I recently did a presentation on innovation. In preparation, I asked attendees to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on how creative or innovative they considered themselves. Then, for those who didn't rate themselves a 10 (there was only one who did), I asked them what obstacle was in their way. A number of people judged themselves to be too practical or admitted to getting hung up analyzing the practicality of an idea. Ah, practicality: The enemy of awesome ideas. Many a brainstorming session has come to a screeching halt when someone suggests an idea deemed …
Is Your Job Getting More Emotionally Expensive?
"Inflation is real. And I'm broke." This was shared with me by a woman in an organization for which I was preparing to speak. Although many people have struggled to keep up with the rising cost of goods, she wasn't referring to money. Over the past few years, some of the most important jobs in our society have grown more emotionally expensive, thanks to the pandemic and other factors. They are harder to do and there are fewer people willing to do them, yet we need them more than ever. Let's consider nurses as one example. They are carrying unsustainable patient loads and burning out …
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Stacking Your Way to Success
Sometimes people look at successes I've had and say, "Must be nice," as if they happened by magic. What they don't often see is the framework that helped enable that success. Fortunately, it's a framework anyone can develop. We often assume that in order to be successful, we need to be great at one thing. That can work—see LeBron James, for example—but that path is extremely difficult and unlikely. The truth is you only need to be pretty good at a handful of ordinary skills. You just need to build a talent stack. Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, popularized …
The Downside of Doing Things the Regular Way
How do I eat my cereal? The regular way. I pour cereal into a bowl. Then I pour milk over the cereal. Then I eat the cereal, savoring the first bites before said cereal is ruined with sogginess. My wife does it differently. She pours cereal into a bowl. Then she adds the milk. Then she goes on a two-week vacation. Then she eats the cereal. Somehow, we've been married for almost twenty-three years. I recently learned of yet another way to approach this breakfast staple that might be even weirder. I actually met a person who pours the milk in first, before the cereal. She …
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The Most Important Thing to Do Today
How many Froot Loops can you stack on top of one another before they topple over? How tall would someone's tower have to be for you to find yourself impressed? We often relish the opportunity to declare how many activities we're balancing. Like a status symbol, our busyness signals our importance. We could pretend the pink ones are work responsibilities, the yellow ones are family and household chores, maybe the orange ones are volunteer commitments, and the green ones are hobbies...All hail the one with the highest stack of Froot Loops! I am always in awe of people who seem to …
Beautiful Questions from Ugly Cookies
QUESTION: Is it possible to create a working Volkswagon Beetle out of rice cereal treats and fondant? I don't think so, but I wouldn't be surprised to fire up Netflix one day and see it happen. I am awed by the mind-bending confections people create on those baking competition shows. It's entertaining television. But watching them make their beautiful creations don't teach us as much as the ugly stuff we create ourselves.A few years ago, I led an unusual workshop. Instead of whiteboards, charts, and slides, we rolled out frosting, sprinkles, and sugar cookies. There was only one …
Step Right Up: You are the Leader We’ve Been Waiting For
Going alone is usually faster. But it's rarely better.Last week, I talked about my family's trek up the Lanikai Pillbox Trail and the pep talk I gave them beforehand. I mentioned how I initially took a solo scouting mission to make sure it wouldn't be more than our littlest ones could handle.It was faster, but probably too fast. The problem is, I rushed it. I wanted to reach the summit as quickly as possible in order to attain the information I craved. So instead of taking the clear path, I looked for shortcuts. I kept a brisk pace, pushing myself to make record time. I knew what I …
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Do You Know the Real Reason They Made Stonehenge?
I remember the painting critiques back in art school. After spending several weeks working on our masterpieces, we’d all sit in a circle and explain what our paintings were about. Someone would inevitably say their piece was a postmodern reaction to the phycological impact of the industrial revolution that caused existential dread. To me it looked like a canvas with some paint sloppily applied. It did seem like the students who were better at making “serious" art got better grades. (Or perhaps they were just better at explaining why their art was serious.) Perhaps this is why, after making …
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More Cowbell Please
Somehow, the television show Saturday Night Live took a lowly old cowbell and turned it into a pop culture phenomenon.The famous skit imagines a studio session with the band Blue Oyster Cult recording their hit song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” Christopher Walken, as “rock legend” Bruce Dickinson (“the cock of the walk, baby!”), singles out the little-used percussion instrument, played by Will Ferrell. Hilarity ensues as Dickinson urges the band to highlight the cowbell in the song. Now the script was funny, and Walken and the other actors nailed their performances. But what is most …
Safety First?
Wash your hands. Wear a mask. (Better make that two!) Keep your distance. Sanitize everything that moves (and everything that doesn't) every sixteen seconds. Stay home for two weeks two months a year to flatten the curve.Sometimes you have to laugh at your circumstances to keep yourself from crying.We've had a rough year, but I am optimistic that the war against this unwelcome virus is nearing an end. I am especially encouraged by the leaders who know we don't live in a one-variable world and have been looking at the whole picture.During a pandemic, when it comes to public safety, it's better …