" />

From the category archives:

Creative Problem Solving

Invisible gorilla of unmet customer needs

by Michael Dalton
Are unmet needs your invisible gorilla

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes In their new book, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, Chabris and Simons share a story where study participants were tasked with counting the number of times a basketball was passed during a one-minute film. Halfway through the film, someone in a gorilla suit walks [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Critical thinking skills – Important, potentially life changing

by Lynn Dessert

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes Critical thinking skills can make or break your career. It is an essential skill for anyone performing analysis, rising managers and organization leaders. Being quick to judgment or being judged quickly affects people’s lives and is not necessary seen as a sign of good leadership. The quality of the [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Who’s driving the bus? The economy or your leadership?

by Lynn Dessert

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes There are companies that are cash-rich and are stronger than ever – they are ready to grow. It makes you wonder why they are more competitively positioned and what they did differently from other companies who still languish in the economic woes. In the last year, it was not [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

26 Mind Mapping Tools to Get More Productive

by Lynn Dessert

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes Last year, I attended a mind mapping seminar. If you do not know what a mind map is, go here for a quick summary or scroll down to the bottom of the post for a video. Mind mapping is a powerful tool, which appeals to both right and left-brain [...]

11 comments Read the full article →

I Could Have Had a V8!

by Sue Schnorr

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes I consider myself a pretty savvy networker. Yet, I admit that I don’t have all the answers! I continue to learn and learn and learn … That’s the good news. The bad news is that I overlooked an important vehicle for new business development. You might be able to [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Innovate Like a Three Year Old – One Little Question that Can Increase the Number of New Product Opportunities You Uncover.

by Michael Dalton

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes Innovate Like a Three Year Old – One Little Question that Can Increase the Number of New Product Opportunities You Uncover. In a previous post, I wrote about some of the innovation lessons we learned while we were in kindergarten. That included focusing on one task at a time [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Ten Alternatives to an Involuntary Layoff

by Lynn Dessert
istock_000002858975xsmall

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes Layoffs in your future? It might appear to be the quickest way to cut costs but Flavio Martins sees things differently. Permanently cutting benefits and wages may not be the answer either. It can often lead to major morale problems and spreads quickly through a company. Morale affects work [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Want a Better Environment for Innovation?

by Michael Dalton

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes Want to create a better environment for innovation: Get out of yours and into theirs I had an interesting discussion recently with a company vice-president about the role of facilities design in innovation. He asked me what he could do in terms of layout and aesthetics to make the [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Silver Bullet Management

by Lynn Dessert
istock_000006888288xsmall

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes Is the silver bullet the only answer your manager or organization wants to hear from you? Is there wasted productivity and leadership misses along the way because of an overwhelming need to have a home run? Is your management behind closed doors deciding how to cut costs and resources; [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Giving Up Control Is How You Grow

by Lynn Dessert
Pierre Making Crepes

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes Tightly held secrets can be deal killers, or provide opportunities to grow competitively. Pierre Héroux was running a large financial group in a fortune 1000 company. He left the company to start his own restaurant business in 2003, Simply Crêpes. As one might expect from the restaurant name, the [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Day Dream Your Way to a Solution

by Lynn Dessert

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes Challenging the norms of Corporate America can be a daunting task. How often have you been asked by your manager to creatively think about a problem, only to find your hands tied? Sometimes it is the company’s predefined process that gets in the way, or it just might be [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Your Wimpy Boss Is Avoiding Conflict

by Lynn Dessert
question mark

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes Question: I am really upset with my boss. I recently asked him to help me solve a problem I was having with another employee. I now have the person more mad at me. I am not sure what he said to them, but I am getting tired of getting [...]

0 comments Read the full article →