Tag Archive: creativity

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Unstructured brainstorming offends creativity. Image of an offended person.

Brainstorming for Busy Leaders

Unstructured brainstorming offends creativity. Don’t sit around tossing out ideas.

Tighten your approach. Ask the right question.

Discover specific questions that make brainstorming useful.

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Giant Hairball Truth: Stay tethered to your organization but not tangled in bureaucracy. Image of an astronaut floating in space.

Don’t Get Swallowed by the Giant Hairball

Organizations are like giant hairballs. Stacks of rules, red tape, sacred cows, and memos from 1998.

Gordon MacKenzie, the corporate misfit at Hallmark, encouraged people to orbit the hairball. Don’t get sucked into it.

Stay tethered to your organization but not tangled in bureaucracy. You’re irrelevant when you’re too far out.

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Everything in the real world began with imagination. Image of a black and white fractal.

How to Use Imagination Today

The line between imagination and reality is fuzzy when you’re 3-years old. Sadly, we outgrow pretend. Everything in the real world began with imagination. Imagination: Maya, our youngest granddaughter, baked cookies for us… Continue reading →

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It’s comforting to shoot down new ideas when you’ve invested so much to create the status quo. Image of a car buried in the road.

Choose to Hug New Ideas Before Killing Them

People learn to keep their mouths shut when new ideas face a firing squad.

Exploring an idea is different from agreeing with it.

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Variety produces vitality. Image of a basket of flowers hanging on a dead bush.

3 Reasons Variety is Essential

Common wisdom deceives you. You’re boring because some knucklehead said: You fall behind if you continue doing the same things, even when you’re doing great today. 3 reasons variety is essential: #1. Variety… Continue reading →

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Your organization's future depends on creating a competitive advantage that cannot be copied. Image of paintbrushes on whitewashed floor.

Organizing for an Innovative Culture

New Book Giveaway!! 20 copies available!! Leave a comment on this guest post by Bella Rushi to become eligible for one of 20 complimentary copies of her new book, The Innovative Executive: Leading Intelligently… Continue reading →