To increase your continuous learning, what skill would you choose? We would decide to increase education by improving reading skills. Hopefully, our school teachers are paying attention to differentiated instruction.
One of those products is reading. Reading … this is how Warren Buffett, one of the most successful people in the business world, describes his day.
Sitting. Reading. He advises everyone to read more, and that’s certainly a goal we can all get behind.
So how do we do it? And what are we to do with all that information once we have it?
Related: Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success
Reading more and remembering it all is a discussion with a lot of different layers and a lot of exciting possibilities. Improving reading skills relates to reading more books, better comprehension, and, of course, faster reading.
It’s not that they can’t find the solution … they can’t locate the problem.
K. Chesterton
Are you one that believes learning is a significant teaching product? What about whether schools and education administrators understand the problem they are trying to solve?
Are you familiar with the subject of standardized testing in our public schools?
All of these questions are certainly an interest of mine, though I have never been in the education profession. I like to follow the subjects of learning and standardized testing and the writings of Marion Brady.
I am a big fan of the thinking of Marion Brady. Ever read any of his books or articles?
He is a longtime teacher; school administrator; nationally distributed newspaper columnist; and author of courses of study, textbooks, and professional books.
His most recent article published in a blog from the Washing Post is “What do standardized tests test?” I will use this excellent work to examine this issue.
Related: Why Questioning Is Critical to Learning and Problem Solving
Like most people, I believe that learning is a product of teaching. Just not enough learning from the amount of teaching in our schools. The assumption of learning from teaching is the bedrock of traditional schooling.
As Marion states, it shapes nearly all commercially produced educational materials. It’s how the school is portrayed in everything media.
It’s why traditionally arranged classroom furniture is in rows facing front, why most teachers talk a lot, assign pages in textbooks, ask questions about what’s been said and read. It’s the conventional process and teaching wisdom.
Sad, but very true.
Teachers teach, learners learn, and standardized tests monitor how well the process is going. The tests measure a quantity—the amount of information taught, minus the amount not learned or learned and forgotten.
A single, precise number is convenient for sorting and labeling the learning results. Something that the education industry feels like the only way to measure progress.
Simple and straightforward. Right?
But hold on for a minute. There’s an ancient Chinese quotation (from Confucius I believe) which, loosely translated, says,
Tellme, andI’ll forget. Show me, and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.
As Brady points out, there are three very different approaches to teaching—telling, showing, and involving.
The first two lend themselves to standardized testing.
The third one—the only one that works—doesn’t. It says that what needs to be evaluated are the outcomes of personal experience, and personal experience is very likely to be too individual, too personal, too much a product of a teachable moment, for its outcome to be evaluated by machine-scored standardized test items.
Involved learners don’t just read about geology; they’re outside, identifying, examining, and classifying, the rocks and earth around the school and other interesting places. Involved learners aren’t filling out worksheets about geometric principles; they’re determining the height of the school’s flagpole by measuring angles and lengths of shadows … by active learning.
Here is the key to Brady’s article, in my opinion.
What mattered most wasn’t what he said but what kids did. When he drew that radical conclusion, he states he began a search that continues, a search for experience-creating activities:
Differentiated instruction … sointeresting
the teacher can leave the room and nobody notices
Souseful
the activity’s relevance is self-evident
Socomplex
the smartest kid in the class is intellectually challenged
the systemically integrated nature of all knowledge is apparent
Sowide-ranging
Wide-ranging.
the activities cover the core curriculum (and much more)
Sovaried
every critical thinking skill is exercised
Soscalable
concepts developed on a micro level adequately model macro phenomena
Soeffective
when the activities themselves are forgotten, their benefits are fixed permanently in memory
Idealistic? Not in my mind. Perhaps I would call it a great dream. And why not?
As Brady states, if we can stop the standardized testing bandwagon, teachers can pick up where they left off before they were rudely interrupted—trying to figure out how kids learn best. What a novel idea.
In that situation, we will come away from this reform era having learned two useful lessons:
First, one is that no machine can measure the quality of complex, emotion-filtered, experience-based learning.
