helping organizations uncork the creative power of teams

Lewis and Clark were the leaders of The Corps of Discovery–a government team commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. Although their journey took place over two hundred years ago, we too can explore a great territory – human creativity.

One of my guides for this great journey of discovery has been Dr. Edward de Bono. De Bono is the originator of the term “lateral thinking” and is the author of Six Thinking Hats. His techniques and principles can make our lives richer. In the video that follows I explain in more detail the effect de Bono has had on my life… Continue reading…

In a recent post Seth Godin wrote: “Getting smart about naming is at the heart of marketing.” But how do you come up with a cool name for your product or service?

Mike Brown answers that question in a great post on the Brainzooming Blog: Creating Cool Product Names for a New Product Idea – 8 Creative Thinking Questions. What’s enjoyable about this post is the invitation to apply our creativity to the naming process. Too often naming is either left to “the experts” or done by means of some black-box process that attempts to appear analytical and scientific.

Mike’s eighth question is: “What words would be more exciting, powerful, fun, surprising, or memorable?” I’m not sure what Mike means by “powerful,” but below is an example of a product name that’s exciting, fun, surprising and memorable.

Continue reading…

Whether we call it writer’s block, creative block, or the blues – sometimes we can’t come up with a single idea or a simple response. We’re stuck and there seems to be no way forward.

This can happen for hours or it can happen for days. And sadly for some, it can happen for years. So what do we do that doesn’t involve drugs, alcohol or any other brain altering substance?

Here are six suggestions for dealing with a stumbling block:

1. Admit that it’s there. Find a physical representation of the block, like the one I’ve pictured above. Literally place the block in your workspace and force yourself to deal with it. Now try writing on the paper with this large block upon it. You’ll have to stand up in order to write around the top of the block and you’ll have to write on an angle. And you’ll probably start getting angry, AT THE BLOCK, and no longer at yourself. Sooner or later you’ll pick the block up and put it somewhere else. When you do, it will be much easier to write–the words can flow straight-out.
2. Chose a pebble to represent your block. Take a long, hard look at the pebble. Pick it up and roll it with your fingers. How could such a pitifully small piece of stone possibly hold you back from doing what you need to do? It can’t. So toss it in the wastebasket and get on with it.
3. Package and sell blocks as pets and make millions of dollars.
4. Write about or do something creative with the block. Talk to it. Question it. Explore it for insights. You could do that with the physical representation of the block or the block itself. Why is it here? Why is it here now? What significance does it have? How long does it intend to be around? When will it leave? Why not now? Why are you letting it bother you?
5. Remember what is unique about you, the perspectives you hold, the talents you possess, the manner in which you inhabit the world. Explore how only you could write a sentence, develop an idea or lead a team. Then try doing it.
6. Take some time off and separate yourself from the block. Remind yourself that you left it where you left it and enjoy a walk in the country, a visit to a new part of town, or conversation with friends. Relax, renew, re-create.

Don’t know how my Dad felt about it, but when I was young I loved it when we had to stop at a railroad crossing and watch the trains go by. One time while we were waiting, Dad asked me if I knew what the sign near the track said. I said no, so he told me it said: Stop, Look and Listen.

One of the great lessons I learned from Dr. Edward de Bono is that our thinking and that of our team can benefit from taking the time to Stop, Look and Listen. That’s the message of the video below. Continue reading…

An insightful article appeared today in the McKinsey Quarterly, Developing Better Change Leaders.  The message of the article is that leadership too often overlooks the “softer” skills needed to spread and embed change throughout an organization. Here are some of their insights:

1. Leaders can’t ask others to change if they’re not willing to change themselves.
2. Tie leadership training to business goals in a timely manner – provide training when it’s needed and its value is apparent.
3. Build on the existing leadership strengths that would enable engagement within the organization.
4. Support the leaders spreading the message of change.
5. Establish networks of change leaders who share insights, vocabulary and the willingness to collaborate.

The article echoes what I spoke about in episode three of The Seven Lemons of Leadership, the episode about Tepid Teams. Teams won’t whole heartedly embrace change if leadership doesn’t relate what it’s doing to core purpose or fails to “walk the talk.”

Whether you choose to call the skills and actions mentioned above “softer” skills,” they are without a doubt essential skills.

Hand over the money, I’m armed!

If you’ve ever attended a brainstorm session you have, like me, heard the phrase: “There are no bad ideas.” And like me, you probably said to yourself: “Oh yes there are!”

During a brainstorm, we shouldn’t judge ideas because judgment stifles idea generation. But once the idea generation phase is over, we must assess the ideas before implementing any of them. To avoid judgment of ideas at this phase would be foolish.

Here’s an example of a really novel idea that was not well assessed:

On Thursday afternoon in Utica, New York, a man attempted to rob three different banks armed with a toilet plunger. 

Undoubtedly the man was flush with excitement when he came up with the idea of using a toilet plunger as a weapon – plungers are readily available, inexpensive, and attention-grabbing. Plungers are not, however, highly threatening (at least when compared to a gun, knife or club). Plungers as weapons or means of intimidation = bad idea.

Idea assessment helps us determine whether ideas are feasible and worth implementation. Here are seven examples of questions we might use to assess an idea: Continue reading…