RIP Michael Jackson
Like other people in the world I grew up with Michael Jackson’s music and still can’t stop listening to the tunes. I still remember the videos of me emulating Michael’s moves and doing (trying!) the moonwalk when I was 5 years old in my grandparents house. It seems it was only yesterday!
Michael was my first idol, I thought how cool is this guy having such a huge impact in the world…I want to be just like him.
It sad to see the King of Pop go but on the other hand I’m glad that I was influenced by him.
Thank you Michael!
Leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln
Lately I’ve been thinking about leadership and it’s impact on others. I found these 8 leadership principles from Abraham Lincoln to be clear, concise and exemplary of of good leadership practice and thought I share them with you.
Lincoln on Leadership is an extraordinary treatise on leadership. Is demonstrates coherently and comprehensively how Abraham Lincoln sought to manage those who helped him preserve the United States through the perilous and agonizing years of the Civil War.
Consider the principles of Leadership that Lincoln spoke of and consistently used to govern is managerial conduct:
Advocate a VISION and continually reaffirm it
CIRCULATE among followers consistently
Build strong ALLIANCES
Search for INTELLIGENT assistants
Encourage INNOVATION
PERSUADE rather than coerce
Influence people through STORIES
Be RESULTS oriented
How do we find game-changing strategies?
It’s easy to spot game-changing strategies from the likes of Google, Apple, Amazon and Nintendo once they’ve executed them.
In a world of fast changing dynamics where competitive advantage erodes before the next morning; strategies that change the rules of the game are difficult to find.
I would be surprised to find out that these companies came up with their game-changing strategies after an all-hands-on-deck strategic planning session where they’re exploring growth opportunities.
It could’ve come from a major brainstorming session to spot game-changing ideas but most often game-changing strategy comes from an improvisational approach.
It comes from quickly spotting an opening, gaining a temporary advantage over the competitors and then building from this advantage a platform for combining advantages into a rule-changing strategy.
It comes from actively adopting a different strategy than rivals with the willingness to abandon past successes in the pursuit of something new and more exciting.
Most of all the companies that have redefined their respective industries adopted and improvisational mindset and through a series of small and unanticipated strategic moves (experiments) ended up changing the rules of the game.
How else do we find game-changing strategies? What other patterns have you seen that lead to a rule changing strategy? Fire away!
10 Most common traits of bad leaders
The authors of a recent article from the Harvard Business Review analyzed a couple of study’s to find out why leaders fail.
As noted from the authors:
In one, we collected 360-degree feedback data on more than 450 Fortune 500 executives and then teased out the common characteristics of the 31 who were fired over the next three years. In the second, we analyzed 360-degree feedback data from more than 11,000 leaders and identified the 10% who were considered least effective.
And according to the results, the worst leaders:
- Lack energy and enthusiasm. They see new initiatives as a burden, rarely volunteer, and fear being overwhelmed. One such leader was described as having the ability to “suck all the energy out of any room.”
- Accept their own mediocre performance. They overstate the difficulty of reaching targets so that they look good when they achieve them. They live by the mantra “Underpromise and overdeliver.”
- Lack clear vision and direction. They believe their only job is to execute. Like a hiker who sticks close to the trail, they’re fine until they come to a fork.
- Have poor judgment. They make decisions that colleagues and subordinates consider to be not in the organization’s best interests.
- Don’t collaborate. They avoid peers, act independently, and view other leaders as competitors. As a result, they are set adrift by the very people whose insights and support they need.
- Don’t walk the talk. They set standards of behavior or expectations of performance and then violate them. They’re perceived as lacking integrity.
- Resist new ideas. They reject suggestions from subordinates and peers. Good ideas aren’t implemented, and the organization gets stuck.
- Don’t learn from mistakes. They may make no more mistakes than their peers, but they fail to use setbacks as opportunities for improvement, hiding their errors and brooding about them instead.
- Lack interpersonal skills. They make sins of both commission (they’re abrasive and bullying) and omission (they’re aloof, unavailable, and reluctant to praise).
- Fail to develop others. They focus on themselves to the exclusion of developing subordinates, causing individuals and teams to disengage.
Any of these stand out in your workplace? In yourself?
If you don’t make others better, you’re not a leader
Are you making others better?
The NBA season is over and the Los Angeles Lakers are the Champions.
