Leaders' Muse for Monday: Aesop's fable of the Lion and the Thorn

A slave named Androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the forest. As he was wandering about there he came upon a Lion lying down moaning and groaning. At first he turned to flee, but finding that the Lion did not pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. As he [...]

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Spark New Thinking: Top 20 forecasts 2011- 2025 from World Future Society

Want to spark new ideas for future planning?  Check these out – possible futures resulting from great thinking, trend analysis and imagination. You can use these forecasts to infuse your thinking with considerations beyond the normal for a good stretch. Creativity professionals check #6; HR and OD professionals, #15 is for you; packaged and other [...]

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Obama, a model for future leaders, or not?

During last night’s State of the Union address, US President Obama said, “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” I wonder what the impact would be, and what would actions and new thinking would be inspired if he had said instead, “We need to innovate, educate and build in collaboration [...]

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New Futures Thinking: Replace SWOT with SOAR

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) is a methodological framework many people are familiar with.  How old world. The 21st century shift toward networked operations, shared leadership and collaboration has ‘either/or’ thinking replaced by ‘both/and’ considerations to deal with increasing complexities. Doesn’t it make sense that our planning approaches go through the shift as well? [...]

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Creativity and bullying – is there a relationship?

Imagine being in an idea session with the bully in the room. What’s the likelihood you’ll want to contribute your new ideas?  And what if that bully is the one leading the session, or you are leading the session and the bully is the main client for new ideas. If bullying is on the rise, [...]

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What technology can do for creativity

What are the women sitting on? Thanks to Paulo Benetti for the link.

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Why so hard to change? Empathy for the leaders

Pertec Consulting in Finland makes a case for the new world – and how it differs from what we’ve known. Partner Pentii Sydanmaanlakka* evoked empathy for today’s leaders – and what they are going through – as conditions continue to shift. Simultaneous trends impacting today’s post industrial organizations, shifts… From clockwork/assembly-line-structured organizations to open systems [...]

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Corporate Laws of Gravity

Just refound this gem from a workshop John Sedgwick of Managing Imaginations and I conducted in 2000. It provides a light-hearted reminder of why creativity, using new ideas and making new decisions that result in novel and relevant solutions, is so important. The Corporate Laws of Gravity There ain’t no justice. Nothing ever happens the [...]

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Ready for journey? Here's a gentle way to move forward to the future…

Moving forward in the new year is many people’s ambition, and some may not know how to begin. Here are some simple questions for you to consider that may lead to new path. This is an introspective exercise so have paper and pencil ready (or iPad, or live scribe pen, whatever you use for notetaking). [...]

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Stuck on solving a problem? Magnify enthusiam.

Sometimes what always works doesn’t work anymore.  Know what I mean? You go about your day-to-day activities quite successfully, then boom, nothing. Nada. Even the most simple of solutions elude you.  What to do?  There’s help! Instead of asking: What’s the biggest problem here? use, What possibilities exist? Instead of asking: Why am I such [...]

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