Stop Being a Know-it-All (transcription)

Here’s the transcription of my Monday Morning Movie… Today, I want to talk about the power of, and importance of, being open to new ideas and feedback. I just spent a weekend at a conference. It was a bunch of people learning about the speaking profession. I’ve been speaking for 20 years, and I’ve had […]

Stop Being a Know-it-All

Today’s Monday Morning Movie… As an expert, or someone who is highly experienced in a particular field, it can be difficult to get advice from others. We have the bad habit of positioning ourselves as the individual who has seen it and done it all. But this can limit our ability to receive valuable input. […]

Beam Me Up, Scotty

In my Monday Morning Movie, I talked about the Power of Positive Constraints and how implementing structure can help us become more creative. Shortly after posting the video, a friend of mine, Brad Kolar, offered up a perfect example of an innovation derived from the Power of Positive Constraints:  The teleportation machine used in the […]

Types of Crowdsourcing

Today’s Wednesday Work Wisdom… Yesterday I spoke at an event called Crowdopolis. The topic was crowdsourcing. This has become one of the hot buzzwords in business. Companies of all sizes are dipping their toes into crowdsourcing. But what is it really? Well, crowdsourcing is a lot of different things and can’t easily by lumped into one small […]

The Power of Positive Constraints (transcription)

Here’s the transcription of my Monday Morning Movie… This morning I want to talk about the power of positive constraints. In the world of innovation, there seems to be this belief that we’re supposed to let everybody be free thinkers and let them do whatever they want. But, this actually destroys innovation. We need structure. […]

The Power of Positive Constraints

Today’s Monday Morning Movie… We often think of constraints as being something bad. But actually they can be quite beneficial. They can help us get more done work more efficiently. And surprisingly, they can help us be more creative. You can read the transcription here….

Four Heads Are Better Than One

Today’s Friday Fun Fact… A machinist, clockmaker, glass blower and mathematician were all walking in Menlo Park…. Despite how this reads, it isn’t the beginning of a joke.  It was actually the start of a new era. I am talking of Charles Batcheldor (machinist), John Kruesi (clockmaker), Ludwig Boehm (Glass blower) and Francis Upton (Mathematician); […]

What Are Your Innovation Blind Spots?

Today’s Wednesday Work Wisdom… Innovation is often discussed in terms of what we know about innovation. But sometimes it is useful to uncover what we don’t know. What are the things that might catch us off guard and ultimately reduce the long-term impact of our innovation efforts? Some useful questions to ask to are: What […]

Innovating Masterminds

Today’s Monday Morning Movie… Masterminds are extremely useful for helping get new ideas for your business. But some mastermind models are better than others. Today’s video shares some perspectives on how to create a more useful group interaction by embracing divergent points of view and starting with better questions. Read the transcription of this video

Avoid the 100% Mentality

In yesterday’s blog entry, I suggested that (if you are an entrepreneur) putting less effort into your business would yield greater results in the long-run. By focusing on the 20% of your business that generates 80% of the revenue, you can then invest your freed up 80% on new business models that have greater long-term potential. […]