Play Your Way to Innovation

Innovation is serious business, and yet sometimes we are just too serious about innovation. Throughout history, we can see that play actually has served as a reliable gateway to innovation. In Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson illustrates how playfulness has fueled a remarkable amount of innovation and new discovery. Consider Charles Babbage,… Continue Reading Play Your Way to Innovation

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Effort Counts Twice

When it comes to predicting who will succeed in life and business, we often are “distracted by talent”. We tend to place way too much faith in SAT scores, GPAs and other measures of aptitude, even when these standard metrics have been shown to fail as guarantors of achievement. Whether it’s who will survive Beast… Continue Reading Effort Counts Twice

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Mother Nature's Killer Apps

During the past couple of weeks, I found myself, for a second time, working my way through Thomas L. Friedman’s Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. Friedman, also author of The World is Flat, uses his latest book to analyze the dizzying pace of change and… Continue Reading Mother Nature's Killer Apps

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You, Dissatisfied

How do you respond when you’re dissatisfied? Organizations today increasingly sponsor annual surveys to measure the level of employee engagement and satisfaction/dissatisfaction to better understand opportunities for improving culture and communication. Back in 1970, Albert Hirschman wrote a book called Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Many employee engagement… Continue Reading You, Dissatisfied

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Simple Habits for Complex Times

In today’s VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), predicting the future can be difficult, if not impossible. Despite this complexity, many leaders prefer staying in familiar territory, assuming they already know what will work best. In fact, many of us choose the path that is most comfortable or confirming. Rather than bringing genuine curiosity… Continue Reading Simple Habits for Complex Times

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