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The economic value of culture and creativity
Arts and culture add value beyond economics—how do we value those benefits? With all this talk and excitement around AI, we overlook the role of the arts and creative industries and their positive impact to human health and well-being. Two decades of research found that the arts and creative activities provide direct and indirect benefits…
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Get ready to face resistance for your originality
Most people embrace new ideas only after they’ve become widely accepted. There’s a reason why you keep seeing the same posts throughout social media. Different avatars and logos, similar stories. If you’re a student of history, you’ll see the phenomenon more clearly with the benefit of distance. Paradigm-shifting ideas have always encountered resistance. Because they…
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How can we Become More Creative at Work?
New email subscribers receive articles first thing, with additional resources. “Creativity is feeling that you’re making a contribution all the time and feeling totally absorbed by what you’re doing,” says Michael Ray. Ray has taught a Stanford course on Personal Creativity in Business for more than a quarter century. When he's stumped or stuck into over-analyzing…
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The Four Truths of Great Stories
We have no power over the emotions of others. Our sphere of influence resides in the process we use to get to outcomes ― that is what is within our control. The pendulum seems to have swung in everything-is-data-driven direction. But facts, or data points, do nothing without a story that communicates meaning. …
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Create the Experience you’d Like to Have
It's a simple idea, isn't it? So why is it so hard to do? Well, for one we're not our client. We're someone's client, and many scenarios come to mind. Service situation? Communication disconnect? Can't find what you're looking for? We all live in specific worlds and problems. We all use search to…
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Identity, Communication, and Growth
In the heyday of this blog, social media was in its infancy — and it was a boatload of fun. The rules had not been invented and drilled into the collective content avalanche yet. License to play, and experiment. I remember the first interactions on Twitter, and the fail wail. This blog was…
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The Positive Approach to Success
What problems are we having? What's working around here? The questions we focus on first determines the health of an organization, its brand story, and the level of engagement of its people — it changes things measurably. Strategy requires trade-offs — to choose what we don't do, so we can free up energy for…
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Nine Strategies to Awaken Intrinsic Motivation (+ Dan Pink’s Reading List)
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” [The Walt Disney Company] Life exposes us to all kinds of opportunities, options, and pressures. To sustain success we need a method that helps us filter through all possibilities and seize on those that allow us to give our best. But only…
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A Reading List for the Holidays
Every week I share what I'm reading in Learning Habit. Subscribing to the free letter is also the only way to receive new articles on Conversation Agent and updates on what I'm working on (coming soon) by email. The only way to receive the email is by subscribing and opting in using the link…
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Creativity in Business
“Is it a yes, or is it a no? [Michael Ray] When we're stumped or stuck into over-analyzing something, this is what we should ask ourselves, according to Michael Ray, who has taught a Stanford course on Personal Creativity in Business for more than a quarter century. That simple tip of relying on our…