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Volume 4, Issue 8

August  2012 

Greetings!

What's your see? squeegie

 

I attended a conference a few days ago - The Competitive Advantage: Women Competing in Business, sponsored by my state's Women's Council. The keynote speaker for this event was Becky Sheetz-Runkle, author of Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business. The book is based on Sun Tzu's masterpiece of military strategy, The Art of War, and Becky says she wrote the book to help women understand and apply their competitive advantages. A very savvy local business owner bought 25 copies of the book, stuck a label to the inside cover with her logo and business info on it, and then handed them out - FREE - to the first 25 people who signed in. Of course, I was one of the first 25 and if there's anything I love, it's getting something I think is worthwhile for FREE. I can't recommend the book yet as I'm only three chapters into it, but I do see some things resonating with me this early on.

 

Since I didn't know a soul at the conference, I had the opportunity to talk with a variety of attendees. I don't know about you, but too often when I go to one of these things with someone I know, we end up talking to each other instead of getting out and meeting new folks. As I joined one group of five women, I was surprised to discover that not one of them had any intention of reading the book. Oh, it's not that they weren't interested, they said...they simply didn't have time. They were all women who owned their own businesses, who must stay competitive. And yet they felt unable to find the time to read a book that could possibly give them insights into doing just that - staying competitive.

 

I get it. We're all busy. But we're accountable for our work and one of the ways we stay accountable is through continuous learning. We can't let ourselves fall behind staying competitive in today's business world, simply because "we don't have time".

 

Boldly yours,

 

Jennie Ayers

Senior Partner

August 2012

In This Issue



Braincolored brainLeft-Brain Dominance No Longer Cuts It 
(video with Daniel Pink - 30 minutes)
Curated by Jennie Ayers
 
Imagine for a moment that you live in a six room house. You have easy access to three of those rooms so you spend most of your time there. Accessing the remaining three rooms is challenging so you don't go into them nearly as often. Up until now, this hasn't been a problem. Lately, however, you're discovering that you need what's in those hard-to-access rooms much more frequently. Common sense would lead you to find a way to get into those rooms more readily. And so it is with our brains.
 
If we believe research and what Daniel Pink says in his book, A Whole New Mind, (and I do), we can no longer rely primarily on our left brains to keep us competitive in business. We need our right brain capabilities to predominate. We need thinking that helps us to create things we didn't know we needed, see patterns and opportunities, tell a story and uncover ways to repurpose ideas and strategies. 
 
Check out Oprah's interview with Daniel Pink...and then think about ways to get more "right brain" friendly. 
Oprah Winfrey talks to Dan Pink Part 1.flv
Oprah Winfrey talks to Dan Pink Part 1.flv
SolveSolve Problems Like Einstein
(time to read - less than 3 minutes)
Curated by Rebecca Ripley

 

I've been teaching Creativity and Innovation for the American Management Association since the mid-90's, and after reading 35 books on creativity, wrote their initial offering. I came across a link that captures a simple description of a six-step Creative Problem Solving process.

 

Too often, we think only of the brainstorming "ideation" stage and forget about the need to first clearly define the problem. Without clarity, we're doomed. We apply a bandage to a symptom - only to have the problem rear its ugly head again someplace else. To solve a problem, we've got to identify its root cause.

 

As Albert Einstein said, "If I had one hour to solve the problems of the universe, I'd spend the first 55 minutes defining the problem. Once I've clearly defined the problem, the solution becomes obvious." Check out the Creative Education Foundation for a brief description of all six steps of an effective Creative Problem Solving process, broken down into the following three stages:

  1. Explore the Challenge
  2. Generate Ideas
  3. Prepare for Action

Click here to discover how we can all have a little Einstein in us.


FailingThe Face of Abject Failure? No Way
Blog Post by Kris Campbell

 

MyKayla screwed up faceYou know, she's going to hate this picture. No, not in the moment - oh, in that moment on the medal platform, I don't think she cared what we thought of her screwed up expression. I'm not sure SHE was truly aware of the expression she'd twisted her face into and displayed to the world! This is not the face of outer awareness. This is the face of, how the hell did this happen? Can't you see the "wheels turning"? Can't you hear the inner tapes playing in this 16 year old's mind? Do you think she's saying, "Oh well, no big deal?"

 

No, she's kicking herself...hard. Angry. Disappointed, to put it mildly! At least for the moment, she's rolling her personal video tape of the vault-to-end-all vaults; it's a replay over and over right behind those brown eyes. What went wrong? How did I mess up something that I've done hundreds of times? This was my moment - what happened? This is not how it's supposed to be.

 

When U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney took to the floor with an air of confidence...

 

Read the rest of Kris' blog post and access Jamer Hunt's article, "Among Six Types of Failure", in which he offers a guide to "failing right" by clicking here.

Quick Links
TalkShoe - 
mic with computer for TalkShoe
"Dominant Left-Brain Thinking Just Won't Cut It!"  

 

A Conversation with Artist/Teacher/Toy Designer
John Hogan

While logical, linear, analytical thinking will remain absolutely essential, by itself it's no longer sufficient for business success. According to Daniel Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind, "The future belongs to a very different kind of mind. The era of left-brain dominance is giving way to a new world in which 'right brain' qualities predominate." 

 

Most of us are left-brain dominant and can't imagine what it must be like to live in the world with dominant right-brain capabilities. Join us for a look at the world through the eyes of right-brained dominant artist and teacher John Hogan. An Instructor at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco, John teaches Layout and Background Design and Pre-Production in the Animation Department. He's the originator and designer of the Institute's study abroad program, which brings American students to Japan. John is also a toy and puzzle designer, and a previous member of the team of designers from Walt Disney Imagineering who designed EPCOT.

 

 Click here to go to our TalkShoe page.  

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