Seize the Day - Power Up Creativity

C Carpe Diem - Seize inspiration and
R Run with ideas to see where they can take you
E Explore and play, never stopping...
A Angle your line for hours as a person who fishes
T Talk with creatives and people outside your field till your brain's abuz-z-z-z-z
I Initiate from within - unleashing your potential
V Vacuum cobwebs - relax and  refresh your spirit
I Idle the motor - simply daydream when you feel like it...
T Touch your soul - Thank God and be grateful
Y Yes, yes, yes.

Look at creativity through another viewfinder to see the action in your brain

C Curiosity and discovery can increase rewards to brain through dopamine, a natural drug
R Rewire brain by doing creative acts & your brain builds neuron pathways for creativity
E Engages amygdala where brain processes emotional information that feeds zeal & novelty
A Adjust speed of brain waves by selecting music that enhances your creative activity.
T Target your working memory to try new skills
I Insightful thinking increases activity in temporal lobes, which enable applications you try
V Vary work activities to tap your brain's multiple intelligences
I Improves focus and problem solving through brain's natural serotonin
T Tap into sensory information stored in parietal lobes to enhance visualization of places and events
Y Yield to a sense of improvisation and self-expression that originates in the brain's frontal lobe

Is Your Vision Moving "Full Steam Ahead?"

What makes people with vision so astoundingly vibrant and successful? Full Steam Ahead draws you into life events though a story that touches you in ways how-to books cannot. Ken Blanchard and Jesse Lyn Stoner offer fascinating insights about the transformative power unleashed by vision in a small insurance company.

From the start, your curiosity is roused with Ellie's, as she puzzles over a voice mail message she finds on her phone ending with...

I believe there is nothing wrong with average lives and average accomplishments; most of the good of the world builds on the accumulated efforts of everyday people. But a life should strive for greatness, as Lincoln seemed to know.

"Who was Jim, and why was his message in my voice mailbox? This was something I hadn't expected in the business world... Each morning, I was intrigued by the brief message that began with the words 'Good morning, everyone. This is Jim."'"

Ellie's wonderment led to greater curiosity.

Interestingly, curiosity releases dopamine in your brain, which leads to heightened motivation. And when you find the answers you are rewarded by further releases of dopamine, which leave you feeling good. No wonder Ellie's curiosity is such a driving force throughout the story.

Ellie soon learns that Jim, the company head, has been leaving the messages to make a personal connection to company employees and create a small company feeling. However, Jim does not believe he can create the same kind of spark within the company as his Dad and he goes so far as to admit his work does not seem exciting or fulfilling. Not too surprisingly, myths people hold in their brains about their abilities can keep playing out. Here's why... Thinking of oneself as "lesser than," when it comes to performance, is but one of the many myths people create in the brain and the more they tell themselves that, the more deeply entrenched it becomes. But leaders can stretch past ability myths by doing the opposite.

After Ellie joined the firm things begin to change for Jim...

Ellie asks many questions to figure out how the pieces fit. She's the catalyst to help Jim rework the elusive vision puzzle from the inside out. Jim realizes that his Dad had a vision of what he wanted the insurance company to be, and everyone shared in that, but knows it's lacking for him. Ellie finally asks, "But if you don't have a vision, how do you get one? What is it that makes a vision?"

Some people just don't get why it's important to have a vision, and worse yet they have no idea how to create one. And, some businesses get people organized around a vision and then lose the focus. Worst of all some companies create a vision when they need to downsize.  So... a way to create a vision that inspires and motivates is direly needed.

As Jim and Ellie struggle to figure out the answers, you enter the process with them and walk alongside as they work out a clear vision for Carpenter Insurance Agency. Jim and Ellie decide to hold early morning meetings to answer some of Ellie's questions.

During their meetings they figure out how purpose, a picture of the future and clear values are intricately woven into vision. Coming to grips with failure when gaps cause difficulty, makes the impact realistic. But, you see how Jim and Ellie, stick to it and find real answers that fit their context. Though your company might be quite different, you see practical approaches that can be adjusted to work for you or your organization.

Blanchard and Stoner create a bonus for readers by narrowing down main parts of their understanding in charts. You'll be inspired to create a vision for a workplace, department, team or even yourself personally as you draw from the tools provided. You'll see the how's of doing it.

Full Steam Ahead provides the empowerment you need to bring vision to your organization in a way that's insightful, clear and meaningful. When a vision's shared it energizes people with a new excitement about coming to work, and they're enabled to circumvent barriers more easily.

If you order your copy today on May 6 [today] Ken Blanchard and Jesse Lyn Stoner will make a donation of all online profits to Give Kids the World. This second edition sold over 250,000 copies and has been translated into 21 languages.