The big talk is all about how Kobe Bryant finally got a ring without Shaquille O’Neal. But the story that is without a doubt the most important for leaders is Phil Jackson surpassing Red Auerbach as the coach with the most championships won and undeniably being recognized as the best coach ever by his peers.
I’ve learned much about leadership from watching the Chicago Bulls teams of the 90’s with Michael Jordan.
Heck I started getting interested in this whole leadership thing when Michael Jordan came back from baseball and helped the Bulls to the best regular season ever and championship, so I’ve been curiously watching how Phil Jackson has continued to be a great coach by consistently by bringing out the best in his players.
After game 5 of the Finals, Phil Jackson was asked what he thought of Kobe Bryant’s growth as a leader. He recounted an interesting story of back when Kobe was 22 years old the Lakers lost a game, afterwards Phil sat down with Kobe to talk to him about his impact on the game and how him taking over/dominating the ball put the Lakers in a difficult position. After pointing out to Kobe how he could improve and could become co-captain, Kobe said he was ready to be captain but Phil said “Yeah, but others are not ready to follow you”.
You might have great skill and talent but if others are not willing to follow you’re not making a difference.
Early in his career Michael Jordan was criticized for being a great player but not making his teammates better, it was only when he started trusting his teammates that the Bulls started winning championships. He started noticing a difference in his career when his teammates where confident in themselves.
The word empower is commonly associated with making others better. Empowering others can be summed up this way:
Exemplary leaders make other people feel strong. They enable others to take ownership of and the responsibility for their group’s success by enhancing their competence and their confidence in their abilities, by listening to their ideas and acting upon them, by involving them in important decisions, and by acknowledging and giving credit for their contributions.
When Lakers players were asked about what they thought set Phil Jackson apart from other coaches the same idea always came up: he brings out the best in his players and empowers them to make the right decisions.
Phil Jackson brought out the best in Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant (big egos) by encouraging them to embrace team ball and in return they became leaders themselves.
So why is Phil Jackson the best coach ever then?
According to Kobe Bryant:
“It’s his ability to bring people together,” Bryant said when asked what makes Jackson such a great coach. “That’s the biggest thing that he does so well — he continues to coach the group, continues to coach unity and chemistry and togetherness. Because when you’re together, you can withstand adversity. If you’re not, you can easily break apart and become a team of individuals. That’s his biggest characteristic and what he does so well.”
Conclusion: focus on bringing out the best in others and you shall become a leader of leaders.
Innovation drives differentiation (video)
Innovation means change.
One of the challenges for big companies is how to ignite the passion for innovation in their organization and this requires is a HUGE change in thinking of how the typical organization is designed to work.
In his book The Designful Company, Marty Neumeier proposes 16 Levers of Change than we can use to jumpstart innovation in our organization. Some of these ideas are highlighted in this interview by Paul Williams from Idea Sandbox that I recommend you read.
Innovation drives differentiation and it all starts with culture, the premise of The Designful Company is how to build a culture of nonstop innovation.
I haven’t read the book but I’ve added it to my wish list and can’t wait to read it!
The video above was created by Brand Autopsy to highlight the key ideas from the book.
12 ingredients for a culture of innovation
Value creation starts with people.
With so much talk of innovation right now one of the newsletters I really look forward to receiving is the JPB Report 103 bi-weekly newsletter that always has some good nuggets of information in all things creativity and innovation.
Innovation has to be nurtured and it starts with people, and so here are a dozen ingredients for a culture of innovation from the March Report 103 newsletter…enjoy!
1. Top Management Buy-In
A culture of innovation has to start at the very top of an organization. If top management do not embrace innovation, they can hardly expect their employees to do so either. If you are not top management and your firm does not have a culture of innovation, forward this article to the CEO now!
2. Trust
Several surveys into innovation, including one by PWC earlier this millennium(1), cite trust as being one of the most crucial ingredients to a culture of innovation. This is not surprising. Being creative, particularly in a corporate environment, is risky. Sharing a creative idea with your colleagues might well result in your being ridiculed. Worse, if the idea conflicts with the pet project of another employee, especially if she is your senior, it could easily get you in trouble. Even in firms that value creative ideas, there is the danger that a manager might steal your idea and present it to top management as her own in order to get credit for the idea.
However, if people trust top management, their colleagues and the firm itself, they can be more comfortable about sharing ideas without fear of unpleasant consequences.