And second, if you’re testing the wrong thing, there’s no reason to keep score.
The bottom line
Thank you, Marion Brady, for not giving up and for keeping the dream alive.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content
8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice
Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation
How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Are they ones that you continue to hone and develop? Do they hold the keys to future successes in leadership?
I have been in the military and business world for forty years and often get asked what I believe are the most important leadership competencies. It takes time and practice to be a top line leader. You are not borne with leadership competencies. And you are never done developing them.
My experience leads me to this list of 10 business leadership competencies that most successful leaders all share. They rank as the most significant to success as a leader in my perspective.
Related: The Zen of Abraham Lincolns Leadership Lessons
If you want to be a better leader, work on continuously developing this list of leadership competencies:
No matter how good you are, you will only be as successful as your team. So … getting the most from each team member is critical. We call this being a multiplier leader.
Multiplier leaders know the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them.
Balancing listening
Part of the balancing is going beyond hearing to develop your full sense of listening. This includes watching body language and observing emotions. If you don’t listen in this way you’ll miss plenty of opportunities to learn and connect with others.
Another part of the balancing is knowing how to exhibit strategic silence, i.e. knowing when to stay quiet. Great leaders understand the impact of words that can hurt, anger, or create fear. They know that when they say too much, others stop speaking and creativity and inclusion are a lost cause.
Foster teamwork
Peter Drucker made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
It can be negative for an organization to have an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So the next time you see someone with a resume that states, “I accomplished x” or “I did x,” it should send up a few warning signals.
Collaboration
It’s important to know it is OK to ask for help, advice and constructive criticism. There are very few places where a lone wolf leader can be effective. Decisions are complex, and it takes a village of smart people to help make them. Leaders who aren’t inclusive may find that their organizations lack creativity.
No fear of daring choices.
There’s never one formula to achieve something. Don’t be afraid to take a leap; even if the outcome is not ideal, it provides you with the opportunity to learn the next time around. Step out of rigid mindsets and explore new ideas outside your comfort zone.
Leadership competencies … boost team self-esteem
We have written on employee attitude on several occasions. Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business can never be what it can be if you don’t focus on employee happiness.
No matter, you’ll have dozens of people criticize you. Customers, current and former employees (whether you know it or not), and family and friends may give you constructive criticism. It can be stressful to hear or read, and it can be easy to pass on criticism to employees. But it doesn’t help. As a leader, you should ensure employees have high self-esteem in their job.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Constantly criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
While completing certain tasks and achieving success is the ultimate goal, it’s important to have a work-life balance so you don’t burn yourself out. Lots of leaders espouse this balance, but only a rare few actually walk the talk. Great leaders can’t say this and then work 60 or more hours per week (or more!).
If you’re not developing yourself, you’re coasting. If you’re coasting, it means you’re going downhill. Don’t get comfortable. Continue to learn and develop. Continuously. Those around you will follow your lead.
Lead with questions, not directions
Rarely tell staff what to do. While that may seem the easiest way, it’s more beneficial to help by allowing them to figure things out for themselves. The real learning is created within the team by ensuring that we’re asking the right questions.
Patience
Many leaders are intolerant of others who might do things differently or at a pace the leader finds unacceptable. Action-oriented leaders may have a tendency to jump to conclusions before things are thought through.
The lack of patience can manifest itself as anger or decisions that aren’t fully thought through. Be patient and reflective and always set aside thinking time. It is imperative for success.
The bottom line
A simple reminder … business leadership competencies, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it … it takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business.
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Good idea Pablo Picasso. I spent 38 + years in my career in management and leadership of employees very interested in a successful career.
This included coaching, mentoring, and assisting in employee development plans. My ultimate goal was to build future leaders who could take over my job. And replacing me did happen on many occasions over those years.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a famous French writer, once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Achieving career success requires more than luck, more than hard work — it requires a plan. And the great part is that your plan doesn’t have to be difficult to create or complex.
