Only the ones who are like Da Vinci and focus on creative thinking skills as well as highly people. Let me elaborate.
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when shown, and those that do not see.
– Leonardo Da Vinci
No doubt. I am a big fan of great thinkers. My top thinker of all time? It has to be Da Vinci. Why do you ask? For his abilities in learning and creativity, without a doubt. A mathematician. A scientist. An engineer. An anatomist. A creative and learner. Always learning and creating.
Do you see? Maybe the lessons from Da Vinci will help. So what would be the lessons in learning and creativity derived from Da Vinci? Here are the ones I continually come back to:
Sketching and note-taking
Over his lifetime Da Vinci created 13,000 pages of sketches and notes. 13,000 pages. By hand, on individual sheets of paper. A sketch in the center, simple and done quickly, the label on top, annotations along the sides, arrows pointing to key content. Sometimes a short summary at the bottom.
Alone for the first few iterations divergent thinking. Time to generate lots of ideas, and to reflect. Incubate ideas. Ask himself lots of questions. Always observing and studying. Think about the age of Da Vinci … no computers, few books, and few experts in fields of his interests. Just his ability to see and observe using notes to record for further study.
Convergent thinking later
Da Vinci often reviewed his work with respected peers after he had finished incubating his ideas. It was an opportunity to refine his ideas. Time to collaborate. He was way ahead of his time in most topics, so many of his good ideas were rejected. He didn’t lose his desire or his persistence by the rejections. But remember … 13,000 sketches led to at least 3 masterpieces. Persistence is a key, isn’t it? Perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people.
Most of Da Vinci’s sketches were done on individual sheets of paper. Not in a constrained notebook. He understood the value of multiple revisits and connecting, reconnecting, and grouping related facts and observations. An analogy expert. And an uncanny ability to connect several different observations and ideas to create new ideas.
His basis of study was simple observation and notes/questions on his observations. He withheld judgments, either positive or negative, for as long as possible. Particularly his own. He appreciated that judgment would be a block to creativity and new ideas.
“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions”
Collaboration drives innovation because ideas always emerge from a series of sparks – never a single flash of insight. Are you one that believes that innovation and creativity can be learned? We are among that group. We also believe in suggestions to boost strategic innovation opportunites of your business through effective collaboration.
Through a series of sparks and not a single flash of insight.
Are you an innovative person? Problem-solver? Learner? All of the above? We consider ourselves in the group of all of the above. Our continuous goal? Obtaining the best innovation. And at the top of our focus areas? Studying and understanding the problem at hand.
Albert Einstein once said that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. That is our way of thinking. But not most people.
Creativity and innovation don’t often happen in a vacuum. As the author Steve Johnson says, chance favors the connected mind. When people are together, talking, laughing, thinking, exploring — they’re going to throw out ideas. These ideas trigger something in someone else’s mind, and it snowballs. Before long, this group of folks has developed an innovative solution that wouldn’t have been possible without collective collaboration.
Don’t fall prey to the myth that only some people are innovative and you’re people are not of the chosen few. We are all innovative; it’s just a matter of figuring out in what way. So find things you’re curious about and are interesting to you, use your imagination a little, stay motivated and work at it, and surround yourself with others who are doing the same.
So how do you and your team boost innovation? Here are 10 suggestions we offer to boost innovation and improve your ability to exercise ideation within your team:
Zappos as a company is known as much for its culture as for its innovative business model. The company has built a business that is growing rapidly by allowing individuals the freedom to take creative risks without that overwhelming sense of fear or judgment.
They tell their employees to say what you think, even if it is controversial. Make tough decisions without agonizing excessively. Take smart risks. Question actions inconsistent with our values.
Another interesting example: A software company in Boston gives each team member two “corporate get-out-of-jail-free” cards each year. The cards allow the holder to take risks and suffer no repercussions for mistakes associated with them.
At annual reviews, leaders question their team members if the cards are not used. It is a great way to encourage risk-taking and experimentation. Think this company comes up with amazing ideas and innovations? Absolutely.
Be a detective
Creatives and innovators always have enquiring minds. Are you and the team asking enough questions to get deeper and understand the problem as much as you can?
Strategic innovation examples … make quiet time
Most ordinary days of the average worker includes an enormous amount of multitasking. Multitasking is, of course, is very destructive to the time and space for good innovative thinking.
Set time aside for team members’ quiet time to stimulate and let the mind wonder until ideas flow.
