Boredom and Creative Breakthroughs

In this short animation, Dr. Sandi Mann talks about why boredom is an important emotion for us and what role it plays in the creative process. Boredom creates a space where we can daydream and allow our sub-conscious mind to connect unrelated things and these connections lead to new insights and creative ideas. If we really want to experience creative breakthroughs, avoiding boredom is not an option. Enjoy the video!   I have written earlier about this as well. You can read that post here.  

Ten Rules for Building a Good Company

Today, I stumbled upon a book – “Tree-Ring Management” by Hiroshi Tsukakoshi. Hiroshi san is the Chairman of a kanten manufacturer far from the bustle of Tokyo , amid the natural beauty of Nagano prefecture in Japan. In the book, he argues that the primary purpose of a business is to make its employees happy. Their management philosophy also indicates that slow, controlled growth is better than rapid growth and in fact fast growth is the enemy. Their philosophy is so unique that there is an HBR case study for on this management model.  I did write about a model […]

Lessons from The Story of a Wise Man and the Boys who Loved To Drum

I would like to tell you a short story. There was once an old wise man who after retiring from his work decided to buy a house in his old village and moved there to live his life in a peaceful setting. All was well until it wasn’t. Once the school started, there were a few boys who used to walk past his home on their way to school. They would drum on the metal garbage bins that were near the window of the wise man’s bedroom. He would find this noise to be too disturbing and wanted the boys […]

Designing for Wellbeing in the Workplace

We spend more and more time in our offices than in any other single space. So, it makes perfect sense to build our workspaces with little nudges all along the design of the physical space so that they help us go back home a little more happier and healthier than we came in the morning.  That I believe would be key in creating an organisation which has healthy, creative, engaged and highly productive employees. Of course, just getting the physical space right doesn’t mean that all other aspects of the culture will be taken care of. But that is a […]

Samsung unveils A “Phablet” – a Foldable Phone or a Foldable Tablet?

In their developer conference, Samsung revealed (partially) a working prototype of a tablet that can be folded into a phone.  Tablet or a phone – A matter of framing:  While everyone around the world is calling it a “foldable phone”, I would like to think of it as a foldable tablet, that when folded becomes a phone. This framing is important in my opinion because, based on what I saw (in the unveiling videos) I believe that most of the use of the device will be in the tablet form rather than the phone form. Hence, I think of it […]