The Pygmailion Effect and You
The Personality Poker book is now available. Be sure to buy your copy today. Each book comes with a deck of the specially designed poker cards. And no, you do not need to know anything about poker to play! The only way you can lose is if you don’t have a personality. This is the […]
Opposites Don’t Attract
I remember a project I worked on many years ago. I was leading a large team and had a very large budget. I chose John to co-lead with me because we got along so well. I am a creative, spontaneous, and enthusiastic person and John was pretty much the same. The team loved working with […]
The Person You Like the Least is the Person You Need the Most
This is the second in a series of videos about Personality Poker. Today I discuss the myth that opposites attract. You can pre-order the book now. Each book comes with a deck of the specially designed poker cards.
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 […]
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 […]
Is Your Organization Playing with a Full Deck?
Look at any group of people who effortlessly work well together. Odds are the individuals share a lot in common with each other. They might have similar backgrounds, expertise, interests, or personalities. This is natural. Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. We find it easier to work with people who are like us. […]
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. […]
Are You Smarter than a PhD?
“Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” is an entertaining show. In the world of innovation, the biggest question is, “Are you smarter than a PhD?” Here’s what I mean… In Personality Poker we address four primary innovation styles. The spades are the ones who are, as we would say in Boston, “wicked smaht.” We […]