Challenge good
The phrases good enough, this has always worked, and this is all the time we have to devote to this problem, etc. are very destructive to team innovation.
Avoid these at all costs as they are enemy #1 to the best results.
Strategic innovation framework … foster autonomy
We all prefer control over our environments. According to a 2008 study by Harvard University, there is a direct correlation between people who have the ability to call their own shots and the value of their creative output.
An employee who has to run every tiny detail by her boss for approval will quickly become numb to the innovative process.
The act of innovation is one of self-expression. Granting autonomy involves extending trust. By definition, your team may make decisions you would have made differently.
The key is to provide a clear message of what results you are looking for or what problem you want the team to solve. From there, you need to extend trust and let them do their best work.
Try the quantity approach to new ideas. Use brainstorming to improve divergent thinking. Study and then connect ideas to get new ideas.
Add play to the equation
When looking for fresh new thinking to create more innovation, shake things up by adding some fun and play to the process.
It always has the ability to shed the stress and pressure on a team
Explore new experiences
Open up your new idea of thinking. Do things in new and untried ways.
Avoid the set ways of being innovative.
Experiment
Do as much experimentation as you can. Don’t worry about failures and allow the team to question any and all assumptions and consider even the craziest ideas.
Always ask why
Here is a favorite story that explains this technique quite well. The story is about why you should ask why. It comes from Ideas Champions.
A consulting company like us (but bigger and more well-known), who specialize in creativity, innovation, team building, and leadership. All favorite topics of ours. So we keep up with this team.
The story is about a big problem with one of our favorite monuments … the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC.
Simply put, birds in huge numbers were pooping all over it, which made visiting the place a very unpleasant experience.
Attempts to remedy the situation caused even bigger problems since the harsh cleaning detergents being used were damaging the memorial.
Fortunately, some of the National Parks managers assigned to the case began asking WHY as in Why was the Jefferson Memorial so much more of a target for birds than any of the other memorials?
A little bit of investigation revealed the following:
The birds were attracted to the Jefferson Memorial because of the abundance of spiders, a gourmet treat for birds.
The spiders were attracted to the Memorial because of the abundance of midges (insects) that were nesting there.
And the midges were attracted to the Memorial because of the light.
Midges, it turns out, like to procreate in places where the light is just so and because the lights were turned on, at the Jefferson Memorial, one hour before dark, it created the kind of mood lighting that midges went crazy for.
So there you have it: The midges were attracted to the light. The spiders were attracted to the midges. The birds were attracted to the spiders. And the National Parks workers, though not necessarily attracted to the bird poop, were attracted to getting paid so they spent a lot of their time (and taxpayer money) cleaning the Memorial.
How did the situation resolve? Very simply. They nailed the understanding of the problem, so an innovative but simple solution was much easier.
After reviewing the curious chain of events that led up to the problem, the decision was made to wait until dark before turning the lights on at the Jefferson Memorial. About as simple a solution as you could get. Right?
That one-hour delay was enough to ruin the mood lighting for the midges, who then decided to have midge sex somewhere else.
No midges, no spiders. No spiders, no birds. No birds, no poop. No poop, no need to clean the Jefferson Memorial so often. Case closed.
Now, consider what solutions might have been forthcoming if those curious National Parks managers did not stop and ask WHY:
Hire more workers to clean the Memorial
Ask existing workers to work overtime
Experiment with different kinds of cleaning materials
Put bird poison all around the memorial
Hire hunters to shoot the birds
Encase the entire Jefferson Memorial in Plexiglas
Move the Memorial to another part of Washington
Close the site to the general public
Technically speaking, each of the above solutions was a possible approach, but at great cost, inconvenience, and with questionable results. Not great solutions.
The bottom line
Now, think about YOUR business, YOUR life.
What problems are you facing that could be approached differently simply by asking WHY, and then WHY again, and then WHY again … until you get to the real definition of the problem?
If you don’t, you may just end up not correctly defining the problem. Not good. Nothing worse than solving the wrong problem. So put in enough time in understanding and defining your problem.
Don’t leap to problem-solving before you do. Lots of whys help us explore and thoroughly define the problem.
Remember to practice these problem-solving skills as well as asking lots of why questions to form new ideas.
Need some help in improving the innovation and creativity of your business? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for creativity workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new creative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Like this short blog?Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
Collaboration drives creativity because ideas always emerge from a series of sparks – never a single flash of insight. Are you one that believes that creativity can be learned? We are among that group. We also believe in suggestions to boost creativity of your team through effective collaboration. Through a series of sparks and not a single flash of insight.
