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Disciplined Dreaming: How to Build Your Organization's Creativity Mojo

By Josh Linkner

"I developed the Disciplined Dreaming system to give creativity its own place and practice, to provide everyone in the organization a structure for developing their own creative ideas, and to bring creativity back to the heart of business—where it belongs. Disciplined Dreaming isn't a stifling, rigid "innovation process", but an open system. It provides a strong and flexible framework that frees individuals and organizations to improvise and explore—and, in the process, develop their creative chops. The ideas, processes, and practices of Disciplined Dreaming will help you build your chops by expanding your creative capacity and targeting your creative energy."

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February 16, 2011

Blog / ChangeThis

The Zen of Business: 7 Habits of the Highly Creative

By Matthew E. May

"Frank Zappa once said: 'The most important thing in art is the frame. For paint, literally. For other arts, figuratively—because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where the art stops and the real world begins.' What he's saying is that how we frame something, like an idea or a problem, for example, has everything to do with how well it turns out. He's saying that there is an art to framing. That framing is an art. Frank Zappa had it right. And the reason I believe that is because how I view the world changed completely a few years ago, during an eight year long engagement with a very large and very successful Japanese company, the focus of which was essentially to help unite two distinctly different cultures, Eastern and Western, together in a common approach. This meant I had to straddle two different ways of looking at the world. Two completely different ways of looking at the same thing."

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January 19, 2011

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The Strength Is the Group: A Business Case about Ants, Chips and Your Team's Breakthrough Results

By Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton

"In the mid-cretaceous period—sometime around 120 million years ago—a concept emerged that changed the world as we know it. And although the science to prove the significance of this concept has rested under our noses, under our feet, and even sometimes crawling onto our toes, as humans most of us are dumb-founded by it. 'It' is the concept of teamwork. It has been perfected by possibly one of the smallest insects seen by the human eye—the ant—and yet it is an elusive concept to master in business."

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January 19, 2011

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The RARE Manifesto: How Building Better Relationships with Your People and Your Customers Can Deliver Sustainable Growth

By Adrian Swinscoe

"What if we lived in a world where all companies took care of their existing customers with as much effort as they pursued new customers, where companies were trusted and liked, where doing business with a company was a good experience, where companies and their employees cared about their customers and each other? What kind of world would that be? I believe that it is a world that is worth striving for."

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January 19, 2011

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How to be an Idea Guru: U.S. Department of Innovation, April 1, 2018

By Bryan W. Mattimore

"Please Note: The following is a transcript of the introductory workshop for the Department of Innovation's, How to be an Idea Guru program, held from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM on April 1, 2018 at the Department of Innovation's Training Center in Washington, DC. The Presenter is Dannel Malloy, Secretary of the Department of Innovation. The Guest Speaker is Bryan Mattimore, Cofounder and Chief Idea Guy at The Growth Engine Co. I would like to welcome all of you who are here in person, as well as the other 5,300 of you who are viewing this workshop on-line. This is the Department of Innovation's kick-off meeting for the How to be an Idea Guru training program. My name is Dannel Malloy, and I am the Secretary of the Department of Innovation. As many of you know, the Department of Innovation was created in early 2017 to deliver the new administration's promise to restore the greatness of American ingenuity to every institution within our society. Our mission is to "pioneer, popularize, and promote the application of state-of-the-art ideation and innovation processes to generate new ideas for the benefit of our citizens, our institutions, and the U.

Categories: changethis

November 14, 2012

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The Paradox of Skill: Why Greater Skill Leads to More Luck

By Michael J. Mauboussin

"Okay, you have gotten the memo on improving skill: 10,000 hours, hard work, deliberate practice, grit, and attentive teacher. We've all heard it. You also recognize that in many of life's activities, the results you achieve combine skill and luck. No debate there. Now, what if I told you that in many cases improving skill leads to results that rely more on luck? That's right. Greater skill doesn't decrease the dependence on luck, it increases it. If you have an interest in sports, business, or investing, this lesson is for you."