10 Divergent Strategies - Break through the Box!

All creativity imagines an alternative universe ~ August Turak

Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box

Why is it that creative people tend to break rules? Innovators imagine something that will work better. They don't like being boxed in, but somehow have a glint in their eyes for the adventure of a challenge. Is that where you see yourself?

Intriguingly, creativity may have come into the world by a lie... An early inhabitant on our planet imagined a fake water hole and made it seem realistic to a competing tribe so that competitors picked up stakes and moved to settle in that locale. "All creativity imagines an alternative universe," Turak finds. "A universe that does not yet exist, and in this sense every creative act is 'untruthful.'"

Consider the mad artist...is there a link between highly creative people and mental illness? After all, Vincent Van Gogh and Sylvia Plath, represent a popular perception that creativity and madness go hand in hand. Some scientists recently found that "divergent thinking, or the ability to think outside the box, involves the brain's dopamine communication system." A Swedish research team, who investigated the dopamine connection further, discovered that "people who had lower levels of dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus also had higher scores on tests of divergent thinking--for instance, finding many solutions to a problem."  They think outside a less intact box, since previous works shows that people with schizophrenia also have lower dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus.  

So what exactly does this have to do with work?  Everything.  Here're examples of divergent thinking that break norms...

1. Great guerrilla marketing "means developing a sixth sense for knowing when and how to creatively cut corners," August Turak notes. "It requires a sort of impish instinct for breaking rules. But it also means successfully walking that invisible line between creativity and unethical chicanery."

"Every great guerrilla marketer is a bit of a scamp; a person who is constantly evaluating the rules that make up conventional thinking looking for the ones just screaming to be broken. If the bowling ball is the implacable enemy of the egg, guerrilla marketing is the implacable enemy of all the assumptions that pass for business as usual."

2. From Mentor to Mindguide "Both experts and upstarts claim to see unlimited potential in shared wisdom, Dr. Ellen Weber points out. "Yet seasoned mentors advise clever cronies to operate much like themselves, in spite of rapidly changing horizons."

"Few would disagree – it’s time to shift tutoring approaches to reflect more balanced and reciprocal coaching. Guidance based on mutual brainpower potential, and experience from differences, rather than on entitlement, age or seniority."

3. Conversation as a "non-zero sum" game  The world is fast changing from the 500-year tradition of individualism since it is not working in today's world.  Individualism leads to a zero-sum game which polarizes positions.  Collaborative conversations take people in a more productive direction that benefits humankind.  "One player's  gain does not translate into the other's loss, Melinda Blau concludes.  Such conversation helps us to think differently and see new creative possibilities.

4. Experimentation - a part of every employee's work In order to develop a culture of experimentation, H. James Wilson and Kevin Desouza suggest that "organizations should provide employees with a multitude of opportunities to question, observe, and engage in new experiences." Some key strategies are:

a. Increase managerial attention. Managers can encourage employees to experiment with their ideas, but even go so far as requiring experimentation when ideas are being developed and proposed.

b. Develop employees' skills on basics of conducting experiments.

c. Use experimentation in spite of the fact it'ss a messy and untidy process. Experiments usually don't lead to fruitful results.

d. Start presentation series for researchers and practitioners. Sharing extends insights.  Both  researchers and practitioners seek quality outcomes to present to wider community.

5. Fail Harder  Though failure goes against the grain, Jorge Barba reminds us that massive failure advances the creative process. "Success is a lousy teacher compared with failure," Mohawn Sawnney of the Kellogg School of Business finds. "We learn a lot from failure, because failure makes us more receptive to new ideas and failure is easier to diagnose than success." Sawhney suggests that companies should document, celebrate and reward failure by focusing on Famous Mistakes.

Ad house Wieden+Kennedy created a mural to display such a divergent approach.



6. Best leaders are great followers Nearly everyone sees him or herself as a leader. But where are the followers? Michael Hyatt asks. On the flip side, history’s worst leaders never learned to follow. As a result, they became tyrants, making the lives of their own followers miserable, Hyatt contends. He sees unassuming qualities in great followers: clarity of role; obedience with the ability to follow orders; servants willing to do the job joyfully; humility that shines light on other leaders; and, loyalty in public with private influence.

7. Weird rules boost creativity Strangely enough, weird rules can boost a company's innovative output. 10 years ago Stanford professor, Robert Sutton introduced his methods in Weird Ideas that Work.

