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THNK - Institute for Creative Leadership and Entrepreneurship

THNK - Institute for Creative Leadership and Entrepreneurship

Biomimicry Institute - Home The Biomimicry 3.8 Institute is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the study and imitation of nature’s remarkably efficient designs, bringing together scientists, engineers, architects and innovators of all ages who can use those models to create sustainable technologies. The Institute was founded in 2006 by science writer and consultant Janine Benyus in response to overwhelming interest in the subject following the publication of her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. See Janine’s TED Talk video for her groundbreaking introduction to biomimicry. Today, the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute focuses on three areas: Developing our online database of nature’s solutions, AskNature.org.Hosting our annual, international Biomimicry Student Design Challenge.Growing our Global Network of regional biomimicry practitioners. See examples of biomimicry in action! Meet executive director Beth Rattner, our staff, and the Institute board.

Leadership & Innovation Tools Idea Jackpot Creativity is also about combining ideas. When you put two different ideas together, you stretch your thinking, and surprise yourself. Idea Jackpot Neue Kombinationen Take this tool for a spin and by lining up three different building blocks and look for innovative ideas based on these new combinations. Neue Kombinationen Reframe on Udemy Learn how to create innovative ideas and perspectives with this Udemy course. Reframe on Udemy

Biomimicry | InnovationSpace | The Design School | ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Consumer products often are manufactured in quantities numbering in the millions. From their factory production to their disposal, products can have enormous downsides for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soils we cultivate. As a result, InnovationSpace is committed to exploring new methodologies for sustainable product innovation. One of the most promising is the emerging discipline of biomimicry. Biomimicry explores the materials, processes and functions of nature for clues to solving design and engineering problems. This new area of study can help designers and engineers to create innovative solutions that will minimize the environmental impact of new products. Life's Principles are used to generate solutions to design, business and engineering problems and to evaluate their sustainability. “The interest in biomimicry is exploding,” says InnovationSpace director Prasad Boradkar.

360 MIRROR 360 Mirror is a comprehensive 360° leadership development tool. It is developed by THNK to provide insights into your creative leadership skills. In only a few steps you’ll learn about your strengths and learning edges, resulting in the ultimate chance to enhance your unique set of gifts. think big and bold when it comes to your mission. articulate clearly the triple bottom line impact of your mission. surround yourself with team members who are more gifted than yourself. channel conflict in a team to unlock new, creative solutions. formulate a robust business model to underpin your mission. use ambiguity in realizing your vision instead of seeing it as a blocker. articulate today what your legacy to the world will be. articulate how your legacy will build on your personal values, passions and strengths.

About | InnovationSpace | The Design School | ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts InnovationSpace is an entrepreneurial joint venture among the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. The goal of our transdisciplinary education and research lab is to teach students how to develop products that create market value while serving real societal needs and minimizing impacts on the environment. Put simply, we seek to create products that are progressive, possible and profitable. At the same time, they must have a meaningful impact on the daily lives of ordinary people. InnovationSpace utilizes two fundamental strategies for creating sustainable innovation: a model of new product development known as Integrated Innovation and the emerging field of biomimicry.

The paradoxes of creative leadership Creative leadership is rich with paradoxes. Creative leaders are driven by their internal passion and purpose, yet they also have an externally oriented, explorative mindset. Creative leaders lead from the front by envisioning a better future, pointing the way and setting an aspiration, yet they achieve this by orchestrating a creative team, often leading from behind to bring out the best in others. In this article, we describe the competencies of a creative leader in detail, and invite you to look in the mirror and see how you score on those key competencies. Building the creative leadership model As we began the search for the answer to the question ‘What are the competencies of the creative leader?’ Self-awareness helps leaders to build authenticity, as great leaders think and act from a place of truth within themselves. To respond to this challenge, we developed the THNK Creative Leadership Model. The THNK creative leadership model Passion and purpose Explorative mindset By Rajiv Ball

Sustainability Connect How to Hire — The Startup Hi everyone. As you know, I have opened 27 new headcount for department heads to fill by end of year. If they succeed our headcount will be 74 in in January. Of our 74 employees, 37% will have been at eShares less than three months and 79% less than one year. Many of you will be interviewing and hiring over the next couple of months. How do we hire quickly and create a better company (and culture) than we have today? Hiring Principles 1. I want to repeat this point. 2. Our minds find it easier to think in terms of efficiency and normal distributions than leverage and power law distributions. We rationalize this behavior with “lies we tell ourselves.” He is trying really hard.She deserves another chance.People really like her.I feel bad for him.He’s good at other things.He has stuff going on in his personal lifeShe is in the wrong role. Conversely, we should dramatically expand the responsibility of 20x performers. In startup hiring there are few shades of grey. 3. 4. Hiring Heuristics 1.

Internships // School of Sustainability // Arizona State University All students in the School of Sustainability are encouraged to pursue at least one internship during their academic career. Internships allow students to apply classroom theories to real life, professional situations. These professional development opportunities can also help students determine whether their chosen career is going to be a good match. Students who have done an internship tend to have a more competitive edge when working to find a professional position after graduation. School of Sustainability undergraduate students who choose to do an internship for academic credit will also register for an associated course, SOS 484, where they will learn professional problem solving, workplace inquiry, and professional communication. Click here to view internships: SustainabilityConnect.asu.edu. Finding an Internship The School of Sustainability partners with community businesses and organizations to provide undergraduate and graduate internships. Internship Providers Forms Next Steps

Prevent Spreadsheets from Strangling Your Startup Entrepreneurs are the lifeline of any economy, and high-growth start-ups in particular are responsible for the great majority of new job creation. It’s worrying, then, that according to several reports the number of new businesses being created in the U.S. has been stalled since the end of the recession. As a mentor to many start-up entrepreneurs, I find this slow-down concerning, and I see one reason that’s rarely spoken about and needs a closer look: what I call spreadsheet asphyxiation. Start-ups can’t be assessed using conventional business metrics. First, what specific problem are you solving? Second, who will be willing to pay a premium for your product or service? Third, who do you want on your core team? Finally, why are you doing this? It’s not that investors should be held at arm’s length and considered only as sources of cash. A final subtlety: Making money is the foremost goal of the investor, to be sure, but it’s not always the primary mission of the start-up founder.

Hacking the MindLab culture « MindBlog During a regular day at the office, it is easy to solely rely on habit and simply perform task as one usually does. Habit and routine are important kinds of experience. Unfortunately they can also limit on’s perspective and adaptiveness of new solutions, new knowledge, and development. In the fall of 2015, all MindLab staffers were presented with a challenge to their habits as part of an experiment on MindLab’s internal and external collaborations and procedural, minor actions; all of which are elements of a working culture. In other words, we were trying to “hack” MindLab’s existing culture. In MindLab, we aim to explore new methods and ways for the public sector to develop. Experiment One: The Coin Experiment An ambitious project requires an equally ambitious launch. The inspiration came from Hans Ruitenberg and Pieter Desmet’s TinyTasks; a micro-behavioural initiative to increase the individual user’s sense of satisfaction. Motivation Involvement The Game Experience Design

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