Are you a creative
person? Problem-solver? Learner? All of the above? We consider ourselves in the
group of all of the above. Our continuous goal? Obtaining the best creativity.
And at the top of our focus areas? Studying and understanding the problem at
hand.
Albert Einstein once
said that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes thinking
about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. That is our way of
thinking. But not most people.
Creativity doesn’t often happen in a vacuum. As the author Steve Johnson says, chance favors the connected mind. When people are together, talking, laughing, thinking, exploring — they’re going to throw out ideas.
These ideas trigger something in someone else’s mind, and it snowballs. Before long, this group of folks has developed a creative solution that wouldn’t have been possible without the collective collaboration.
Don’t fall prey to the myth that only some people are creative and your people are not of the chosen few. We are all creative; it’s just a matter of figuring out in what way.
So find things you’re curious about and are interesting to you, use your imagination a little, stay motivated and work at it, and surround yourself with others who are doing the same.
So how do you and your team boost creativity?
Here are 5 suggestions and some great examples to improve your ability to exercise ideation within your team:
Encourage risk-taking
Zappos as a company is known as much for its culture as for its creative business model. The company has built a business that is growing rapidly by allowing individuals the freedom to take creative risks without that overwhelming sense of fear or judgment.
Risk-taking.
They tell their employees to say what you think, even if it is controversial. Make tough decisions without agonizing excessively. Take smart risks. Question actions inconsistent with our values.
Another interesting example: A software company in Boston gives each team member two “corporate get-out-of-jail-free” cards each year. The cards allow the holder to take risks and suffer no repercussions for mistakes associated with them.
At annual reviews, leaders question their team members if the cards are not used. It is a great way to encourage risk-taking and experimentation. Think this company comes up with amazing ideas? Absolutely.
Foster Autonomy
We all prefer control over our environments. According to a 2008 study by Harvard University, there is a direct correlation between people who have the ability to call their own shots and the value of their creative output. An employee who has to run every tiny detail by her boss for approval will quickly become numb to the creative process.
Autonomy
The act of creativity is one of self-expression. Granting autonomy involves extending trust. By definition, your team may make decisions you would have made differently.
The key is to provide a clear message of what results you are looking for or what problem you want the team to solve. From there, you need to extend trust and let them do their best work.
Divergent thinking
Try the quantity approach to new ideas. Use brainstorming to improve divergent thinking. Study and then connect ideas to get new ideas.
When looking for
fresh new thinking to solve a problem, shake things up by adding some fun and
play to the process. It always has the ability to shed the stress and pressure
on a team
Always ask why
Here is a favorite
story that explains this technique quite well. The story is about why you
should ask why. It comes from Ideas Champions.
A consulting company like us (but bigger and more well-known), who specialize
in creativity, innovation, team building, and leadership. All favorite topics
of ours. So we keep up with this team.
The story is about a
big problem at one of our favorite monuments … the Jefferson Memorial in
Washington DC.
Simply put, birds in
huge numbers were pooping all over it, which made visiting the place a very
unpleasant experience.
Attempts to remedy the situation caused even bigger problems since the harsh cleaning detergents being used were damaging the memorial.
Fortunately, some of
the National Parks managers assigned to the case began asking WHY as in
Why was the Jefferson Memorial so much more of a target for birds than any of
the other memorials?
A little bit of
investigation revealed the following:
The birds were
attracted to the Jefferson Memorial because of the abundance of spiders, a
gourmet treat for birds.
The spiders were
attracted to the Memorial because of the abundance of midges (insects) that
were nesting there.
And the midges were
attracted to the Memorial because of the light.
Midges, it turns out, like to procreate in places where the light is just so and because the lights were turned on, at the Jefferson Memorial, one hour before dark, it created the kind of mood lighting that midges went crazy for.
So there you have it:
The midges were attracted to the light. The spiders were attracted to the
midges. The birds were attracted to the spiders. And the National Parks
workers, though not necessarily attracted to the bird poop, were attracted to
getting paid so they spent a lot of their time (and taxpayer money) cleaning
the Memorial.
How did the situation
resolve? Very simply. They nailed the understanding of the problem, so a
creative but simple solution was much easier.
After reviewing the
curious chain of events that led up to the problem, the decision was made to
wait until dark before turning the lights on at the Jefferson Memorial. About
as simple a solution as you could get. Right?
