Creativity

Quotes of the Week

Image courtesy of Photography by jscreationzs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. ~Edwin Land, Inventor Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. ~T. S. Eliot, Poet Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties. ~Gail Sheehy, Journalist Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work. ~Rita Mae Brown, Writer Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous....

Quotes of the Week

Image courtesy of renjith Krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net “Two people look out through the same bars; One sees the mud, and one the stars.” ~Frederick Langbridge, Author, 1849 – 1922 “Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” ~George Kneller,...

Quotes of the Week

“When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.” ~Linda Naiman, Corporate Alchemist “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is...

Quotes of the Week

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”~ Erich Fromm, 1900-1980, Psychologist “Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it may sound at first. If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.”~ William McKnight, 3M President “All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.”~ Albert Camus, French Algerian author, philosopher and journalist “If you...

Back to Basics: Instilling Kindergarten Ideals to Inspire Creativity

If you entered into a competition where you had to construct the tallest freestanding structure possible out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow, who would you want on your team? It can safely be said that every organization has acknowledged the need for a creative workforce, and with good reason. Creativity spawns innovation and innovation leads to growth, longevity...

Feeling blue towards Creativity

What does the colour blue mean to you? Do you think of the open sky and how it represents freedom? Or do you visualize the deep blue sea and feel its peace and tranquility? Would you believe that blue can cause feelings of creativity? According to Rui Zhu and her colleague Ravi Mehta from the University of British Columbia blue can prompt creativity. This is the result of the...

Getting Input to Maximize Creativity

Your supervisor requests that you hold a meeting with the development team to discuss strategies to attract new clients. You want to ensure success and know that this can only be accomplished with the input of your team members. In fact behavioural scientist, Patrick Laughlin has shown in his book Group Problem Solving, that getting input from a group can produce a better outcome than relying solely on one problem solver....

The Action Plan

Last week I wrote an article, Getting Buy in for Your Idea that discussed some strategies when seeking approval for an idea.  If you were wondering what now or what steps should I follow? Here is an action plan that will eliminate the guess work: Identify the Company Culture, Vision and Goals You must understand your company’s vision and culture. Can your idea contribute to this vision? Be realistic...

Public Speaking

Image courtesy of jscreationzs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net People generally get nervous when they are required to speak in public. When their presentation is in front of their boss and his superiors, the level of intensity gets multiplied by about 100. If you get queasy or knots in your stomach with the idea of public speaking, we’ve got you covered. Here are 3 tips that will relieve the tension: Keep their Attention– Start...

Quotes of the Week

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. ~Margaret Mead If you have the courage to begin with, you have the courage to succeed ~David Viscott It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation ~Herman Melville The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense ~Albert Einstein It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves ~Edmund Hillary...

Quotes of the Week

“Good sayings are like pearls strung together.” ~Chinese Proverb “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” ~Joshua J. Marine “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” ~Jonathan Swift “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” ~Fyodor Dostoevsky “Human success is a quotation from overhead.” ~ Charles H. “The best way out is always through.” ~Robert Frost...

Integrating the “i” in Innovation

Be it the lustrous design of Macbooks, the ingenuity of Itunes, the master mindedness of iPhones or the exclusiveness of iPods, Apple without fail has captured and flabbergasted each market it enters by modernizing old ideas. The secret behind the success story lies in the innovative corporate culture Apple has adopted over years. Innovation is indispensable for their economical competitiveness and sustainability. The elemental essence of the company is...

A New Paradigm for Creativity & Innovation

I love Dan Pink. Why? When I started my business 7 years ago most friends and colleagues thought I was crazy.  They asked why I would leave the safety and compensation of corporate life for the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship.   They were right and I began to question myself until I read Dan Pink’s book Free Agent Nation. He made me realize that I was part of a...

The Opportunity Cost of Innovation

Today, there is one major quality required for leaders: innovation. Who immediately comes to mind? Most likely, this person is probably under the age of 30. We are too quick to associate the younger generation with creativity and innovation. A young prospect is bound to lead the future generation on a path of success with a substantial understanding of technology and social trends, right? Probably. But, will this modern...

Finally Happiness at Work

When I did my MBA we took courses like strategy, finance and marketing.  The closest thing to a ‘soft’ subject was one on ‘ethics’ that wasn’t even a core requirement.  Today MBAs are being exposed to a wide range of personal development topics like Creativity and Personal Mastery taught by Srikumar S. Rao at Columbia. In his course, Rao asks his students to discover their unique purpose, creativity and...

How to Help your Employees from Burning Out

Burnout: “the extinction of motivation or incentive especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.” The article Job Burnout: Job Factors That Contribute to Employee Burnout by Elizabeth Scott outlines how highly stressful work environments can lead to burnout. According to the article, here are a few things that you can do to prevent burnout in employees: Give Clear Requirements: It’s hard...

Where Did All the Innovation and Creativity Go?

During challenging economic times, companies tend to avoid risks and stick to what they know.   This results in discouraging innovation and creativity which actually fuel growth (do you have a source to support that?) in the long run. How do we get back on track to greater creativity and innovation? In an article published by the Harvard Business Review titled Innovation: Who Else is Doing it?, Rosabeth Kanter states...

Top 10 Reasons to Manage Stress

1. Stress can cause you to ‘numb out’ and become insensitive. This is a natural survival instinct in an emotionally painful environment and could cause you to become an ineffective customer service representative or an insensitive manager. (David Lee, Training Scene) 2. Stress can stifle your creativity and innovation in the workplace due to the high physiological and psychological effects it can have on you. It causes your thought...