Here is my (simple) advice for creating your very own career development plan:
When it comes to improving career success, here are my 18 ways to build the best opportunities for success in a corporate career.
‘Stand for’ principles
Stand for something that has significant meaning for you and use it as your growth mantra. Grow but don’t waiver in it.
Successful career … belief relevance
Make sure what you stand for is relevant to what’s going on right now and will be relevant in the future as well. Keep it in your headlights consistently.
Know what your skills are and what they are not. Keep adding to it all the time – with both your own development and surrounding yourself with others who complement your talents.
Remember to focus on your strengths and set your weaknesses aside.
Related post: 10 Extraordinary Ways for Learning to Learn
Successful career planning … know lessons learned
Become recognized as a corporate historian, remembering what’s been done, what’s worked and hasn’t and why, where ALL the bodies are buried, and who was responsible for putting the bodies where they were buried.
Avoid relearning old mistakes.
Be low maintenance
Make sure you are low maintenance and represent minimal overhead. Know what tasks to take on and which ones to avoid.
This will create more value to be freed up and let you do more valuable things.
Successful career … have a vision
Invest time to imagine what the future is going to look like and how you’ll need to adapt to fit into it. Remember though, vision without action is a daydream.
No matter how big your plans and dreams, they’ll never become reality until you act on them.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff ’s teamwork, collaboration, and learning? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a teamwork or continuous learning workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to continually improving your continuous learning?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
The problem is never how to get new, innovativethoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out. Greatquote from Dee Hock. It is most often very difficult to spot changes in new business performance environment day to day, isn’t it? It is like we are standing too close to see them. But they are certainly there. Over the past decade we’ve seen enormous social, economic, and technological changes that have impacted the business world. These have created both opportunities and challenges for most businesses. But looking back, the vast majority of businesses have changed very little. But look back occasionally to improve the business performance requirements.
Business performance.
It has become essential for businesses to institute modernize and keep up with change. While they must continue to understand core practices like finance and sales, there are many old business practices that must be polished, mastered, or at least remastered. Let’s discuss them here:
Prioritize listening and observing
Why?
Today, baby boomers are getting much closer to career-ending while Gen Y are becoming the most important demographic. These shifts and the needs of both younger as well as aging consumers are putting new demands on businesses.
Business performance requirements … walk the talk
Leaders can’t expect their employees to care about listening and observing if they are not practicing these skills themselves. It is essential if they want to understand the changes going on around them.
Keyinsights about customers and the market can often come from customer facing employees. Take the Zara retailer for example. They have become the most creative clothing retailer in the world by the fashion demand insights from their customer facing employees.
Business performance measurement … study from on-line or in person
Businesses must listen and observe customers in an ever expanding number of ways. For example, the internet enables a plethora of means to listen and observe and enables fast, as well as interactive, customer engagement.
Business performance requirements … don’t ignore isolated inputs
Insights don’t require large volumes of customers. Occasionally inputs from a small minority represent a key emerging trend. So don’t hesitate to examine these inputs with an open mind.
Business performance requirements … impart the vision
Many businesses have mission statements to communicate their vision. But the problem is they rarely impact decision making of the firm.
More often they make critical decisions based on a handful of key business metrics, key strategicobjectives, and by building compromises from conflicting agendas. And that usually represents the best case scenario.
A compelling business vision will do wonders to provide meaningful direction for a business. Take this perspective of Herb Kelleher, the first CEO of Southwest Airlines, as a prime example:
If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don’t need control. They know what needs to be done and they do it. And the more that people will devote themselves to your cause on a voluntary basis, a willing basis, the fewer hierarchies and control mechanisms you need.
Continuous learning
Over the last decade, there have been enormous advances in learning through the use of the internet. Yet most businesses are not taking anywhere near full advantage of these opportunities. Why not, you may be thinking? Because it is difficult to change old ways of doing things, update old thinking, and leave parochialism behind. But now is the time for businesses to commit to continuous learning using the internet.