That one-hour delay
was enough to ruin the mood lighting for the midges, who then decided to have
midge sex somewhere else.
No midges, no
spiders. No spiders, no birds. No birds, no poop. No poop, no need to clean the
Jefferson Memorial so often. Case closed.
Now, consider what
solutions might have been forthcoming if those curious National Parks managers
did not stop and ask WHY:
Hire more workers to clean the
Memorial
Ask existing workers to work
overtime
Experiment with different kinds
of cleaning materials
Put bird poison all around the memorial
Hire hunters to shoot the birds
Encase the entire Jefferson Memorial in Plexiglas
Move the Memorial to another part of Washington
Close the site to the general public
Technically speaking,
each of the above solutions
was a possible approach, but at great cost, inconvenience, and with
questionable results. Not great solutions.
The bottom line
Now, think about YOUR business, YOUR life.
What problems are you
facing that could be approached differently simply by asking WHY, and then WHY
again, and then WHY again … until you get to the real definition of the
problem?
If you don’t, you may just end up not correctly defining the problem. Not good. Nothing worse than solving the wrong problem. So put in enough time to understanding and defining your problem.
Don’t leap to problem-solving before you do. Lots of whys help us explore and thoroughly define the problem.
Imagine you could go back in time and give your 20-year-old self a bit of advice on investing in the creative process, coming up with new ideas, and producing good, fun work.
What would you say?
When things are not
what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to continually improving your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
The problem is never how to get new ideas into your mind, but how to eliminate the old ideas. What is the difference between a good idea and a great idea? Good ideas come along all the time and help people solve minor problems in work and daily life. Great ideas appear less frequently. Generating new ideas like these require more work to execute. If you use these creativity myths, you will lose your thinking skills.
Great ideas aren’t necessarily the result of highly-paid think tanks or drug-induced vision quests in the desert.
Sometimes they are unexpected moments of inspiration that help keep the napkin companies in the business.
Creative thinking is the ability to consider something in a new way. It might be a new approach to a problem, a resolution to a conflict between employees, or a new result from a data set. Employers in all industries want employees who can think creatively and bring new perspectives to the workplace.
The big challenge of generating great ideas is freeing you from the conventional, mundane thoughts that occupy most of your brain time.
How do organizations come up with new ideas? And how do they use those ideas to create successful new products, services, businesses, and solutions? And what about creativity myths?
To answer these questions, a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York spent time observing radical innovation projects such as IBM’s silicon-germanium devices, GE’s digital X-ray, and DuPont’s biodegradable plastics.
Their key finding? Most of the ideas behind these projects came from “happy accidents” rather than some ongoing process to generate ideas. Sounds like another creativity myth, yes?
In more than a few cases, individuals or small groups were simply “freelancing,” working on ideas on their own initiative rather than being directed by some “new venture” board or other idea management system.
Given these results, let’s examine these myths of generating new ideas:
People love change
Myth
Many people believe everybody loves to change and be changed.
Fact
The simple fact is that there is a ton of people who resist any kind of change. They are very risking adverse and change makes them very uncomfortable.
Many people believe that the best ideas come where the best incentive rewards are offered.
Fact
Daniel Pink discussed research in his book “Drive” where rewards were shown to have a modest effect on generating new ideas at best and negative effect in the worst situations.
Pink demonstrated that with the complex and more creative style of 21stcentury jobs, traditional rewards can actually lead to less of what is wanted and more of what is not wanted.
Creativity techniques … foster autonomy
Myth
The belief is that people want to work with groups for new creativity topics.
Fact
We all prefer control over our environments. According to a 2008 study by Harvard University, there is a direct correlation between people who have the ability to call their own shots and the value of their creative output.
An employee who has to run every tiny detail by her boss for approval will quickly become numb to the creative process.
The act of creativity is one of self-expression. Granting autonomy involves extending trust. By definition, your team may make decisions you would have made differently.
The key is to provide a clear message of what results you are looking for or what problem you want the team to solve. From there, you need to extend trust and let them do their best work.
Divergent thinking
Myth
Most individuals don’t consider where new ideas (or how many) come from.
Fact
In reality, most people like to think of lots of idea options. Try the quantity approach to new ideas.
Use brainstorming to improve divergent thinking. Study and then connect ideas to get new ideas.
Creativity techniques examples.
Practice
Myth
You can’t learn creativity, so practice doesn’t help.
