Tapping Into Your Inner Hacker
Tracy Fuller
Executive coaching and leadership development. Fellow in the Institute of Coaching, McLean/Harvard Medical School.
Essentially, hacking is a deviously creative problem solving process. As author Josh Linker pointed out, “While hacking can clearly be used for wrongdoing, it can also serve as a powerful model of growth, innovation and success.”
For example: Dr. J?rg Gerlach’s hack on the treatment of burn victims borrowed spray paint methodologies to create a Skin Gun. It sprays a mixture of the patient’s stem cells and saline, vastly reducing the risk of infection and recovery time.
And Jerome Hardaway’s hack on the treatment of vets with PTSD, #VetsWhoCode, provides transitional assistance (rather than waiting until vets are in crisis), coding-specific programs and critical talent for employers.
These examples, and others in his book, positively flip hacking strategies like:
Brute Force,
Crowdsourcing,
Exploiting small breaches,
Phishing,
Agile bursts,
Borrowing,
Mash-ups,
Deconstructing
and Reverse Engineering.
They also demonstrate how even a malicious ethos can be hacked to produce a positive source of inspiration and energy.
There are core mindsets that propel a good hack, like:
Every barrier can be penetrated: the trickier the barrier, the more interesting the challenge.
Compasses over maps: there isn’t a roadmap, so navigate with curiosity and adaptability.
Nothing is static: applied learning is the only constant.
Quantity is a force multiplier: many small attacks/ideas often beat one big attack/idea.
Competence is the only credential that matters: ideas are judged by merit, not their source.
So, tapping into your inner hacker, what challenges, limitations or opportunities could you unlock by leveraging mindsets like these?
Executive coaching and leadership development. Fellow in the Institute of Coaching, McLean/Harvard Medical School.
8 年Yes, semantics matter. And even counter-intuitive sources, such as hacking, can provide creative inspiration for learning and growth. If ideas are judged by merit, not source, the core mindsets listed above can help you find all kinds of good ideas that you can use to address challenges that are important to you.
Thinking Different Guide - Innovation Instigator and Agitator@ Strategyworks LLC, I offer "Thinking as a Service".
8 年Agreed ! Life hack sounds bad... how about "good idea" instead...
Executive coaching and leadership development. Fellow in the Institute of Coaching, McLean/Harvard Medical School.
8 年Given the historically negative use of the word, I understand your preference. However, one of the things I appreciated about Josh Linker's work, referenced in this post, is how effectively he employs the "reverse your assumptions" strategy. We can mine even the malicious ethos and tactics of a hacker to find positive sources of creative inspiration and growth. Thanks for reading and weighing in.
Devoted developer of skills, styles, tools, traits of 1) Productive Leaders, 2) Successful Communicators, 3) Effective Team members & leaders, 4) Thinkers of many types
8 年Hack has been a negative term most of my life During the past 10 years or so Hack has been equated to IDEA or Creative Thinking or Creative Problem Solving. Having my email, website or bank accounts HACKED is still not a positive thing for me though it may have been done by someone being creative. I prefer to leave HACK and HACKING and HACKER as negative terms.