happy pi day

Happy Pi Day !  Pi.  3.14159265359.  And so on. The number representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is fondly celebrated by math lovers every year on March 14 has come again.  Seemingly infinite and also constant, pi inspires lots of math-y fun and the baking of pies. 

A few years ago a local leader suggested the formation of a regional committee to produce ideas for intergovernmental cooperation projects (we will get to Pi here in a moment). While discussing it, the concept of ideation was landed upon as the description of what the committee will do .  

What separates ideation from brainstorming is that it is structured process.  There are likely a lot of definitions, and the one we landed on was  project ideation, and that project ideation is

• Deliberate- Intentional, by design
• Civically engaged- Works directly with the community
• Creative- Ideas, consensus building, entrepreneurial

Being government and all it was time for an acronym.   Project Ideation became PI, and the PI Team was formed.  And then  a non-governmental type read the letters P and I  sandwiched next to each other and saw, oh my goodness, an actual word! Then it all clicked.  The "Pi Team" was born. 

I love this story.  Pi as a metaphor is so relevant to the creative process and creative shared in ideation.  Like Pi, creativity is infinite and ideation is a structured and known process--a constant.  The story also tells about perspective--I saw an acronym, someone else saw a word, and not just any word.  The perfect word for what the acronym was trying to embody-a testament to the intelligence of teams.  This came about not just because of an additional person being added to the discussion but the inclusion of the outsider's voice (nongovernmental in this case).  And then there was the circle.   The very  shape of the ideal committee.  And let none of this overshadow the purpose of the team -- intergovernmental cooperation which requires all of these things: creativity, structure, diversity of perspective,  and the circle way.  

So Happy Pi Day.  May you celebrate it as a science and an art.  As the infinite and the constant.  As the user of the circle and the consumer of pie.  Please contact me if I may help your ideation and team intelligence to flourish.