Fact
Creativity is like any other learned skill. Unless you are the rare minority, you weren’t born with amazing creativity skills.
You will need lots of practice and experience. And lots of failures and not so good results. Be patient and stick with it.
All good skills take time.
Collaborate with others
Myth
The belief is that most ideas come from a single flash of insight.
Fact
Collaboration drives creativity because new ideas always emerge from a series of sparks. Never a single flash of insight. Surround yourself with creative people in different fields.
Find people that are also looking for collaboration and give it a try.
Creativity techniques … finish what you start
Myth
Creativity comes from many starts and stops. Finishing is not that critical.
Fact
Remember you are trying new things. And not expecting great results. Many failures. If you don’t finish, it doesn’t count as experience or a failure.
Just a give up.
This one is the only one on all three checklists. Very important.
Add play to the equation
Myth
Creative thinking is a serious work like activity.
Fact
When looking for fresh new thinking to solve a problem, shake things up by adding some fun and play to the process.
It always has the ability to shed the stress and pressure on a team.
Experiment
Myth
Failures from experiments tend to dampen the creative spirit.
Fact
Do as much experimentation as you can.
Don’t worry about failures and allow the team to question any and all assumptions and consider even the craziest ideas.
Completely new
Myth
The belief is that most ideas are composed of totally new thoughts.
Fact
The simple fact is new ideas are built from the combining of older ideas.
The novelty comes from the application of the idea or combination of idea and application, not the idea itself.
Past experience and expertise
Myth
Team members often sit back in hope that the smartest or most experienced among them will come through.
Fact
Those who continuously come up with the newest ideas are ones who are great at cultivating minds from different fields and are able to most efficiently connect the dots.
Old lessons from a different field applied to the new field.
Cohesive teamwork
Myth
We can certainly find many examples of teams where cohesiveness abound.
Fact
But the simple fact is that conflict is equally as important as cohesiveness in generating ideas.
Many companies build conflict into the ideation process for this reason.
Best mousetrap
Myth
The saying goes that if you have the best mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.
Fact
This path is not the usual case, however. Often the best ideas are rejected initially.
There are many examples … here are two good ones. Kodak invented the digital camera and never took it to market.
Smith Corona built a superb word processor and yet decided to stay with the typewriter, its bread and butter.
Epiphany
Myth
Many assume that the best insights come to us in a flash of brilliance.
Fact
The best ideas typically require a time of incubation in our subconscious.
We do best when we constantly shift from one task to another to allow our minds to do something different for our best idea germination.
In your genes
Myth
The best ideas come from the best combination of genes.
Fact
No evidence supports an “idea” gene or personality type.
On the other hand, there is a wealth of evidence that shows there is potential inside of everyone.
The best place to see this is in young children.
Best ideas always win
Myth
The cream always rises to the top. And the best ideas are like the cream.
Fact
But the simple fact is that the best ideas are not necessarily or readily recognized as the best.
Most often, they never get to the winner’s circle.
The lone wolf
Myth
Most people tend to believe that the best ideas come from single, very smart individuals.
Fact
The truth is that most breakthrough ideas come from collaborative teams. For example, Thomas Edison had 15 other inventors working with him.
Likewise, Michelangelo had 13 other painters helping paint the Sistine Chapel.
The best teams are diverse and include both new and more experienced collaborators.
This list is simple, but makes good sense, doesn’t it?
But here is the thing
An example. Over his lifetime Da Vinci created 13,000 pages of sketches and notes. 13,000 pages. By hand, on individual sheets of paper.
And how many masterpieces by perhaps the most creative thinker of all time? Probably 3-5 depending on who you ask.
Persistence is a key, isn’t it? Perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people.
The bottom line
As we change at a faster and faster pace, ideas adequate yesterday are no longer are good enough.
Our world is in flux. There is no part of the consumer experience that is untouched. Digital technology is disrupting the marketplace, while changes in our understanding of the psychology of decision-making have overturned centuries of conventional wisdom. Even a brief summary such as this one can make the challenges seem overwhelming.
So what to do? First, start somewhere. It can be one place or the other, but at least start. The change will be unfolding for years and everyone else is as confused as you are.
And with digital disruption facing an increasing number of industries, most firms must come up with the best ideas for change or move to a slow failure.
The myths of new ideas must be set aside to let the new idea facts take over.
Do you need help with differentiation with your toughest competitors?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote for a workshop on creativity. Learn about some options for creativity workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new creative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Like this short blog?Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
