Innovation

Necessity Isn’t Always the Mother of Invention

I just watched a TED video where Steven Johnson shares the story of how a flute made by a pre-historic man led to the creation of a tech revolution, that is the computer. You can watch the TED video here or below. He goes on to argue that not all inventions  come from necessity and that there is a good possibility that people who have fun invariably invent new stuff that enables them to have fun, the kind that they want. In all the Design Thinking workshops that I moderate, I have three rules for all participants: One conversation at […]

Ideas, Marketing

The Art of Storytelling For Business

It is well known that all of us make most of our decisions based on our emotions rather than pure logic or intellect or rationality. So, if we are to influence people and their decisions, we need to learn about moving them emotionally enough to get them to make a decision in our favour. The best way for us to do so is by telling good stories, stories that they can related to and move with. I saw this video by Ameen Haque, who is the CEO of Storywallahs, which he delivered at the Google complex and was moved enough […]

Ideas

What We Need the Most Today: Pessimism –> Optimism –> Activism

I was going through some of the old posts by Jessica Hagy and came across this one, which is so relevant to the world that we are living in today. So much so that i could not stop but sharing this. Not just content to share it on my twitter or Facebook feeds, but on my blog. Today, we live in a world that is full of people who are not very optimistic about what our future holds for us. Depending upon which side of the equation, you fall in, the political systems around the world are becoming more and […]

Innovation, Podcast

PBTO48: Your Organisation’s Culture is Your Last Competitive (Invisible) Advantage with Soren Kaplan

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/pushingbeyondtheobvious/48_PBTO48__Building_Your_Invisible_Advantage_with_Soren_Kaplan.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Email | RSS Who is on the show: In this episode we host, Soren Kaplan. Soren is the bestselling and award-winning author of Leapfrogging and The Invisible Advantage, an Affiliated Professor at the Center for Effective Organisations at USC’s Marshall School of Business, a writer for FastCompany, a globally recognised keynote speaker, and the Founder of InnovationPoint, an innovation consulting company. Why is he on the show: His Wall Street Journal bestseller, Leapfrogging, was recognised as “Best General Business Book” by the International Book Awards and “Best Leadership Book” by the Axiom Book Awards. He is a sought after […]

Leadership

Don’t Come to Me with a Problem

I have heard many leaders use some variation of this quote with their sub-ordinates. In the video below, coach Marshall Goldsmith and Sam Shriver share why this is probably the worst thing that a leader can do to their sub-ordinates and their companies. Please take the time to watch the video before we continue our conversation. This video is part of a series of conversation that both these gentlemen have and I think it is worth your time to listen to the entire series. But for now, lets focus our attention on this particular topic at hand. When you dig […]