Creativity as Inspiration

Today’s Monday Morning Movie…

After attending a session on creativity, I realized that the “old” definitions don’t work for me.

Creativity is something much more than “new ideas.” And it is not the same as innovation.

As you will see in this video, I believe it is about tapping into your inner wisdom.

Transcription coming soon…

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If You Think You Aren’t Biased, Think Again

Today’s Friday Fun Fact…

Last week I had discussed the concept of confirmation bias and the impact that it has on innovation.

In a nutshell, confirmation bias is our tendency to seek evidence that supports our existing beliefs and ignores or refutes evidence to the contrary.  While these biases can impact any area of our life, one area where it has been scientifically proven to exist is in politics.

A 2004 Emory College study showed…

where in the brain confirmation bias arises and how it is unconscious and driven by emotions… While undergoing a brain scan, 30 men–half self-described as ‘strong’ Republicans and half as ‘strong’ Democrats–were tasked with assessing statements by both George W. Bush and John Kerry in which the candidates clearly contradicted themselves. Not surprisingly, in their assessments Republican subjects were as critical of Kerry as Democratic subjects were of Bush, yet both let their own candidate off the hook.

This in itself is not surprising.

During the assessment, the neuroimaging results revealed that the part of the brain most associated with reasoning was dormant.

The most active parts of the brain were those involved in the processing of emotions, conflict resolution, making judgments about moral accountability; and—“once subjects had arrived at a conclusion that made them emotionally comfortable–the ventral striatum was activated, which is related to reward and pleasure… Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones.”

Our brains are wired to reward us when we align the current view with our existing beliefs.  It is no wonder why we have such difficulty seeing other’s perspectives.

Is it possible to change your view?  Of course.

There are two ways that I have found useful.

The first involves others: recruit your best devil’s advocates and muster the willingness to really listen - really listen. This is sometimes the easiest method as it provides formal checks and balances.

But if you want to address your biases on your own, studies show that simply being aware of your biases, and having constant reminders of them, may be enough to reduce their impact (see my Best Practices Are Stupid book for more on this). But for this to work, you must be open to assuming that your current beliefs are not accurate.

However, given that the brain rewards us for “seeing what we believe” – confirming our biases –  it is not easy or pleasant to change.

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Live, Listen, and Play Like a Kid

Today’s Wednesday Work Wisdom…

Today I had the honor of seeing my good friend, Ed Gerety, speak to 200 junior high school students. He was amazing.

What I found most interesting was the response from the audience.

I am used to speaking to corporations where the average age is probably 40 – 50. Here the average age was 12 – 13. There is a marked difference between these groups!

When Ed asked the student to do something, 100% participated (well, several of the teachers sat and stared blankly). When he asked them to do something that an adult might think as “silly,” the audience went wild with laughter. When he told moving stories that might generate “crickets” from an adult audience, he received gasps, cheers, and awwwwws from the teenagers. There was an unbelievable energy in the room. Everyone was hungry for Ed’s message.

When did we, as adults, become so jaded? When did we forget how to participate and play in life? When did we decide that “looking good” in front of others was more important than full self-expression? When did we become so arrogant that we know more than everyone else? When did we stop truly learning and living?

I was inspired by these students. I was tempted to call them “kids.” But after spending an hour with them, I realized that they are more adult than many adults.

Today, I encourage you to look at the world through the eyes of a teenager. Play. Laugh. Participate. Clap. Gasp. Show your full range of emotions.

As Ed said during his presentation, tell people you love them. Be thankful, every day, for what you have. Help others. Stand up for yourself.

I’ve attended a lot of seminars and training over the years. But spending 60 minutes with Ed and a couple hundred students was the most valuable education I have received in years.

P.S. I had a similar experience a couple of years ago when working for a large organization. I presented to 400 executives in the morning followed by 200 high school students in the afternoon. The two audiences could not have been more different. I wrote about how to tap into your “inner innovation child” in an American Express OPEN Forum article. You can also read my article “Unleash Your Inner Innovator” (pdf). It appeared in a British Magazine 10 years ago.

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Personality Poker Limited Time Offer

Personality Poker®: The Playing Card Tool for Driving High-Performance Teamwork and Innovation is unlike any other book.

Yes, it is jam packed with examples and scientific studies on teamwork, collaboration and innovation.

But it also comes with a specially designed deck of cards that can be used to assess individuals, teams, and organizations. This deck can help you figure out:

• What is your preferred innovation style? What are your innovation blind spots? It is important to note that who you are not is more important than who you are.
• What is the composition of your team? Do you have a good complement of innovation styles? Is everyone in the right roles? If you don’t have a good balance, or if you have people involved with the wrong step of the innovation process, your innovation efforts will suffer.
• What is the culture of your organization? How will it hinder innovation? How can it help innovation?

The cards (without the book) sell 10 for $125 plus shipping. If that is what you want, you can get them through our distribution parter, ChangeThis.com, a division of 800-CEO-READ.

But if you want the book with decks of cards, we have an amazing deal for you.

Through a special arrangement with Penguin (the publisher) we were able to get a limited number of books at a great discount…and we are passing the savings on to you.

For a limited time, you can 24 books (each with a deck of Personality Poker cards) INCLUDING shipping for only $250.*

That is less than the cost of the cards.

This is a $650 value and represents a 62% discount! Buying just the cards would cost you over $300 when you factor in the shipping costs.

But order today! When we sell our allotted quantity, we will withdraw this offer.

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Are Your Goals Negatively Impacting Your Relationships?

Today’s Friday Fun Fact…

Last week I briefly touched upon my perspective on goal setting. While they have been universally considered a magic bullet for success both personally and professionally, goals are not without their downsides.

Interestingly, the way in which you frame your goals can have a significant impact on your relationships.

This, according to the authors of a paper published in the Current Directions in Psychological Science that focused on whether people are open and straightforward when working with others.

The study noted that people who establish goals to improve themselves (“self-improvement goals”), like getting better grades, increasing sales numbers or nailing a perfect “10”, tend to be more cooperative in nature.

Whereas people who set goals that will enable them to perform better than others (“performance goals”) such as becoming Valedictorian or completing a task more quickly than a fellow co-worker, have more of a tendency to be “deceitful and less likely to share information with coworkers. The reason for this is fairly obvious – when you want to outperform others, it doesn’t make sense to be honest about information.”

The study suggests that those with self-improvement goals on the other hand tend to be quite open. “If the ultimate goal is to improve yourself, one way to do it is to be very cooperative with other people…(however) they’re not really altruists, per se. They see the social exchange as a means toward the ends of self-improvement.”

Other research shows that those with self-improvement goals are also more open to hearing different perspectives, while those with performance goals “would rather just say, ‘I’m just right and you are wrong.’”

According to the authors, both types of goal setting can be effective. However, their findings suggest that helping individuals frame their goals to focus on self-improvement instead of performance may foster a better overall team environment.

From my perspective, performance goals can be extremely useful for creating a powerful team when the objective is to be better than external competition.

Regardless, a good balance of goals creates a high-performance environment that also fosters collaboration. The key, as I have discussed before, is to not hyper-focus on the goal to the point where you miss the bigger picture and bigger opportunities.

P.S. For more on my goal-setting perspective, read Goal-Free Living.

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