3. Priority of Innovation (Often Confused with Time)
Several surveys I have seen, including one published here in Report 103 (2) have indicated that lack of time is a major hurdle to innovation. But a moment’s thought suggests that this is nonsense. Every full time employee in Europe works at least a 35 hour week. Most work more. Americans and Japanese tend to work much more. Clearly people who say that they do not have time to innovate are wrong. They have time. But, in their firms, innovation is of a very low priority. They give priority to other tasks ahead of creative problem solving, creative thinking, experimentation and the implementation of innovative ideas.
But bear in mind that employees in very innovative firms do not have access to a time warp device that gives them more time in a day. No. Their firms simply give innovation a top priority.
If you want a culture of innovation in your firm, creativity and innovation have to take priority over excessive reporting, PowerPoint slide making, long meetings, reading irrelevant e-mails and other tasks that take priority in non-innovative firms.
4. Freedom to Take Action
In many firms, especially large bureaucratic ones, taking action on any idea requires following complex procedures, obtaining multiple approvals and often trial by ultra-conservative-thinking committees. Getting an unusual idea (most creative ideas are unusual ideas, otherwise they would have been thought up long ago) past all of these hurdles is nearly impossible. In a culture of innovation, it should be dead easy for employees to take action on creative ideas. Of course safeguards should exist; but not to avoid risk at all cost. Rather to identify when an idea is not working and stopping its implementation so that another creative idea can be tried out.
In a culture of innovation, employees should constantly be experimenting with new ideas and reporting on results whether negative or positive.
5. Freedom to Make Mistakes
Of course if employees have the freedom to take action (as described in point 4), they will make mistakes. In many firms, mistakes lead to consequences ranging from reprimand to dismissal. In a culture of innovation, on the other hand, employees must have the freedom to make mistakes, the opportunity to learn from them and the means to share what they have learned without fear of consequences.
6. Rewarding Rather than Stifling Creative Thinking
If an employee shares with you a crazy idea that you know top management would never approve and for which you could not possibly get the budget, how do you react? Most people, of course, would immediately say to the employee: “that’s crazy! Management would never approve an idea like that and we don’t have the budget anyway.” But such a response is highly detrimental to creative thinking. It tells the idea-sharer that you won’t even consider highly creative ideas.
A much better response would be to pause for a moment, think about the idea and reply: “That’s brilliant! I love the fact that you are thinking creatively. But you know management will have some problems with your idea, not least of which will be budget. How might we convince management to give it a try?”
This time, you have verbally rewarded the idea sharer with a complement and by giving her a creative challenge to improve her idea even further. That shows respect for her thinking.
In a culture of innovation, creative ideas are always recognized and rewarded and creative thinkers are challenged to improve their ideas so that they are more likely to become profitable innovations.
7. Collaboration Tools
A key to organizational innovation is collaboration. Great ideas are seldom the exclusive work of a lonely, but brilliant scientist toiling away in the laboratory. Rather they are the result of collaborative development of ideas by multiple individuals and teams. Implementing those ideas requires further collaboration, bringing in people to help in the various stages of developing the idea.
In small innovative companies, collaboration is easy. People simply meet up in various corners to share ideas. They e-mail and telephone each other and discuss their thoughts over lunch. But, once a firm has 100 or more employees, collaborative tools such as innovation process management applications, wikis, on-line conferencing applications, document sharing facilities and other tools foster collaboration. Particularly important is to encourage the development of diverse teams of people from different locations, divisions and backgrounds. In large organizations, people tend to know their closest colleagues – usually others in their divisions – best. This makes it harder to develop collaborative relationships with people in remote locations and completely different divisions. Tools to help find expertise and encourage networking across the enterprise as well as outside the enterprise can help tremendously.
8. Places and Opportunities to Talk
In order to collaborate, people do not only need collaboration tools. They need places they can meet up and talk. Ideally, you should have lots of places in your firm where people can sit down and share ideas. These should range from large conference rooms, for structured meetings, to small clusters of chairs around tables where people can simply meet and talk. In a culture of innovation, creative collaboration is a daily activity.