Here is what to keep in mind:
Assume increasing adoption by everyone
Whatever level of comfort with the internet technology in your competitors, customers, and employees today, expect it to increase radically in the future. Why? The internet and digital technology are becoming a more integral part in everyone’s lives, especially the millennials.
Business performance requirements … connect online with offline
The economics of online activities are compelling, but not everything can or should be done online. Companies need to design learning experiences that use both in ways that make both more effective.
Improve usability
The increase in internet technologies and applications will lead to many more digital interfaces. Think about this for a moment. Employees and customers will not obtain the full benefit of these online resources if they can’t use them effectively.
So usability is a concern. Businesses must plan to increase their focus and investment in usability of their continuous learning tools.
Think about the concept that corporate culture can amplify the value of just about every employee. Are you a believer? We certainly are.
How much is it worth to achieve this goal? When you consider this type of impact, it’s clear that business culture is something to pay attention to. But many businesses aren’t that much of believers.
Are your employees giving your company their all? Do they believe that what they’re doing is important? Do they feel appreciated? Do they show up for work each day filled with passion and purpose? If so, you should share employee engagement lessons with this community.
A red flag should go up if you answered “no” to any of these questions. Why? Business owners who aren’t taking care of their employees are missing out on significant cost-savings and profits. And like Mark Twain says, don’t assume you know. Do your research and listen carefully. And then revisit your focus on business culture.
Every business has a culture that helps define a set of rules that influence (maybe dictate?) how the business should operate. Sometimes they are written, sometimes just implied. If your business wants to define business culture more explicitly, then it should document the culture elements and work to develop each of these elements.
The best example of documenting a company’s culture that we have found is one done by Tony Hsieh and Zappos.
An overriding challenge for most of today’s businesses is how to adapt, change, and innovate continuously and at a more rapid rate. Yet in most of the businesses we work with and study, business leadership favors the status quo, change, renewal, and innovation. It is not hard to spot entire industries such as pharmaceuticals, advertising, and banking, where the incumbents are struggling to invent their way out of dying business models.
The barriers from digital disruption, hyper competition, and change are coming down at a rapid pace. In this environment, the returns on incrementalism are heading down while the premium on innovation and change are rapidly increasing. Business innovation and change are mostly afterthoughts, aren’t they? They are definitely not activities that involve most managers even infrequently.
Let’s examine some of the detailed challenges of business innovation and change:
Innovation occurs at the intersection of previously unconnected and unrelated planes of thought.
–Idris Mootee
Does your business regularly, or maybe just occasionally, try innovation exercises? Can you name a couple of the activities you may have performed in these exercises? As part of the innovation processes?
How do you define innovation? We like this definition best: innovation is the process through which value is created and delivered to a community of users in the form of a new solution.
Business performance requirements … pay attention to all constituencies
The internet has created an enormous spotlight that quickly illuminates all types of business mistakes, particularly those that that have the largest impact on their customers and communities. In this environment where the costs of these mistakes have increased dramatically, businesses need to expand their attention to all of its constituencies, and not focus just on its owners. And pay much more attention to their social responsibility.
How can business leaders make more socially responsible decisions? The key is to assume that there are no secrets. Assume every decision will be examined and known by the public. The bottom line is to make decisions that would make your organization proud to be part of the decision. That is just good business, isn’t it?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is entirely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your continuous learning. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your lifelong learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on business challenges from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
9 Secrets to the Chipotle Culture and Employee Engagement Success
How do you stand out in a sea of bloggers who have probably covered all the key topics from a thousand different angles? Do you follow the trend or create a technique of your own? Everyone loves a good story. It’s the part of your copy even skimmers take time to read.
I try to start every article on my blog with a story attacking the reader’s pain point. I want them to know this is not just another article from a blogger trying to make a quick buck but someone who genuinely understands their problems.
Your safety net is you. No health plan with 47 sick days. No paid
vacation. No sabbatical after 10 years of mind-bending effort.
The other dayone of my readers commented I was the
oldest person she knew creating social media content all the time.
Then she said it was a compliment.
We both laughed.
Then there was an awkward pause.