Some of the guidelines include:

• Reward success and failure; punish inaction,
• Find some happy people and get them to fight,
• Ignore people who have solved the exact problem you face,
• Hire "slow learners" (of organizational code),
• Seek out ways to avoid, distract, and bore customers.

"Rules which fight against the normal corporate norms," Lifehacker's Dave Drager concludes, "have been proven to foster creativity within organizations."

8. Power of Play In a quest to "escape the tyranny of technique," Kate Arms-Roberts discovered InterPlay, an integrated system encompassing all the parts of your life--"a sanctuary for those who seek to be spontaneous, affectionate, open to truth, playful and real," according to leader and guest blogger, Kate Arms-Roberts.  InterPlay's foundations build on "improvisational practices using song, story, silence, dance and community and a set of principles that can be applied to any moment in life.to help break the rules." Consider Ann's experience...

Storytelling forms of InterPlay loosen me up. When I struggle to make the words tell my story, Babbling in a Made-up Language releases me from the pressure of precision. When I am running over with ideas, I Could Talk About is a form that gets the ideas out without requiring me to do anything with them; I just have to list them. If my body is stiff or my words are stilted, I can shake things up by telling Big Body Stories that involve movement or dance as well as words.

How might improvisational play launch new creativity in your work?

9. Gaming changes disliked routines  If you take the Tube to work in London, travel can be fun rather than bearable with Chromaroma. Here's how it works:

Chromaroma will import the user's Tube, bus and bike journey history, awarding points for each trip. For each user, Chromaroma tracks statistics on the number of swipes, achievements, “missions,” “collections,” places, identities, modes of transport, seasonal highlights and passengers encountered as the user travels around the city, along with the number of stations “captured,” records set and overall rank. By watching their own travel details, users can investigate new ways to travel and new destinations; "multipliers" and bonus points are available by working with a team, building up connections with fellow passengers, and discovering “mysteries” attached to a particular location. Beyond competition and conquest, Chromaroma's gameplay “opens up the beauty in the city's transport flows and reveals to its most persistent players some of the mysteries of travel, and even the strange characters travelling through the tunnels in the centre of the system, who may hold the secrets to your city.”

Gaming is used successfully for call center motivation as employees create teams and vie to win trips by most successful calls. Who would guess gaming can be motivating rather than distracting!

10. Solutions do not necessarily address problems Luke Williams tells the story of how Jonah Straw and friends discussion turned to "disruptive business ideas." One of Jonah's friends asked, "how crazy would it be if some company started selling socks that didn't match? Jonah's friends thought it was a terrible idea. It was soon forgotten by everyone, but Jonah, who couldn't let go of it. It led Jonah to launch Little Miss Matched.

"Most people in business are trained to focus only on problems: things that don’t work and need fixing," Williams finds. He says, "It’s more effective to start by identifying something in your business or industry that’s not necessarily a problem, and then go about methodically breaking it down." To do so try the following steps:

~ What do you want to disrupt? Define the situation you want to challenge. Define it in a sentence.

~ What are the business cliches? Identify assumptions that influence the way insiders or outsiders thing about your situation such as "hackneyed beliefs that govern the way people think about and do business in a particular space...We don’t consciously think about these things because 'that’s the way they’ve always been.'"

~ What are your disruptive hypotheses? Poke the status quo by generating several disruptive hypotheses to fill in the answer to, "I wonder what would happen if we ________." Think about opposites as you do this.

~ What can you invert? Red Bull was developed by Coca-Cola as an expensive soda, whereas their others were inexpensive. It may cost double the price of other colas, but it sure will give you a shot of energy when you need it.

~ What can you deny? In the case of Zipcar the company did not need to see the customer or complete paperwork. And, it started renting by the hour. consumers liked the process since they no longer needed to wait in line, fill out papers, listen to pressure to upgrade or add all kinds of insurance. Customers simply apply for membership and they can reserve vehicles online.

Try focusing on something that you take for granted at your business and use Luke Williams' steps to see what hatches.

Let's face it, people who live disruptive thinking, may not be not so crazy after all, considering all the innovations that emerge.

8 Strategies to Reboot Your Brain for Active Listening

As someone talks about an innovative project do you find exciting ideas sizzle in your mind? At times, I can begin to run with just one piece of what a colleague says and think very creatively. Whoa, I am not listening.  Do you have a similar issue? Interestingly, as you mull over a new idea in your mind, you miss a portion of what the other person says. Listening takes intentional focus.

The way our brains work, deeply affects listening capability. Here's why...

Not too surprisingly, at least three facets of how the human brain works, impact our listening and speech patterns. When we hear an exciting idea, we may be tempted to build on that in our own mind. Our brain's neurotransmitters release dopamine, helping us to feel the pleasure of a reward. The pleasure we receive from forming new ideas in our minds may work at odds with truly listening to another person.

