12 of my Favourite Videos to Inspire Innovation and Culture Change
Getting people to do crazy and scary new things is hard — especially in the corporate world — but absolutely necessary to drive innovation and improve your culture. Moving slowly just isn’t an option these days, we need to take bigger steps and move faster together.
In our team we don’t just take baby steps; we move in leaps and bounds.
We’re constantly trying to inspire people to have visions bigger than what’s right in front of them, and we find that short videos (or stories) are an awesome way to convey a powerful and moving message to people, so we seek out and find a lot of videos on a weekly basis.
In the spirit of sharing the love, I’ve decided to post a collection of my favourite videos so far. I’ve added my thoughts on the video, and what you can use them as inspiration for…
1. Microsoft: Productivity Future Vision
My thoughts: Design Strategists look for inspiration everywhere, and if you need inspiration for your tech journey or IT strategy, look no further than this video from Microsoft. I love the amount of tech at play in this future vision, including Augmented reality, wearables, transparent screens, holograms, 3D printing, the list goes on.
Inspiration for: Technology use in the future.
2. Drone Acrobatics (from three years ago!!)
My thoughts: This video is from three years ago!! The industry applications for drones are currently going through the roof, from security, agriculture, manufacturing, utilities, logistics, retail, transport, OMG the list goes on again. Check out these drones performing aerobatics, and think about how you could use something so precise to perform physical tasks in your world.
Inspiration for: Logistics and moving things around.
Bonus Video: Also relevant for drones, here’s an awesome story that personifies drones…
3. Dron’t you love me
My thoughts: Anthropomorphising (must be a word right?!) physical objects helps us realise the amount of waste we produce as humans. Give your smartphone a name, have empathy for it, and then see how hard it is to upgrade to the latest version each year! Check out the Brené Brown video at the bottom of this page for more on empathy.
Inspiration for: Valuing the things you own as much as you do your friendships/relationships so you stop throwing perfectly good things away!
4. AutoDesk Pier 9 Workshop
My thoughts: AutoDesk are killing it in the software game, and Pier 9 is one of the reasons they’re so innovative at the moment. It’s a huge workshop space with any maker machine you could ever imagine, where they let a group of artists come in, and push the boundaries of their software and tools. If the artist hits a brick wall, AutoDesk helps them climb it by inventing new software tools. Genius R&D.
Inspiration for: Product design and innovation spaces.
5. Nike Japan — Just Do It
My thoughts: My favourite video of all time. Every morning at Japanese schools the students perform a set of exercises to mantras broadcast over a loudspeaker (think corporate messaging), and in this video, people are doing whatever they like, pushing the boundaries of their abilities and cultural norms, while the same old-world messages play in the background. I love the juxtaposition and what it means for a corporate sense. If you want to innovate, you must embrace cognitive dissonance, act in one world, and play in another.
Inspiration for: Driving change and inspiring revolutionaries.
6. Box — 3D Projection Mapping
My thoughts: This is just unreal, the capabilities of programming, mechatronics, lighting, and projection mapping are being pushed to the limits in this crazy demo. Applications for retail, transport, commercial property are huge.
Inspiration for: Using motion graphics for storytelling and other stuff.
7. Tesla Manufacturing Plant
My thoughts: Manufacturers take note: manufacturing is coming back and in a big way. Companies around the world are starting to revert/or extend to physical after going on huge digital journeys. Physical objects help digital companies solidify and compliment their digital offerings, think Spectacles by Snap. But when the game changes, it won’t go back to the ways of the past. Just like what Tesla are doing with manufacturing, automation and machine to machine communication are necessary to operate in the new era. The industrial internet of things is here.
Inspiration for: The journey back to physical, or getting excited about extending your digital offering into the real world.
8. We tried Slack
My thoughts: Team and corporate messaging tools have been stagnant for years. So many companies have clung to email or old school messaging systems. Slack has allowed team leaders and team members to elevate themselves into the future by bypassing their IT departments. Slack is free, secure, enterprise-ready, and fun. This video by Sandwich Video hits the mark with me, and I think it can inspire team leaders with big enough benefits to get on the bandwagon without fearing the repercussions.
Inspiration for: Building great teams and tribes that communicate!
9. Atlas, the Next Generation
My thoughts: Emergency services should be watching what’s happening at Boston Dynamics and with the Atlas program. These robots will soon be saving people from forest fires, car crashes, burning buildings, natural disasters, and all sorts of other dangerous situations. The applications for industry are immense.
Inspiration for: Building robot overlords, or robots that save people.
10. Richard Simmons — Workout Wednesday
My thoughts: Wellbeing is huge at our company; we need to look after ourselves in many different ways if we’re going to bring our best to work every day. Richard Simmons is an eccentric aerobics instructor who is known worldwide for his 80’s videos, and he’s still going. If you want to take a break from all the inspiration, play this video and get your team or attendees off their chairs.
Inspiration for: Working out in the office.
11. Star Wars — Rogue One Trailer
My thoughts: Everyone loves a good hero story, and everyone loves hope. I love this trailers ability to take the viewer on a journey of the unknown, and the known at the same time. A merry band of rebels taking on a huge superpower. Sounds like the teams behind Airbnb, Uber, Snapchat, Facebook, Slack, Dropbox, Kickstarter, Virgin, [insert underdog, unicorn, or disruptor here].
Inspiration for: Hope, revolution, and disruption.
12. Brené Brown on Empathy
My thoughts: Human-Centred Design is still pushing the boundaries of how companies design products, services, and experiences. If you want to introduce your team or attendees to HCD, make sure you play them this brief overview of empathy by Brené Brown. It will get them in the right mindset for empathy, and not sympathy.
Inspiration for: Being more empathetic and Human-Centred.
I hope you got some inspiration out of this list!! Let me know if you want more.
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