While her statement clearly wasn’t true, being relatively seasoned in business means I HAVE learned many valuable career lessons that would have been great to know when my business career started.
The more experience we have, the more mistakes
we’ve made—and that’s a good thing, according to many business innovation
experts.
That’s
how it has always been
Great people learn hard lessons.
Sigmund Freud was booed off stage the first time he presented his
theories to a group of scientists in Europe. He went on to win the Goethe Award
for his work in psychology.
Henry Ford failed at farming, being an apprentice, and as a
machinist — going bankrupt five times. He went on to modernize mass production.
Leo Tolstoy flunked out of law school and was labeled “unable to
learn” by his professors. He went on to become one of the world’s greatest
novelists.
But it’s not about them
It’s about you. About what you are prepared to do in order to be
successful. Here are my 10 top lessons for all entrepreneurs … the ones I
wished I knew when I started:
People first
Learned this one quite early in my management career. Your people are your business. No question about that. And your business will only go as far as your people will take it. So put them first on your list and take good care of their welfare.
Be the best talent hound you can be in searching for the best
employees. Know this … surrounding yourself with the very best is the top and
quickest way to success.
Value propositions
There is a tremendous amount of competition in any market that you
chose. And it is continually growing. Your success depends on your business
being better than the competition. Knowing what those advantages are and
putting them into value propositions is what will put and keep you ahead.
Marketing
Know this simple fact about marketing. Everything is marketing and
everyone is a marketer. It takes a while to really appreciate this lesson’s
true meaning. Stick with it long enough and you will understand.
Customer experience
Your customer’s experiences in your shop are the new marketing, pure
and simple. The better the experiences, the more the customers will remember
you and return. Work hard at creating WOW experiences as much as possible.
Sociability
Make friends with as many customers as you can. Customers would
always prefer to do business with friends. Start with a smile and positive
conversation in engaging customers. Selling is something to be strictly
avoided. Substitute just being as helpful as possible.
Change agent
Be a change agent in everything business. Anticipate and embrace
change in your market. Adapt is the name of the game, as soon as possible. This
is a hard lesson to learn as often change is required while things are still
looking good.
Now more than ever, things are changing at blazing speed. There is
only two ways to keep up. They are continuous learning and applying what you
learn.
Simplicity
Keep everything you do as simple as possible. No exceptions.
The customer
The last and most important lesson. Know, understand, and care about
your customer. Your rule 1.
It’s up to you if you’re going to make it.
The bottom line
As we change at a faster and faster pace, ideas adequate yesterday are no longer are good enough.
And with digital disruption facing an increasing number of industries, most firms must come up with the best ideas for change or move to a slow failure.
The myths of new ideas must be set aside to let the new idea facts take over.
The question is:
“What lessons are you learning today?”
When things go wrong, what’s most
important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
Does design thinking what no one else thinks mean you must be 100% original? Not in our minds. Do you ever wonder what makes those wacky, creative types tick?
Don’t believe you are creative? Creativity is often defined as the ability to connect ideas that are seemingly unconnectable. Connecting ideas are how new ideas originate … it is the basis for creativity.
Contrary to what most people believe, creativity is not limited to the gifted ones of the population. It can be taught, nurtured, and enhanced.
Let’s examine these interesting questions.
Creative people are different because they operate a little differently.
Can you share an example of a way you operate a little different to help your creativity? We love to hear about it. Please share in the comments section below.
Here is the how:
What no one else thinks … build on others
One of the misunderstandings around creativity is that you have to be utterly original to do it. The truth is all creative people stand on the shoulders of those who came before.
Writers learn to write by reading; painting students are sent to museums to copy the masters, while great chefs learn the already tested basics of cooking to create some new dish.
Innovation stands on a platform that already exists. Yes, inspiration is involved, those flashes of insight, the ah…ha moments. You start with something that already exists and takes it to another level.
So relax. Let go of thinking you have to do something original. Take the pressure off. Celebrate that there is all this help available.
Want to think what nobody has ever thought? Start by questioning all assumptions.
