I don't know. I need help. I fail a lot. I keep coming back to these three phrases, as essential for innovation, creativity and personal learning. Similarly, for organizations to innovate, they must be learning organizations. Edward 

Hess, in his new book, Learn or Die, says, "organizations and individuals must be continuously learning, adapting, and improving, or riskprofessional obsolescence." 

Hess goes on to say that trust, mutual respect, and psychological safety are all required to learn, because individuals must be able to admit that they don't know everything, ask for help, and be able to be wrong or to fail.  Schein called this "humble inquiry" and it's difficult to achieve in organizations when admitting that you don't know something is career suicide. But asking instead of telling is essential to building trust, and trust is essential to learning. (See below for tips on asking for help!)

Another related skill is to silence our inner critic, and, sometimes, our external critic, and let new ideas live and breathe, instead of quickly announcing all the risks, misconceptions and mistakes that you see. One way to do this is to say, "Yes, and..." By saying "yes" first, you acknowledge the idea. Then, saying "and" allows you to build on the idea, and add, modify and improve it. This is a lesson from improvisational theatre, one of the most creative genres there is. So, there must be something to it.

Cathy

Getting Better at Asking for Help

Wayne Baker from the Michigan School of Business offers these tips on asking for help.

1. Earn responses to your requests by helping others first. The desire to repay appears to be hardwired, and so you can generally expect help if you have helped others.
2. Know what you want to ask. Have a vision or a goal, and know what you need to learn about or need help with in order to achieve the goal.
3. Ask SMARTly. A good request is SMART: Specific, Meaningful, Action-oriented, Real, and Time-bound.
4. Don't assume you know who and what people know. Just ask.
5. Create a culture where asking for help is encouraged. Leaders should model behavior of asking for and giving help.

Read the whole post HERE.

Preparing for Middle-skill STEM Jobs

Jobs for the Future recently issued a report that takes a fresh look at the enduring controversy over whether or not there is a STEM skills gap. They found that there is a set of STEM jobs that can be defined as "middle-skill," that is they require less than a Bachelor's degree. Furthermore, these jobs are more plentiful than generally believed, and pay more than the typical jobs available at this skill level. The report concludes that these middle-skill STEM jobs are "an important and growing source of opportunity for lower-income, less academically prepared individuals, those leaving high school and those treading water in low-wage, low-skill employment." They argue that community colleges could do more to prepare workers for these jobs. Read MORE.

Ten Critical Site Selection Factors

Despite the political rhetoric, the factors that manufacturers use when choosing where to locate or expand their companies are not focused on tax rates. The annual Area Development survey found the following site selection factors:

1. Availability of skilled labor
2. Highway accessibility
3. Labor costs vs. quality
4. Occupancy/construction costs
5. Advanced information and communications technology
6. Available buildings
7. Lower corporate tax rates
8. State and local incentives
9. Low union profile
10. Energy availability and costs

Read MORE.

Biggest Sustainability Breakthroughs of 2014

GreenBiz contributors offered their opinions on the biggest sustainability breakthroughs of 2014. They included:

• Drones as widely available commodities
• Developments in third-generation solar technology and related business models
• Price parity on solar and wind
• Advanced 3D printing capabilities
• Electronic vehicles, like Tesla, especially the Chinese market
• New ride share services
• Ag-tech.

How Digitization Transforms Industries

Over the past two decades, we have watched the Internet dramatically change numerous industries from travel agents to movie and music distribution to taxicabs and banking. This means that leaders must adapt their understanding of how digitization will impact their industry and adjust their strategies accordingly. McKinsey suggests that there are seven forces to consider:

1. New pressure on prices and margins.
2. Competitors emerge from unexpected places.
3. Winner-take-all dynamics.
4. Plug and play business models.
5. Growing talent mismatches.
6. Converging global supply and demand.
7. Relentlessly evolving business models.

Read MORE.

France Redraws its Map: Le Big Bang de Régions

In a move that seems politically incomprehensible in the US, France is about to redraw its map, reducing the number of regions from 22 to 13. Dubbed "le big bang de régions," the French National Assembly has approved this change that will reduce waste and duplication. The biggest rationale, however, is economic development, with the regions taking on the role of long-range planning. It is also interesting that the new boundaries more closely conform to labor markets and industry clusters. This is yet another piece of evidence of the growing importance of sub-national regions and municipalities, as gridlock and partisanship have made national and some state governments increasingly irrelevant. Read MORE.