Selling Your Ideas

Innovators know that great ideas that don’t get implemented are worthless. So how do you convince people that your solution is a good one? Consider the case for “business casual” in the workplace. What are the traditional selling points? People will be more creative. Employees will be happier.  A more casual environment improves communication.  All […]

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 […]

Work with People You Don't Like

When asked by a Fortune 20 company to boil down Personality Poker into a 350 word article for their intranet, this is what I created… We all have heard the expression, “opposites attract.” But in fact there is irrefutable scientific evidence that in relationships, opposites repel. We prefer to be around people who are similar to […]

Different Questions = Different Solutions

I recently had a conversation with a colleague who is a professional speaker.  She and her husband are debating if they want to have a child in the near future. She said, “Right now my life is easy and I know if I have a child, it will be a lot more difficult.” The implied […]

Two Recent Interviews

If you want to hear my voice talk about innovation, here are two recent interviews for podcasts: I had a blast with Karen Keller when we addressed how women (and men) can be more innovative.  This was a no holds barred conversation where I said what was really on my mind: Power Influencer Series (interview not […]

eCornell and TrainingIndustry.com Webinar

I recently gave an hour-long webinar for eCornell and TrainingIndustry.com.  Over 3,000 people registered for only 1,000 slots, maxing out the system.  Thousands of people were unable to attend, so they made the recording available to everyone. I discussed some of the key concepts from my book, “Best Practices Are Stupid.” Watch this wildly popular […]

Why the Pyramids Are One of the Seven Wonders

Normally we don’t do this. We have not yet posted an entire tip to this blog.  Yet, at the request of one of my clients, the publisher has agreed to let us do it…just this one time. USAA is one of the coolest and most interesting financial services companies out there.  Every year they appear […]

Full Length NASA Speech

I recently spoke in Houston at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  This is 81 minutes of talk on innovation and crowdsourcing.  

How to Listen Better

Friday evening, on JetBlue flight #1696 from Orlando to Boston, we had a bit of a problem. About an hour outside of Boston, the pilot got on the intercom and told us that the main braking system was not working.  Although the back-up system would probably work just fine, they were preparing us for the […]

Innovation Costs on $0.50

I saw this sign while driving in Orlando.  It caught my attention.  As it turns out, there is very little innovation going on at Innovation Way.  Maybe they need to raise the toll.