There comes a moment in time where everyone agrees with everybody about pretty much everything. For any sized organization that is focused on creating a culture of relentless innovation, hardened dogma is a change obstacle they must overcome.
Treat models as part of the problem. Recognizing a new pattern is very useful, but be careful not to become part of it.
Observe with all senses
Truly creative people have developed their ability to see and to use all of their senses, which can get dull over time. Take time to “sharpen the blade” and take everything in.
Incubate ideas
Let your ideas “incubate” by taking a break from them. For example, when I’m working on a big business project, one of the best things I can do to take a break from it is listening to music or watch TV for a while.
It shifts my brain into another place and helps me be more innovative and creative.
Both creativity and innovation are based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually expand your knowledge base. Read things you don’t usually read as often as you can.
Design thinking empathy … defer judgment
Your perceptions may limit your reasoning. Be careful about how you perceive things. In other words, suspend judgment.
Widen your experiences
Experience as much as you can. Exposure puts more ideas into your subconscious. Actively seek out new and very different experiences to broaden your experience portfolio.
Reset problem definition
Redefine the problem completely. One of the lines I’ve been sharing for the past few decades is: “Your problem is not the problem; there is another issue. When you define the real problem, you can solve it and move on.”
After all, if you had correctly set the real problem, you would have solved it long ago because all problems have solutions.
Look for what is not easily seen
Look where others aren’t seeking to see what others aren’t seeing.
Design thinking steps … be curious
Ask lots of questions, but suspend first judgment on the answers. Try and connect the dots as you go.
Take challenges and risks
Be a risk taker and continually push your boundaries. Don’t worry about mistakes. Accept failures. Fearlessness is necessary for creative work, because of the possibility of rejection.
Anything new requires a bit of change, and most of us don’t care for change that much.
What no one else thinks … immerse yourself
Put yourself deep into the topic at hand. Focus with no multiplexing.
Be able to overlook rules
Rules, to the creative person, are indeed made to be broken. They are created for us by other people, generally to control a process; the creative person needs the freedom to work.
Ask “what if…”
Seeing new possibilities is a little risky because it means that something will change and some action will have to be taken. Curiosity is probably the single most important trait of creative people.
Push the boundaries of mistakes
A photographer doesn’t just take one shot, and a composer doesn’t just write down a fully realized symphony. Creation is a long process, involving lots of boo-boos along the way. A lot goes in the trash.
Collaborate
The hermit artist, alone in his garret, is a romantic notion but not always an accurate one. Comedians, musicians, painters, chefs all get a little better by sharing with others in their fields.
Try new paths
Stepping off the beaten path may be scary, but creative people do it. Children do this very well but are eventually trained to follow the crowd.
Experiment often
Combining things that don’t usually go together can result in brilliance or a giant mess. Trial and error are necessary to the creative process.
Key takeaways
As you can see, many of these skills / suggestions do not take much time and effort to make a difference. Just a lot of practice. Start from small and transform your skills.
Creating creative skills is a process that takes time, patience, and exercise.
If you are looking for additional resources in innovation, one of my favorite experts is Stephen Shapiro. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples to learn in his blog.
Need some help in improving the creativity of you and your staff? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for creativity workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new creative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Baldwin hits the nail on the head with his quote on change, doesn’t he? He begs the question of the importance of knowing yourself. Knowing yourself is the key to undertaking life lessons learned, isn’t it?
Nothing really prepares you to be a leader. In most cases, you get the opportunity to lead by being good at something else. However, while being a strong performer gives you the credibility to lead, it says nothing about your ability to lead. Leadership is a skill in its own right and, for the most part, it’s one you learn on the job.
The vast majority of people have a morning ritual that involved some type of mindfulness. Getting your head straight and your priorities in line so you could face the day doing what matters to you.
What leadership characteristic is your strength? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
How you ever used checklists to improve your learning … or perhaps your positive mental attitude? How well did they work for you? Do they refresh your thinking on important life success lessons?
We often use checklists to achieve our goal to create the attitude that can see opportunity in every difficulty.