9. Places and Opportunities to Work in Isolation
While collaboration is critical for innovative thinking, people also sometimes need to be able to work in isolation, undistracted by colleagues. They may need quiet or the opportunity simply to sit and think without fear that they will look like zombies. In open plan offices where people face each other and work in crowds all day long, employees do not have the opportunity for quiet thought and meditation. If your office is an open plan one, be sure there are not only places for people to meet up, but also places for people to go in order to be alone!
10. Access to Information
In order to develop and analyze creative ideas, people need access to information. Fortunately, Google makes it easier than ever to find data. But information does not come only from web pages. Being able to call contacts in other firms, participate in web forum, go to professional events and even visit the library is important in the development of ideas.
11. Transparency
Employees should also be able to access internal information of all kinds. Thus, in a culture of innovation, the organization should operate with maximum transparency, sharing not only ideas, but information on the evaluation and implementation of those ideas. Management should keep employees informed of new strategies, anticipated change and more. The more employees know and understand about the operations of their firm, the better they are able to help the firm innovate. Moreover, transparency leads to trust. And we have already learned about how important that is to a culture of innovation!
12. Humor
Humor and creativity go hand in hand, particularly in the business world. In the most innovative companies, you will regularly hear people laughing. Employees share jokes and appreciate jokes. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, humor is very similar to creativity. It is about bringing together disparate concepts in unusual ways – ways that are funny in the case of humor. Secondly, if people are in a comfortable, trusting environment, they are more likely to relax and laugh. And this is important for creativity too. When people relax and joke about ideas, they become increasingly likely to come up with really crazy ideas. And every now and again, one of those really crazy ideas becomes the basis for a breakthrough innovation.
The elegantly simple way to turn ideas into brilliance
I just finished reading The Genius Machine by Gary Sindell. This is the shortest, most simple, useful book on creative thinking that I’ve ever read!
As Gary puts it, his work is to help people think.
This is not a book with yet another creative thinking technique to add to your arsenal, you can get those elsewhere. What this book gives you is an 11 step process to help you think through your ideas and turn them into reality.
A process he calls the Endleofon.
According to Gary, in order to develop our innovations to their highest possible level and to facilitate their acceptance by the people who would benefit most from our creations we need to answer The Endleofon questions which I share with you here.
11 steps that turn raw ideas into brilliance
1. Distinctions.
What do I see? New ideas are the result of perceiving new distinctions.
2. Identity
Who am I? Why are these ideas important to me, and why am I driven to share them with the world? Have I made my identity clear to my audience so they know where I am coming from?
3. Implications
Where do my ideas lead? If what I am saying is true, then what are all the consequences I can imagine?
4. Testing
What am I blind to? Have I imagined how my ideas might impact a variety of situations, places and people? Have I questioned everything about my assumptions? What would prove me wrong? Can I create a model of my work and find precise analogues?
5. Precedent
Who else has seen something like this? By asserting that I have something to say, I am entering into the great conversation of ideas that stretches back through the centuries. We cannot know everything that has been said about our area of focus before we began our work, but we must try to be aware of important, precedent thought.
6. Need
Who needs this knowledge? If what I am saying is so, for whom would this knowledge be valuable? This question forces us out of focusing solely on our own area and may lead us to find the universals in our thinking. Understanding who needs us most will also help us in crafting what we say.
7. Foundation
Are there underlying principles? What is the world I’m working in? What are the underlying values expressed here? What are the applicable rules or structures that obtain here? Can I pull these together into a coherent group or body of law?
8. Completion
Is everything here? If the idea or product is valuable for someone, am I giving my audience everything they need for it to be useful? If everything they need is not here, have I explained what other information they will need in order to know enough to take action or teach others?
9. Connecting
Who am I addressing? Do I understand my audience’s frame of reference? Am I writing for my readers, speaking to my listener, carefully guiding the experience of my user?
10. Impact
Where do I want to go? In creating this work I have launched an alter ego that will eventually take on a life of its own. If this development or body of knowledge succeeds in the marketplace of ideas, will it help me fulfill my goals for my life? Are the identities of creators, the creation and the users aligned?
11. Advocacy
Am I supporting the adoption of my ideas? My thinking stands for me. Now I must stand for what I have created.
Help yourself in developing your breakthrough thinking by reading this book, it’s easy to read and simple to put to use.
You can follow Gary at his blog where he continues the exploration of the Endleofon innovation process.
UPDATE: Listen to this Businessweek podcast with an interview with Gary talking about his book.
