Using Conflict to Increase Innovation
The more you motivate your team to challenge ideas, the greater the likelihood that you will acquire innovative and creative ideas from your team.
Emergence
CREATIVITY, like life, IS EMERGENT. — AHA! (aha-writers.com) A few weeks ago we encouraged you to shift from an attitude of certainty to an attitude of curiosity in order to increase your creativity and innovation. You responded with some wonderful insights about the ways that small shift in perspective had opened your eyes. And then, when we were at the offices of AHA!*, an amazing creative agency that we have worked with for the past couple of years, Betsy Henning,…
Becoming More Creative and Innovative
Everywhere you look there are articles and books about becoming more creative, expanding your organization’s culture to become more innovative, and leading change rather than reacting to it. We’re all for greater creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, the current approach of many individuals and organizations leaves them disappointed and in a state of constant reactivity. Often, leaders treat creativity and innovation like they are either a box to check on a to-do list or something to do once a year at…
Fostering Curiosity
We live in a world where many things are said with great certainty, as a proclamation of “truth.” Yet, in our work, we find that people in all their various roles often have more power if they can show up as curious rather than certain. One of the things we ask of our clients is to engage with a spirit of curiosity instead of certainty. We know, staying curious when you are stressed or in a hurry is easier…
Resistance: When You Cannot Get Out of Your Own Way
We have recently been reading the book “The WAR of ART: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles“ by Steven Pressfield. We have heard a range of reactions to this book but what spoke to us the most was his exploration of “resistance,” and why most of us struggle to bring our most cherished gifts to life. Pressfield describes the power of resistance to derail our efforts and the increasing power resistance commands when those efforts are…