My New Speaking Video – 3 Minutes of Pure Content
I am thrilled to share with you my new demo video. The team at Video Narrative did an incredible job of pulling this together. We had one design principle: Don’t sell; educate. We didn’t want this to be a sales pitch. Rather we wanted a video that was content-driven. Therefore, this 3-minute video is pure content […]
The Best Way to Boost Your Performance Is Not What You Think
Although we’ve been told that goals are the key to success, what if goal-setting actually reduces performance? Many years back, I worked with a Formula One racing team. At that time, pit crews consisted of 19 guys who serviced the ultrafast, high-tech race– refueling cars, changing tires, and performing required maintenance in seconds. The pit […]
The Counterintuitive Benefits of Choking Under Pressure
When you are on autopilot, you are highly efficient. But when the rules change around you, this can lead to disaster…. I lived in London for several years. Before moving to England, I considered myself to be an excellent driver. But I quickly learned that some simple changes could make it difficult to operate a […]
Signs 3D Printing Is Finally Living Up to Its Full Potential
Advances in 3D printing will revolutionize manufacturing and the supply chain… Imagine you are an executive at UPS. What market shifts would keep you up at night? Maybe it’s the fact the Amazon.com announced they want to get into the logistics business to compete head-to-head with UPS and FedEx. Maybe it is the rapid development of drone technologies […]
5 Brilliant Non-Business Books That Will Make You a Better Innovator
Sometimes the best way to learn innovative approaches to innovation is to read something completely different… If you want to be a better innovator, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of great books on the topic. But as I mentioned in an earlier article, expertise can be the enemy of innovation. The more you know about […]
The Highly Effective, Counterintuitive Way to Stumble Upon Your Next Brilliant Idea
Don’t ask for great ideas only when brainstorming solutions to challenging problems… When brainstorming, we typically ask people to give us their best ideas. But what if the path to finding great ideas is to intentionally find start with terrible ones? Think about the world prior to vaccines. What would be the dumbest way to […]
How to Turn a Left-Brained Workforce Into a Creative Machine
You can create an environment where everyone can contribute to your company’s innovation efforts… How do you structure your innovation teams? If you are like most companies, you put your most creative people in a room to develop ideas who then hand off those ideas to a team of implementers. But is this always the […]
Why It’s Time to Become Your Company’s Chief Laziness Officer
Most of the work you do is not important and in fact slows you down… My first real job was working for a large computer manufacturer in their production control department. After two months there, the department head called me into his office and told me I was the laziest person he’d ever met. And […]
How to Make the Impossible Possible and Other Useful Tricks From Magicians
All the skills that make a magician great also apply to ambitious entrepreneurs. Do you have what it takes? I’ve always loved magic. For me, it went beyond entertainment; it was an intellectual endeavor. I enjoyed trying to figure out how an illusion was done. The actual solution didn’t matter because it was the process […]
Want to Ask Better Questions? Try This Powerful Exercise
The questions you ask may not be helping you learn anything new… Imagine this scenario: A woman walks into a hardware store. She can buy 6 for $6, 12 for $12, or 24 for $12. What is she buying? I’ve asked this question of thousands of executives over the years, and no one has ever […]