Innovation

Creator vs Employee: Why don’t you get a real job?

Subscribe to the audio blog on your favorite podcast app: Subscribe Have you ever wondered why work seems meaningful to some and not to others? Perhaps it has to do with how we see ourselves. Are we creators or employees? There are a few recordings that playback in the mind of innovators and creators and they begin early in life. In grade school, the teacher says, “Sit still, color within the lines, and stop daydreaming.” They scolded us for the doodles on the edge of the folder and shamed us for our sensitivity. In the old days, teachers simply put you in the corner of the room. The mission of education, in the mind of a myopic society, aims for conformity and uniformity. Sticking out threatens the general order. Things are simply the way they are and if you want to challenge it, you will pay the price. The schoolyard…

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Why Brainstorming Meetings Suck and How to Make Them Better

Subscribe to the audio blog on your favorite podcast app: Subscribe If you want to see eyes roll, tell the team you planned a brainstorming meeting. The hope is to practice innovation, foster teamwork, or prop up low morale. Motives, whether sane or desperate, propel such a meeting to the calendar. The effectiveness of these types of meetings is another story, however. Be honest. They suck. Let me jog your memory. The dreaded no-idea-is-bad on the whiteboard turns into three people dominating the meeting while the rest watch the clock, hoping to get to the break room microwave first to warm the leftovers they brought for lunch. After an hour’s work, the whiteboard has the thoughts of these three people, and the no-bad-ideas promise fails. Passing objections and restrained snickers frustrate the goal of non-judgmental civility, however. The leader writes lists of ideas on the board, filtering, categorizing, and labeling them in…

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