No free lunches

Officially been tasked as a Project Work supervisor for my civics group. Six project teams in all.

The Idea Factory dropped in to give us some ideas for in-class activities to stimulate collaborative and innovative thinking among the group members. A key point of this afternoon's workshop was that although we allow the initial creative process to flourish without the prejudice of both internal and external censor, all that creativity has to be eventually focused upon addressing a particular stakeholder's needs, wants or inconveniences. The better innovations deal with problems the client couldn't articulate or even didn't even know it had.

It was good for me to confirm an angle I was going for with my groups this year. The kids tend to think of their projects as philanthropic exercises. They usually want to help the disabled or the disadvantaged and hence would never consider charging for their eventual product or service. Noble, but ultimately pointless. Instead, I'd like them to think about providing a product or service they would pay hard cash for. The money factor is a practical reality check. It also reminds them that if no one would pay for their project, then no one would accept it for free either.