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It’s human nature to want to hang out with people who are like you. Here are three reasons why you should expand your horizons and add an “outsider” to your team.
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If you want to come up with more (and better) creative ideas, here’s a tip that’ll help you achieve exactly that!
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I’ve written countless (well…I suppose I could count them, but what’s the point?) articles about creativity and innovation. As the leader of an intensely creative team for fifteen years (the team that created and produced Seattle’s legendary comedy TV show Almost Live!), I’ve been a student of creativity and innovation for the better part of ...
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You want to know who’s really bad at coming up with innovative ideas? Clones. Also goldfish, but for now let’s stick to clones. Why are clones so bad at coming up with innovative ideas? Because they all think alike! They can’t help it—they’re clones!
It stands to reason then, that if you’re looking for an innovative ...
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I’m currently reading a fascinating new book by Megan McArdle called The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success. In it, she argues that failure is vital to success, partially because it’s only through making ...
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Leadership and creativity speaker Bill Stainton shows how you can increase your short-term creativity by up to 20%–and it only takes 2 seconds (literally)!
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My friend and fellow motivational speaker (I could also include “Seattle business legend” and “self made millionaire”) Sunny Kobe Cook has an interesting theory, and one with which I agree:
Being innovative in business usually starts with a question.
Asking a question is one of the best ways to spark creativity and innovation, either individually or within a team. Why? Because our brains will try their best to answer whatever question(s) we put to ...
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Today we’re going to do a bit of reverse engineering to see just what it is that makes us tick. Ready? Here we go:
Our life—which includes our job, our relationships, our income, our health—is determined, to a large extent, by our actions.
Our actions are determined, to a large extent, by our beliefs.
Our beliefs are determined, to a large extent, by our thoughts (and vice versa). But what determines our thoughts?
Our thoughts are determined, to a large extent, by the questions ...
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That’s my mandate/order/request/challenge to you today. Branch out.
Let’s face it, most of us live our lives on autopilot. We get up at the same time every day, we eat the same things for breakfast, drive the same route to work, listen to the same radio stations, read the same books, talk to the same people. And the sad thing is that we seem fine with that.
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We spend far too much time trying to avoid failure. It drives many (maybe even most) of our decisions—at least the bigger ones.
“What if I fail?”
“What if this doesn’t work?”
“What if I get embarrassed?”
“What if I get sued?”
Sure, these questions—and others like them—need to be taken into consideration. But all too often they become the primary decision driver. We make our decisions ...
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