Sensorial’Org

And by afternoon, I still mean morning.

After my breakfast at Melissa’s, I took the server’s advice and visited Cave and Basin National Historistic Site. On my hike there, I fell twice and almost froze to death. And falling is probably the prequel to death. I was too cold to feel the pain, and it’s so remote that I’m afraid I would freeze to death if I couldn’t move.

But it was worth it! The mountain scenery is breathtaking. The weather is beautiful today, so I saw the great expanse along a clear, blue horizon. Pictures from my crappy phone when I get home! I wish I brought my camera. Even the altitude was higher, the steam from the spring warmed me up significantly. I walked up wooden trails, saw the the top of trees, the water trails, ponds, the Rockies–all against this brilliant blue backdrop.

Then I took a tour of the town:

• There’s 3 types of shops: gift shops that sell moose, geese, and beaver figurines, and maple syrup; sports stores with ski gears, and sweet shops of chocolate and fudge. (I’m having trouble find a grocery store so that I don’t have to spend so much money on food, but no dice.)
• You know those Christmas cards of little cottages underneath snowy mountains? It feels like that here. The architecture is low, wooden, and covered with a thin layer of snow.
• Restaurants for breakfast opens at 9am. Restaurants for lunch opens at 12pm. Forget trying to get food at Toronto time.
• There’s wifi everywhere! I’m typing this at Bruno’s (the restaurant that was recommended to me for Breakfast that was not open when I came at 7).

Time to head back to campus, and explore that area. And maybe find a loaf of bread along the way.

I’m typing this, half as a log for my adventures, and half as an exercise to unfreeze my fingers. It is 7:30am in Banff, i.e. 9:30am back home.

It took me a total of 14 hours from waking up Wednesday morning to checking into my hotel room at the Banff Centre the same evening, but as it is my first time taking a plane and traveling alone, I’m taking it as a personal victory. I was too tired to do anything yesterday night; however, some notable things:

1. I spent $20 on TELUS paycards to call home… Except it’s not readable on any of the pay phones that’s 2 meters away from where I bought the cards… So I iChatted back home. I love my Mac.
2. For dinner, I spent $6.55 on one slice of bread (not even toasted!), a “slice” of black forest ham (I didn’t even get the full slice), 2 pieces of cucumbers, and a banana.
3. While I was taking a shower, the motion sensor light went off. And I freaked out for two seconds, but I guess it sensed me panicking and turned itself back on =)

I woke up at 6 (8 EST) this morning. After getting dressed, I went out to the reception, got a mapped, asked for a breakfast recommendation, and headed out. It was still dark as I was trying to make my way to town. Even with the trails mapped out for me, I had to ask for directions every 5 minutes. Taking the mountain trails in a strange town before the dawn broke was probably not the best decision I made in my life, but I survived!

Then I realized that nothing is open at 7 in the morning. I walked around for half an hour before I arrived at Melissa’s, which is where I’m typing this. I love this town’s network of free wireless! The staff here is super nice, and I just found myself a local tour guide. Next stop, the springs! Then the conference registration.

Innovation Parkour

• Presented by Matthew Milan
• 3 myths: innovation is expensive; innovation takes a long time; it takes a special kind of people to innovate
• The premise of innovation parkour is the assertion that we can learn to innovate and that means we can get better by practicing
• A video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jquXcwooV6A (not the video shown in the conference, but to give you an idea of what parkour is
• There are no obstacles; use obstacles to innovate as opposed to seeing them as barriers
• Routine creates efficiency and predictability
• Pilots recognize the constraint of their environment, and learn how to be calm in critical situations, and how to overcome them.
• Observe => Orientate => Decide => Act
• Interaction: reacting, regulating, learning, balancing, managing and entertaining, conversing
• Innovation is a conversation with constraints.
• Parkour is not about running and climbing, it’s about navigating uncertainty in real-time
• There’s four facets: unconscious incompetence (not knowing what we don’t know), conscience incompetence (knowing we don’t know), conscious competence (knowing we know), and unconscious competence (don’t knowing we know)
• Proposition: innovation favours the prepared mind which allows us to navigate uncertainty
• Tennis drills are repetitive and relentless because they teach the body to think so that the mind can focus on strategy.
• Similarly, there’s no secret about yoga. All the poses are well established across many styles, but it is a bottomless practice.
• Each of these practices is about the synthesis of flow and repertoire: knowign the tools so well as to let you unconsciously create value
• Kino-cognitive model: doing and thinking are one and the same => flow + repertoire = innovative insight
• How do we practice innovation?
  • Visualization: practice seeing; insight is reframing what we already know
  • Collaboration: practice trusting other people and the value they can bring
  • Participation: practice openness even though it can be risky
  • Innovation: practice freedom by embracing obstacles, freedom to let go of yourself because there are not leaders
• Delicate balance of being in complete control (think poetry and knowing the language and mechanics completely => no soul), and being complete out of control (you no longer make sense)
• The adrenaline rush makes you think of things in interesting new ways.