Likewise, patterns of past interactions stored in your basal ganglia, impacts personal mental mindsets.  For instance, if you have attended workshops, meetings, company training sessions, or have not engaged in meaningful conversation with certain people, you can see why you will need extra spark to be attentive.

Over time, the speech patterns we adopt culturally, affect the way we listen to others. The brain's basal ganglia, described by Dr. Ellen Weber, is a "mental storehouse for habits, routines and ruts for every lifetime experience you've encountered." If you are used to forming new ideas so you can respond during a pause as someone else talks, you do not listen well.

The brain mainly focuses on one thing at a time. For instance this is why it is impossible to text and drive at the same time since multitasking causes the brain to bottleneck. Perhaps this bottle necking proclivity shows exactly why it takes such intentional focus to truly listen to someone as s/he speaks. So how do we begin to focus more on listening?

"Interest or importance is inextricably linked to attention," according to John Medina in his book, Brain Rules. Medina notes that researchers refer to this as arousal.

8 Strategies to Reboot your Brain for keen listening...

Value the speaker When you listen well, and give another person's thoughts keen contemplation before you answer, you serve both yourself and that person well. Why not take a card or memo pad to events to jot down key words that jog your ideas later? In this way you can engage even more of the other person's idea and you will have even more to go on later.

Eye contact counts When you truly look at some one's eyes as he or she speaks, you jack  up your focus.  If you are in a busy room full of activity, you could be easily distracted. Laughter, catching part of a joke, seeing someone you want to contact, can take away your attention quickly. Because the brain tends to focus on one thing at a time, I have to really focus on the eye contact.  It makes a difference for me. You?

MITA Two-footed questions As you listen intently ask questions that take the person's ideas to a new angle or a facet you want to know more about. People enjoy telling you their best ideas. By keeping the focus on that person's interest, you can go deeper with him or her.  In so doing, you will find that you will have more buy in yourself. The conversation thus moves from neutral, to one in which you are keenly interested.  As you gain interest, you are bringing more of your right brain, the creative side, to the conversation.

Active listening  A friend from China, Wen Ma, shared that in his culture people listen actively and contemplate the person's point and take time before they respond.  Active listening can improve a sales person's abilities to engage well since it listening well enough to respond to clients' needs helps clinch all-important deals.

Words block distractions  If you find your mind is distracted when someone speaks, say a word in your head such as, "focus," or "clear the mechanism." Then replace this with a key word you hear from the person speaking to move your thoughts with his or hers.

Posture counts - lean in  By leaning in as you listen, it boosts your concentration and creates a deeper connection to other people.

Practice makes perfect  If you can see the need to improve on past listening habits you've developed, as have I, they can be changed. And it's related to the human brain's amazing plasticity. Very recently researchers began to explore this aspect of the brain even more.

Here's a listening test found on Psychology Today. Start with their analysis to change where you stand...

Thoughts or additions?

Does your game plan include surprise?

Isn’t that the beauty of real creativity, that you wake up every morning not knowing what you’re going to discover? Mark McGuinness of Lateral Action

Coach adds surprise to game plan  Are you open to surprise? Surprise comes when we least expect it... and maybe we miss it at times because it looks too simple... The New Orleans Saints were behind as they started the second half of the Superbowl. They came in with a very simple play, an onside kick, but the Indianapolis Colts did not expect it just then. It gave the Colts the momentum to win. Goes to show what surprise can do for a well-oiled team or even individuals.  I thank Brad Shorr for the "aha."

A novel suggestion:  "You ought to create a room for yourself now that your children have left," a friend suggested.  My hubby had an office in our home for years, but not once did I entertain that possibility.  Her words came as total surprise.

"Yes, what a superb idea," I replied almost simultaneously as inspiration welled within me.

"I'll tag along as you pick out colors and decide on furniture and accessories," she offered.  "Then I'll help with painting, and tasks to pull it off."

We lunged into the work - selecting a carpet and new slipcovers, sewing a Roman curtain, painting walls, choosing just the right prints and furniture... When completed, the splendid atmosphere encouraged me to create in many ways.  Eventually I wrote my doctoral dissertation here, and I continue to design projects and write here.

Because I followed through with my friend's surprising suggestion, it led to unexpected results, such as going back to university after earning a masters three decades ago.  Are you a person who lives for surprise and do you know others who do? 

Are you curious as to why some people dive in when a surprise comes, while others linger and then let it go?  Here's the bigger picture...

