The Creative Innovation Blog
Rethinking Getting What You Pay For (AKA Quiet Quitting)
Plenty of companies and individuals fail to see these Quiet Quitters as a way to gain an advantage in the marketplace. They are the same companies that take too long to adapt and battle a market full of competitors on price over commodities. The inability to value people first often translates into a failure to directly appreciate customers in a meaningful way to bring true innovation.
5 Tricks to Get Mentally Unstuck FAST
Here are 5 different ways to get mentally unstuck quickly.
Intentional Fun Delivers Profitable Creative Innovation
Everyone knows how to have fun with their friends. The challenge is how we have fun with people who may have vastly different definitions of fun than we do. The easiest is by indicating at the start of the meeting what you are working on, then diving into the energizer.
Age and Intellect Doesn’t Define A Mentor
If you are frustrated with life and want change, find the right mentors to help you bring it to life. Don’t make the mistake of think that those individuals are older or smarter than you.
Indicate To Innovate Together
We can’t just think everyone knows what direction we are going We have to actively show them so we can move together and avoid accidents that derail innovation
Pizza and Paving Roads
Breakthrough Thinking™ often makes us stop and smile when we see companies do it. Perhaps it is because it is a “What are they doing” moment, but it grabs our attention. Domino’s has delivered on a fantastic example that brings home a message about who they are.
3 Things To Get Your Creativity Back
Here are three things you can immediately do to get your creative mojo flowing at work and at home. These can lead to laughter, team building, and easier innovation.
Struggles Of Change: A Star Wars Lesson
What can Star Wars and balance teach us about the struggles of change? It turns out a great deal. Anytime we try to bring balance to something that is imbalanced, it is work. Often that work can be seen as unproductive for the person having to do it and that brings struggle.
Demonstrate Empowerment
When a baby takes its first steps, your hands might be there as a safeguard, but you have to let go. When they fall on their bottom, you celebrate the attempt and don't criticize the F.A.I.L. because you know they will get there in the end. Empowerment is no different.
Communicating Direction
If you aren’t prepared to set the vision, give the prioritization of goals, and effectively communicate it, then how can you expect your organization to be on the same page?
Challengers -vs- Competitors
In the sports world, we see competitors as the enemy almost. A group that is trying to take something away from us. A team of people that are out to do something harmful to us. When an underdog team wins, people that are often neutral to a rivalry even celebrate. Stepping back that feels a bit negative.
Why are your employees leaving?
More changes are poised to happen in the next decade than have taken place in the last 25 years, and that is saying something. The emergence of a pandemic slowed that down with lockdowns and now with a lagging supply chain. Add to that, what has been dubbed the Great Resignation, and any thoughts of ‘going back to business as usual’ are fantasies. Why are so many people leaving and what might be done about it.
The 5 C’s for Life at Home and Work
Life lessons can come from anywhere. The 5C’s come from the basics of the basics. They are often used as guidance in thinking for foster and adoptive parents on communication. By practicing these principles, connections can be made, and collaborations can start. They require commitment so that they can become second nature to use in a crisis.
Why I Coach with a Little 'C' Mindset
Coaching with a little 'c' is a mindset. It is something that I learned in my 22 plus years of studying taekwondo, among other things. We practice having an empty bowl, always striving to learn more. I take that same mindset on to the pitch or even the basketball court. It means that even as an authority, I can still learn too. In that openness to learning, which is two-way communication, I can lead.
Clearing the Work Plate
This is a symptom of organizations that have unhappy individuals that feel no ownership, pride, accountability or responsibility for what they have in front of them. They aren't empowered to take actions or they need training in order to do better. Then there are the individuals with so much on their plates that they are unable to focus on anything and end results are mediocre because of it. There are of course those that do the bare minimum and have learned that is all they have to do. They are the true plate clearers.