7 Tips to Sell Your Ideas Like a Motivational Speaker

“You don’t listen!” All of us have likely heard these words spat at us in frustration at some point in our lives. And guess what, it’s true! The fact is that no one listens. In a previous OPEN Forum article, I wrote on how to more effectively hear what others are really trying to say. By recognizing how you listen […]

Design to Handle the Exception, Not for the Exception

While going through security at the airport the other day, I was reminded of an important design and innovation concept. Things were going smoothly until a bag was flagged during the X-ray procedure. The luggage was held on the conveyor until an authority could conduct a manual inspection. At the same time, a similar problem […]

What It Means to Really Listen

…and guess what, you don’t really listen.  In fact, while reading this article, you are not really reading what I intended it to mean…   Last month, I was on a flight from Orlando to Boston that had a bit of a problem. An hour before our scheduled landing in Boston, the pilot announced the […]

Reframe the Framework to Generate More Cash

This article originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum The way we frame our business world can significantly impact our success. Frameworks are useful, but they can also be limiting. Perhaps it’s time to rethink the way things have been done in the past. One useful framework is often called the product funnel or […]

The Three-Step Formula for Innovation Success

A lot of theories circulate on how organizations make innovation a reality. Over the past 20 years, I have found a very simple formula that helps a company transform the way it innovates. Here’s the key: Ask the right question, the right way, of the right people. Let’s break that down into the three core components. […]

Goals Are Stupid

NOTE: This article is on the American Express OPEN Forum with the title “How to Make Goal-Setting Work for You.”  But the title I really wanted was “Goals Are Stupid.”  I’ll let you decide if they are or not. We are a society obsessed with goals. Nearly everyone sets them. In fact, we just finished […]

One Small Step for Your Business, One Giant Leap for Success

Quite a few books and studies recently have touted the power of incremental change. Small actions can have a huge impact on long-term business growth. The appropriate degree of change needed for innovating within organizations is, in general, a 45-degree change, consistent but not too radical. That tends to be more effective than a 5-degree change (purely […]

How To Publish A Book In 2 Weeks (For Less Than $250)

It seems as though everyone wants to write a book. Unfortunately, most people don’t know where to start and, therefore, become under-motivated or overwhelmed. The result? Good intentions; no book. But what if you could have a bookstore quality paperback book in your hands in two weeks? And what if you didn’t have to do […]

What I Learned From An Expired Bottle Of Mayo

The late Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just having enough dots to connect…connect experiences and synthesize new things. The reason creative people are able to do that is that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people.” Or, in my words, in order to innovate, you need to […]

Is Thinking Choking Your Creativity?

As I write this, I am sitting in a Starbucks in London, England. Cars and taxis are zipping by on the street in front of me as I sip my espresso. Although I lived in London for several years, I only drove a car once while there…just once. There is an exceptional transit system in […]