How often do you daydream or even allow yourself to get bored? It turns out thereâs a lot of value in letting our minds wander. Daniel Goleman calls this âopen awarenessâ and says when our minds wander weâre free to constructively envision our futureâessential for planning and...
âI have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.â Albert Einstein Continuously learning is how you will stay relevant at any level of an organization. Consider stepping outside of your comfort zone, diversifying your areas of knowledge and establishing rituals and habits that support learning. Lifelong...
âWould you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?â âThat depends a good deal on where you want to get to,â said the Cat. âI donât much care whereââ said Alice. âThen it doesnât matter which way you go,â said the Cat. ââso long as I get somewhere,ââAlice added as an explanation. âOh, youâre sure to do that,â said the Cat, âif you only walk long enough.â Lewis Carroll, Alice in WonderlandOrganizations that last know where theyâre going. They know how they want people to perceive their business and they know what they want to achieve.
In short, they have a strong vision.
Creating a strong vision is a key to long-term success: it gives you clarity on what you should and shouldnât do for the continuing health and prosperity of the company.
The vision, however, is only one of the keys to success, you must also have a purpose that drives the vision; and, you must have missions, strategies, and tactics to achieve your vision.
Growth was seen as an endless series of daily choices and decisions in each of which one can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.Abraham H. Maslow[1. Abraham H. Maslow, The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance, 1966.]
If youâre comfortable, youâre not growing. Itâs the uncomfortable things that make us grow.
The same is true of business: companies that embrace discomfort as a regular part of business life are more likely to achieve their goals and move closer and closer to fulfilling their company vision than those that donât.
Companies that stay comfortableâwhich feels great in the momentâend up losing in the long run, which doesnât feel so great.
Discomfort is a prerequisite for change.
Youâre a better designer if you love the people youâre designing for. Fred Dust, IDEO Partner, quoted in Bernadette Jiwaâs Meaningful Iâm surprised how many companies donât love their customers. They talk about being customer-centric or even customer-obsessed, but they donât love the customer they have. Instead,...
Today the campfire is called a computer or a television ⊠Drama goes back to the beginning of civilization around the campfire, where the tribe comes together, and they say, âMy God, did you see what blah blah did with that mountain lion today?â And the other guy says, âIâll tell you one better than that.â ⊠[W}e tell stories that unite the tribe. We reinforce our tribal unity. We say, this is how we do things here. David Mamet, MasterClass.comIf the computer is the new campfire, social media is the biggest campfire ever built. Most companies invest a lot of money in social media because they know they have to. But, few know what to do with it.
Magic has long held a special place in the nationâs history. American magicians perform in arenas, theaters, and even backyards. No matter how big or small, a magic show will always inspire wonder. Today as a member of the Citizensâ Stamp Advisory Committee, I am honored...
In Alexander the Greatâs conquest of Persia, the Macedonian King upset his military compatriots and childhood friends by marrying Roxana. Roxana was the daughter of a minor Persian baron. That is, she was not from Macedonia; she was not of Greek blood. This outraged Alexanderâs men who...
How do you put archetypes to work? Start at the center. The center is unique for each organization. Your strengths hint at it. Your organizationâs passions point you in the right direction. The forces that drive your customers to do business with you provide invaluable clues. This center should be expressed...
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.George Lois, Damn Good AdviceWhen Leon Battista Alberti declared, âA man can do all things if he will,â he condensed the ideals of the Renaissance into the figure of the Renaissance Manâa person with knowledge of a wide range of subjects. Since then, knowledge has become very specialized and having the breadth of knowledge in the wide range of subjects embraced by Renaissance Men is impossible. The Renaissance man still walks among us, but we now call him groups. A group can have a collective knowledge that far exceeds the knowledge of any individual. Brainstorming, invented by advertising executive Alex Osborn, was designed to maximize effective and creative group problem-solving. Research on brainstorming initially failed to show an increase in the number and quality of ideas when compared to individuals working alone; but in the last two decades, research has revealed that brainstorming can be productive if the procedures guard against impediments that naturally occur like conversation being controlled by a limited number of individuals and shared data being disproportionately represented. When small groups of individuals attempt to collectively arrive at a solution through discussion, great solutions can be uncovered.