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LeadingThoughts - LeadershipNow.com

LeadingThoughts - LeadershipNow.com

How Great Entrepreneurs Think What distinguishes great entrepreneurs? Discussions of entrepreneurial psychology typically focus on creativity, tolerance for risk, and the desire for achievement—enviable traits that, unfortunately, are not very teachable. So Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, set out to determine how expert entrepreneurs think, with the goal of transferring that knowledge to aspiring founders. While still a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, Sarasvathy—with the guidance of her thesis supervisor, the Nobel laureate Herbert Simon—embarked on an audacious project: to eavesdrop on the thinking of the country's most successful entrepreneurs as they grappled with business problems. She required that her subjects have at least 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, have started multiple companies—both successes and failures—and have taken at least one company public. Do the doable, then push it Here's another: Woo partners first Sweat competitors later

15 Famous Quotes on Creativity The Sifter spent last night poring over hundreds of famous and inspirational quotes on creativity. Below is a collection of our 15 favourites. Let us know which ones resonate with you the most, and feel free to counter any you disagree with. There are infinite views on creativity, here are fifteen famous ones for inspiration on your next endeavour :) Pablo Picasso “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso Vincent Van Gogh “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” – Vincent Van Gogh Salvador Dali “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali Leo Burnett “Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” – Leo Burnett Jack London “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” – Jack London George Bernard Shaw “Imagination is the beginning of creation. Dr. Charles Mingus Voltaire

Innovating for a Better City The following was published in McKinsey & Company's "What Matters" on December 3, 2011. by Mike Bloomberg Fifteen years after founding my company, I wrote an autobiography that forced me to look back on my experiences – not something I had had much time for. In doing that, I realized that my chief function at the company had morphed from managing day-to-day operations into soliciting new ideas and driving the best of them forward. “I make sure we allocate resources to new, innovative, and risky development projects,” I wrote in Bloomberg by Bloomberg (Wiley, August 2001). When I first ran for mayor of New York, many people were skeptical that an outsider could run the biggest city in the country. In general, government tends to be risk averse, because taking risks means taking on special interests. That’s why many officials tend to play it safe. Empower your team I expect my staff to value creativity and new ways of thinking. Remove the barriers Support those who fail

Category:Creativity Techniques This A to Z of Creativity and Innovation Techniques, provides an introduction to a range of tools and techniques for both idea generation (Creativity) and converting those ideas into reality (Innovation). Like most tools these techniques all have their good and bad points. I like to think of these creativity and innovation techniques as tools in a toolbox in much the same way as my toolbox at home for DIY. For the future, the aim is to also have sub-categories which will identify Techniques for; Problem Definition - including problem analysis, redifinition, and all aspects associated with defining the problem clearly. Special thanks to the Open University for their kind permission to use material from their publication B822. Subcategories This category has the following 5 subcategories, out of 5 total. Pages in category "Creativity Techniques" The following 192 pages are in this category, out of 192 total.

Learn How to Think Different(ly) - Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen by Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen | 10:24 AM September 27, 2011 In the Economist review of our book, The Innovator’s DNA, the reviewer wondered whether genius-level innovators such as Marc Benioff, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs challenge the idea that working adults can really learn how to think differently and become innovators. We don’t think so. Remember, it was Steve Jobs who jump-started the now-famous “Think Different” advertising campaign as a way to inspire consumers and recharge Apple’s innovation efforts. It worked. Reflecting back on the campaign, Jobs said “The whole purpose of the ‘Think Different’ campaign was that people had forgotten what Apple stood for, including the employees.” Reams of relevant research (including our own) proves Jobs right. But neither Steve Jobs nor Apple nor any other high-profile innovator or company has a corner on the think-different market. Take Gavin Symanowitz, whom we recently met in South Africa. Just do It. Shake it up. Repeat.

Imágenes pixeladas en Facebook: cómo solucionarlo Una fiesta es un lapso espacio-temporal popularmente concebido para el divertimiento de sus asistentes. Desgraciadamente, en Facebook las fiestas cobran un significado muy propio cuando al subir nuestras imágenes vemos que su nitidez original se ha convertido inesperadamente en un gran festival de píxeles bailarines, enterrando toda posible diversión en un abismo de frustración. Este fenómeno se debe a que al subir nuestra imagen, Facebook la comprime sin piedad para optimizar su tamaño. Si bien es cierto que dicho fenómeno nos afecta a todos por igual, a nivel empresarial el problema presenta otra vertiente más compleja: la ceguera del empresario para ver las consecuencias de mostrar su rostro en Facebook mediante imágenes pixeladas o mal comprimidas. Imagen de portada: Tamaño: 100 kb máximoDimensiones: 851×315 pxFormato: JPEG / PNG (colores planos y composiciones vectoriales)Perfil de color: RGBResolución: 72dpi Imagen de perfil: El tamaño en Facebook también importa ¿JPEG o PNG?

