Inspiring Leadership Greatness
I spent Friday with an amazing group of women reflecting, visioning, questioning, visualizing, laughing, supporting, realizing. As a result, I have put in place a big vision and Monday morning has brought with it an overwhelming sense of yikes, how will I ever do this??? And right behind that, my own words many times in our creativity workshop, “just take one step and don’t think about the whole thing or you will become paralyzed and not do anything!”
The Etch A Sketch designer, Andre Cassagnes, died at the age of 86 this past month which got me thinking about creativity. A few things to note:
It’s too bad we find it so difficult to collaborate with others outside our discipline and shake and start over in organizations!
Today’s blog is inspired by the sometimes complex interactions between extraverts and introverts and a most hilarious clip from Big Bang Theory. Enjoy!
I was shocked to hear about Best Buy closing a number of stores across Canada. It used to be that working for a large organization offered some job security, but no longer. Given that Best Buy has named this “stage” of their transformation Renew Blue (apparently in response to the growing trend of showrooming) why is it that employees showed up to closed stores as if this was something no one saw coming?
Some leadership lessons here methinks …
So, how to sum up my learning over the last 30 days? It has been an interesting blend of looking over the wall to what’s possible and looking in the mirror to find my own sense of self, creativity, possibility. More specifically:
Thanks Matt Cutts for your brilliant TED video and everyone who has been cheering me on.
Here’s to the next 30 days!
“So what have you learned from doing this 30 day challenge and what’s next?” asked my friend and gifted visual recorder colleague Lisa.
“Well, let me think.” Long pause.
“That you need feedback!” Dave exclaimed.
“I do not!” As that would be needy. Another long pause. “Well maybe a little …”
“Why don’t you use your 30th blog to ask people for some feedback?” Lisa quickly sketched out today’s visual. (Thank you Lisa!)
And so I am, but with some hesitancy, because of course what if the feedback is not what I want? I hear the adult educator in me coaching the oodles of learners with whom I have worked over the years urging them to put feedback in perspective and learn from it, blah, blah, blah …
And as for what’s next, I have already decided I am going for another 30 days as something seems to be happening for me (more on that tomorrow when I list more of what I have learned.)
Unlike my other attempts at blogging, I LOVE doing this. In fact, I would rather do this than any other work I need to do to make a living. Gulp …
I am so guilty of multi-tasking and one of the things I’ve learned from my 30 day visual blog challenge is the power of focusing on one thing. I’ve learned many other things but will save that for tomorrow, as that is day 30 🙂
I have been thinking a lot about creativity lately and, in particular, the conditions that lead to great ideas. I have always intuitively believed in the eureka moment (not sure why, perhaps as it’s a romantic notion and I am a romantic 😉 Of course, as luck would have it, I stumbled across Steven Johnson’s animation of “where good ideas come from.” Alas, there it is … are your ideas a eureka moment or a collision of small hunches? I guess I will have to let go of my romantic notions as mine are the latter 🙂
Yesterday I blogged about an amazing group of people who are making great things happen in Victoria. The word that came up over and over throughout the day was curious, and I observed that this was a pretty curious group and that their curiosity led to some amazing results. The room also buzzed with excitement and energy. This doesn’t always happen when we work with groups. Sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to chip away at the brick walls in people’s minds. What’s your curiosity quotient and how does that impact the teams you work on?
Today got away on me and I’m not entirely happy with my visual, but … it’s getting late and I am trying to get over perfectionism 😉 Today I had the happy honour of working with some pretty amazing Victorians from all walks of life as part of our once-a-quarter initiative. They are planning a most spectacular festival that has the potential to transform Victoria, Victorians, and anyone who happens to visit our fair city the week of September 9, 2013. Keep an eye on the VIATeC website for this exciting festival!
