Do you Forecast like Punxsutawney Phil?
Have you seen the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day? You should, it is hilarious. Do you know the story of Punxsutawney Phil? Phil is a groundhog. According to the tale, if a groundhog comes out from its burrow on Groundhog Day and doesn’t see it’s shadow, then spring will come early. If the groundhog sees its shadow then the winter weather will continue for six more weeks. I always groan when I hear that Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow…because folks in Wisconsin don’t need six more weeks of winter. Then I looked at the data. Phil is correct only 39% of the time! This is worse than a coin flip, worse than the Farmer’s Almanac, and worse than your local TV meteorologist. Continue Reading →
Use the Repeat Button Wisely in Life and Work
When I listen to music I love the repeat button. I especially love the “repeat 1” button. I love to hear the same song over and over again. It drives most people crazy. After a while, admittedly about 5 times, it even starts to drive me crazy. I want something new. I need something new. It is hard to deactivate the repeat button and stop the same song from playing again and again. Actually it isn’t hard, we just think it is hard but actually it just takes a click of action, and then some searching to find a new song to play.
Important “4Cs” insights from survey of 2,115 managers
The American Management Association (AMA) surveyed 2,115 managers about the most important skills needed in our organizations. It is not the 3Cs but now a different set of 4Cs: Critical thinking/problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity/innovation skills. Why are these 4Cs skills the critical skills? According to the survey of 2,115 managers, 91% rated the pace of change in business today as the leading cause, followed by global competitiveness (86.5%), the nature of how work is accomplished today (77.5%), and the way organizations are structured (66.3%).
The morning coffee time challenge: How to turn problems into data and innovate solutions
An IBM executive gave advice to graduates. He said to develop the skill of figuring out how to do something with data. This can be finding it, gathering it, organizing it, generating it, analyzing it, interpreting it, making meaning of it, communicating it, and innovating from it. I bet he means quantitative data (numbers). I enjoy taking qualitative data (observations, what people say, etc.) and turning it into quantitative data so that you can more easily do something with it. Innovation can be more successful if it is grounded in data. Here is an example of how to take stuff and turn it into data and an innovation. Lately I have been most passionate about helping people to innovate their own lives, solve their own problems, respond to change, and transform themselves at a higher level. This begins with identifying a challenge. A common challenge I see many people face is not having enough time. A similar specific challenge I have in my life is waking up early and getting somewhere early enough without being rushed. I love sleeping and I need an intervention to help me get up, moving quickly, and energized without being rushed. This is a challenge that if I could solve it it would improve my work and life as a whole. So I decided to zero in and keep asking what the problem is.
Technology Innovation Literacy
This sixth grader, Thomas Suarez, gave a TED Talk. For me that alone stands out. How many 6th graders do you see doing TED Talks? He develops IPhone apps. His most popular one is called “Bustin Jieber.” He created it because a lot of his classmates disliked Justin Bieber. He knows how to develop ideas (from what your “people” or users suggest or want), and he knows how to name the apps he creates in sticky and catchy ways. Also, he is pretty good on stage public speaking! Sounds like he is putting himself on the fast track to tech entrepreneurship. Funny quote: “These days students usually know a little more than teachers.” Thomas is an example that there are opportunities for younger and younger students with the web/apps/social media, etc. Yes indeed, innovation and entrepreneurship isn’t just for college students anymore. Continue Reading →
Creativity, Innovation, and Leadership Articles on Social Media
Be sure to connect with me on Facebook and Twitter where I share excellent innovation and creativity articles and videos. I’m always reading articles from great sources like FastCompany and Harvard Business Review. I’m also scouring YouTube and TedTalks for engaging videos on topics of innovation, creativity, and leadership. When I find an article or video that I recommend I post it to Facebook or Twitter.
Innovate Everywhere: How to Build a Better Fruit Fly Trap Using Innovation Skills
The Five Innovator’s DNA skills are observing, associating, questioning, experimenting, and networking. You can put these skills to use in everyday situations.
The problem. I had fruit flies one summer day. This is fine in the 10th grade biology classroom but bad in your home. I was OK with an occasional few flying around but when one landed in my glass of red wine I knew it was time to spring to action.
How to find text or website themes in a split second with an innovative word frequency analysis tool
I discovered an amazing website called Textalyser that helps you to analyze the frequency of keywords. This is a great tool for starting to interpret qualitative data. I am working on a research and assessment project where I am trying to identify the themes amongst 70 different documents where people are writing on the same question. I need a starting point or catalyst that tells me quickly what key words are showing up the most in the documents. Knowing this will allow me to dive deeper and see what themes exist. Luckily, Textalyser is amazing. You can either just copy in your text, upload a document, or share a webpage link and it will analyze it for you in what appears to be a split second. I did it for my ProgramInnovation webpage. I would say the keywords and frequencies that Textalyser pulled up in seconds exactly summarize what the site is about.
How to Title your Article or Blog: 3 Simple Ways to Get More Views
We need titles for many things: ideas, concepts, images, tweets, social media and blog posts, articles, reports, and books. In an earlier blog post I shared some insights from my research on bestselling nonfiction books for how to create better titles. I would like to now zero in on smaller ideas or bite-sized pieces of writing. How can we title our articles, blogs, and other short social media posts that we want people to click on and read? Who can we learn from, who knows how to title? The answer is copywriters. A popular blog for copywriters is Copyblogger. I’ve heard many fine title writers recommend this site as a good model. I’ve taken a screen shot of some of the most popular, commented, and shared blog posts or articles on the Copyblogger site. Give it a look and synthesize what you see. What can we learn from these popular article titles on how to title our own articles and blog posts? What themes do you see? Continue Reading →