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November 14, 2012

Blog / ChangeThis

Death Blues: The Celebration and Opportunity of Each Moment

By Jon Mueller

"How much time is left. Do we know. Does our plan know. What happens when we thoroughly hold and understand that our lives are finite. How does this understanding of our end shape our present. And how do we become more 'present. ' Because each moment is an opportunity and a decision. We all have dreams for the future: Making a million dollars, getting a new car, finishing school, getting a promotion, and achieving any number of goals, while potentially important, might not be possible in this instant. But considering an overdue apology, sending a positive email to someone, calling a family member, talking to a co-worker about a project idea, connecting in any way with someone in order to make something good happen can be done right now. And consider the affect those immediate actions might have on the longer-term goals listed previously. Many big events in our lives are the results of a series of immediate but important smaller events that take place before them. Immediate positive actions are the structural building blocks for what's to come.

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November 14, 2012

Blog / ChangeThis

Rethinking Your Business from the Outside In

By Harley Manning, Kerry Bodine, Josh Bernoff

"If you read the pages of the Wall Street Journal you would come to believe that business is about big deals—about multi-billion dollar acquisitions, massive pay packages for executives, macroeconomic forces, stuff like that. In fact, the secret of success is in the little things. Billions of small decisions. [...] Spend a few moments with this essay, and we'll show you three things. First, customer experience is central. ... Second, customer experience is hard, because it's not just about your front-line customer-facing employees. ... Third, delivering a great customer experience requires discipline—or more accurately, six disciplines that cut across every element of how your company operates."

Categories: changethis

October 10, 2012

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Uncommon Wisdom: Why Great Leaders Don't Reward Results

By Eric C. Sinoway

"In today's economic environment—where most of us, even those who are succeeding—face pressure and uncertainty in our business, there's an increasing emphasis on rewarding results. And why shouldn't there be? Why shouldn't we disproportionately direct praise, resources, and rewards to those who produce bottom line results? The answer is that—in the long run—doing so may empower lesser-valued employees, punish our future stars, and undermine the most valuable organizational asset, a company's culture. The framework of this manifesto will help managers and leaders identify the employees who represent the future of their business, and it will help them spot and eliminate the organizational vampires that may kill it."

Categories: changethis

October 10, 2012

Blog / ChangeThis

Trust-and-Track: A New Approach to Small Business Success

By Nick Sarillo

"We all know bosses who adopt a rigid, rule-bound, Command-and-Control approach to management. But do we love them. Will we move heaven and earth to achieve superior performance for them and the company. Will we put our heart into our work even when these bosses don't happen to be standing over us. My two Nick's Pizza and Pub restaurants in suburban Chicago are among the top ten busiest independent pizza chains in the United States, as measured in per-unit sales. Our margins are often twice those of the average pizza joint, while employee turnover is less than 20% per year in an industry that averages 150%. My employees do love to come to work—and it shows, each and every day. I didn't get numbers like that or the love of my employees by dictating their every behavior, insisting things be done my way, and punishing them when they go astray. You won't find any surveillance cameras in my restaurants—although many people tried to sell me them when I first opened, and friends and associates told me I needed them.

Categories: changethis

October 10, 2012

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Disciplined Dreaming: How to Build Your Organization's Creativity Mojo

The Zen of Business: 7 Habits of the Highly Creative

The Strength Is the Group: A Business Case about Ants, Chips and Your Team's Breakthrough Results

The RARE Manifesto: How Building Better Relationships with Your People and Your Customers Can Deliver Sustainable Growth

How to be an Idea Guru: U.S. Department of Innovation, April 1, 2018

The Paradox of Skill: Why Greater Skill Leads to More Luck

Death Blues: The Celebration and Opportunity of Each Moment

Rethinking Your Business from the Outside In

Uncommon Wisdom: Why Great Leaders Don't Reward Results

Trust-and-Track: A New Approach to Small Business Success

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