After college, I spent almost two years training as a naval aviator. An essential element of that training was the use of checklists in the learning and refresher process. Checklist utilization remains an important part of my life, both in the personal as well as the business realm.
I keep a stack of 10 or so lists that I rotate and update occasionally. This is one of them, despite the fact that I am a retiree (at least part of the time). I pull out one checklist to read and contemplate for five minutes as a way to start each day. I find it puts my thinking in the right frame of mind.
Here is a checklist of 10 of my favorite life lessons reminders I have found to improve the odds of long-term success. They are based on life lessons learned along the road of my 40 years of experience:
Focusing on value add
In everything we do, we should concentrate on adding value. Gear efforts to results rather than work. Begin with the question, “What results are expected of me?” rather than with the work to be done, let alone with its techniques and tools.
Life lessons learned the hard way
Customer-centric focus
Focusing on the client makes us more resilient.
What I have found is: start with the customer and work backward.This experience comes from my training and expertise in systems engineering.
When you work from the end, you start with the customer and their needs and problems. This is the opposite of what some people do, which is: they think up ideas, build a product, and then see if customers like it.
Life lessons learned … develop a vision
Vision. We are always fascinated by this skill. And it is a great skill to have in our view. Does it mean you see everything? Certainly not. It does say that you have the ability to see what many cannot. And then act on these. Vision doesn’t count without action. And not without managing the needed work required to implement.
That idea of staying the course for the long term has been the key to success. Vision requires the long term. Be stubborn on vision and have flexibility on details.
Makingandexecuting effective decisions
Results most often depend on making effective decisions. I learned that an active decision is always a “judgment based on dissenting opinions rather than on a consensus of the facts.”
What is needed are few, but key decisions. What is required is the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle tactics. Act on the plan and pay attention to follow-through.
Valuable lessons learned in life
Learning from others is always important to me. For example, I have learned change from Amazon. They have one of the very best innovation cultures in an industry built on constant innovation and change. Why may you ask?
We believe there several good reasons. First, as one of the creators of the e-commerce industry, they know the industry is in its infancy and is built on a foundation of new technology and constant introduction of new ways of doing things.
Business is all about capturing intellect from every person. The way to engender this understanding is to allow employees far more freedom and far more responsibility.
Lessons learned in life sayings.
Experiment and change
Remember, change and innovate, BEFORE you have to. Change is a big part of the reality in business. New ideas are the lifeblood of business. And the basis for creative change.
Your life will be in constant change mode, and that is a good thing if you lead change in the direction of your success goals. To do that most successfully, you should try lots of new things continually. For things you like, get superb at them by lots of practice. But keep trying new activities.
I love this quote from Jeff Bezos:
If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.
If you ask the best business leaders, they’ll tell you that experimentation is imperative for their business. It’s how innovations are born and how they stay competitive in the market. Experimentation is everywhere and is always happening.
Life lessons learned … your career is not your life
This was probably the most challenging of my experiences, particularly early to mid-career. To be successful in this lesson, you should develop breath to your list of activities and always put family and friends first.
To do both well, think about activities that maximize your friends and relatives, like coaching your children’s sports teams.
Dedicate yourself to continuous learning
I am a big believer in lifelong learning. You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you. Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement. Our most favored quote on continuous learning comes from Charles Darwin:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Just remember to substitute success for survival, and you will have a treasured life lesson on continuous learning.
Life lessons learned … grow kindness
All of these life experiences get better when you have a strong foundation in knowing how to be kind to others. I have never found a better way to stay happy. Kindness costs you nothing, and you’d be surprised how much in can do for your happiness.
Life lessons learned … find something to make you laugh
Another important factor in your happiness is enjoying a good laugh as often as you can. Making fun of yourself and your mistakes is a great place to start.
The bottom line
As you progress in your continuous learning and development, keep in mind growth is a long term, not short term endeavor. In reality, it should never end. It should be pursued consistently throughout your career, day by day.
To find real life lesson experiences, you have to try many avenues … and experience some failures along the way. I have learned this lesson well.
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All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
