How to Dump SALY and Find a New Creative Approach to Accounting

The Accidental Accountant™ Copyright 2014

How to Dump SALY and Find ANew Creative Approach to

Accounting

Presented by: Peter A. Margaritis, CPA

May 29, 2014


Peter A. Margaritis, CPA“The Accidental Accountant”™

Education • Training • Consulting • Motivation • Humorist

Making the complicated simple

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Who is SALY?

• Why is SALY a hinderance to your creativity?

• How can being more creative enhance your career?

• Who feels that they are creative? or can be?


IntroductionIn the book, Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley, he uses the following as an examples of the importance of creativity.

• “An IBM survey of more than 1,500 CEO’s report that creativity is the single most important leadership competency for enterprises facing the complexity of global commerce today.


Introduction• “An Adobe Systems poll of 5,000 people on

three continents reports that 80% of people see unlocking creative potential as key to economic growth. Yet only 25% of these individuals feel that they’re living up to their creative potential in their own lives and careers.”


Creative Confidence

• “Creative confidence is about believing in your ability to create change in the world around you.

• It is the conviction that you can achieve what you set out to do. It is like a muscle - it can be strengthened and nurtured through effort and experience.”


Can Creativity be Taught?

Creativity can be taught according to the April 2014 edition of Fast Company. Fast Company polled its most creative people and “73% of them believed creativity can be learned but you may have to shake up your routine to get there.”



• So what are important qualities for creative people to cultivate Thatgamecompany cofounder and creative director Jenova Chen say that "creativity is not talent but attitude,"

• An overwhelming number of those polled tied increased creativity to breaking out of patterns, exploring new environments, and being open to the unfamiliar.



• LittleBits founder Ayah Bdeir advises to "look outside your field—the most creative solutions come at the intersections of disciplines,"

• WET CEO Mark Fuller suggested to "take things you have learned that seem completely irrelevant and ask yourself how to apply them to the challenge at hand.



• Fashion.me cofounder Renato Steinberg says that "creativity happens when you get two people or two things that don't seem connected and find a way to connect them."

• But the most welcome news for many of us: some of the most common pieces of advice to bring out creativity were variations on "take more naps."


Creativity, What is it?

Creativity is “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”


Creativity, What is it?Creativity for left-brain thinkers requires:

1. Have an open mind

2. Yes And

3. Do not judge: duct-tape the mouth of your inner critic

4. Have an objective and follow the process

5. Accept failure



“Inside The Pixar Braintrust" (Fast Company, April 2014) comments, “A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms. Our decision making is better when we draw on the collective knowledge and unvarnished opinions of the group. Candor is the key to collaborating effectively. Lack of candor leads to dysfunctional environments.”


Creativity, What is it?Creative Confidence presents eight ways to help you cultivate a creative

spark.

1. Choose creativity

2. Think like a traveler

3. Engage relaxed attention

4. Empathize with your end user

5. Do observations in the field

6. Ask questions, starting with “WHY?”

7. Reframe challenges

8. Build a creative support network.


Innovation, What is it?

• Taking creative ideas, analyzing them, and implementing the best ideas.

• Effectively Applied Creativity

• The Economist article “Thanksgiving for innovation” claims that,“innovation is now recognized as the single most important ingredient in any modern economy.”


Innovation, What is it?

Tom Kelley’s book, “The Ten Faces of Innovation” states, “A great product can be one important element in the formula for business success, but companies that want to succeed in today’s competitive environment need much more. They need innovation at every point of the compass, in all aspects of the business and among every team member.”


Innovation Process

Problem Objective Ideas

EvaluateImpleme

nt


Change Your Perception


What is Brainstorming

What is the purpose of brainstorming? When have you used this technique? Was it successful? What challenges does this process possess?


Brainstorming

Increasing Efficiency


Brainstorming for Left Brainers

Write the problem and your objective you need to achieve or solve on a piece of paper. Then use one of the following methods to generate new ideas.

1. Outrageous Opposites

2. Funnel Approach

3. Mind Mapping

4. Method of silence


Outrageous Opposites

Creativity is a blend between obvious and outrageous. We can take the obvious and generate the outrageous by thinking of its opposite.

What is opposite? There are direct and indirect opposites:

• Black/White Yeng/Yang

• Man/Woman Dog/Cat

• Man/Boy Girl/Woman

• Thick crust/Thin crust Accounting/Sales

• World Series/Cubs


Outrageous OppositesObjective: Hot Dog Toppings

Traditional Outrageous

Mustard

Onions

Relish

Ketchup

Chili

Cream Cheese

Pulled Pork

Mac n Cheese

Wasabi

Pickles

Fried egg

BBQ sauce

Sauerkraut

Nothing

Sun-dried tomatoes

Salsa


Outrageous OppositesObjective: Recruiting Staff 5+ Years Experience

Traditional Outrageous


Outrageous Opposites

1. What did you like/dislike about this approach?

2. What surprised you about this approach?

3. How can you use this in your daily life?


The Funnel ApproachThe funnel approach encourages thinking at many different levels. When

we are brainstorming we generate random ideas, some are very broad and some are very specific and these ideas are all lumped together. The funnel approach allows us to separate the broad ideas from the specific ideas and brainstorm more fluidly from one to the other.

• Broad ideas - concepts, categories, general approach

• What is this an example of?

• Specific ideas - details, actions, narrow approach

• What are examples of this?


The Funnel ApproachObjective: Long Weekend

Broad Specific Actions

Mountains

Beach

Lake

Urban area

Sports

Romantic

Cultural

Thrill

Smoky Mountains

Sanibel Island

Lake Cumberland

Seattle

Baseball

Bed n Breakfast

Art Museum

Cedar Point

Look for cabins

Check airfares

Rent houseboat

Get hotel

Reds game

Research

Contemporary

Get hotel


The Funnel ApproachObjective: Increase Profitability

Broad Specific Actions


The Funnel Approach





Mind MappingThe mind mapping approach is an approach where we break an objective down

into its attributes, then break those attributes down even further into its details, then analyze the details from the different attributes, then create combinations in order to solve the problem. This method allows us to focus on these individual silos rather than trying to solve the whole problem at once.

The major advantage that the mind mapping approach has is that it can generate an enormous amount of ideas in a very short period of time.


Objective

Attributes

Attributes Attributes

Attributes

Details

DetailsDetails

DetailsDetails

Details

Details

Details

Details

Details

Details

Details


Objective

Details

Details

Details

Details

Details

Details Details

Details

Details

Details

Details

Details


Mind MappingObjective: New restaurant

Food Type Theme Service Locations


Mind MappingObjective: New restaurant

Combinations?


Mind MappingObjective: Vacation


Mind MappingObjective: Vacation

Combinations?


Mind Mapping





The Method of SilenceThe method of silence begins by determining your objective and then have your

team sit silently and write down different ways to tackle it. There are many ways you can implement this method, but the best way is to use post-it notes.

Write your objective on a whiteboard and have your team begin writing ideas on the post-it notes and place the post-it notes on the whiteboard. The facilitator will read them and then begin categorizing them into groups.

Be vewy, vewy quiet

I am genawaiting ideas


The Method of Silence

Post-itNotes

Post-itNotes

Post-itNotes


The Method of Silence





Five Takeaways1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________


Thank You!


Contact information:

Peter A. [email protected]

614/668.2936www.petermargaritis.com

http://www.petermargaritis.com/

How to Dump SALY and Find a New Creative Approach to Accounting

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