Little Devices Sends a Message to All Of Us

How are you supporting people who “think different”?

Last month I was absolutely blown away by a CNN segment on The Next List that highlights Jose Gomez-Marquez  at  Little Devices Lab. First, go read his story. To say it’s amazing doesn’t do it justice. What he is doing is harnessing the technology used within every day toys (wind ups, LED lights, heat sensitive color changing) to provide developing countries with alternatives when traditional medical technology either fails or is just not available. This is innovation to the max, as he routinely purchases toys and brings them to the Little Devices lab for his colleagues to play around with engineering their parts into something to help medical professionals “bridge the gap” between what they need and what they lack. Drip bag sensors and alarms are just a couple of examples of what has come out of the Lab.

It got me thinking about how uncreative even we marketers can be. Oh, we are overflowing with ideas as to how get a new product to market, how to generate interest, and so on. But, in case you haven’t noticed, things are different today.  Thousands of out-of-work engineers, programmers, scientists and creative people are, as I write this, trolling their brains to come up with the next best thing.  Today, with resources literally a tap away on the internet, unique ideas are not hard to come by. And I can almost guarantee you that the success stories of tomorrow will belong to those who don’t shy away from new technology and aren’t afraid to say “what if we……?” We need more out of the box thinking when it comes to problem solving and moving ideas  — concepts — and companies forward.

How to spot ingenuity and channel the out-of-box stream of consciousness that exists among us? Not sure I have a good answer to that. But clearly there are brains out there that are wired differently and we need to put our collective ear to the ground and encourage them.  So, if you are a senior or C-level this or that, step back and look at your world and the ideas that populate it. You have the wisdom and the power to guide and support. Find some brains out there to nurture.