Do You Know Why You Are Successful…or Not?
I just gave a presentation on “Happiness at Work” in Norway. I started with the following question: “True or false – People with more money are happier.” 100% of the audience believed that the statement was false. In reality, the statement is true. Researchers have shown that people with more money are happier. When people […]
Organizations are Cults
The Personality Poker book will be available THIS THURSDAY. Be sure to buy your copy today. Each book comes with a deck of the specially designed poker cards. This is the fourth in a series of videos about Personality Poker. Today I discuss why organizations are cults.
Open Innovation @NASA
I am speaking at TRIZCON tomorrow. The opening speaker today was Jeffrey Davis, MD, Director of Space Life Sciences at NASA Johnson Space Center. His excellent presentation focused primarily on the open innovation efforts of NASA. Here are some of the key soundbites I heard… They wanted to avoid the “serendipity” associated with many innovation […]
Don’t Do The Wrong Things When Things Go Wrong
No company is perfect. Something will eventually go wrong, even if you have the greatest Six Sigma or quality program on the planet. And it is how you handle these problems that can determine your relationship with your customers. For example, I needed a taxi from my hotel in Paris to the airport. According to […]
Cathedral or Chaos?
The other day I gave a speech on open innovation at a conference primarily focused on open source software. One of the presenters at the event suggested that instead of trying to create a cathedral by controlling software development, we should instead be comfortable with a mess. The point of open source is to let […]
Are You a Fire Fighting Arsonist?
Imagine you are heading to a REALLY important meeting that is being held out of town. You have your bags packed. You have your airplane tickets, hotel and car rental reservations, and GPS. You hop on the plane and fly to your destination. After deplaning, you pull out your hotel reservation and type the address […]
Adult Games vs Kid Games
In my blog post, “How Can Goals Enhance Creativity” I said… “…As long as everyone in the organization believes they are playing a game which is designed to get them energized today, and it is not specifically about hitting the target, I can assure you that people will be more motivated.” Games can be a […]
One Simple Action Can Change Your Life and Your Business
Recently, a number of people have asked me how I became an author and professional speaker. I reflected upon it and realized that it all started with one simple action. And maybe, to make major change happen, that’s all you need: one small move. The year was 1993. I was a relatively junior person at […]
How Can Goals Enhance Creativity?
In my previous blog entry, I discussed how goals can either enhance or detract from performance. Over the years, I have written numerous articles on “The Performance Paradox” that show how an obsession with the future reduces performance in the present. And typically, creativity is significantly diminished in the process. But given that businesses are […]
Doing Nothing to Enhance Creativity
We are in such a fast paced society that we are always focused on achieving our goals. In business, these goals might be hitting quarterly earnings targets, sales quotas, or operating budgets. Even innovation initiatives are goal-driven. We measure ideas generated, time-to-market, and percent of revenue from new products. We are indeed a goal-driven society. […]