How Do We Get Smarter on Innovation? I wonder how the innovation community – corporate people, consultants, academics and others – can get smarter on innovation. In particular, I wonder whether we still need books and whether it is still worth the effort for authors to write them given the low book sales due to the insanely high number of books being published. There must be better ways to share insights and knowledge. Here are some of my suggestions: • Blogs. • Digital documents (PDF). • Short videos with explanations and key messages • Physical events. • Virtual events. • Books. What do you think of this? Before writing this blog post, I had a brief Twitter conversation. @risgaardknudsen yes for understanding 80% in 20% of the time. @innovationfixer Yes, will need to as ppl have less time available to read books / Yes – ppl have overloaded email inboxes, tough work/life balance. @ovoinnovation Books still relevant, but ideas must be boiled down, and must be actionable. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

quotes and quotations from the wise on all matters creative Change happens, that is for sure, and not just in our modern, 21st century era. It seems that the stress of the new affects most people in every age. So the trick is not to resist it, but to go with it. The real problem for the creative person is getting over the resistance of those who don’t want to change. See also action, business, the future, managing, progress*, resistance*, time, vision Quotes ‘If you don't like something, change it. — Maya Angelou ‘Change is in all things sweet.’ — Aristotle ‘Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight.’ — Marcus Aurelius ‘Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. ‘Observe constantly that all things take place by change.’ ‘We must change in order to survive.’ — Pearl Bailey ‘To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.’ — Henri Bergson ‘If the people don’t want to come out of the park, nobody’s going to stop them.’ — Yogi Berra — William Bryant

How a Computer Game is Reinventing the Science of Expertise [Video] A crowd observes the match playing on the main stage at the StarCraft 2 championships in Providence, RI. Credit: Major League Gaming If there is one general rule about the limitations of the human mind, it is that we are terrible at multitasking. The old phrase “united we stand, divided we fall” applies equally well to the mechanisms of attention as it does to a patriotic cause. When devoted to a single task, the brain excels; when several goals splinter its focus, errors become unavoidable. But clear exceptions challenge that general rule. For decades, a different game, chess, has held the exalted position of “the drosophila of cognitive science”—the model organism that scientists could poke and prod to learn what makes experts better than the rest of us. This real-time strategy game demands the frenetic pursuit of numerous simultaneous goals, any of which can change in the blink of an eye. Why StarCraft But that’s just one level of play. A screenshot from a StarCraft 2 game. Indeed.

A Collection of High Quality Free Branding Mockup PSD Downloads Mockup PSD downloads are everywhere, collections like this are everywhere too. They are in very high demand and websites like ours are meeting that demand by collecting and creating our own free alternatives because lets face it, they bring in traffic. But when things are created for free, often you will find that the quality fails to match up to that of their premium offsprings or even up to your own expectations. I travelled the world (wide web) and dug through the bad downloads to compile this small group of free mockup psd files that are considered by the community and myself as good quality downloads. If you are not looking to spend money on branding / identity mockups, this collection should be all you need. Full credits go to the creators, and it goes without saying, but thanks for creating these awesome resources. Branding Mock Up - This is a present for you, guys, in honor of the opening of our studio. Free Stationery Mockup PSD - Download October 22, 2013 In "Downloads"

An Interview with Alec Ross, State Department Senior Advisor for Innovation Alec Ross joined the State Department in April 2009 after coordinating hundreds of policy advisers for the Obama campaign. He is in charge of developing the concept of 21st Century Statecraft, using communication technologies and social networks to help governments connect with their constituents and help build American leadership. He is also spearheading Civil Society 2.0, a program to train grassroots organizations around the globe in how to use Web sites, text messaging campaigns and other new tools to reach out to their communities. Alec visited the Fletcher School during the fall semester of 2010. MHL: How have you been lately? AR: I’ve been great. MHL: Why’s that? AR: Because I’ve got a really cool job. MHL: What’s the best part of it? AR: The best part of it is you are faced with really tough challenges and, in what is historically a somewhat risk-averse environment, I’m encouraged to think completely out of the box. MHL: Yes. MHL: Right. MHL: Absolutely. MHL: Right. MHL: I agree.

6 Powerful Tools for Generating Ideas Have you ever experienced having no idea come to your mind when you need them? Such moments can be frustrating, especially if you have spent quite a lot of time to think and still get nothing. In such situations, getting external inputs to stimulate your mind is a good solution. They can break down your idea brick walls and make your creative juice flow again. Of course, not all kinds of external inputs are useful. I believe there is an important characteristic such external inputs should have in order to be useful and that is diversity. There are tools that can help you get these diverse inputs and I will describe six such tools. Create connection between an input you get and the problem at hand. Without further ado, here are six tools you can use to break down your idea brick walls and generate ideas: 1. This is the only offline tool in this list. 2. StumbleUpon allows you to get random pages whenever you press the Stumble button in the toolbar. 3. 4. 5. 6. Bored with words?

Thinking Methods: Creative Problem Solving They further divided the six stages into three phases, as follows: 1. Exploring the Challenge (Objective Finding, Fact Finding, and Problem Finding), Generating Ideas (Idea Finding), and Preparing for Action (Solution Finding and Acceptance Finding). Description: Since the arrival of the now classical Osborn-Parnes structure, any number of academic and business entities have re-sorted and renamed the stages and phases of what we now call the Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS). The Creative Problem Solving Institute of Buffalo, New York, has finessed the Osborn-Parnes process to include a divergent and a convergent stage within each of the six stages. In his 1988 book, Techniques of Structured Problems, Arthur B. Mess FindingData FindingProblem FindingIdea FindingSolution Finding Where to Learn CPS

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