Does your idea stand on its own?
So you got an idea and you want to communicate it.
Part of testing ideas is finding out if your idea is replicable and whether others can teach it.
We need to find out whether acceptance of an idea is dependent on its being associated with a particular charismatic individual (YOU), or whether it can stand on its own.
How many times have your heard some consultant show up and give a humorous and brilliant hour long keynote that gets everyone stirred up, but when the dust settles, nothing has changed.
The fact that some people can charm an audience and have people hanging on their every word is not a test of value of their ideas. The real test is whether a person’s ideas can in turn be presented by others and get the same positive results.
You might be communicating a great idea, but if it can’t stand on it’s own you’re not doing much.
So what should you do?
Easy! have someone else present your ideas and see what gets transmitted.
If you’re the magic sauce of your ideas and they only flourish in your immediate presence, your idea may not be sustainable yet and might need further development.
The Qualities of a Creative Genius Mind
So you want to think like a genius?
I gave you a head start on the last post I wrote 8 ways that anyone can use to think like a genius, which I hope you’ll find handy.
Not enough?
If you like mind maps like I do, you need to check out Adam Sicinski. He uses mind mapping methods to create visual IQ matrixes of the information he presents on his blog posts. Sweet!
He has a developed a very useful mind map of the essential qualities for outside the box thinking in a blog post titled The Mindset of a Creative Genius.
I’ve put the qualities of a creative genius mind below for your thinking pleasure but read the full post, it’s good stuff!
Flexibility: A Creative Genius is flexible in thought, opinion and in the decisions they make on a daily basis. Flexibility naturally encourages “outside the box” thinking which expands possibilities and opportunities.
Possibility Thinker: A Creative Genius persistently thinks about the possibilities that are available to them at any one moment in time. They fully understand that focusing on “possibilities” will expand opportunities, conversely, paying attention to “limitations” will only attract a greater array of problems into their lives.
Risk Taker: A Creative Genius fully understands that without “risk” there can be no worthwhile rewards. They therefore take risks by thinking differently, by taking chances, and by utilizing creative techniques and strategies in a unique, untried and unorthodox manner.
Focused: A Creative Genius is fully focused and locked mentally on the goals they seek to achieve. They dare not break this lock until the moment their objectives are fully realized within their physical reality.
Imaginative: A Creative Genius utilizes the full capacity of their imagination to bend the laws of reality to find the answers and opportunities they need to overcome the challenges in their life.
Dedicated: A Creative Genius is fully committed and dedicated to the outcomes and objectives they seek to achieve. They simply will not allow distractions or circumstances to push them off course. If however they do get sidetracked, than they are quick to adjust their sails to the changing winds and alter their course accordingly.
Patient: A Creative Genius realizes that creativity is a process that involves patience and careful preparation. They don’t try to force answers, instead they proactively make slight adjustments in their approach to open up new perspectives and understandings that will unlock the solutions and opportunities they have been searching for.
Proactive: A Creative Genius is constantly moving forward towards their objectives. This doesn’t mean being “action oriented” 24/7. However, it does mean focusing your body and mind on tasks and activities that keep you moving forward towards your goals consistently every single day. They always ask themselves “Is this activity taking me closer to my goals, or is it pulling me away?” The answer redirects their thinking and actions towards their creative objectives.
Courageous: A Creative Genius is courageous in action and thought. They are always willing to try new things and break the rules and boundaries limiting the average mind. And it is for this reason that the impossible becomes possible within their perspective of reality.
Independent: A Creative Genius is an independent thinker and doer. Yes, they seek other perspectives, ideas and opinions, however in the end, it is their independence that allows for the flow of unique, insightful and creative ideas.
Intuitive: A Creative Genius is a very intuitive soul. They fully understand that some answers can only be realized when they have an intuitive understanding of the world and the problem they are facing.
Persistent: A Creative Genius is fully aware if they persistent long enough over a consistent period of time, that every problem can be solved in a surprising and creative way. For this reason they bring forth a resilient attitude to every challenge confronting their reality.
Curious & Playful Nature: A Creative Genius approaches every task or activity in a curiously playful manner. Reminiscent of a child learning something new for the very first time. A Creative Genius fully appreciates that only curiosity and playfulness is able to relax their mind and bring forth its fullest creative potential.
Check out Adam’s blog for more useful mind maps!
