Holly Green
To test your mental acuity, answer the following questions (no peeking at the answers!): Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name? A clerk at a butcher shop stands five feet ten inches tall and wears size 13 sneakers. What…
Confabulate. Isn’t that a delightful word! The first time I heard it I thought it must be a sniglet, a term coined by comedian Rich Hall in the ˜80s. Loosely defined as “any word that isn’t in the dictionary but should be,” sniglets usually involve a clever play on two or more words to humorously…
Have you ever wondered why the head of a baseball team is called the manager and the head of a basketball team is called the coach? (These are the kinds of things I sometimes ponder on long airplane rides.) The answer has to do not just with the obvious differences between the two sports, but…
We think we see a lot more of the world around us than we actually do. That’s just one of six illusions that profoundly influence our ability to lead organizations.
Every once in a while a book comes along that really shakes up your thinking. I recently read such a book and then had the good fortune of sitting down and talking with the author. “Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible,” by Daniel Burrus, redefines what is possible in the…
Last week I talked about the first phase of the creative process (divergence), which consists of stimulating new thinking by diversifying and exploring. The second phase in the process is convergence, which involves refining and choosing the best possibilities from the ideas generated during the divergence phase. In today’s global economy, market opportunities abound. For…
The wise leader knows that creativity and innovation requires both inspiration and perspiration. To increase the flow of new ideas in your organization, try these five tips.
Great leaders think strategically. They can understand and appreciate the current state as well as see possibilities. When dealing with today’s issues, they operate from a broad, long-term perspective rather than focusing only on short-term implications. And they can gather information and make decisions in a timely manner. Most of all, strategic leaders know how…
Want to eliminate excellence in your organization? Then make sure to not do these five things.
What would you do if your best customer closed the account and went to your biggest competitor? (And no, jumping off a cliff is not an option!) Seriously, what would happen if your key suppliers suddenly tripled their prices? How would you respond if a new technology made your current business model obsolete overnight? What…
Thirty years ago, Tom Peters published an incredibly influential business book, In Search of Excellence. In it, he defined eight characteristics of excellent companies: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, clear and compelling organizational values, focusing on what you do best, operating with a lean staff,…
FastCompany recently released its list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Many of the names on the list come as no surprise, especially the top three (Apple, Facebook, and Google). But what caught my attention was the diversity of companies and industries represented. Technology and Internet companies dominate the list (again, no surprise). But…