Novelty The challenge of something different stirs the human brain. Novelty's a motivator for most folks. An unexpected stimulus sparks desire for humans to explore and learn. Since our brains are wired to avoid boredom and ruts, when a stimulus activates the brain, most people explore further in search of some kind of reward at the end.   Often release of dopamine which brings a high level of satisfaction, and is reward in itself.

People who welcome new experiences have stronger connections between their memory and reward brain centers than people who tend to avoid anything new, research now shows.

Pay it forward - Hank Wasiak cites an example of The Martin Agency's Asset Based Thinking (ABT). They took a daring extra step in the midst of recession when they had to cut 5% of their staff. They actually "paid prospective employers to hire the people they had to lay off….one half of the first month’s salary up to $4,000. An offer with a potential price tag of $100,000. Not an insignificant commitment in tough times," Hank exclaims.

Paying it forward is an amazingly powerful action according to Hank since it...

1. Gives a person an edge up
2. Shows person is valued - a self esteem boost
3. Creates sustainable positive ripple effect
4. Shows other colleagues that firm treats employees well - more motivated employees
5. Establishes an incentive and opportunity to hire where there might have been none

Ever consider creating opportunity by paying it forward?

"What talent would grow from your corner of the world if you simply acted today on what you do best," Ellen Weber asks, "in spite of the strikes against you?"  To turn this around when crisis hits Ellen challenges us to...

Turn what you do well into meaningful work  To get started Ellen suggests that we reflect then leap. Ponder this, "if a new career path could happen for you, what would you do differently today to rev the engines?"

By now you may ask, can people find surprises in work that is mired in rules?  Possibly... And, Mark McGuinness explored this with intriguing findings...

Spontaniety comes from following the rules Amazing patterns emerge when simple rules are established. Mark McGuinness summarizes this phenomenon to flesh it out a little more. "...Creators are more like gardeners than architects, planting and watering the seeds to help them grow, but with no control over the emerging forms."

Why not "play it simple," and see what results. What about...

using one new tactic throughout the day?   I spoke a lot of negatives in a day, without even realizing it.  When I concentrated on speaking and reacting in a more positive way, I was able to break a very detrimental pattern. Focusing on the good changed me and ways I react to others.

switching your daily preferences?  I used to watch TV and now I'd rather read or write which requires more brainpower.

stretching beyond what you think you can do?  Often I'd stop short of stepping past comfort zones. I would cringe at the notion of carrying on a conversation with leaders. Ellen Weber challenged me to do it by asking 2-footed questions. Conversations centered on the leader this way because I let my curiosity guide me.  Questions focused on the other person and their interests.  Since people love to talk about themselves, using 2-footed questions helped me get beyond a nervousness I'd had. The tactic was simple, but it changed everything.

What's one simple action you'd add to the above list that would be sure-fire surprise for others?

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ogimogi/ / CC BY 2.0

Happy Weekend!

What do you most look forward to - your week or weekend? Most people are happiest on days without work, Richard Ryan, psychologist at University of Rochester finds.

Men and women alike get an emotional and physical boost starting Friday afternoon through Sunday regardless of age, education, salary, marital status or total work hours. Wonder why?

"Weekends are better because we connect with people we care about and we have the freedom to manage our own day," says Ryan. "Wherever you don't have autonomy or don't feel relatedness, your well-being will be lower." Ryan adds that's more likely to be at work.

Free time over the weekend is critical since it gives us space to "repair, rejuvenate and get back our energy."

Since we expect more pleasure during the weekend we highly anticipate it. Dopamine, a brain chemical, influences how people make choices. This neurotransmitter produced in several areas of the brain has a role in signalling pleasure expectations from anticipated weekend events.



Happy weekend!!! And better yet, create ways to make your work more like play!

Focus Is Curiosity in Action

"Focus is curiosity in action," Dr. Ellen Weber reflected as we exchanged thoughts on a recent presentation. Ellen's, words thundered in my brain... They brought an aha about focus. No wonder...

Curiosity releases the chemical dopamine in our brain. Neuroscience researchers discovered new cues for motivation and reward between dopamine neurons and behavior.

Curiosity...

Awakens mind

Questions

Explores unknown

Chases wonder

With this in mind, I wondered how to approach the everyday with more curiosity. By doing so, I can tune in with a difference.

Here're starters...

Try new routes and pick something that will speak to a day

Ask people what their process is for a task and figure out how to change an approach.

Pick significant quote during meeting and let those words spark new ideas

Eat lunch with someone new and see what I can learn

Write down ideas on 3 x 5 cards or memo pad to follow through inspiration

How might your day change, if you lived "focus is curiosity in action?"