 

Marty   

 

 

 

Posted on Monday, March 5, 2007 at 04:51PM by Registered CommenterCreativity Central in | Comments2 Comments | References22 References

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Reader Comments (2)

Actually, if you want to get milk out of a cow, you have to get it pregnant. :)

What is described here sounds like the holy grail of R&D. It's a wonder that more companies aren't doing this. Though, I suppose a lot of companies have more specific goals than "make a new toy." Still, I'd love to be able to attend something like this.

March 22, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterRyan Fox

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October 4, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterken

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